WEEK 04 || REST AND IDENTITY IN JESUS - Working from Rest || Matt 16:13–20 & Isaiah 51:1–6

Kia ora and welcome to the St Francis Church

sermon podcast. We're so glad that you've joined

us. Our prayer is that as you listen, you would

encounter God's presence. Be refreshed in your

faith and equipped for everyday life with Jesus.

As a church, we are learning to faithfully follow

Jesus by practicing His way at His pace. For

more info about who we are and what God is doing

among us, head to stfrancis .co .nz. Grace and

peace. Good morning, family of God, because that's

what you are. Sometimes we forget that greeting

that really places us into the heart of God's

presence. Who likes experiments? As long as they're

not on you, isn't it? They're OK. But here's

a little experiment for all of us. I want you

to think about how you introduce yourself to

a stranger, whether that's at a barbecue or work

too on the street. After your name, what's the

very next thing out of your mouth? Maybe the

general one. That's not what the world does,

is it? But that's a good one as well. But for

nearly all of us, it is what we do. I'm a teacher.

I'm at the hospital. I'm second year at uni.

I'm retired now. But I was an engineer for 40

years. Now notice that last one. I was an engineer

for 40 years. Even in retirement, we reach back

for the job. Because the job is carrying something

much heavier than the income, it's carrying actually

who we are. That's our identity. And you find

out how heavy that is the day that that actually

wobbles. Ask anyone who's been made redundant

and they'll tell you the pay was a smaller loss.

The bigger one was not knowing what to say at

the next family gathering or the barbecue or

whatever it was. Ask the new mum who loved her

career and now feels actually invisible. ask

the injured athlete, ask the student whose whole

identity is grades and then one bad semester

in, it falls apart for them, or they fall apart

really. When what I do becomes who I am, every

setback becomes an identity crisis. At every

rest, and every rest is a threat for it. That's

why we check emails on holiday. We're not maintaining

our jobs, we're actually maintaining ourselves,

the importance of who we are. Our identity is

in answering the call of our work. Three weeks

we've been at this, about this rest series of

why we rest, because the feast is free. Who we

rest in, because it's a person whose hand is

faster than our thinking as we saw with Peter.

And what rest is for? It's a table with room

for others together. And today our series lands

at its foundation, which is our identity. Because

here's the claim of this whole month in one line.

You carry, you can't truly rest until the question

of who you are is settled. And once God actually

settles it, work itself actually changes. We

stop working for an identity and start working

from one. So I'm not in my previous life a sign

writer. and doing all these other things and

a business owner. That was one of my identities

that helped crush me. But my identity in Christ

frees me to be who I am and need to be as God

calls me. So I want you to come with me to a

place called Caesarea in Philippi. You'll notice

that some of this is Peter shared last week.

Well, as we go back to that place, Jesus has

walked his followers along the way north to a

city that's built at the base of a massive cliff.

And he's chosen this venue deliberately on that

day, because that cliff face was basically a

billboard of every identity in the ancient world.

It was carved into the rock, shrines to the nature

of God, Pan, temples to Caesar, the emperor who

called himself the son of God. The city is literally

named after him. and springs where people threw

sacrifices into the water. So Jesus is taking

us in one rock face, covered in options. There's

nature, power, empire, pleasure. Pick your God,

and as you do that, you pick your identity. But

today, our cliff faces look very different from

that. But they're the same wall. Money, image,

achievement, the feed that's going on online.

the brand of you, of who you are in your workplace.

And standing in front of all of it, Jesus asks

his friends, who do the people say that I am?

And they give back to him the survey results.

Some say John the Baptist back from the dead,

some say Elijah, Jeremiah, maybe one of the prophets.

All respectful answers, all impressive and all

wrong. The crowd always has takes on Jesus. Great

teacher. Moral example, historical figure, whatever

this week's documentary says and the crowds takes

always fall short. They never name who he is.

Then the question turns and looks straight at

them. And do you, in the original and emphatic,

you can hear it as Jesus says it, but you, you

that are sitting here, who do you say that I

am? And Simon Peter, as we heard back then, The

same man we watched sink in the late a couple

of weeks ago says a sentence the last 2000 years

have been built on. You are the Messiah, the

Son of the Living God. Now watch what happens

next, because this is the hinge of this series.

And it turns on the order of events. Jesus does

not say, OK, correct, here's your job. Before

any job, he does something else. He names him.

He said, blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.

Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, my

father in heaven did. And I tell you, you are

Peter, and you're the rock. And on this rock

I will build my church, and the gates of death

itself will not win against it. See the sequence?

And often we just breeze through verses and don't

see it. Peter says who Jesus is, and Jesus tells

Peter who Peter is. There's confession, then

identity, then and only then, the commission.

He's given the keys, the responsibility, and

the work to do. Blessing before assignment happens.

Name before task. We find out who we are. That

is the exact reverse of how the world actually

runs. The world says achieve, maybe you'll earn

a name. God says receive your name. and then

go and work. Because now the work can't threaten

you and it's not a one -off. It's how God treated

his own son. As we hear the account of Jesus'

baptism, before one servant, even a miracle,

one follower, one measurable result, the sky

tears open and the Father says to him, this is

my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased.

loved before useful, and pleasing before productive

every time. That's how God works. That's the

family pattern, and in Christ, it's yours as

well. And let's be very honest as we read these

scripture readings about who's getting called

the rock here. Peter, impulsive Peter, isn't

it? Sinking Peter when he takes his eyes off

of Jesus. Peter who five verses after this reading

you heard this morning gets it so wrong Jesus

calls him a stumbling block Peter who before

the end he will deny ever knowing Jesus three

times to a servant girl by a fire Jesus knows

all of that when he names him and names him rock

anyway because a name from God is not a performance

review it's actually a promise to us God doesn't

name you for what you've proven, He names you

for what His grace intends to make true in your

life. Some of you, let's say, I will include

all of us, because I think that's truer, have

been carrying other names for years. It could

be failure, you're useless, you're not good enough,

you're the one who wrecked it for the family.

You could be carrying something like that that's

buried but still is on your back. Hear this one.

The only voice with the final naming rights over

you tore open the sky to say beloved and he doesn't

take it back. John puts it this way, see what

love the Father has given us that we should be

called children of God and that is what we are.

If we don't claim that we will never live it,

we will never carry that into our workplaces,

our families. We don't maybe not even bring it

into church if we don't believe it. Call the

children of God and that is what we are. This

is our identity. This status gives believers

a new identity that does not depend on how the

outside world views or understands them. Martin

Luther, well he knew how hard it is to hold on

to. When despair came for him, and it came often,

he had a habit. He would say out loud, sometimes

chalk it on the table in front of him, I am baptized.

Not I feel close to God today. Not I've been

doing well lately. I am baptized. Anchoring who

he was and something God had done outside of

his feelings of the day or the moment. That had

no bad day he could actually undo. That's the

move that we need to take and learn it. Not rely

on our feelings but know that I am baptized.

And baptized in the name of the Father, Son and

Holy Spirit. they've got my back wherever I am.

And that's exactly where the Isaiah reading goes

this morning with. God's people are in exile

again, feeling like nobodies. And God's remedy

for a shaky identity is fascinating. It's memory.

It says, look to the rock from which you were

cut, the quarry from which you were dug. Look

to Abraham and Sarah. In other words, you didn't

make yourselves one old man, one woman who couldn't

have children. And God quarried a nation out

of them like stone, and your existence was grace

from the first chisel strike. And then a few

chapters earlier, God had already said it as

tenderly as can be said, I've called you by name,

you are mine. Not I have reviewed your output,

but called by name, and you are his. And then

God lifts their eyes, and he sees something.

Staggering. The heavens will vanish like smoke,

the earth will wear out like an old jersey, but

my salvation will last forever. Everything that

the world builds, and we build as we join in

with the world, and everything the world builds

identity on has a use -by date. Just take an

example when you go to shopping in the supermarket

and you think, oh, that's 29th, and you put that

back and take the one at the back because it's

got a few more days. But there's still a use

-by date on it. And for us it could be careers.

It could be our strength goes. How's this get

someone else's name on the title? And even the

hill's a road. There is exactly one foundation

that outlasts the sky. And if who you are is

quarried from that rock, then no redundancy,

no health diagnosis, no retirement, no failed

semester. No failure of any kind can touch the

core of you because you're solid in your identity

in Christ. That is why a Christian can rest,

not because the work is finished, it never is,

but because the self is actually safe. So what

does a safely named person do with their life?

Romans 12 .1 is a famous Bible verse that calls

believers to give their entire everyday lives

to God as an act of worship. Paul answers in

our third reading, and the first word is a whole

argument. He uses the word therefore. Whenever

you read that or hear it, you know Paul's got

something solid to say afterwards. Therefore,

in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as

a living sacrifice. This is your true worship.

Now Paul, he's just spent 11 chapters stacking

up what God has done. Loved, forgiven, held mercy

on mercy on mercy, and only then, therefore,

offer yourself. The offering answers the mercy

that is given us. It never actually applies for

it. That's working from rest in one sentence.

And secure in ourselves and God. We don't serve

to be loved. We serve because we already are.

And there's a universe of difference in how those

two lives feel from actually the inside. I've

shared with you multiple times that I served

in my early lives in my twenties. the world and

the marketplace and that crushed me. It broke

me. And the God started to give me my identity

in Him and set me free. But then we hear these

words, do not be conformed to this world. Don't

let the age squeeze you into its mold. Don't

let what people say, what you think they say

and what's happening around there squeeze you

into a mold. The mold that says you are your

output. Whatever you do, That's who you are.

But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And then Paul gets wonderfully ordinary here.

He says, one body, many parts, different gifts,

teaching, encouraging, giving, healing, showing

mercy, practical service. Go back and take a

look at that list this afternoon. It's not a

stage full of superstars here. It's a working

church on a normal Sunday, someone with the kids,

someone doing the morning tea, someone helping

out with the reading, someone who always spots

the person alone by the door. You see, the transformed

life that you hear about as a Christian isn't

everyone becoming spectacular. It's everyone

safely named, putting their particular gift on

the table, free of charge, because nobody's using

it to earn anything anymore. We don't stand there

to say, look at me, haven't I done that well?

We just do it. So how do you find yours? Well,

Friedrich Büchner gave the most, I think, a useful

compass for us to actually gauge this. He says,

your calling is a place where your deep gladness

and the world's deep hunger meet. Now, when you're

doing something and it fills you with gladness

and joy, you know that's more of you. There are

other tasks like vacuuming and thinking, ah,

I'll do it anyway. It doesn't give you gladness,

but you know the task has been done. So it's

like in that ministry booklet that we've got

out. It's like anything in life. Once you know

what that gladness in you, you can do that and

give it very freely. So let's set out four practices.

And then basically, it's like go and live it.

Do it in you every day. The first one is name

your name before the phone. And I use the phone

because that's It's like another appendage to

most of us, isn't it? We carry it everywhere.

We started right back at the beginning of this

month with, Father, I receive from you. Now,

we can upgrade that. Tomorrow, before you do

anything, phone or prayers or anything else,

say, I am God's beloved child. Put yourself in

front of Him of who you are. That was true before

you started, and it'll be true when the day ends

for you. And the second thing, answer the...

the question yourself, which is who do you say

I am? Who do you say he is? You can't outsource

that. You can't do that to your parents, or to

your spouse, or to the church. The cliff face

is still standing with all those modern shrines

carved into it, and Jesus still stands in front

of it asking you this week in the quiet, in your

own words, where you can answer him. Whatever

you answer honestly right now, tell him. He can

work with it. Who do you say I am? And the third

thing is the identity audit. Take this one honest

question. Whose approval am I actually working

for? Whose voice, whose scoreboard, whose imagination

and applause? And name it. Am I doing these things

because I know they'll say, that's good, Tony.

Well done. Then out loud say, that verdict is

already in. In Christ I'm loved and I'm enough.

You'll need to say most probably more than once,

even in a day. And the fourth thing is one gift

on the table. Romans 12 has a list and you're

on it somewhere. Encouraging, practical help,

generosity, leading, mercy. This week name one

gift that you have. Ask someone who knows you

if you're stuck to help you and offer it once

concretely, maybe to the life of this church

or to the street or in your workplace because

whatever gift you have is not contained in these

walls. It's in your life wherever you walk. And

it's not to prove anything. The proving once

you know your identity is in Christ is over.

Offer it the way named people work, which is

freely. Four weeks ago we started with an invitation

to tired people. Come, everyone who's thirsty,

and the feast is free. And we end with tired

people who are named. You've been fed at a table

that you didn't pay anything for. You've met

the one whose hand is faster than any sinking

or in troubles there. And you've been seated,

you of all people, at a table with room. There

was always room. And now the Father who named

Jesus beloved before he had done a A thing says

the same thing over everyone who's in him. You

are mine. You are loved. Rock solid on the only

rock that outlasts the sky. That's our assurance.

You are not what you produce, even in retirement

or in your working life. You are not your worst

day, your best day, your title, your grades,

or your feed. You are who God says you are. which

is very different from someone else. Eugene Peterson

rendered Jesus great invitation like this. He

says, come to me and learn the unforced rhythms

of grace. Unforced. That is the life that is

on offer for us. Work that doesn't grind because

it isn't carrying your identity anymore. Your

identity is in Him, the one who knows you by

name. So as you go to work this rest or work

in any capacity with families and friends, go

named. Work from the rest that you are secure.

Work from the mercy that is given to you by Christ.

And watch what God builds with people who have

nothing left to prove. Here's room to work with

you far more when you don't have to prove anything

to anyone else. So one more Sunday to go. Next

week you finish where every true rest ends up,

and that has been sent. What happens when the

rest that we have in Christ meets the Monday

to the Saturday that we live out? And why people

who have already been found can afford to lose?

That's what's happening in this coming week.

Let's pray. Father, as we are here before you,

before we produced anything, you loved us. Silence

every other verdict that we hear during the week

that is still ringing from the past, from our

childhood, from our school days, from our workplaces,

from those that loved us and still love us, those

we don't know. Silence the verdict of everything

else that's come from them. Settle our names

in Jesus, Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

And then take our bodies, our lives. our gifts,

our ordinary weeks as our true worship. People

with nothing to prove and everything to give

because you have given everything to us. I mean.