1 August 23rd, 2020 Isaiah 51: 1-6; Psalm 138; Romans 12: 1-8; Matthew 16: 13-20 After Pentecost 12, a When Jesus asked his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” they answered with the names of three prophets, three dead prophets, John the Baptist, Elijah and Jeremiah. That in itself is significant that they thought these prophets had risen from the dead and returned. But out of all the prophets, why these three? The oldest is Elijah, having lived in the 800’s before Christ; Jeremiah lived in the 600’s before Christ and of course John the Baptist was a contemporary of Jesus. It’s been said that Elijah is one of the most interesting and colorful people in the Bible. God used him to oppose the wicked king Ahab and his wife Jezebel and bring revival to the land of Israel by preaching for the people to repent, to turn their lives around and back to worshipping God. His ministry marked the beginning of the end of Baal worship in Israel. At the end of his life Elijah entered a depression and hid in a cave. You might remember that God spoke to him there in a still small voice, 2 telling him that thousands believed and were now worshipping God because of his ministry to the Israelites. The prophet Jeremiah lived in a most turbulent time. Israel was overthrown by Babylon. Many Israelites were taken into exile and held captive in Babylon. During the time of Jeremiah, within a ten-year period, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed three traditions that had helped the people of Jerusalem believe God was with them. First, he destroyed the kingly succession that God had promised to David four hundred years earlier. Second, he destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the center of Israel’s worship life that Solomon had built in the 900’s before Christ. Third, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the belief that Jerusalem was invincible. Ever since the time of David, the people believed no one could conquer Jerusalem. Now the people wondered if God was as faithful and powerful as they had thought. Jeremiah mostly prophesied for the people to return to God, to repent, indicating that their demise was a result of their turning away from their worshipping and honoring God. He was thrown into prison more than once; he was thrown into a cistern and would have died had he not been rescued. The third prophet people think is Jesus is John the Baptist, come back to life after his recent beheading. John the Baptist ended nearly 3 four hundred years of prophetic silence and paved the way for the Messiah, for Jesus Christ. He too preached a message of repentance and baptism. The people of Israel mostly were not involved in worshipping and honoring God. They were living under Roman rule. John the Baptist began preparing the way for the coming of Jesus, and people did listen and respond. In fact, throughout the New Testament, it is noted that people who had been baptized by John the Baptist were throughout the Mideast and Greece. So, why these three? For one reason, they were all well-known prophets out of many. All three had made an impact on the people, primarily preaching repentance. All had implored people to turn their life around and return to worshipping and honoring God. So, after Jesus asked his disciples who people thought he was, and they mentioned Elijah, Jeremiah and John the Baptist, he then asked his disciples who they thought he was. Peter blurted out, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!”. And to this day, it is still speculated by some scholars that the disciples thought Peter really meant the Messiah, the anointed one, the King that was going to finally bring Israel back into its rightful and authoritative place in this world. 4 But, people think Jesus is a prophet of old coming back to rescue them from their secular environment and try to get them to renew their allegiance and worship of God; others think Jesus is a King ready to lead them forth in a conquering war. Is it any different today than during the time of Jesus? Are we waiting to be brought back to God and be rescued? Are we waiting for Jesus to come again and set up his Kingdom? It is different today. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we have a living God that cannot be forsaken. Through our baptism into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been rescued, saved from our own negligence. And through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God has come upon this earth. Beginning with John the Baptist and then through Jesus there was a breaking-in of God’s kingdom here on this earth. Jesus is not a vulnerable prophet. He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, who through God’s grace, brought and gave to this world, a living salvation and eternal life. 5 Jesus is not just one prophet among a long line of prophets, as the people suggest by their multiple-choice answers, some saying he’s Elijah, some Jeremiah, and some John the Baptist. Jesus is the Son of the living God; Jesus is Emmanuel; Jesus is God with us, --upon which the church is built, upon which the community of faith lives and serves. Jesus is God with us, a God we do not have to return to, since God is always with us. Jesus is God with us --through whom we have been rescued, through whom we have been saved, and –through whom, we have been given a foretaste of the feast to come. Amen, Pastor Scales .