Matthew 16:13-20 New Living Translation (NLT)

Peter’s Declaration about Jesus

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” ¹⁵ Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

For a few weeks we are going to look at the order and structure of the Church. How it is seen by us and how God views it and has engaged us for His purpose as His Church in this world.

I will use a simple to follow set of descriptive words that are each a part of the Worship experience. When they are put together represent it represents God’s collective Church here in this world.  

We will call them the The C’s of Christianity – Confession, Contrition, Covenant, Community, Connection, Church

You will notice in this order that Church is last. That is not a slight on Church or a random listing of these tenants. Each are results from a very thorough review of how God empowers our lives for Him. We will discuss the importance of that order as we go through them. I hope this discussion will be of value for you in your daily life.

C #1 – CONFESSION

Think with me on the make of automobile you own, the shoes you are wearing, the appliances in your home, the type of coffee you drink, your favorite authors ar any of the popular things in your life that have meaning for you.

With each of these you can freely express why you are loyal to a certain brand or make and model. You share over coffee, visits and in casual conversation what these things mean to you and how you support them. You make a “confession of faith” in them to others because you have experienced enough of them to know they are of value to you and may therefore also help others.

Our faith is no different but for some reason it is so much more difficult to share. We find ourselves in awkward feeling places when thinking of sharing our faith. One of the areas where we could use some help would be in the “hands on” part of our faith. When we share our confession of support in a car or house appliance we have faith in them because we have used them, we are familiar with them and we can communicate that support by our experience. Sadly in most of our lives our personal relationship with Jesus Christ is not strong enough so we just are not comfortable to share our faith with others. Jesus said if we cannot do that  ( Confess Him before Men ) then we do not have a relationship with him – Then if we think of why we don’t have a relationship with him the heart of the matter comes to light for us – “where your treasure is there will your heart be also” – where do we spend our valuable resources that God has blessed us with ? In the study of His word and talking “ prayer “ with Him we build a relationship with Him. That experience over time allows us to share His presence in our lives with others. Our confession becomes a real and active faith not just a verbal commitment that we cannot support. When faith is present in our lives and we are open and willing to tell others about our faith then our confession ( Peter at Ceserea Phillipi )_ becomes a foundation for God to continue to build His Church in our bodies.