We're going to Matthew chapter 16, and we'll read from verse 13. Matthew 16, and reading from verse 13. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood doth not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Amen.

May the Lord bless this reading to us also.

When the Lord Jesus Christ was preparing to go to the cross, he used every opportunity to teach and encourage his disciples about what was about to happen and why it was important in their lives. Now, we have spent a number of weeks thinking about the Lord's great I Am sayings and how these revealed the true identity of the Lord Jesus and how they opened up to his disciples the purpose and nature of his work. Lesson by lesson, miracle by miracle, these 12 men were being prepared to represent the Lord Jesus Christ to the nations of the world and to carry and extend the Lord's ministry, the gospel, to the ends of the earth.

Christ was indeed the light of the world. He was the way, the truth, the life. He was the door and the vine. And these men would carry these truths to lost sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ had been sent to the lost of the people of Israel, the lost sheep of the people of Israel. He hadn't gone beyond to any great extent beyond the boundaries of the nation Israel. Judea, Jerusalem, Galilee had been pretty much the area of the Lord's activity. It was the disciples, it was the apostles who would carry the gospel of Jesus Christ out to the ends of the earth. From them, the torch of truth would pass to others. Faithful men who would in turn bear the message of Jesus Christ, bear the message of salvation by grace and not of works, and preach that message until the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

shall continue to the glory of the Lord. It shall continue until the word of the Lord extends through all the world and the whole church and the whole number of the elect be gathered in.

On this day, when the Lord was travelling with his disciples, They were near the city of Caesarea Philippi. The Lord directed his conversation with this education in view, with this tutoring of his disciple students in his mind. He directed his conversation with his disciples in such a way as to require them to declare personally their views of his ministry. They'd been in the school of Christ. They had learned of him. And now it was necessary that they make a personal confession of their faith, a personal statement about Christ's person and office, and that they be ready to make their profession public.

When the Lord asked his disciples, whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? His intention, his design was not to discover what the general population thought of him or indeed of his ministry. Christ knew the heart of all who came before him. He knew the curious and the concerned. the meek and the proud, the helpless and the hostile. He knew that many who followed him did so only for the spectacle, only to experience the energy and the excitement of Jesus' ministry. Or as Christ himself puts it, only to eat the bread and the fishes. The design of the Lord was not to know what the population in general thought of him. The design was rather, Christ's inquiry was rather to provoke the disciples to settle their own hearts and minds on the matter of who he was, who he is, and to confess their faith in him. And he did so, first by asking, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? But then by quickly adapting his question and making it personal and direct to his disciples. But whom say ye that I am? Who do you say that I am? The Saviour asks.

And today, I want to follow the Lord's example and ask you the same question. We've heard what the Lord said of himself in these I Am sayings. We've heard what the Lord said of himself. Who do you say that he is? It's time to decide and declare. That's what the Lord is saying to his disciples. It's time for you to decide and declare who I am. Whom say ye that I am? Paul tells us that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, saved from your sin, saved from the tawdryness, the dirtiness, the wickedness, the evil of this world, saved for eternity and saved for the courts of heaven.

So who do you see that the Lord Jesus Christ is? Do you believe what he said? Do you understand what he did? Do you trust him to take away your sin and to make you anew? These are the most far-reaching questions you will ever be asked in your life.

The world, the world around about us, the wisdom of the world, the psychology of the world, It encourages us to know yourself. But that isn't the whole story. You need to know Christ. And I don't want you to hear me ask you that question today. I want you to hear Christ himself inquire of you as he did of his disciples. But whom say ye that I am?

Most people have an opinion about the Lord Jesus, as we saw from the disciples' answer to the Lord when he asked them that question, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Most people have an opinion about the Lord Jesus. And sadly, for many, their opinion is based on complete ignorance.

Now you are not most people. And I am truly grateful that you are here today. I really am. I'm grateful to the Lord that he brings you here week by week. You sit week by week under a gospel ministry. And to the best of my ability, receive the testimony of scripture concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope that as a result of that, you have a high opinion of the Lord Jesus.

However, it is not simply a matter of respecting and admiring Christ. Some people do and some people don't. That doesn't really matter. Christ's greatness, Christ's glory, Christ's person, Christ's accomplishments are real and eternal whether you acknowledge them or not. But the distinction is this, believers are called to worship him. to worship Him as God and confess Him as Lord and Saviour in their lives. And this is the testimony that the Lord sought this day from His disciples. And it is what He requires of you if you are one of His.

It was Peter who spoke first. Sometimes we get the impression that Peter speaks without thinking. He tends to be a little bit brash. He tends to be a little bit impetuous when the Lord is speaking or when things are done. That's just Peter. He was a natural leader amongst the group. But this time, and here's my opinion, this time his comment seems more considered. In fact, in the pause that followed Jesus' question, whom do ye say that I am? When the Lord asked that question of the 12, when he asked that question of the disciples, in the pause that followed that question, I can well imagine the other disciples nodding to Peter to speak on their behalf.

And Peter's statement is concise, but it is comprehensive. And every word that he utters is weighty and meaningful. It ought to be precious to all the Lord's people of every age. Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Some of us have what's called red letter Bibles where the words of Christ are written in red ink and the rest of the Bible is written in black ink. Well, that's just different folks' preferences for different kinds of Bibles, I guess. If there were ever any letters written in gold, This statement should be written in gold type. Thou art the Christ, said Peter, the son of the living God.

We shouldn't suggest that one part of scripture is more important than another. And I trust we all value the word of God in its entirety. But this is an extraordinary and astonishing statement. Peter said in reply to the Lord's question, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And his response contains many important elements of the true faith. It acknowledges, for example, that there is but one living God. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

Peter acknowledges here that there is but one living God. He is distinguishing the one living God from all the idols of fallen man's imagination, none of whom are alive, none of whom will be able to save a man or a woman from his sin or to prepare us for eternal life. Peter's words furthermore confess that Jesus of Nazareth is Christ. He is the Christ. He is the Christ of God. He is the true Messiah, the anointed one, the appointed one by God to serve his purpose according to the covenant of peace, according to the promises of scripture, and consistent with the prophecies of all the prophets.

I wonder if there could have been a more complete testimony in fewer words than this. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus Christ said that Peter's statement had been revealed from heaven. And it certainly bears the hallmark of the Holy Spirit's inspiration and power. But here, the disciples' confession also reveals the eternal relationship of God the Father and God the Son.



I mentioned yesterday in the little introduction how Christ calling himself the Son of Man, whom do men say that I the Son of Man am, in voicing his question and expressing his question like that, referring to himself as the Son of Man, that had a reference to his human nature.

called himself the Son of Man. It was a reference to his humanity. But it also drew upon the Old Testament title, Son of Man, that had been spoken of the Messiah in the Psalms. And I pointed this out.

In Psalm 80, verse 17, the psalmist there says, let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand. upon the Son of Man whom thou madest strong for thyself." Now this is a messianic reference. This is a reference to the coming of that one who had been promised of old. That one who would be anointed as the Lord's representative upon earth in the Old Testament. there were three groups that were anointed. Priests were anointed, prophets were anointed, and kings were anointed. And when the coming representative of God is called the Anointed One, or the Messiah, which is what Messiah means, and indeed what Christ means. Christ is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Messiah, Anointed One.

What we are being told is that the coming one sent from God, the Anointed Messiah, would be prophet, priest, and king. He would fulfill all of the roles in which the anointing was done in the Old Testament. So that these were all pictures of the comprehensive work of that one who would be sent from God.

And this is what the Lord Jesus is drawing upon when he calls himself here the Son of Man. But Peter's statement elevates the Lord Jesus above mere humanity. and declares him to be one with God the Father. So that we see here in this brief exchange the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ and his divinity once again being blended together as the true identity of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore the one to whom we look with our worship, with our praise and with our gratitude for the things that he has done.

John Gill, the old Baptist commentator, points out in this passage how the Old Testament prophecies understood that the Messiah or the coming Christ was not a mere man, but a divine person, the Son of God. He was the Son of God, not by creation. Now, angels and men are sometimes called sons of God. They are sons of God by creation.

The Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God, not by creation. He was the Son of God, not by adoption. Now again, believers or saints, the saints of God, believers, those who are sanctified, those who are redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought by adoption into the family of God so that we are called the adopted family of God, we may be called, in that sense, sons of God.

But the Lord Jesus Christ was not the Son of God by adoption, not by creation, not by adoption. Nor is he the Son of God by office as magistrates and princes. People in authority sometimes are called in Scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature, being God's own Son, His proper Son, the only begotten Son of the Father, of the same nature with Him, being one with Him and equal to Him.

And by this witness, Peter and the disciples confessed their faith that Jesus, the Son of Man, was also Jesus, the Son of God, a divine person, the Anointed One, the Messiah Christ.

What say you? What say I? Can we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and repeat these words? Can we confess with Peter and the disciples, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God? If we can, it is because the same divine will, the same holy purpose that was at work in these men, the disciples, is at work in us as well.

The Lord Jesus Christ said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Now I would like us just to pause here for a moment and consider what the Lord Jesus has just said here. He called Peter blessed because God had revealed to him the true identity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And upon this confession, Peter confessing, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Upon this confession, the Lord Jesus at once tells Peter the source of that divine truth. Such knowledge, Peter, does not come from man, does not come by nature. It flows directly from heaven by divine instigation, by divine fear. It cannot be received or believed except it is first revealed and communicated by God the Father.

And the Saviour calls Peter blessed by God for being able to speak as he did. And every true believer is similarly blessed of God who has such knowledge of Christ and can testify of faith in him and faith in his work. The Lord told Peter that this knowledge is not discovered by natural means, but by divine revelation from above.

Did you notice what he called Peter? He didn't call him Peter. He called him Simon Bar-Jonah. A bit of a mouthful, but he was using Peter's Jewish name, his Hebrew name, his Jewish family name. And very likely, the Lord's use of this Jewish family name, Simon Bar-Jonah, was intended to emphasize that Peter hadn't gained this knowledge from his earthly family or indeed his religious background. He didn't get it from his dad, be his dad ever so religious. He didn't get it from his earthly education, which probably wasn't very great anyway because Peter was just a fisherman, no disrespect to fishermen, but he had not been tutored in the Old Testament truths in the way that others might have been. It wasn't his earthly education that had delivered this truth to him.

We are grateful to have been raised and tutored amongst those who know the Lord and who have shared their faith But it is necessary, it is essential that each one of us individually have our own revelation, have our own regeneration by the Holy Spirit. You will not be saved by being British or by being Baptist or by being brainy. New life in Christ comes from above as God's gift. It is His sovereign calling to new life in Christ.

Elsewhere in scripture, we are told that true believers are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And this is the Saviour's point. Those who are blessed in this world, those who are blessed in this world, in this highest sense of the word blessing, are blessed by God with a knowledge of Christ and an understanding of grace. That is what blessing. not our fine education, not our riches, not our position in the world. What is a blessing, not even our health and strength, what is a blessing in this world is a knowledge of Christ and an understanding of grace.

Now, man-made religion rejects the principle that spiritual life requires spiritual birth from God. Man-made religion rejects the principle that spiritual life requires spiritual birth from God. Man-made religion claims that flesh and blood can produce eternal things. Man-made religion claims that natural can create spiritual. And yet the scriptures are clear. You must be born again from above. And the new birth or spiritual life is a divine gift bestowed entirely at God's own choice and in his time. And here the Old Testament and New Testament are consistent. Salvation is of the Lord. The Lord tells us, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And if you've got a problem with that, which lots of people have, then it's the Lord that you have to take that problem up with.

Let me say this as well. If Christ's words here, in this little passage, when he says, If Christ's words here were the only verse that we had to refer to we would still have to conclude that the Lord Jesus Christ believed in free and sovereign grace and taught the doctrines of free and sovereign grace to his followers. Again, I repeat, if you with Peter can confess thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, then you with Peter have been blessed from heaven.

but it doesn't stop there. It has only just begun. The blessing of grace and spiritual life that comes from above is the beginning of blessing. Or as the Lord calls it elsewhere, it is the key of knowledge. It opens a whole new raft, a whole new world of blessings that the Lord is pleased to give to his people.

Let me mention something else here that crossed my mind as I was thinking about this. It would be presumptuous of me to try and to guess the Lord's feelings in this moment. But I cannot help but think there was great joy and pleasure felt by the Lord at Peter's statement. Here's why I say that. We read elsewhere of the Lord marveling and rejoicing in his heart. And I suspect that he did so on this occasion because he did so on another very similar occasion in Luke chapter 10. There we read these words.

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. And he turned unto his disciples and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.

There are some lovely similarities in the words of the Lord in both of these passages. They were at different times, but there is great similarity. And I suspect that the same feelings of joy and happiness were in the Lord's heart on both occasions. I've no doubt by what the Lord Jesus says next, that he was rejoicing in the implications and consequences of Peter's confession. He saw in Peter and in his disciples the advance of these men's knowledge. He saw their growth in grace. He saw their graduation as disciples from students to teachers. He saw the maturity of the apostles beginning to be revealed in these men as the preachers of righteousness that they would become. He saw the spread of the gospel. He saw the revelation and application of its truths to multitudes of men and women and boys and girls. He saw the sovereign distinguishing grace of God towards the elect bring forth a harvest of souls for his kingdom. And that is exactly what he speaks about in the final verses of our passage today.

Christ speaks about the building of his church. Upon this rock, I will build my church. What rock? Peter? No, no. Peter's profession. Upon the foundation of faith, that Peter had just professed, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself, he is the rock, he is the substance, he is the foundation upon which the church stands. And that profession of faith is what distinguishes the church and shows it to be the building of the Lord Jesus Christ's kingdom. It is Peter's profession, not Peter, as some churches would say, It's upon the foundation of faith that men shall know and believe. As Peter now knew and believed that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

How does a church grow? How does the church grow? when men and women and boys and girls confess the Lord Jesus, with Peter saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What is more, the gates of hell will not prevail against that building. The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ's church. This is what the Lord says. Satan's method is to bind souls, to trap sinners, to barricade them behind the gates of hell and ensnare them that they might never be free. But Christ came to set the prisoner free. Christ came to pillage the strongman's house, to break the chains of darkness and death, and to declare liberty to the captives.

The gates of hell will not, cannot prevail against the church of Christ, cannot prevail against the gospel that we preach. Not one of Christ's redeemed people will be lost. And the Lord Jesus Christ gives to the church the keys of the kingdom to loose and to bind. To loose and to bind has been committed to the church. This is the effect of preaching the gospel of grace. of preaching truth and liberty in Christ. The keys of the kingdom is the key of knowledge, knowledge of Christ, knowledge of the truth. And it is the gift to preach it. It is the ministry that the church performs, the faithful church performs, the true church performs. It is the ministry of free and sovereign grace faithfully preached for the gathering in of God's elect.

And the Lord Jesus Christ rejoiced to hear this testimony from Peter and his disciples. As do the angels when we bear such testimony in our own day. Here was evidence from God in heaven that Christ's kingdom was formed. Here was evidence of his victory. His victory was assured and his gospel would be carried by these men to the ends of the earth for the salvation of the elect and the building of the Church of Jesus Christ. And all of this flowed, all of this flowed from the Lord's direct question to his disciples. Whom say ye that I am? I ask that question of you today. Can you answer as Peter did? Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

The prophet Elijah, young people would be able to tell me this, I'm sure. The prophet Elijah once asked a similar question on the side of a hill as he was challenging the prophets of Baal. He turned And he said to the people of Israel who had gathered there as observers, he came unto all the people and said, how long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. And if today, by the grace of God, you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, Then follow him, trust him, confess him and rest in him. Amen.