in Mark chapter 8 and verse 27. Mark chapter 8 and verse 27. And Jesus went out and his disciples
into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And by the way, he asked his
disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist,
but some say Elias or Elijah, and others one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? And Peter answered and saith
unto him, thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they
should tell no man of him. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. So now, as I've suggested, begins
a period in which the Lord Jesus Christ more openly declares himself
and reveals himself and his mission salvation and redemption to his
disciples. In the verses that follow on
here we're going to discover that the Lord begins to speak
about his death and his resurrection and also the transfiguration
on the mountain and all of the glory that was part of that. So here, as it were, is the beginning
of a new stage. And the Lord punctuates this
by taking his disciples away from the Lake of Galilee, which
is where they've been spending quite a bit of time recently,
and moving them north. probably around 25 miles to the
area of Caesarea Philippi and there they spend time in the
towns and the villages around that Roman city. And in recent
weeks we have seen how the Lord Jesus undertook the teaching
and the training of these men in preparation for their apostolic
ministry. He took them, we've said it many
times before, I'm not going to re-emphasise it too much, but
he took them to give them these three years training in preparation
of him leaving and returning to heaven after the crucifixion
and them carrying his commission to the ends of the earth, go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel. And this three years
of preparation the Lord took very seriously, preparing these
men especially in the things that he said to them and in the
miracles that he performed before them and the explanations that
he gave. So whether it was the Lord's
doctrine which they were hearing as they walked and talked along
the way, whether it was the private explanations that he gave of
his parables, whether it was the repeated wonderful miracles
that he performed, all of which proved his power and authority
and showed him to be both a great healer of men's bodies, but also
their soul and spirit. The Lord was showing the disciples
what it was to be his apostles. And now the Lord was going to
teach them another important lesson. And I believe, teach
us also. Because now the Lord was calling
for a clear expression of the disciples' faith in Him. He was asking them for that personal
testimony from them as to His true identity. We have the privilege of watching
the Lord's dealings with these people. And here we see that
the Lord blessed these men with understanding about himself. And I want just to go immediately
into a little word of application here, because I don't think we
should miss the principle that the Lord is establishing here
about the value of making a personal confession of our faith. And this might be useful, especially
to some of our younger listeners, but indeed all of us. When we
have heard the gospel, perhaps over a long period of time, and
when we've been taught what the Bible says of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his work, when we have learned who he is, why he
came, what he accomplished, there comes a time at which the Lord
will have us declare and confess what we believe. He presents
us with these statements. He shows us who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. We, you and me, we should come
to a conclusion and to a verdict about the Lord's person and his
work. and we should be able to speak
our faith. We should be able to say what
we know, what we believe about him, and as it were, give a reason
for the hope that we have in him. Now, we do not press or
manipulate people to decide for Christ, like some free will church
that grinds out converts from a sausage machine. But when the
Lord asks, who do you say that I am? I believe that he deserves
an honest answer. Peter knew who the Lord Jesus
Christ was. The disciples knew who the Lord
Jesus Christ was because they had heard Him, they had seen
Him, they had watched as He performed these amazing miracles. The very
testimony that we have before us today was the testimony that
they had as well. They believed that the Lord Jesus
Christ was the Son of God, the Messiah. Do you? Do you? Jesus had left Galilee with his
disciples, and as we've mentioned, he'd moved into this area around
the city of Caesarea Philippi. It probably took several days
for them to make that journey. And as they travelled, they talked,
and the Lord asked his disciples two questions. And let us remember
that the Lord doesn't ask questions because he lacks knowledge or
because he needs information. But he was asking questions like
a good teacher asks questions. If the teacher at school asks
a question of a student, it's not because the teacher wants
to learn the answer. It's because he wants to know
whether the student knows the answer. And that's what Jesus
was doing here. He wished to confirm the disciples'
understanding. And he was allowing them the
opportunity to state their conviction as to his identity. And that's what we see before
us in this little passage. The Lord's first question set
the scene for his second question. The first question he asked was,
whom do men say that I am? Now, the disciples had lots of
answers to that question, and I can well imagine that each
of them were looking at one another and thinking, well, okay, we've
heard this being said, and we've heard this being said, and some
people say this, and some people say that, and the point is that
Amongst the people of Jesus' day, there were few, if any,
that could deny that Jesus was special. And everyone had an
opinion as to who he really was. Some people thought that he was
John the Baptist come to life. We read a few weeks ago about
how Herod believed that that might indeed be the case. Some
people thought that it was Elijah who had returned. or another one of the prophets
that was there to make way and prepare for the coming of the
Messiah. And I imagine that the people
that had these ideas all thought that they had pretty good reason
for coming up with the identity or the the thoughts that they had about
the identity of Christ. But actually, it really wasn't
very important what all these other people said about the Lord. It is of little importance what
the world in general thinks about the Lord Jesus. And the Lord
doesn't give the answers that the disciples gave to him in
response to his question another mention. It was just ignorant
speculation. Someone was coming up with a
name, an idea, and they wanted to make that the prevailing thought,
and it was just their opinions. But the question had served its
purpose. The very comparison and the offering
of names by the disciples separated the Lord Jesus Christ from all
of these others. Great as they might have been,
useful as their ministries may well have been, important in
their day as they doubtless were, the Lord Jesus Christ was different. He was unique. And as soon as
you brought these two thoughts together, who do men say that
I am? With the real identity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
difference was obvious. So that the Lord, in asking this
question, was highlighting his own excellence and his superiority
far and beyond the best of men, distinguishing himself from all
others and opening the door to the real question of the moment,
the question that mattered most. Whom say ye that I am? And the Lord Jesus was calling
for a confession of faith from these disciples. Let me just
make a couple of general comments about that word that I've used
there, confession. We sometimes talk about confession
of sin and that is something that we should do if we have
sinned against someone and we ask for their forgiveness, we
confess our sin to them and ask for forgiveness. But primarily,
forgiveness is something that is sought from God And confession
of sin is something that is made to God. We don't confess to another
person, we confess to the Lord. We confess our sin to the Lord
and we seek forgiveness from Him. And that is confession of
sin. That's not the kind of confession
that we're talking about here. This is confession of faith. This is a statement about what
we believe. sometimes churches have confessions
of faith and these are documents or maybe pages with a number
of items or articles on it that says this is what this church
believes and if you want to join that church then you've got to
say well I believe in the church's confession of faith and of course
there's lots and lots of people can give a nod and give agreement
to a church's confession of faith and sometimes they've never even
read that confession of faith far less be able to give a reason
for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ but that apart Again,
we're not talking about some mere formal document. We're talking
about what is in a man's heart, what is in a woman's understanding,
what is in the thought and appreciation of a boy or a girl confronted
with this question. Whom say ye that I am? Who do you say that the Lord
Jesus Christ really is? The Lord will not have his people
left in ignorance. Indeed, the purpose of preaching,
what we're doing here today, the purpose of preaching and
the work of the gospel is to educate and to enlighten and
to inform and to illuminate the elect of God. not the world in general, the
elect of God, first in their conversion and then in their
growth and development of spiritual understanding. By the gospel by the gospel that
we preach, the ignorant of heart and of mind and the darkened
of soul learn what the triune God has done for his people. They learn what God has promised
to do, what he has covenanted to do for them and how the Lord
Jesus Christ has come into the world and on the cross accomplished
everything that is necessary to secure every covenant blessing
for them. That's what the gospel teaches.
So when we say we're preaching the gospel, we are telling forth,
we are declaring to men and women, boys and girls, what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done in fulfilment of the purpose of God. That's the gospel. The Spirit
gives life. The Spirit quickens. The Spirit
gives an ability to hear and to understand the Gospel as it
is preached. All men and women can't understand
the gospel. All men and women can't discern
the person of Christ, see who Jesus really is. That is why
when the Lord said, whom do men say that I am, everybody had
an idea. But those to whom God sends the
Spirit, God sends His Holy Spirit, those whom the Spirit makes alive,
Those to whom the gospel in the hand of the Holy Spirit brings
life and light and wisdom and knowledge and faith, these are
they who see Christ as He really is. Though they once were dead
in sin, though they once were ignorant of heart, they are made
wise unto salvation. And that's what John tells us,
the Apostle John in John chapter 17, verse three. He says, this
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. It is a knowledge of the true
God and the way of salvation in Jesus Christ who was sent
by God to accomplish all covenant requirements. That's eternal
life. That is what it is to have everlasting
life, knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. And it was
important that the disciples knew who Jesus truly was. who they believed him to be.
They believed him to be the Messiah. They believed him to be the promised
Christ because these were the men who were to preach him to
others. And so they had to know the true
identity of Jesus. And of course they did. But the
Lord was also calling for confession. He was also calling for them
to say it, to voice it, to personally attest it and declare where they
stood. Why was that confession important? It's not as if the Lord needed
that confession. He knew who he was, of course,
and he knew that the disciples knew who he was. But he was eliciting
that confession from the disciples for their own good. It was designed to strengthen
their confidence and their comfort and enhance their witness to
the gospel. It's not that their confession
saves them, but it does confirm them in the faith. Nor was their
confession by their mouth what brought them into new life, but
it showed what was true in their hearts. Their confession was
an expression of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
wasn't the other way around. Some people tell us that if we
confess Christ, then he comes into our hearts. That's wrong. That's so wrong. It's the cart
before the horse. It's completely wrong way around. Confession is an expression of
faith in our heart. The Lord doesn't come into our
heart when we confess him. Let's get these things biblically
correct. When Peter, in answer to the
Lord's question, and probably speaking for all the disciples,
declared, thou art the Christ, he was expressing what was in
his heart, the faith that he had already been given, what
he knew to be true. He was speaking about the spiritual
knowledge and wisdom that he possessed. That knowledge had
come to him because Peter was one of God's chosen people. He was one of the Lord's sheep.
And God the Father had chosen him to everlasting life. He had chosen him. What did we
say John said in John chapter 17 verse 3? That this is life
eternal, to know God and Jesus whom he had sent, to know the
one true God and Jesus whom he had sent. So this spoke about
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God had chosen
Peter to everlasting life. And the Holy Spirit had brought
that life to Peter. Now, we're talking about the
disciples. Let me just say, and I'm not going to dwell upon it,
that Judas Iscariot, of course, is distinct from this, and he
proved that to be the case later. But Matthew also recounts this
little narrative, this conversation between the Lord. And Matthew
adds another sentence to this dialogue that exists between
Peter and the Lord. and the Lord and his disciples. But the Lord says in Matthew,
blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. So
this is the point, that where Peter was able to see thou art
the Christ, it was because that had been revealed to him. Knowledge had been given to Peter
as to the true identity of the Lord Jesus. So confession of
faith in the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ originates
in a spiritual work of grace. God the Holy Spirit does a work
of grace in the heart of a sinner, gives them life, gives them knowledge
through hearing the gospel, and confession of faith is made thereafter. Spiritual life is implanted in
the heart and that brings wisdom and understanding and knowledge
by which the believer knows and then that outflows in confessing
the person and the success of Jesus Christ as Saviour. Later,
the Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, would say, in Romans
chapter 10 and verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. So true faith is a heart experience
or what Paul calls believe in thine heart. Now I know that
anyone can say, I believe in Jesus, or Jesus is the Christ
in the same way as Peter said that there. And perhaps, as we've
said, Judas was present here. He likely was. And perhaps he
did say this with the rest of the disciples. But let us not
get precious about examining others. When the Lord's question
is direct, intimate, and personal, whom do you say that I am? God's grace first enters the
heart. It is a heart work. And we first
believe with the heart. not with the head. This is more
than just information. This is more than just hearing
with our intellect and assimilating the facts. This is a heart knowledge. It's a spiritual work. There,
God's grace produces faith that did not exist before. It's a new creation in the inner
man. And that grace energizes. all our powers, all the powers
of the soul. It energises our understanding. It energises our will, our affections
and our desires. These are altered and changed
and that's what we call conversion. We see Christ differently. We
once knew, maybe we only knew Christ as a swear word. Maybe
we knew him as someone that had been taught at school or in Sunday
school or maybe We learn something about Christ from somebody who
witnessed or testified or we saw a film or read a book, but
now it's different. Now we see Christ differently. Paul says, we believe in our
heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Now believing
that in our heart is including all that the Lord Jesus Christ
did. Because if we believe that God
raised him from the dead, then we must believe that Christ died
in order to be raised from the dead. And for Christ to have
died, he must have lived. and for him to have lived he
must have come as the Son of God in the flesh. And so believing
by faith that God raised him from the dead is believing in
the whole person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole
work of salvation. We see in Christ the glory. We see, what's that word I've
been using, the suitableness of Christ to deal with our needs. We see His ability as the Son
of God, as the only one able to do that which is necessary. And we see His willingness. We
see the willingness of Christ our Saviour to secure our deliverance
from sin, and our acceptance with God. And with the eye of
our understanding, spiritually enlightened and with faith implanted,
we believe in our heart and we confess with our mouth that Jesus
is the Christ. Let me conclude our thoughts
today by drawing your attention to the final verse of this little
passage. Verse 30, it says there, and
he charged them that they should tell no man of him. This little verse confirms that
the drawing forth of the personal confession by the Lord from the
disciples was principally for the good of the disciples themselves. They weren't to tell anybody
else what they knew and understood. The time for the full revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world had not yet come. And there
were several reasons for that, no doubt. The opposition of the
religious Jews was one good reason. The Jews hated Christ anyway.
And if the disciples started going around saying that this
is the Messiah, this is the Messiah, then their antagonism was going
to be intensified. There was a risk of political
uprising. Remember when Jesus had fed the
5,000? They wanted to make him king. there was the possibility
that the common people could rise up against the Romans if
the disciples started making prominent noises about the true
identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that reason, the Lord
says, don't tell anybody about this yet. The Romans were nervous. And of course, the disciples
yet had a lot to learn. So the Lord tells them, this
has been committed to you, but don't tell anybody else about
this at this time. And that teaches us something,
I think. It teaches us that the timing
of God's purpose, as well as the outcomes of God's purpose,
are all in the Lord's hands. So often in the Lord's ministry
we see him damping down enthusiasm because his time had not yet
come. The building of Christ's church
was to be effected upon the preaching of the whole gospel of Christ. That is Christ come, Christ crucified,
Christ risen, and Christ exalted. That's the message of the Gospel. And it would have been premature
for the disciples to go out preaching the Messiah was come when the
fullness of the work was as yet incomplete. Now is there a lesson
there for us? I think there is. It is a complete
gospel that we have to preach. It's the whole counsel of God
that we have to declare. It's not enough to teach that
God is reaching out to the world in the incarnation and sending
Christ to men and women. It's a lovely story and it's
true, but it's not enough in itself. It's not enough to teach
the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, as if that
is an example for men to follow. It's true, but it's not enough. It's not even enough to preach
the cross as the place of judgment and forgiveness. Because the resurrection and
the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ tells us about the success
and the efficacy and the glory of our Saviour. That's the whole
gospel. That's the whole gospel of God's
covenant purpose amongst men. That speaks about eternal election. It speaks about effectual atonement. It speaks about irresistible
grace. And it speaks about once saved,
always saved. And that is the whole gospel
that must be declared to sinners. That is the whole gospel that
must be believed upon and the gospel to be confessed. If you don't preach it all, you
don't preach at all. May the Lord quicken our spirits. May he teach our hearts. May
he make us wise to confess with our lips the Lord Jesus Christ
to the salvation of our souls. Amen.