Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Matthew chapter 16, the chapter
that we read, and verse 21. Verse 21. From that time forth,
Jesus began Jesus to show unto his
disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many
things of the elders and she-priests and scribes and be killed and
be raised again the third day. Matthew 16 and verse 21. We are told in verse 13 that
our Lord is here in Caesarea Philippi, which is some 15 miles
northwest of Galilee, some 100 miles away from Jerusalem. And some, perhaps nine months
before, he was to suffer at Calvary. And we are told here that it
is from that time forth that Jesus is beginning to show unto
his disciples what must be done at Jerusalem. And the time, of
course, is referring to when Peter makes his confession of
who the Lord was. Our Lord had asked what others
were saying about him, various thoughts concerning Jesus of
Nazareth, some thinking that he was John the Baptist, some
Elias, others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. This is the Lord's
own ancient people who knew the scriptures, and yet they were
saying all of these different things. But then the Lord turns
it round and turns it to his disciples. And Peter answers,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord pronounces
him blessed. Blessed because that which he
has said and testified with the mouth, confession is made unto
salvation, but blessed because it had been revealed to him,
not by flesh and blood. Hadn't been learnt, as schoolboys
learn their task. Hadn't been come at from a natural
source, but had been revealed from heaven. a stark contrast. He saw the Lord, others saw the
Lord. He saw the miracles the Lord
wrought, others saw those miracles too. Was it just the miracles
that brought them to know why we have later onward? No, before this time, before
this confession, when he was warning of the doctrine of the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, and they'd forgotten about the miracles
the Lord had wrought in turning those few loaves and fishes to
feed so many thousand. Yes, it wasn't a direct going
straight from that to a believing in the Lord. The miracles did
testify of who he was, but it still needed to be revealed from
heaven. And that still applies today. If you and I are truly to believe,
it won't just be by reading the word of God. It'll be by the
Holy Spirit blessing that word, the power of God applying it.
so that we truly believe in our hearts. And may we be anxious
to know that we are true believers in that way. I've no doubt if
we were to go and ask around our group of churches this question
as who the Lord Jesus was, who Jesus of Nazareth was, that most
would be able to give the answer because it is recorded in the
Word of God here. But that doesn't make a Christian. It does not make a true believer. It makes it when it touches the
heart, when it affects the life, and when the knowledge of the
Eternal Son of God manifest in the flesh, is entered into the
heart, it will touch our life and everything about us. Because
it's not a knowledge alone, it is that which is revealed from
heaven. And where it is revealed from
heaven, it comes with the blessing of life, eternal life. And so
the Lord blessed Peter. Do we believe what we believe? Do we believe what we confess
to believe? Does it touch our hearts? Or are we hearers of the word
only and not doers, deceiving our own selves? We need then this revelation
from heaven. Now the Lord takes that occasion
to speak concerning Peter's name, stone, Cephas, and from his name
he says this, upon this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That rock, that is
not Peter, as some erroneously think. Paul makes it very clear
when he writes to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 11. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He is the rock,
the foundation of the church of God. Nevertheless, Peter and
the disciples, Peter especially, was used by God in the building
of the church. It was he that preached at Pentecost. It was he that preached 10 years
later at Cornelius' household in Caesareum. It was Peter that
was to be the apostle to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. And so representative also of
that early church. And later on in Matthew 18, we
have a picture of the church gathered together and the keys
that are spoken of here in verse 19, they are given to the church
of God. The Lord using his church and
governing his church and to organize the churches and so we see the
spirit working through the church of God. It's a solemn thought
really, decisions that are made in the gathering of the church
are binding ones. We have a picture of that in
Acts 15 when there was the question regarding the circumcision and
the question came back to the church, the elders, gathering
together to decide should the Gentiles be commanded to be circumcised. Their decision was no. That was
for the Jews. It was a burden they could hardly
bear. It wasn't to be a condition of
being saved, a condition put upon them. And Paul later on
tells the Galatians that if they are circumcised, bound to keep
the whole law as part of the law of God, part of the ceremonial
law. And the law is done away in Christ. He says, if ye are under the
law, ye have fallen from Christ. If you keep one part of it in
that way as thinking that keeping that will gain you heaven, then
you are bound to keep it all, not just part of it. But salvation is by grace, salvation
is by what Christ has done, not by deeds of righteousness that
we have done. Well then we have our Lord charging
his disciples that they should tell no man that he was the Christ. Sometimes it's strange to ask
why the Lord should make such a charge. as this, but our Lord
is to go up to Jerusalem and there he is to suffer, not at
that time. Then we have the words then of
our text, from that time forth our Lord is telling them what
is to take place and what is before him. So on to speak the
Lord's help from this verse. Firstly, a time to begin to show
the things of God to men. Word of our text says, from that
time forth began Jesus to show. Secondly, the sufferings of Christ. In this verse is a very concise
summary of Christ's sufferings, how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. It is a very concise summary
of what Christ was to accomplish at Jerusalem. But thirdly, to
notice, and that is following the text, the opposition to the
way of the cross, especially as expressed by Peter, or our
Lord discerning that it was Satan speaking through Peter. But firstly, a time to show the
things of God to men. There is a set time to favour
Zion. And there is a set time to all
things. When we look at the history of
the Old Testament, you might say, well, what governed the
timing of when things actually happened? The timing of the flood,
the timing of Abraham going into Canaan. Why did he delay first? Was it his father that did that
then? mix up the timing of going into
Canaan, the various conflicts that were there, the parting
of Ham, and Lot, all of those things that happened. When we come to something like
the book of Esther, then we can see how critical timing is. Like when the king could not
sleep, The books were brought before him. He's reading just
the very part where the Mordecai had not been rewarded of the
deed that he'd done in saving the king's life. And then Haman
comes in to request Mordecai to be hung upon the gallows he'd
made, but instead the king I asked him what should be done to the
man the King delights to honour. Haman thinks it's him, but instead
he has to honour publicly Mordecai. What if the King had not been
reading that? What if Haman had been able to
make his request and the King hadn't known what had been done
by Mordecai? Mordecai taken to the gallows
and killed. Timing was absolutely crucial. For that we can see, we can see
the timing when Joseph is wandering about in the field and his brethren
have moved on to another place. But a man had heard them say
where they were going. And that man and Joseph meet
up and he's able to tell them, tell Joseph where his brethren
are. And Joseph's whole sufferings,
his going down into Egypt, all hung upon those timings. My life's minutest circumstance
is subject to his eyes. And we then think of all of the
prophecies, all of the events in the Old Testament, the times
when the kingdoms came and went, the times when individual prophecies
were made, the times when things were revealed to the people of
God. There is no just arbitrary deciding. It's all appointed, governed. by God. Now times are in his hand. Reminded of that in Ecclesiastes. Again and again we have a time. Time to be born, a time to die. Runs through all of those times. And here we have from that time
forth. Why did the Lord wait to this
time? The Lord knows why, but there
was a time that he was silent, a time that he didn't open up
fully what was before him, but now he is. And may we remember
this. May we view it in our lives. If we are seeking the Lord, There is a time to seek the Lord. It is the day of grace. We can
be certain of that. While it is today, we are to
seek him. For the time of blessing, the
time the Lord quickens his people, the time the Lord passes by them
and gives them life and bids them live. Those are appointed
times of the Lord. And we can rest in the Lord's
ordering and governing of our lives, of the lives of those
around us, of the nations of the earth. Nothing happens by
chance. His will is being performed and
done. And there shall come a time,
as there was there with Christ's first coming, and then his sufferings,
so his second coming. The signs also are told us of
that, but we know not the day nor of the hour, but we know
that there is a time appointed. And we know there is a time appointed
for us upon earth. I think of my grandfathers, one
lived to 49, the other 51. My mother, 61. My father, 77. A dear lady in Pilgrim Homes,
she's 105 and still very much with her. Our times are in the Lord's hand. One of
the Members of this church, their little girl of three, buried
in the cemetery up here. One of our own uncles, aunties,
in the Hildenbrough Cemetery, three as well. Just three years
upon this earth, yet a good hope that they had of her. Those times
are in God's hands. May we redeem the time, but may
you also have an eye to watching what the Lord does and that expectation
and longing for his blessing and seeking for his blessing.
And each time we come to hear the word of God, each time we
read in, each time we come to the throne of grace, may our
expectation be from him. from that time forth. Have we a time that the Lord
began from that time forth to show unto us the things of God? Because that's what we have here.
It is not everything at once, but it was began, Jesus to show
unto his disciples. Little by little, line upon line,
here a little and there a little, he which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. What is
so important? Has the Lord begun? Has he begun
a good work in us? And more importantly, has he
begun to show forth what is summarised and set forth to us here, his
own sufferings and death, what was accomplished at Calvary. These are vital doctrines, vital
points. Many things in the word of God,
they are not essential to salvation. But there are things that are,
and the things in this verse are essential, is what the Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished at Calvary. And that we need the
Lord to reveal to us the same as he did to Peter. His father, which was in heaven,
revealed it, and he has given the Holy Spirit to reveal it
and to bless it through the ministry of the word. Hymn writer says,
dust thou mind thee spot and place where Jesus did thee meet. And some of us can think back
where the Lord first did begin to bring us into a concern and
to teach us and instruct us of himself. And in one sentence,
All the way through our lives we shall be still learners, still
seeking to know more of those precious things that even the
angels desire to look into. So then we have in the first
place a time to begin to show the things of God to men. May that bring In our hearts
of prayer, Lord, begin. Begin today to show these things
to me. And Ryder again says, oh, why
did Jesus show to me the beauties of his face? Onto, then secondly,
the sufferings of Christ. There is four things that the
Holy Spirit has seen fit to record here things that the Lord Jesus
Christ said, showed unto his disciples. The first is how that
he must go unto Jerusalem. It must be there that the offering
was to be made. There it was, that the sacrifice
had to be offered. There was the temple. There was
where the ark originally had been. There was the altar. There was the sacrifices. There
was the promises in Jerusalem. Later on, when he goes up to
Jerusalem, his face was set, as it were, to go up to Jerusalem. And so the Samaritans, they didn't
receive him because his face was set to go up to Jerusalem.
And that is when his disciples wanted to call down fire from
heaven. But the Lord says, you know not
what spirit ye are of. You can be certain where the
Lord has a place where we are to go, the same as the place
where he was to go, that the Lord will say to him, that there's
not to be hindrances, there's not to be a turning aside. When
Elisha was to send Gehazi to the Shunammite because of her
son or to her dead son, he said, see that if any man salute thee,
salute him not again. He was not to turn out of the
way, he was to have one object, and the Lord had this set before
him, he must go unto Jerusalem. Now may we be very clear in this,
for each soul to be blessed, we do not need to go up to a
Jerusalem, the God is not confined to places, we can pray to the
Lord anywhere, He has ordained that his people gather together,
assemble in the house of God. His promise is to be where two
or three are gathered together, and we are not to forsake that. His blessing is where his people
are, and to him shall the gathering of the people be. But we are
not to get that idea that somehow we must be in a particular place. or the churches almost have reinforced
this during this pandemic time. In the early part of it, first
we were not allowed in our churches and then it was said, we're going
to open the churches for prayer, as if the only place that people
could pray was in the church. And one of our responses from
our free Bibles is that. that they realized they did not
have to be in a place they could pray anywhere to God. And it's
very encouraging to realize that, that the word of God has been
used in that way. And we see, of course, why it
must be with the Lord that he go up to Jerusalem. But men are
to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and
without doubting. It is a blessed thing that we
come to the house of God, we go home, but we don't leave our
God. And our God does not leave us.
He is with his people always. And our Lord then identified
where he was to suffer again, pointing who he was. identifying
this is the Christ, this is he that should suffer at Jerusalem. Then he speaks of his sufferings,
not just some things, but many things, not just of the Romans,
but of the elders and chief priests and scribes. The Romans are not
mentioned. Our Lord, when Pilate said, that
knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, or power
to release thee? Our Lord said, Thou couldst have
no power at all, except it were given thee from above. Wherefore,
he that delivered me unto thee hath a greater condemnation. And here our Lord identifies
those that delivered him. who chose him instead of Barabbas,
the robber, the murderer, and chose our Lord, suffer many things
of the elders and chief priests and scribes. Not only is his
suffering set forth, but also that he should be killed. We
know our Lord says, no man taketh my life from me, I lay it down
of myself, I have power to lay it down, I have power to take
it again, this commandment have I received of my Father. But Peter, when he preaches of
the day of Pentecost, he says, He that was delivered by the
determinate counsel and full knowledge of God, ye have taken
and by wicked hands crucified and slain. He appoints and appoints
the blamed the sin, the guilt of what they had done upon them. They were pricked in their hearts.
They fell under the power of God, attending the word that
he preached. But our Lord must die. He must be slain. He is the Lamb
of God. He is the Paschal Lamb. He must
lay down his life. The blood must be shed because
without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And so
our Lord tells them very clearly that he must be killed, but then
and be raised again the third day. The empty tomb, the assurance
given unto all men, God has raised him from the dead, the sacrifice
accepted, the Lord risen, he tells it clearly
as it should be. We think of how our Lord spoke
of the sign of the prophet Jonas in verse 4 of this chapter, Jonah,
three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so should
the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. Our Lord then gives a very clear
summary, similar the Apostle Paul does with the Corinthians,
when he says before them these things in the first epistle to
them in chapter 15. He says there in verse 3, For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. and that he was seen of Cephas,
that is Peter, then of the twelve. After that he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain
unto this present, that some are fallen asleep. After that
he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of
all he was seen of me also as one, born out of due time. That was when the Lord appeared
to him, on the Damascus road. But every one of God's dear children
shall see him by faith, shall believe in him, shall have him
revealed to them, shall like the eunuch who was reading Isaiah
53, have through the preaching of the word, the Lord's blessing
on him, see there the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in him. as the Lamb of God, the Son of
God. Where our Lord then tells them,
sets forth, begins to show these things to them, and in summary,
speaks of his sufferings and of his death. I want to look
then in the third place, the opposition to the way of the
cross. It's a remarkable thing that
Peter, who had been so commended by God, that his father had revealed
these things to him as to who the Lord was, that here his same
mouth that had confessed the Lord should now turn and rebuke
the Lord. saying, be it far from thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee. In a way, we can understand
it. Peter loved his Lord. If you and I love someone, and
that person then tells us what they're going to suffer, what
they're going to go through, our whole being would say, no,
that can't happen to you. That can't be the will of God. That cannot be the right way. But our Lord rebukes and says,
get thee behind me, Satan. Satan speaking through Peter,
through one so close to the Lord, through one that it so confessed
the Lord. May we always be aware of that.
Don't just think because A person is one of the Lord's dear people.
They may be preached, and the Word's been blessed to you, that
they then cannot be used by Satan to speak wrong things. Followers
of man only as far as he follows Christ. And we test all things
by the Word of God. Man is not inspired. The Word of God is inspired.
And we're to preach the word and we do make mistakes and sometimes
Satan, he can speak through us like he does and did here with
Peter. But the main idea here is a way
of suffering, avoid it. Don't walk in this path. No, right at the very beginning
it was said, with the promise of the seed of the woman that
should bruise the serpent's head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Right at the beginning, a suffering
saviour. Right through the sacrifices,
the blood sacrifices, the word that our Lord spoke to those
on the way to Emmaus, ought not Christ to have suffered these
things? and to enter into His glory. This was the path that our Lord
Jesus Christ had to walk. Sin is a bitter, evil thing. Sin is a hateful thing. God hates
sin. Without the Saviour, without
there to be a substitute, without there to be justice, then we
must suffer eternally in hell, eternally banished from God. What if we were to say, well,
there's a criminal coming before our courts, and he's done some
terrible, terrible deeds, but we're going to let him go. We're
going to let him go, and there'll be no one suffer for him, no
one pay for him. We say justice is not done. We
deserve eternal wrath, eternal banishment, eternal death. And God demands a just weight,
a just balance. And so our Lord must suffer. And shall his people then have
no fellowship with him in his sufferings, no idea of what he
has gone through, what he has suffered at the hands of the
elders and priests and scribes, Our Lord goes from this, from
speaking to Peter in this way, and immediately speaks of the
path of his people, of you and I, of we are the people of God.
And he says unto his disciples, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. The Apostle Paul counted not
his life dear unto him. He didn't go forth preaching,
think, well, if I say this, I'm going to be locked up for it.
And if I profess this, then I'm going to suffer for it. How easy
it is to walk that path. to deny the truth, to deny the
Lord, because we're thinking of the consequences. But our
Lord says, you also will have a path of suffering. And Satan
here, he opposed it. And may we remember that. Rather
than discourage the people of God, in their sufferings, in
their cross, in the path that they walk. May we encourage them
and strengthen them. And may we have some fellowship
with the Lord in his sufferings. Have we opposition to the cross
of Christ? Do we oppose what he commands
and directs as the way that his disciples His people, believers,
those that He has began to show and to teach, should walk in. Now some think, well, the only
time that we should be baptised and follow the Lord is when we
have come to a full knowledge of the Lord. Those who are baptised
in the scriptures, they are baptised when they believe. When the Lord
had begun with them in that sense, they had much to learn, much
to be taught after that. If you and I are thinking, well,
we've got to come up to this standard and be taught this and
that first, that is not the way of the Scriptures. He begins
to teach. And if you and I know the Lord
has begun with us, and we know He has given us spiritual life,
and know that He's opened our eyes and opened our ears. As
we said before, that teaching won't stop. You teach us right
through our lives. As we go on, we feel to know
little more and less and less, but the Lord does reveal more
and teach us more. So may we not be ashamed of the
cross, ashamed of the way of following our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord then bless this
word and help us as a church here to show forth the Lord's
sufferings in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper after this
service. Amen.