Verse 40, they had been in the
company of the Lord Jesus that day, and one of the two which
heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother. He first findeth his own brother
Simon. Where did you find him? Where
do you find the Messiah? You find the Messiah in the wilderness.
He is a voice that was proclaiming him in the wilderness and he
was there in the wilderness. Where do you find him? What a
remarkable thing is that the Lord Jesus Christ can be found.
He obviously finds his own, we know that, but in reality we
also find him. And of course we have a glorious
picture here of what happens in the hearts of God's children
when they have found the Messiah and been in his presence. Those
acquainted with the Messiah are eager, they're zealous, and they're
anxious to see others come and see what they've experienced.
Come and see. Peter speaks of what we are to do, isn't he,
in 1 Peter 2 verse 9? You're a chosen generation, chosen
from the foundation of the world, put into the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're a royal priesthood, the saints of God, a holy nation. Peculiar people we are peculiar
to this world. We are particularly peculiar
to the Lord, but we are to this world peculiar That's why if
you find him in the wilderness And this is the reason, isn't
it, for all of that, that you should show forth the praises
of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous
light. Andrew has been in the marvellous
light. He says, look what I've seen. I've seen something I've
never ever seen before. We as a Jewish nation have been
waiting for all this time for the Messiah to come and we found
him. We found him. He first cried
to his own brother Simon. See, grace makes us seekers. of sheep and grace guarantees
the success of the work of seekers. All that the Father gives me
will come to me, they will come, they will come. When he is lifted
up he will draw all men to himself. Andrew found the Messiah by hearing
and believing John. He had a declaration, didn't
he? Behold, there He is. There's the Lamb of God. And
we by faith who have seen Him declare Him the same. There He
is in the Scriptures. He is exactly as He said He'd
be in every possible way. They found Him. I do want us to be mindful of
the fact that the group from the Sanhedrin came to visit John
and they had one purpose in coming to visit John, was to find out
whether the Messiah had come. They knew from Daniel's prophecy
that he was Jew. They had every reason to expect
Messiah and many messiahs, so-called messiahs, had arisen in their
time. So they came with one mission
down to that wilderness and they heard, they heard John the Baptist
and they didn't hear a word from God. They saw, he said to those
Jews, he says, behold, there he is. They saw and they didn't see.
Such was the ordinariness of it all, that the eyes of flesh,
and particularly the eyes of religious flesh, can never see
Him. They were believers. They would
have called themselves believers. They would have called themselves
the most willing servants of the Christ. When the Christ comes
along, we're going to be right there with Him. They were believers,
but they didn't believe. They were Abraham's physical
descendants and they boasted in their lineage, didn't they?
And they boasted in all their traditions. But they weren't
Abraham's faith children. Abraham's faith children behold
the Lamb of God. See, to receive the Lord Jesus
Christ is to receive the record His
servants give. And to receive Him is to be born
from above. And as I said earlier, true gospel
preaching is exactly what verse 36 says, isn't it? You're looking
upon Jesus. In my studies, in my time, and
I trust in my time with other people, I want to be aware of
his presence. And I don't mean the way so much
of the religious world will talk about the Lord Jesus Christ,
but I want to make conscious, I want to make a conscious effort,
as the Lord would allow me, to actually be in his presence.
I want him who is omniscient to be omniscient to me. I want
Him who is omnipresent to be present with me, and He is. He's
present in all of this world. There's no escaping from His
presence. These men that came and saw or
went back, they could have written dissertations on what it was
to be the Christ of God, and they could have given you thousands
of verses of scripture that spoke of Him, and yet none of that,
none of that helped them at all in beholding Him. Andrew says
to his brother, when he found him that evening, I trust, he
says, we found him. We found the Messiah. We'd found him. Job cried out,
didn't he? Oh, that I knew where I might
find him, that I might come even to his seat, Job 23. So you found
him. You behold the Lamb of God and
you find the Messiah. Behold the Lamb of God as he
declared by his witness and you'll find the Messiah. And he brought
him to Jesus. I love the fact that the Lord
in his absolute sovereignty of all things knew that there would
arise Catholic Church hundreds of years later and that Catholic
Church would hold to a billion Disciples are more than a billion.
I don't know how many it's just an extraordinary number of people
and they hold that Peter they hold Peter in the most highest
esteem, but it's interesting isn't it Peter's beginnings here
are humble and Peter's activities throughout this These gospel
accounts of him would cause people to look away from Peter and look
to Peter's Saviour, what humble beginnings. He was brought to
Jesus. He was brought to Jesus. People
come to the Lord Jesus, not by the will of man, not by the flesh,
will of the flesh. And he saw no miracle. And he
had no reasoned speech, did he? He just heard. He just heard. Someone had seen the Lord Jesus
saying, behold, We've found the Messiah. We've found the Messiah. And he brought him to Jesus.
If you're going to bring someone to the Lord Jesus Christ, you
must know where he dwells. You must know where he dwells.
And that was the whole purpose, of course, of the Lord taking
these two men, not just to a place where he visits, but a place
where he dwells. You take him, you take your friends
to a place where the Lord Jesus Christ dwells. All who seek the
Lord Jesus Christ will find him and they'll find him where he
dwells. I love The promise given to those
people in Jeremiah's day. If ever there was a group of
Jews that thought themselves in a wilderness, and the religious
world thought them in itself in a wilderness as well, thought
them to be in a wilderness, was those in Jeremiah 29. And Jeremiah writes the letter
to these people who have been taken away from Jerusalem, hundreds
of miles across the desert into into Babylon as slaves and captives. Jeremiah 10 is part of this letter.
2910, for thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon, I will visit you. In the wilderness, in your captivity,
I'll visit you and perform my good word towards you. He's made
a promise. The Lord is fulfilling his promise
here. In causing you to return to this
place, he'll do all of the returning, he'll cause it to happen. For
I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord.
Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected
end. Verse 12, then shall you call
upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken
unto you. and I will be found of you, saith
the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather
you from all the nations and from all the places whither I
have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into
the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. He'll
bring his people to himself, our God, And that is what salvation
is, isn't it? Is to be brought by the Lord
into his very presence. And I love what goes on here. In verse 42, he brought him to
Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, it
means to look over him closely. What's it feel like? It's just
a silly thing to ask what it feels like. The reality is that
the Lord is beholding all of his people now, and he beholds
them closely. The eyes are omniscience, are
looking over us continually. Is that a comfort to you? I love the fact that the Lord
is absolutely and particularly and personally present in all
of the dealings of all of his people. He sees everything. Nothing that ever happens to
you will surprise him. When he beheld Peter, he beheld
Peter in the entirety of his life. He knew what remarkable
things Peter would do. And he knew what a fickle man
he was. And he said, Thou art Simon,
son of Jonah. Simon means to be heard or heard
with acceptance. It means obedience. Jonah means
a dove. You are Simon. You're the son
of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas,
which by interpretation is a stone. Isn't that remarkable? The Lord
had never met this man before. In the very first meeting with
the Lord, the Lord says, I know who you are, and he changes his
name. What a remarkable meeting this
must have been. A new name, a new name. a new name. And that new name
reflects the character of their husband and their father. I love
how Moses finished his time with the people of Israel and made
that, engraved that, a remarkable sermon. He says, I'll publish,
Deuteronomy 32.3 says, I will publish the name of the Lord,
ascribe ye greatness to our God. It's the hymn we sing. then he
goes on to say he is the rock he is the rock his work is perfect
for all his ways of judgment a God of truth and we're now
without iniquity just And right is he. And you go on reading
in that passage of scripture, you'll see that he describes
the nations all around. They have another rock, but their
rock's not like our rock. Their rock's not like our rock.
And Peter is given a name, a stone, a new name. a new name. They will be called
by a new name. Isaiah speaks of this new name
in Promise, and I just love what he says in Isaiah chapter 62.
He says, for Zion's sake, for the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. I will not hold my peace, and
for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as
a lamp that burns, that light that shines in the darkness. And the Gentiles shall see thy
righteousness. and all kings thy glory and thou
shalt be called a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name
he bestows a name on his bride he is the rock Peter is a stone He bestows a name on his bride,
which reflects his character. We know those verses in Jeremiah
23.6 and 33.16. This is a name whereby he shall
be called. And what's his name? The Lord
our righteousness. In chapter 33, this is a name
whereby she shall be called. What's her name? The Lord our
righteousness. She wears her husband's name,
and she is in her husband's care and responsibility. The Lord
meets a total stranger, and he knows his name, and he knows
his future, and he gives him a new name. And why Peter? You, like me, no doubt recall
there are many, many instances of Peter. Peter's falls and Peter's
statements are so famous, aren't they, that they grip us with
a reality, don't they, that Peter is a reflection of the fact that
he has this name that reflects the Lord and his naming of him,
but he is still Simon. What a friend Peter is to sinners. What a comfort it is to believers. that our standing before God
is entirely on the basis of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and
not our own. Be holy in all manner of conversation
because it is written, be holy for I am holy. And the preacher
went on to declare the fact that holiness is our activity. And
we were exhorted to lives of holy obedience and so on and
so forth. And I remember sitting there
thinking, I don't know why the ground hasn't opened up. Peter
would never, ever have thought that he had any holiness of his
own. He never would have thought that. The holiness that he has,
the holiness that you see the Lord Jesus, you will see God's
face in and stand before God, is the holiness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Peter would have had no doubt
about that. But as I said earlier, every honest person will see
themselves in Peter. What a remarkable man. What extraordinary
courage he displayed. What extraordinary courage he
displayed on that day of Pentecost. What a remarkable to stand before
those men who had just weeks before crucified the Lord Jesus
Christ. to stand before them and declare
that you with your own wicked hands, you people, you've crucified
him and God has made him Lord in Christ, to stand there and
tell them exactly what they were with his own life on the line,
as it were. And yet we are reminded often
of the extraordinary cowardice that Peter before that made. We're reminded of his remarkable
humility, isn't it? He said, go away from me, Luke
5, go away from me. I'm a sinful man, Lord. He had genuine humility. At the
Last Supper, he had another sort of humility. It was fake humility,
wasn't it? When he said, you'll not wash
my feet, he had extraordinary humility.
And yet we have the Lord saying those remarkable words to him,
I've prayed for you. Peter? I've prayed for you. What's the difference? The difference
is always the Lord Jesus Christ. The difference is always His
activities. He had remarkable faith didn't
he? People often think about him sinking beneath the waves
on the Sea of Galilee when the Lord told him to come and walk
on the water. Who of you would have got out of the boat in the
first place? Did you get out of the boat?
What remarkable faith. He had a word from the Lord Jesus
Christ and he believed it. And he looked away from the Lord
and it's a wonderful picture, isn't it, of the rest of our
lives and Peter's life as well, isn't it? You look away from
the Lord and you sink beneath the waves that are all around
you. You look at the waves, you'll sink beneath the waves. You look
at the Lord and you can walk on water, you can do miracles.
What a remarkable picture. What a remarkable picture. A
man who had everything extraordinary, wasn't he? He had extraordinary
privileges and extraordinary failures. He had an extraordinary
confession. We'll have a look at it in Matthew
Chapter 15. And then he has an extraordinary
rebuke, get behind me Satan, just minutes later almost. He
is, he is, both flesh and spirit and a contradiction in so many
ways. What remarkable love he had for
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then apparent coldness. I'm
going fishing. What a remarkable What a remarkable
night that was when the Lord Jesus Christ was portrayed by
him before a maid and before that
crowd. And the thing that is amazing
is that the Lord looked at him. At least the last of his denials
was in the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord
beheld him. And people think that the Lord
beheld him with a look of anger and frustration, which is how
we would behold him. I'm absolutely convinced it was
a look of absolute love and understanding and the greatest compassion.
He was praying for him as he looked at him. And Peter reflected
a repentance. He went out and he wept bitterly. Have we wept bitterly? Have we
wept bitterly? God preserves the tears. He remembers them. This is a
Christian saved and secure and yet sin and the reproach that
he felt in the presence of his Lord caused him to weep bitterly. I trust the Lord has brought
you to a place where you have wept bitterly, and it's a private
place, and it's not a public place, and you don't need to
talk to me about it, and I won't talk to yours, but such is the
depth of the love relationship that people have with him, and
such is the reality of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
very presence of us that he does exhibit that in remarkable ways.
Peter. Remarkable faith. Peter brings
to us the most remarkable statements, doesn't he? In John chapter 6,
after that crowd had come, 5,000 people had come and they'd been
fed and they'd followed the Messiah, and they looked like the genuine
article, and then the Lord declared who he is. He declared who he
is and how God saves sinners. We'll look at it later on in,
Lord willing, in John chapter 6, a remarkable passage of scripture. And he says, there's the door.
go as well. And Peter makes that remarkable
statement, the statement of every child of God. He didn't have
an option, did he? They had an option and they left.
If they have a decision to make, they'll leave. God's children,
it's not a decision. We've got nowhere else to go.
You've got nowhere else to go. As the Lord shut you up in such
a way that despite all of what happens around you and despite
all of what the world is doing, you've got nowhere else to go. on the Mount of Transfiguration,
you might remember Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration. It
says that Peter answered and said, let's make three moves.
He wasn't even asked a question. He would have been very, very
wise to keep extraordinary silence in that company and God rebuked
him from heaven. This is my beloved son, you listen
to him. You listen to him. again and again throughout our
journey with this friend of ours, Peter. We'll see him We'll see
him as both Peter and Simon. And people will want to tell
you in religion that somehow after the resurrection he was
a transformed man. And in many ways he was a transformed
man, but he was still Simon, wasn't he? He was still Simon,
there he was. You can read about his testimony
in Galatians chapter two, Paul's testimony of what happened. He
denied the gospel. He denied the gospel in the front
of those people. For fear of man, he denied the
gospel. He was saying by picking up his
plate and moving over to the table of the Jews, that somehow
by doing these things, we could make ourselves a little more
acceptable to God by our activities. And he was denying the gospel
altogether. And Paul rebuked him to his face.
And when Peter comes to write 2 Peter 3, he says that that
account of his activities is scripture. I don't think for
one second Peter stayed and fought as many as we do when we are
affronted in those ways. We tend to want to defend ourselves.
I think Peter immediately realised that there he was, Simon, all
over again. He was rebuked publicly and he
accepted it. Thou art Peter, says the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thou art Peter. And I want us
to go back and look briefly, as we bring our service to a
conclusion, I want us to look briefly at the extraordinary
confession of Peter. Matthew chapter 16 in John 1
42 he brought him to Jesus and Jesus beheld him he said thou
art Simon son of Jonah thou shalt be called Cephas thou art Peter Here we have, let's read with
me from verse 13 of chapter 16 of Matthew's Gospel. When Jesus
came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they
said, Some say thou art John the Baptist. This was after John's
death. They thought John had come back
to life again. Some say Elijah, some say Elijah,
and some say others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And here
he asks the one question, the question, the great and vital,
essential, personal question. Whom do you say that I am? Other people praise me in remarkable
ways. Elijah was as good as a God when
it came to Old Testament prophets. Who do you say, who do you say
that Jesus Christ is? See, it's a personal question, isn't
it? And it's a private question. And that's where it's answered,
because God sees the hearts of everyone. And God looks in to my heart. What does he see regarding Jesus
Christ, his son? When the Lord first did a work
of grace in my life to teach me the gospel, it seemed to me
that there was a question that was just ever before my mind,
and it's almost as if I felt God shouting it to me again and
again and again, saying, what about my son? What about my son? Who do you say he is? What about my son? What about
my son on the cross? What happened? Who is he? And the voice and the answer,
Simon Peter's answered and said, and it's just glorious, isn't
it? He says, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. His declaration was the declaration
that John the Baptist has given. He is the Son of God. He is the Lamb of God. He has
all of those glorious titles which declare him to be the Christ
of God. And I love the answer. And this
offends the religious world and offends any who are proud, isn't
it? Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, blessed art thou, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Only the revelation of God about
God can give you an understanding of who God is. If this confession is your heart's
confession, then you'll know that it's God who has revealed
it to you. What amazing grace. Beside the
River Jordan in the wilderness, these men have been brought to
this place. And later on, they are brought
to make this extraordinary confession. You see, to make that confession,
to have him come to you, to have him reveal himself to you, to
have him draw out from your lips that fruit of praise to his name
is amazing grace. It's called, as Peter calls it,
he says it's abundant mercy, abundant mercy. Abundant mercy
for abundant sinners. It's God dealing with you in
love and mercy and truth in the midst of multitudes who are ignorant. And then the Lord makes this
remarkable statement, which is so relevant to what we have been
looking at in John in terms of the Lord gathering his church.
He says, verse 18, And I say also unto thee that thou art
Peter. You were Simon Barjona, here
you are Peter. And upon this rock will I build
my church. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. the gates of hell. I will build
my church, not upon Peter but upon this confession. As I said
earlier, the gates of hell are defensive, aren't they? They're
keeping safe. In Luke 11, the strong man armed
keeps his palace and his goods are in peace. That's Satan's
activity all the time throughout the Scriptures, isn't it? To
hold his goods and to keep them in peace. Which is why he's so
enraged, isn't he, when he's dethroned from what he sees as
his high place and he's made a public mockery of by the Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. And the Lord just goes and says,
I'll have them. All of mine that are in there, they're mine. They're
captives of you and they'll be set free. The gates of hell are
not going to prevail against them. This is the message of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is, isn't it? It's who he is. He's the son
of the living God. A God who is living now, living
and active and reigning over all things. It's who He is, the
Lamb of God, and what He does. He takes away the sins of the
world. And this message, this message
is the message upon which the Lord Jesus Christ will build
His Church. It is the message, isn't it,
of the Lamb of God. It's the message of John the
Baptist. And it invades every stronghold in this world. And
it finds all of God's children in whatever nooks and crannies
they're found in, in whatever state of captivity they're found,
in whatever state of deadness they're found. He'll say to them,
Lazarus, come forth, and a bound man in the darkness and dead
will be brought forth and brought out into the light of his glory. And as he said at that time,
he says, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God. Believers
see the glory of God. There will be no opposition to
his power and there will be no failure. He will build his church. Every single person he died for
will be set free. All his own will be brought by
the Spirit's work to believe this confession. This is what
John was talking about, wasn't it, earlier on, is this is receiving
him, is to believe on his name, is to believe on the very character
of God as it was revealed in the Scriptures, is to receive
the testimony of God about his Son. Listen to what John says
in 1 John 5. He says, whosoever, chapter 1
John 1, 1 John 5, whosoever, I love that word, whosoever.
I can fit into a whosoever. I can fit really comfortably
into a whosoever. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And that word born is in And it's a passive tense. He
does the bearing. He causes there to be a birth. And the result of this, John
goes on to say, everyone that loveth him that begat. If you're born of him, you love
the begetter. You love him who begat you. And also that is begotten of
him. There will be a love that God
creates between his people. That was Andrew's response, wasn't
it? He was a recipient of the most
extraordinary love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet his first
activity is to reach out to someone else he loved. See, it's receiving God's testimony. If you were there, still in 1
John 5. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself. God testifies with our spirits
that we're the children of God. He has the witness in himself.
Lots and lots of people have a witness out there in the public,
but this is a witness inside. Witness in himself that he that
believeth not God has made him a liar. It's believing God's
testimony about God's Son. It's not what you believe about
yourself. Multitudes believe they are saved, and yet the promise
of God is that on that day when they meet Him with all of their
works in their hands and all of their wonderful deeds, He
will say He never knew them. And there might be many who find
themselves wondering how on earth they could ever be saved when
they have such a life that they're living, and yet they are His. But it's the record, it's the
record that God gave of His Son. It's the record that God gave
of His Son. You don't believe God, you make
Him a liar. You're declaring God to be a
liar, because you believe not the record that God gave His
Son. And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life,
and that life is in His Son. I've got an interest in that.
I've got a serious interest in that. I don't want for the Lord to
pass by those I love. In this day, this just this day
of salvation. See this is the church's foundations
to go back to Matthew chapter 16. This is the foundation. It's
not Peter. You only have to examine something
of Peter's life and you'll see it wasn't Peter. It's Peter's
confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Church's one
foundation, isn't it? And upon this rock, this everlasting
rock is lasting, long-lasting. A rock is firm. A rock is a foundation. A rock has all sorts of things
beating against it. You guys went up to Kiamma yesterday
and you saw those remarkable waves building against those
rocks and they've been there for thousands of years, haven't
they? And they can just keep beating
against it. It's a firm foundation. It's stable in a shaking world. And it's unmoved by opinion,
and it's unmoved by opposition. And a rock has no compromise
in it. Rocks don't bend. Rocks don't bend. You are Peter. You are still Simon. Peter. Jesus is the Christ. Lord willing, I want to spend
more time looking at what it is for the Lord Jesus to be the
Christ. And John, in these opening verses,
has given us the most remarkable testimony of what it is for the
Lord to be the Christ. And we'll see it throughout the
rest of it, really. But the word Christ is the Hebrew
word Messiah, and it just means anointed. It means that the Lord
Jesus Christ is God's anointed prophet. There were three officers
in the nation of Israel who were anointed. A prophet is a man
who brings a word from God. That's what a prophet is. He
brings God's word. What a prophet the Lord Jesus
Christ is. He is not just a word, he is
the word of God. We might have to... The number then is 141405. I don't know how I got armed
again. Okay, look, I'm sorry about that. Let's just come back
and look at this. He speaks and he reveals God. If you want to find out what
God is like, you want to find out who is God, you want to find
out who is the truth, it's all the Lord Jesus Christ. How can
God deal with sinners like me? How can God save someone like
a Peter? Jesus Christ is the answer to
all of the questions, isn't he? a prophet. He brings a word from
God. He's a priest. A priest, anointed
priest, is one who brings man to God. And that's exactly the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's exactly what is pictured
here, isn't it? He brings these people into his presence and
into his company. And how do you live in his presence
and in his company? You have to be as good as God.
You have to be as good as God. He takes his own precious blood
into the presence of the Father. And in that presence, he prays
for them. And he carries them into the very
presence of God. That's what the priest did. I
need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough
that Jesus died and that he died for me. And the anointed King, we have seen the King in action.
Again and again and again throughout our studies and throughout our
time as a church, we have seen the King in action. He says,
come and see, and his people come and see. He is the one who
doesn't just have the right to rule over all things, the first cause of all things
and is the first cause in salvation. Lord, if you will, if you will,
you can make me whole. Lord, if you will, you can save
me. Are there any Peters here? He saves sinners. He saves sinners. Let's pray.