Okay, so let's just read this
passage of scripture in Mark chapter 8. And I'll be stopping
halfway through a verse. Mark 8, 27. Now Jesus and his
disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And on
the road he asked his disciples, saying to them, Who do men say
that I am? So they answered, John the Baptist. But some say Elijah, and others
one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you
say that I am? Peter answered and said to him,
You are the Christ. Then he strictly warned them
that they should tell no one about him. And he began to teach
them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected
by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and
after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly." So
the Lord Jesus in our journey through Mark's Gospel comes to
that point which is as far north in nation Israel as he goes. And so we have in this passage
in a sense a turning point in the narratives. His ministry
mostly to the people in northern Israel around Galilee. is now
coming to a conclusion and the scriptures say that he goes up
to Caesarea Philippi and then he sets his face like a flint
to go down to Jerusalem. And it's significant that he
goes to Caesarea Philippi because it's a beautiful place up near
where the Jordan begins at the foot of Mount Hermon. And it was a place in the Old
Testament where Baal was worshipped. And its name today reflects the
fact that in the times of the Greeks, it was actually a place
where they worshipped Pan. But as you can gather from the
name of it, Caesarea, it was actually a place where Herod
the Great built a temple to Augustus Caesar. And then Philip added
his name to it to distinguish it from the Caesarea which was
on the coast. And so it's a place where many
gods were worshipped for many, many years. And the Lord Jesus takes his
disciples there and he asks them this question. Who do you say
that I am? He asked questions, the Lord Jesus,
not because he's ignorant. He asked questions to elicit
something from his apostles and to teach them. He was well aware
of the fact that as in our day, there are many, many Christs
out there. within three or four hundred
meters of where we're gathered now, you could go to three or
four churches, at least four that I know of, maybe five, just
within a few hundred meters of here. And if you sat down and
asked those people who their Christ is, define their Christ
and define what he's done for you, you would find almost as
many opinions as there are people in those fellowships. I met a
lady the other day and the question that we discussed 12 months ago
was, is she ready, as Amos says, to meet her God? And she said,
no I'm not ready at the moment, I'm not good enough. And she
knew that that was theologically incorrect, but that was her experience. And the reason she said that
was because the Christ that was declared to her and is continually
declared to her is an inadequate Christ. I feel for that lady. We live in a world of great confusion
and great darkness about who the Christ really is. And in a sense the Lord Jesus
asks the question to elicit from his disciples as he does from
us, who is the Christ? Can you define your Christ as
the scriptures define him? Have you experienced him as the
gospel writers experienced him? And they responded of course.
They told him that some thought he was John the Baptist. Herod
thought he was John the Baptist and probably many others. Some
say Elijah, one of the great prophets who caused fire to come
down from heaven, who defeated God's enemies in a remarkable
way. Some thought he was one of the
prophets. Some of the other Gospels say that he might have been Jeremiah
because the Lord Jesus was truly a man of sorrows and familiar
with suffering. In Acts chapter 5, Gamaliel speaks
before the Sanhedrin and he names two of the other people who claimed
to be Messiah. In Acts chapter 5 verse 36 he
says, Some time ago Thudas rose up claiming to be someone. After this man Judas of Galilee
rose up in the days of the census and drew many people after him.
This was just typical of what was going on in Israel. Rumors
abounded. And so, as in our day, people
have ideas about Jesus. There's not a person that you
meet who doesn't have some opinion of him. Often they're very complementary
opinions, just as these opinions were, weren't they? They weren't
denigrating him by these opinions, but they were so far from the
truth. Almost universally these days people acknowledge that
Jesus was a great man and a great teacher, a great moral teacher,
a great reformer, a great liberator of women, a great man in many, many places. There are multitudes of opinions
about who the Lord Jesus is. But he asked another question,
and that's the question that's before us today. And he continued
by questioning them, but who do you say that I am? The big question before us in
things that concern our souls, things that last into eternity,
are not what the opinions of men are. It's irrelevant what
other people think about who the Lord Jesus is. We've been
promised that in this world there are false Christs and false messiahs
and they'll gather many, many others after them. The question
that is before us is who do you say that I am? Peter gives the
answer of believers. Peter answered in verse 29 and
said to him, you are the Christ, the Christ. As I said earlier,
the definite article is critical, isn't it? Matthew 16, 16, Simon Peter answered, said, you
are the Christ, son of the living God. And Luke 9, 20 says, Peter
answered, you are the Christ of God. And Matthew, in Matthew's
Gospel, we have God's declaration that this proclamation of Peter's
was not something that Peter had worked out by human reasoning. In fact, to proclaim this is
something that God alone can work in people's hearts. Jesus
said to him in Matthew 16, 17, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. You are in a blessed situation. You are in an envious state.
Because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father
in heaven. Peter answered, you are the Christ. So all true Christians know and
believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, this carpenter,
this man who was rejected and as we've seen as we've travelled
through Mark's Gospel, rejected and misunderstood, seen to be
a man, seen to be an imposter, doing great and wonderful things
that only God can do and yet accused of doing them in the
power of Satan. This Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of the Living God. Matthew Henry said, to be a Christian
is to sincerely believe that Jesus is the Christ. And we must remember that this
came from God and Peter's testimony, his confession, is a marvellous
confession because The Lord Jesus standing before him was a poor
man. He was without honour, seemingly
without power, without majesty, without wealth, and without influence. And this confession of Peter's
was made in opposition to the opinion, the common opinion of
men. and especially the common opinion
of the religious people of the day, the theologians, the ones
who thought they knew God and his word so clearly, in fact
so sound was their knowledge and so righteous was their righteousness,
that they could come to this Jesus and judge him, and judge
those who were his. So Peter confessed in the midst
of all of this, you are the Christ. His faith wasn't shaken by opposition
and his confidence and his declaration was not shaken by popular opinion. Peter believed and he declared
that Jesus is indeed this Christ, this promised Messiah, this prophet
like Moses, priest like Melchizedek, this king like David. He confessed
that the man Christ Jesus is actually God the Son. So Peter's faith is exemplary
faith. He believed what God the Father
had said about his Son. But the wonderful thing that
Peter declared is that he is THE Christ. Forty-five times
in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus is defined as THE Christ. That's how the Holy Spirit describes
him so often. And in the midst of that, Jesus
has promised in Mark 13.22 that false Christ will arise. The false Christs will show signs
and wonders, and false Christs will show these signs and wonders
to deceive, if possible, the elect. And He says to us today,
our Saviour, take heed. I have told you these things
beforehand. When we see this multitude of
Christs which are before us, we need to remember that our
Christ, the Christ, said that this was going to happen. His
promises are being fulfilled and he comforts his people in
this world and he comforts us now by explaining to us what's
going to happen so that when it does happen and we see it
before us, our faith would be strengthened rather than weakened. He says, many will come in my
name saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many." It was the question, who is the
Christ and who are you, that the Pharisees and the high priests
and the Sanhedrin finally asked our Lord Jesus and put him under
earth. in Mark 1461, the question to
him is, are you the Christ, son of the blessed one? And Jesus,
if you turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 7, Jesus gives
the most beautiful reply to these Pharisees who were about to have
him crucified. This is what it is for the Lord
Jesus to be the Christ. He quotes Daniel 7, 13 and 14. I was watching in the night visions,
and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds
of heaven. He came to the ancient of days,
and they brought him near before Him. Then to Him, then to this
Messiah, was given dominion, was given glory. and a kingdom
that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. which shall not pass away, and
his kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed." The Lord Jesus
publicly confessed before these wicked men that he really is
the Christ, and to be Christ, to be the Christ, is to be God. Only God has an everlasting dominion. Only God has a kingdom which
shall not be destroyed. That's our prayer, isn't it,
as we speak to people about the Lord Jesus, and as we gather
as his people here, that like the Lord Jesus did on the road
to Emmaus, with those apostles after his resurrection, He led them to see that this
Christ, the Christ, will have to suffer these things and then
to enter into His glory. It's a wonderful, wonderful description
of God's work in our lives. He opened their understanding
that they might comprehend the scriptures. Without God opening
our understanding of these scriptures, it is just a book, mashed up
paper with some ink on it. When God opens our understanding,
that we might see the Lord Jesus in His glory, then He said to
them in verse 46 of Luke 24, Thus it is written, it was necessary
for the Christ, for the Christ, to suffer and rise from the dead,
on the third day. The Lord Jesus that's presented
before us in the scriptures is God. He is God in human flesh. He is God Almighty. And that's
why in verse 30, He as God, after this declaration, warns them
not to tell others about Him. The reality is that God will
reveal himself to those he chooses to reveal himself to, and he
will hide himself from those he chooses to hide himself. There
will be a time for him to be proclaimed openly, for these
apostles And in the Lord Jesus' life, this, as John says, is
not His time. This is a time for Him to care
for His disciples. This was not a time for Him to
be declared again to these crowds that had rejected Him so often. But what wasn't to be declared
before those people? is marvelously declared to God's
people. And we have that revelation of
what He then began to teach them. And He taught them the things
that are of first importance, the greatest things they need
to know. And he began in verse 31 of chapter
8, he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. There are necessary things, they
must happen. They must happen. The Christ
must suffer. The Christ must be rejected by
the elders and the chief priests. The Christ must be killed. The Christ must rise again after
three days. They are absolutely essential
for Him being the Christ. And isn't it extraordinary that
the one doctrine which is so evidently denied by so much of
the religious world is the necessity and the must of the Lord Jesus'
death on behalf of his people. They take the things which are
of first importance and undermine them. And we pray that God would
give us the grace to proclaim it as boldly and loudly as possible,
that the Lord Jesus must suffer because of his eternal covenant
engagements. He loved his bride from eternity
and he was the land slain from the foundation of the world.
It wasn't an accident. The Lord Jesus didn't come to
this earth trying to achieve something. He must come. He must
come because of his union with his people in eternity. He must
come because of God's glory and God's holy name demands that
he come. He came and he must come because
of his great love for his bride. No greater love as any man that
he lays down his life. He laid it down, it wasn't taken
from him. He's the one who must do these
things. He is talking here as sovereign. He must suffer these things to
honour God's holy law. He must suffer these things to
defeat Satan and rob the strongman's house. Justice must be satisfied. God's holy name must be honoured. It's necessary. And it's necessary that he do
these things and enter into His glory. And we are reminded often,
aren't we, in our fellowship, that those who are God's children
here will join. They will join with the hosts
of heaven and they will sing the songs that are being sung
around the throne in heaven right now. They will sing, holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. They will sing of the Lord Jesus. You are worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by
your will they exist and were created. and then they'll sing
a new song, and God's children here sing that song. You are
worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were
slain, and you have redeemed us to God by your blood, out
of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made
us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. Blessing and honor and glory
and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
forever and ever. This is the glory that the Lord
Jesus now shares. It will be a manifest glory when
He returns to take us to be with Him in the new creation. But here we have the song of
heaven. You have redeemed us to God by
your blood. He didn't try to redeem people. He must redeem his people. And he redeems them out of every
tribe and tongue and people of nations. And in his redemption
he makes us kings and priests to our God. It was necessary
for this Christ to suffer. It was necessary that His suffering
leads to His glory. What great glory. And no wonder
Satan and his minions attack the very thing which is of first
importance. They attack the Lord Jesus and
what He did on the cross. And as much as they can in the
lives of God's people, they will want to rob us of Christ's glory
in our lives. False Christs are inadequate
Christs. False Christs leave people, as
my friend was, feeling inadequate and incomplete. Because their
Christ is inadequate and is incomplete. and they do not sing, they do
not sing the songs of heaven. May God give us the grace to
sing the songs of heaven. May God give us the grace to
proclaim with Peter that Jesus is the Christ. I'd like us just
to look briefly at six or seven things that define the Christ. The Christ that we proclaim in
this church The Christ that we pray as you leave this fellowship,
as you walk out those doors, this Christ and His wonderful
work and His redemption and His completeness and His glory would
be what you meditate on. So we believe that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ. And we believe that Jesus of
Nazareth is himself very God of very God, the second person
of the Holy Trinity, and in all things equal with the Father
and the Spirit. He is a man. He is bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh. But this man is God. In him, says Colossians 2.9,
dwelleth dwells and continues to dwell, the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. And this is what the Old Testament
Scriptures proclaim about our Lord Jesus. We know them so well,
for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, of the increase of His government and peace,
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his
kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and justice
from henceforth even forever. Then there's a great declaration
at the end of that verse. The zeal of the Lord of hosts,
will perform this. God is zealous about the glory
of his Son." And this is what's declared throughout the New Testament.
We know the verses so well and yet the essence of what they
are saying is denied by so many who leave his work as inadequate
and unfinished. In the beginning, says John,
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Romans 9.5. Whose are the fathers, and of
whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all
God, blessed forever. Hebrews begins that great witness
to the glories of our Saviour, God who at sundry times in diverse
manners spoke in time past, unto the fathers by the prophet has
in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he appointed
heir of all things, by whom he made the universe, who being
the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,
upholding all things by the word of his power, when He by Himself
purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high. None but God could satisfy justice. None but God could put away our
sin. None but God can forgive sin. And our God, our God and our
Saviour now sits in heaven. sits to signify to us that it
is done, it is finished. So the Lord Jesus is the Christ. The Lord Jesus
is God. The Lord Jesus of Nazareth is
the Christ of God. He is the second Adam. He is the head and the representative
of God's elect. Jeff, wherefore, says Romans
5, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men because all have sinned. Therefore, as verse 18 goes on,
therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men
to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience many remain sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. As federal head, the Lord Jesus
represented his people before God in the eternal covenant. Adam's sin was imputed to all
men, but the sins of God's elect were imputed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what it is to be the Christ,
is to take the sins of God's people and say that they are
mine. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. But the wonderful news of the
Gospel is that Christ's righteousness is imputed, put onto our account,
to all who believe him as their Saviour and Lord. as Romans 5
begins so beautifully, therefore being justified by faith. We
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Fourthly, we believe and we proclaim
that this man who is God, the Jesus Christ, holds the fate
and eternal destiny of all men in his hands. He says in Matthew
28, before he returns to heaven, he spoke to them saying, all
power is given to me in heaven and on earth. The father loves
the son, John 3.35, and has given all things into his hands. John 5.21, for as the Father
raises the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens
or makes alive whom He will. As He prayed before He was crucified,
You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as You have given Him. He is both Lord of the dead and
the living, and He is sovereign. Somewhere along the road, this
religious generation has gotten everything turned around and
upside down. The great question and concern
is not, what will you do with Christ? The great question and
the great concern is, what will Christ do with you? Anyone who knows Thee, Christ,
knows that mercy and grace, salvation and eternal life are His prerogative. Lord, if You will, You can make
me clean. A hymn writer wrote, Pass me
not, O gentle Saviour, and hear my humble cry, while on others
Thou art calling, do not pass me by. That is the big question,
isn't it, for those who are in the darkness of other places
that are called churches. The question always that should
be before us is not what are these people doing. We know what
people do. We know our own flesh. The question
that lies before us and should concern us so deeply and should
drive our prayers is what is God doing to them? Why has God
withheld light from them? Why has God left a billion people
in this world in the Roman Catholic Church? Why has God sent Pentecostalism
to 500 million or more people in this world? The question that's
before us always is, God is sovereign, what is God doing? The disciples
finally asked the question, are there few that be saved? The answer from the scriptures
is that a remnant will be saved. And the Christ is going to get
great glory and honor out of saving his remnant out of a mass
of darkness. And that's the fifth thing about
the Christ. All praise, honour and glory
of pre-eminence has been given to and rightly belongs to the
Lord Jesus Christ. That all men, says John 5.23,
should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He that
doesn't honour the Son does not honour the Father who has sent
him. He is the head of the body of
the Church, who is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead,
Colossians 1, 18 and 19. That in all things He might have
preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in Him should all
the fullness dwell. He will be worshipped. He will
be worshipped by His people. He is being worshipped by them
right now. He is absolutely sovereign and
at the end of the day this whole world will proclaim His glory
and His majesty and His deity and His sovereignty. As we saw in Revelation 5, worthy,
worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is what God's people say
about Him and sing about Him. He is the Lord our righteousness.
He is the Lord our substitute. He is the Lord our mediator.
He is the Lord our God. And sixthly, all people. Jews and Gentiles, males and
females, young and old, rich and poor, who hear the voice
of His mercy, who hear the word of His grace and life in the
gospel, and believe in their hearts that Jesus is the Christ,
have eternal life. Whosoever believes that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God, Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you, Simon Barjona, but my Father in Heaven revealed
it to you. This is the Gospel that we proclaim
and we have great hope in. It's the one thing that is needful
for your souls. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ? If you do, it's because you were
born of God. and what wonderful promises come
to God's children. You have already passed from
death into life and you shall not come into condemnation. He
who hears my word and believes in me has everlasting life and
shall not come into condemnation but has passed from death to
life. There is now no condemnation,
no condemnation for God's children. God's children are free from
the curse, the penalty, the condemnation, the dominion of the law. He's redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone who hangs on a tree. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes. If you believe that
Jesus is the Christ, you've already been judged in Christ, punished
in Christ, raised up to glory in Christ. For you lived when
He lived, you died when He died, you rose again with Him. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, but yet
not I. Jesus Christ lives in me and
the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. This is the Christ. The next thing that we believe
about the Christ is that there is an hour appointed by God,
from before the foundation of the world, when the Lord Jesus
will come again. In fact, the scriptures say that
he cometh, he's coming right now. Behold, says Revelation,
he comes with the clouds and every eye shall see him. And
they also which pierced him and the kindreds of the earth shall
wail because of him. And God's people say, even so,
Amen. Everyone will hear His voice. There shall be a great resurrection
of all humanity from the dead. Every eye will see Him. This
same Jesus, who is the Christ, Son of the Living God, shall
judge us all with strict justice. God's children will find that
day a day of great blessing and joy. Their judgment has finished. There is no condemnation for
God's people. Every one of us will spend eternity
either in the bliss of his presence in heaven or the terror of his
wrath in hell. Every believer will be gloriously
transformed into the very likeness of the Son of God and perfectly
conformed to His image, every unbeliever shall be forever damned,
forever tormented, forever lost in hell." The scriptures declare the Christ
to be so glorious. A complete saviour, says Colossians
2.9. And we are complete in Him. He is a satisfied saviour, says
Isaiah 53.11. He's now satisfied. He's a joyful
saviour, Hebrews 12.2. And as we read in Revelation,
He is a victorious saviour. Either I am redeemed by this
Christ, who is the Christ, or I'm not redeemed at all. Either
I am made perfectly righteous by this Christ, the Christ, or
I'm not righteous at all. Either I am perfectly sanctified
in this Christ, or I am not and never will be sanctified. Either
I am perfectly complete in Him, or I will never be complete." God has given us the grace in
our little fellowship to proclaim a great saviour, to declare a
great gospel. It's a great privilege. It's
a great gift from God. that He should open our eyes
to see something of the glories of our Saviour. Heaven is about
the Lord Jesus. All of eternity is about the
Lord Jesus and about His glory, the wonders of His glory. We
never get to the end of it. And I thought we'd finish by
reading some of those verses on your sheets that describe
our Lord Jesus in his union with his church. This is how God describes the
Christ. This is how God describes the
people who are one with this Christ. We are God's children
all over this world and in heaven and those yet to come are the
body of Christ. We are the brethren of Christ. We are the bride. We are the
lamb's wife. We are children of the Kingdom. We are called Christians after
Christ. We are the Church of God. We
are companions. We are complete in Christ. We are the daughters of a King. We are comely in Christ's comeliness. We are the elect. We are the
family of God, we are the flock of God, the fold of Christ, the
friends of God, the glory of God, the habitation of God, the
heritage of God, the Israel of God, the lot of God's inheritance. We are members of Christ, a peculiar
people, the portion of the Lord, the temple of God, the treasure
of God, vessels of mercy and the vineyard of the Lord. We are flesh of His flesh, bone
of His bones, united to Him in eternity and united to Him in
what goes on in this world now. Our Christ, the Christ, is a
great and awesome Saviour for sinners like us. May He grant
us to continue to rejoice in Him And may we be found complete
in Him and found at rest in the wonders of His finished redemption.
Let's pray.