If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me back to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew the 16th chapter. We'll
be looking at verses 13 through 17 this morning. Matthew chapter
16. The microphone fell off here. Excuse
me. There we go. Matthew chapter 16 verses 13
through 17. The title of the message this
morning is, What Think Ye of Christ? What Think Ye of Christ? Our Lord, in His discourse with
the Pharisees, they'd ask Him many questions. And He'd come
to them with one question. He'd come to them with this most
important question. He said, What think ye of Christ?
And this is similar to what we have before us in our text this
morning with the Lord Jesus Christ asking the disciples, but whom
say ye that I am? Our Lord, here in this place
of solitude, begins to teach His disciples and to move them
to confess the thoughts, first of all, of others. as well as
confessing their own hearts and minds. Confessing their own thoughts
concerning who Jesus is. And so he starts out and he begins
by asking them, whom do men say I, the Son of Man, am? He's not asking what the Pharisees
or the Sadducees thought of Him. He's not asking what the rulers
thought about Him. But He's saying, what does the
common man think about me? What is the common man's response
to who I am? Who do they think that I am? You know, the Pharisees, they
made it plain what they thought about the Lord Jesus Christ,
didn't they? They said, thou hast a devil. They thought He
was the devil. They said in Matthew 12, 24,
He says, Thou cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. They thought He was a sinner.
You remember that man that was born blind? He went before the
tribunal and they said about Christ, We know this man is a
sinner. They thought He was a sinner.
They would make no bones about that. They were very clear as
to what they thought about Jesus. They thought He was a blasphemer.
In John 10, 33, He said when they picked up those stones to
stone Him, He said, Which good work do you stone Me for? They
said, We don't stone you for a good work. We stone you because
thou makest thyself equal with God. You're a blasphemer. That's
what they thought about Jesus. That He was a blasphemer. But
Jesus here asking His disciples not what the Pharisees thought,
not what the rulers thought, but what did the common man thought.
These disciples, they were among the crowd. They knew. They heard. They listened to what these people
were saying. And Jesus was not asking for His own information,
was He? He knew what men thought about Him. He knew their thoughts
afar off. But you see, the disciples, they
hadn't thought about it. They hadn't considered who He
was. And so He here is telling them
to consider it. Who am I? What do men say about
me? What do they say about who I
am? He wanted His disciples to be
aware that this understanding of who Jesus is, is the difference
between lost and saved. Who do men say that I am? And the difference between the
disciples and what they believed, And there's a difference between
what they believed and what the common man believed of that day.
This is a difference between life and death. You who profess
to follow Jesus Christ, believer in Jesus, ask those
around you what they think of Jesus Christ. And they'll tell
you. Every man's got an opinion about this. You know that? Every
man's got an opinion about who this man Jesus was. Ask them what they think about
Christ, about Jesus. Who is He? Because the answer
to this is really heaven and hell, life and death, salvation
and damnation. The answer to this question,
who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? And notice the thought of men.
I want us to notice the thoughts of men as we go along in this
text. Some say that you're John the
Baptist. Some say Elijah. Some say Jeremiah
or one of the prophets. Now, friend, these thoughts of
Jesus were much different than the Pharisees, weren't they?
I told you the Pharisees, they thought he was a devil. They
thought he was a blasphemer. They thought he was a sinner.
And here, listen what the average person thought about him. Oh,
he must be John the Baptist. Resurrected from the dead. John
the Baptist was dead already. They thought he might be Elijah
or one of the prophets or Jeremiah. They knew that he was different.
This tells you they understood there was something different
about this man Jesus. That He couldn't be just any
natural man. That He just couldn't be any
old person born in that day. There was something different
about Him. He had to be a resurrected prophet
or something because He just couldn't be a common man. They
knew that. They understood that. They might
have thought he was John the Baptist because he preached the
same message as John the Baptist. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is in hand. They might have thought he was
Elijah because he did so many miracles, like the prophet Elijah. Maybe they thought he was Elijah
because of his boldness, and the Scripture said that Elijah
would come. So they thought it was Elijah's
son. And some thought he was Jeremiah because he was a weeping
prophet. This man was a man of sorrow
and acquainted with grief, so he must be Jeremiah or one of
the other prophets. These people thought surely that
this man was altogether different than any other man. And I'll
tell you what, to be named among these men, that's a great compliment,
wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be a great compliment
to be named? Hey, I think you're Elijah. Well, that's something. These are respectable men. These
are respectable names. To be named any one of these
men to any one of us would be an honor, wouldn't it? It would be a thought of respect
or reverence. These people were talking to
him in reverential terms. These people thought a great
deal of Christ. But the people of this day are
not much different than the religious people of our day, are they?
Not much different at all. When you ask them about Jesus
in our day, they too will give us great swelling words of praise
concerning Him, won't they? Ask Him who He is, and then they'll
tell you about all the wonderful kindness of Jesus, won't they?
They'll tell you great swelling words of His love, and how He
healed men, and how He was a good preacher, and how He was the
victim of evil men. They'll tell you how He suffered
and died for the sins of all men without exception, and that
His love is just so great. They'll dazzle you with words
of great affection, telling you that He's done everything He
can do. And all you have to do is add
your decision or your work to His work, and everything's alright. Poor Jesus, He's done everything
He can do. And they put great swelling words
about Him. But friends, I tell you this
morning, it really doesn't matter what this world thinks. It's
a good idea for you to ask around. It's a good idea to get a sense
of what the natural man thinks of Christ. But really, ultimately,
how much will that avail your soul in eternity? to know what
other people think of Christ. Friends, it will avail none of
us any good to know what other people think of Christ. The important
thing to know, what think ye of this man Jesus? Who is He? Because I'll tell you what, every
one of us here in this building will stand before God and you
will be judged by that man, Jesus Christ. By this understanding
of Christ, by faith in Christ, you will be judged by this man. So this morning, I want us to
look at the answer that Peter gave and see if this is our own
personal confession. Is this our own personal confession?
Friends, don't be overwhelmed by this religious world. Because
that's not going to avail us anything to stand before God.
What think ye of Christ? What think ye of Jesus? Who is
He? Who is He? That's the all-important
question, isn't it? And that's the question that
Jesus poses to His disciples. But whom say ye that I am? Don't tell me what your mama
thinks of Christ, of Jesus. What think ye? Whom do ye say
that he is? Because you'll have to stand
before God and what your mother and daddy thought really don't
matter. Not to your soul anyway. Not to your soul. I want us to
see our answer this morning to this question. Whom say ye that
I am? Peter said this, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. Now friends, that's a very
short sentence and it is full. It is full to the brim with meaning. It has a lot of meaning in those
little few words there. And you know what Jesus' reply
was to this answer? He said, blessed are you. And
I'll tell you what, if this is your confession this morning,
if this is your confession, Christ Himself says you are blessed. You are blessed. You are blessed
just as the Apostle Peter was. He was right while all the other
men and their thoughts were wrong. Now I'll tell you what, there
was only a very few that confessed this confession in Peter's day.
Many thought him to be a devil. Many thought him to be a good
man. Many thought him to be a resurrected prophet. But he went against
everything they said. And he confessed this, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said, that's a
blessing. You count that, if that's your confession, know
you are blessed because God revealed that to you. God the Father revealed
that to you. You didn't learn that by your
education. You didn't learn that by your
own physical ability. The Father revealed that to you.
And so then let us see what this confession is. I want us to look
at this confession this morning in detail and see what it is.
First of all, I want us to see what Peter said, Thou art the
Christ. What does that mean? What is Christ? What does this word mean, Christ?
When I was a kid, telling on myself and my ignorance, when
I was a kid, I thought it was His last name. I thought His
name was Jesus Christ, and His mother was Mary Christ, and His
father was Joseph Christ. So I thought it was His last
name. It's not His last name. That's
not it. Thou art the Christ. This is
an office, a title. Title. Thou art the Christ. Friends, this morning you call
me your pastor, and I am, because that is my office. That is my
office that is given to me of God. I was called of God to preach
the gospel to you and be your pastor. Well, this word Christ
in Hebrew is the word Messiah. Messiah. which means anointed one or chosen
one, elect of God. When Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, he recognized that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the anointed
one of God. You see, every Jew knew that
there was a Messiah coming, every one of them. Even the Pharisees
recognized that Christ was coming. And even when Herod, that wicked
man who came, who heard of the birth of Christ... You see, he
went to the Scriptures and says, where is Christ to be born so
I can go kill Him? He knew there was a Christ coming. A Christ,
a King, a Messiah. And they knew that the Law and
the Prophets testified of His coming, that He would come and
deliver Israel, that He would be the chosen vessel to redeem
His people. And Peter said, I believe you're
the one. That's what he said. I believe
you're the one of whom all the Scriptures testify. I believe you're the one from
Isaiah 42 verse 1, Behold, My servant whom I uphold, Mine elect
in whom My soul delighted. I believe that's you. He said,
I believe you're the one that said, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me and hath anointed me to preach the gospel. That's
you. That's what Peter said. He said,
you are the Christ, the One, the Chosen of God. I'll tell
you this, there are many men been chosen of God to do certain
things. As I just told you, God has chosen
me to be your pastor. God has called the Apostle Paul
to his office of Apostle. He chose the prophets to their
office. He chose the kings to their office. But friends, there is only one
Christ. Only one. There's only one Christ, and His name is Jesus of Nazareth. This man in this text is none
other than the Christ of God, the one Son of God to redeem
His people. You who confess that Jesus is
the Christ, you who believe Him to be so, what do you think How
do you know He is the Christ? I just told you He is the Christ,
but how do you know? How do you confess this? How
can you stand before other men and tell them that Jesus is the
Christ? How do you know this? Friends, God has not left Himself
without a witness. I was talking this morning about
people being superstitious, and they'll believe anything that
sounds spiritual. You just say something spiritual, you don't
have to prove it anywhere in the Word of God, and they just
take it and run with it. God has not left Himself without
a witness concerning His Christ, but has given us the full testimony
of Christ right here. You want to know how Jesus is
the Christ? It's right here, in God's Word. God tells us about this Christ. He reveals it to us in His Word. He has given us His prophets
which prophesied of the coming of this Messiah. And I'll tell
you this, only one has ever fulfilled all the prophecies of Scripture.
Only one. And that is this man, Jesus.
This man, Jesus. He fulfilled all the Scriptures. And only the one that fulfilled
all Scripture. is Christ. Do you realize this? That if Jesus did not fulfill
all Scripture, if there is one prophecy, only one, that He failed
to perform, He is a liar and He is not the Christ. Do you
know that? So when you testify of Christ,
you are testifying that Jesus is the one that has fulfilled
all of God's Word concerning this Messiah, this Deliverer. And if He's failed in one, He
is not the Christ. Well, who did God say this Christ
would be? How can we tell that this man,
Jesus, was Christ? Well, first of all, Christ is
manifest to be both God and man. He must be both God and man. When He said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. To confess Christ, to be the
Son of God, to confess Christ is to confess that He is the
Son of God. To confess that He is equal with the Father and
the Spirit in will, in purpose and in power. It is to confess
that He is God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I am confessing this morning
that this man Jesus is God. That's who I'm confessing Him
to be. When Peter said, Thou art the Christ, he confessed,
Thou art God. You're God. But he also confessed by saying
Christ that He is God, man, that He is the God-man. We must also
confess that God has come in the flesh. He who is the Son
of God, He says of Himself, whom do you say that I, the Son of
Man, am? I'll tell you, when you looked
upon Jesus, if you were in His day and you saw Him, you would
see no difference about Him from any other man. You wouldn't see
any difference. He was a man. He looked like
a man. He talked like a man. He had
all of our frailties in that he was human. He felt pain. He felt hunger. He felt thirst. He felt betrayal. He felt all
the sufferings of humanity. He was a man. He was a man. When Christ talked to those Pharisees,
He said this, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is He? And you see, those Pharisees,
they like to give a quick response. Smart people usually do. Snap
out a response. I know that. What are you asking
me such a simple question for? He's David's son. That's too
easy. Then He asked him another question.
He said, if he's David's son, how then does he call him Lord?
Zip. He shut their mouths up because
they only had one aspect of it. They only knew that Christ would
be a man. They didn't know He would be God. They didn't recognize
that He would be God. Both the Son of God and the Son
of Man. They didn't recognize that. But
we who confess Christ, we confess Him both as God and man. So when you say that word Christ,
you must recognize you're talking about His person. His person. He's the God-man. And only the
God-man could be the Christ. Only the God-man could be the
Christ. These Pharisees, they couldn't get it. They couldn't
get it that Christ was God. They couldn't see He was God. And they were looking at Jesus
and they were seeing Him as just a man. And I'll tell you what,
some of those people in the crowd, they looked at him too and saw
a man. They even thought highly of this man. Many respected him
to be a great man. But the sad thing is they respect
him to be nothing more than just a man. Some of you think highly of Jesus.
I know that. Some of you say great things
about Jesus. But have you bowed to Him as
the God-man? Have you recognized His deity,
His supremacy, His sovereignty? Have you bowed before Christ,
the God-man? And I'll tell you, while others
may even see His deity, they confess that He is the Son of
God, but they deny that He has come in the flesh. They're just
as wrong as the other ones. They're just as lost as the ones
who think He's just man. So if you only see Christ as
deity, but you've not seen His humanity, you've missed it. You've
missed it. John says, all that deny that
Jesus has come in the flesh, they're not of God. I like John. He makes it very
plain, doesn't he? He doesn't mince words about it. If you
think Jesus is just deity or just humanity, you've missed
the whole boat. You've missed who it is to be Christ. And all
who confess that Jesus is the Christ, they must see that He is God
manifest in the flesh. I like that verse, 1 Timothy
3.16, without controversy. Paul said, I'm not going to argue
about this. I'm not going to debate this with you. This is
without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God Himself was manifest in the
flesh. Oh, the greatness of this thought
that God condescended so low to take upon Himself humanity. Friends, it's not humanity low. Is this body not a body of death
like Paul says? I know it is. It's a life of
suffering. And yet God came in the flesh. I like this, how then did He
come? How then did He come? He was
the Son of God, Creator of all things. How must Christ come?
You see, the Jews had a thought of Christ. When He would come,
that He would come with great pomp and circumstance. They thought
he would come down as a mighty conqueror and come in and crush
the Roman Empire. They thought he would ride in
on a horse of white. He would be a commanding spirit,
conqueror in the physical realm. I like that song, How Should a
King Come. How should a king come? Even a commoner understands
he should come for his houses, he should come for his lands.
Friends, how did Christ, how was Christ prophesied to come? When you confess that Jesus is
the Christ, how do you know? Well, because He didn't come
that way. If He came that way, He's not
the Christ. Because the Scriptures tell us
how Christ should come. He should come meek and lowly. He should come meek and lowly
as a servant. We who believe in Jesus Christ,
Jesus is the Christ, we believe this because He came meek and
lowly as the servant of God and as the servant of man. Isaiah
53, verse 2, He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
as a root out of dry ground. That means David's seed was dry. There was no king in David's
line. And He would grow up out of that
root of David. The root of Jesse. And He hath no form or comeliness
that we should desire Him. No beauty that we should desire
Him. Christ was to come as a dried root of David, as one serving,
and not one to physically conquer nations. He came to spiritually
conquer the souls of men, didn't He? He came to spiritually conquer
our souls. And He was meek and lowly, wasn't
He? How many times did Christ speak of Himself? Did He make
lift up His voice concerning Himself? You can't find it. He didn't. Scripture says, "...Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion, and shout, O daughter of Jerusalem,
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee." How? "...He cometh lowly
and riding upon an ass." The cold to fold of an ass. Friend, there was never one so
meek and lowly as this Jesus. How many of you would have put
up with the Pharisees? How many of you would have put
up with them after constantly deriding Him, constantly persecuting
Him? Friends, if we had any power
at all, we wouldn't put up with it very long. So He's not speaking
about any of us, is He? He alone is meek and lowly. There have been none so faithful
a servant to God as this man Jesus. who was so despised and
so rejected of men as this man. This is how Christ was to come.
How the King was to come unto His own. The Scripture says He
came unto His own, and His own received Him not. That's how Christ should come.
That's how Christ should come. To all who suppose that Christ
was a rich man, He's not Christ if He was rich.
If He came into this world with the physical riches of this world,
He's not Christ. So any man that says that Jesus
was rich in the things of this world, you can know right then,
he's not talking about the Christ. He's talking about a false Christ. This man was one who suffered. Christ was to be a suffering
Christ. Scripture says He was a man of
sorrow. and acquainted with grief. But we see Jesus, the Christ,
who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. And He did so in great lowliness
and meekness. How do you know He's the Christ?
He came lowly and meek. He came and He is the God-man
mediator. That's how we know. Number three,
what did Christ do? What was Christ to do? This is
plainly revealed to us in Scripture. He who is God blessed forever,
united Himself with flesh, came into the world of the seed of
David, of the seed of the woman. He was meek and lowly, a man
of sorrows, but why? What was he purposed to do? What
did he come here to do? Psalm 69 verse 4 tells us, he
says, "...I restored that which I took not away." Christ was
to come to be a Restorer. To restore man. He came to restore
the righteousness of man. You see, Adam had righteousness.
He was holy. He was created in the image of
God. And yet, He fell and lost righteousness. He lost the ability and the will
to come to God. And God has sent His Son, Jesus
Christ, so that He might restore righteousness to all His people. He might restore righteousness. Because of God's grace, He sent
His Son to fulfill righteousness. Matthew chapter 3 and verse 15,
Jesus talking to John the Baptist, He said, "...it becometh us to
fulfill all righteousness." See, John was just following
his part. He was just baptizing Christ.
But Christ was the one fulfilling righteousness by being obedient
to God. And so, by being obedient, he
fulfilled the righteousness of God. It was Jesus alone who pleased
the Father. Which one of you pleased the
Father? Don't look at me, I didn't please
Him. I didn't do it either. No man could please God but one. He pleased God. He served God. He did all that
God required of him. And by doing this, he merited
a righteousness that we could not merit ourselves. He merited
it. He earned it. So when I say Christ,
I'm talking about one that come from heaven, the God-man mediator,
so that he might obtain righteousness. for His elect. And He did that. And Jesus alone was faithful
to God. It says, by His faithfulness,
by His faithfulness, He obtained righteousness. Romans 3. It says,
not by the works of the law. No flesh can merit righteousness.
But He, by His faithfulness, imputed righteousness, has obtained
righteousness and put it on everyone who believes. He imputed to everyone
that believed. Second of all, He restored not
only righteousness, but He restored righteousness not by His life
only, but by His death. By His death. Imagine the people surrounding
the cross. There He was, hanging. Bleeding. Dying. And people looking up unto Him
and says, Oh, look, He said He was the Christ! And they began
to mock Him. And said, If thou art the Christ,
come down and save thyself. But that's not what Christ was
here for. That's not what Christ came to do. Jesus said in John
12, my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, deliver
me from this hour. He said, no, this is the reason
why I came. I came for this hour. I came
for this hour. Christ came to be the atonement
for sin. What the blood of bulls and goats
could not do. What your sweat and blood in
works could not do. Friends, Jesus Christ by His
one offering perfected forever them that are sanctified. He
by His offering. You see, Christ came to make
an offering. And so when I confess Jesus is
the Christ, I look to Him on the cross because I know He's
the Christ because He offered Himself as the spotless Lamb
of God for the sins of His people. And by this, He restored the
righteousness of His people. Now then, lastly, I want us to
know this, that He is the Christ because He's successful. This
is how we know He is the Christ, because He's successful. God
the Son came, honored God's law, and died to satisfy the justice
of God, to impute it to all that believe on Him. Now let me ask
you this, was Christ successful? Did He fulfill all Scriptures? In Matthew 1.21 it says this,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, For He shall save His people
from their sins." Let me ask you, did He save His people from
their sins? If He didn't, He is not the Christ. If He didn't, He is not the Christ. But friends, He did and He is. He did and He is the Christ. Jesus fulfilled this Scripture.
Some would have us believe that Christ came to make salvation
possible. That's not what that Scripture
says. Some would have us believe that Christ died for all men
without exception, but because of their will or because of their
lack of obedience, He could not save them. Friend, anyone who
believes in a Christ like that, he is not Christ. He is not Christ. They would have us believe that
Jesus died for all the sins of all men, even those in hell. Yet this prophecy tells us He
shall save His people from their sins. A Jesus that failed to save His
people from their sins is not the Christ. But praise God that the Jesus
Christ, Jesus of this Scripture, He did fulfill all the Scriptures. He did save His people from their
sins. He did not fail and He was not
discouraged. As it tells us in Isaiah, He
shall not fail nor be discouraged. And Jesus did not fail and He
was not discouraged. The Christ, the Son of the living
God, the Jesus who is God manifest in the flesh, equal with the
Father and the Spirit, yet humbled Himself to be the Savior of His
elect people, and He accomplished His work. Friends, I preach to
you a successful Savior. He alone is the righteousness
of God. He alone by His blood has obtained forgiveness of sins
for His people. He has done this. And most assuredly, all that
Christ died for, the Spirit of God has promised to come and
deliver them through the gospel, through faith in the gospel of
Jesus Christ. How could you know that Jesus
is the Christ had you not heard the gospel? You see, this is
the means by which God saves His people from their sins, is
the preaching of the gospel. And I am most definitely assured
of this, because Christ is successful, all those that God has chosen
will come by faith. and see and confess that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of the living God. What think ye of Jesus? Do you believe that He is the
Christ, the Son of the living God? that He is the God-man mediator,
that He alone restored righteousness for all of God's people. If you are, if you do, blessed
art thou, because God has revealed this to you. So then, does it really matter
what the world thinks of Christ? Does that have any bearing on
our opinions of Christ? Does that have any influence
over us? Absolutely not. We confess without
hesitation that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
all who believe, God says, you shall be saved. That's a wonderful
blessing, isn't it? If there are any here that don't
know Christ, I tell you, look to the Lamb of God for the forgiveness
of sins and believe on Him, and He will save you. That's His promise. And all whom
He has chosen, I know they will hear, and they will believe. I pray that God blesses to our
hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.