First of all, the text from Matthew
22 and verse 41 to the end of the chapter. While the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto
him, Abdavid. And he saith unto them, How then
doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. If David then called him Lord,
how is he his son? And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither does any man from that day ask forth him
any more question." Now, that great passage, classical passage
in Matthew chapter 16 and beginning in verse 13 through verse 17. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, His disciples asked Him saying, or rather He
asked His disciples saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of
Man am. And they said, Some say John
the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets. He said unto them, But whom say
ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said unto him, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Now, let us begin by acknowledging
that there are many answers to the question that we are about
to attempt to answer. Now, not right answers, mind
you, for there can only be one right answer. In fact, there
are not only many answers, but there are also some outright
and blasphemous views concerning the identity of the one that
we know as Jesus Christ. Even in the Scripture we see
among those Jews that called him a blasphemer, a devil, a
demon-possessed man, out of his mind a glutton and a wine-bibber. And the Jewish leaders, many
of them, denied that he was or is barely, in fact, the only
begotten Son of God. They denied Him to be the one
come down from the Father. They denied Him to be equal with
God and they condemned Him as worthy of death for blasphemy,
for claiming an equality with God. I and my Father are one. John chapter 10 and verse 30. Now, later on, Paul warned of
such, as would come preaching, quote, another Jesus and another
gospel in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 4, and that they would
be moved or motivated or unctionized by another spirit, if you will,
a counterfeit Christ and a counterfeit or false gospel. Now, sad it
is to say, it must be admitted, however, that much today of what
calls itself Christian and makes some place for Jesus Christ in
their theology does in fact proclaim and preach another Jesus, another
character, a counterfeit and a false Jesus or a false Savior. So let's take a minute, if we
might, to consider the Jesus in the world today. First of
all, let's look at the Jesus of the cults, what we know as
the major cults, as they are sometimes called, asking them
What think ye of Christ? What say ye about the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ? Anytime we meet a Mormon or a
Jehovah Witness who wants to speak to us, our first question
of mind is, what do you say, what do you think about the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ? What are the views? What are
the doctrines of what we call the major cause concerning the
person of Christ? We'll not say much. You sum it
up very quickly and succinctly. Let's ask Mormonism. What think
ye of Christ? We could mention their practice
of polygamy. Some of it is still going on
today to a certain extent. Or we could ask them about the
Book of Mormons, which they put on an equal footing with the
Blessed and the Holy Scripture. And the canon of the Scripture,
they say, is not closed, has not been closed. But they are
best judged by what they think and say and teach about the Lord
Jesus Christ. Mormons teach and have taught
that Jesus was a polygamist and that He was the firstborn of
Elohim. Then we ask the Jehovah Witnesses,
what think ye of Christ? Well, they call Christ the first
creation of God. The first one that God created. Russell taught that Jesus had
been Michael the archangel and that he divested himself of his
angelhood and appeared in the world as a perfect man. So that the Jesus of Mormonism
was an angel before he became a man And while on earth had
not two natures, human and divine, but only one, a human nature. Then we go to Christian Science.
We ask their founder, many times married, Ms. Baker Glover Patterson
Eddy. What think ye of Christ? And her answer was, Christ was
not God, but He was the Son of God, But he was only an abstract
idea and is as insignificant as if he had never appeared or
lived or existed. I heard a Fox News talking head
say, Jesus was a philosopher. Then we move a little closer.
What about the Jesus of Arminianism? what we might refer to as evangelical
Arminianism, for whom most of them believed that it was possible
that Christ might have sinned, not believing in the impeccability
of the humanity of our Lord, but that the man Christ Jesus
might have sinned while he were here in the flesh. And they also
believe in a universal redemption that many that Christ died for
shall in the end be lost forever. Then I'd like to mention, maybe
you've heard them, maybe you haven't, but some of the outright,
outlandish and irreverent songs that have mentioned the name
of our blessed Lord. I remember one, Me and Jesus
got it all worked out. Have you ever heard, Jesus was
a good old boy? And then there was a song, if
you can believe it, that was popular for a while on the radio,
Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Gold Post of Life. How blasphemous
are these things! Now the person of Christ is the
heart and core of Christianity. His person and work. is the very
foundation of the Christian faith and of Christianity and of the
church. The saving grace of God flows
only out and through him unto sinners. There is no other name
given among men under heaven whereby we might be saved. Acts
chapter 4 and verse 12. With that being said, in the
text that we have read, there are questions that the Lord posed
to those that were present on that occasion. And the questions
are not from disciples, but they are from the Lord himself. And
verse 13, the question is put, notice, to His disciple, a friendly
audience on this occasion, His pupils, His learners, His followers
and disciple. And this question has a special
intent. It is one being to prepare them
for His approaching death upon the cross. And another, as Spurgeon
put it, to draw out their faith and establish them in the doctrine
of His person when He says unto them, Whom do you say that I
am? And then we notice in the passage
in Matthew chapter 22, verse 41 through 46, this question
is directed to an altogether different crowd, to the Pharisees
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed, the Messiah, whose
son is he, is the question that our Lord asks them. We'll have
more to say, hopefully, on this later. But let's work, first
of all, from that classic passage in Matthew chapter 16 where it
gives us a clear identity of the person of Christ in verse
16, but also the assurances here that the gates of hell shall
not prevail against the church, verse 18, plus the great truth
in verse 17, that a saving knowledge of Christ is only by special
divine revelation. None can learn Christ by the
energy or the ability of flesh and of blood. Now there's a shorter
version of this found in the Gospel of Mark chapter 8 and
verse 27 through verse 30. But looking here at the passage
in Matthew chapter 16, that in Matthew's gospel and Matthew's
history of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see how
this passage today is, if I may say it, bracketed on both sides
by a very weighty act of preparation for the departure of our Lord
out of this world. Before it, in verse 6 through
verse 12 of Matthew 16, and after, preparations for His death, and
wouldn't you know it, they were misunderstood, both of them were,
by those that heard our Lord. In verses 6 through 12, He warns
them. I'll read verse 6. Then said
Jesus unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. I said they misunderstood. Well,
if you look at the text, they construe this to be a rebuke
because they had forgotten to bring any food for their journey. And the Lord responds by saying,
look, food is not the problem. You are in the company of the
very bread of life. You are in the company of the
living bread which came down from heaven. So beware of the
doctrine, of the teaching, of the beliefs of those two enemies
of the gospel, the Pharisee and the Sadducee. Now in Mark's account,
chapter 8 and verse 15, he adds the leaven of Herod. Beware also of political leaven. Then in Matthew 16, 21 and following,
after our text, he began to speak more directly of his death, which
he would die in Jerusalem at the hands of the Jews and of
the Gentiles. that He would raise up again
and live again after three days. And yet, it would not be a resurrection
in order that He might resume that common life upon the face
of the earth. He would not go on and resume
what He had been doing. He would be going about, but
not with His disciples personally, but would be going away. express
very strong offense when the Lord predicts his death in that
passage of the Scripture. Such a thought was repulsive
unto the Apostle, and he brought it to the attention of our blessed
Lord. Now, let's try, if we can, to
get inside of the mind of the Apostle Peter on this occasion. I think perhaps some are too
rough upon him upon this occasion. To account for his action, to
account for his thinking, and for His words, for He outrightly,
it would seem, contradicted the words and the testimony of the
Lord. Look at the 22nd verse, for example. It said, Peter took Him. Those three words. Peter took
Him. That is, meaning Jesus. Commentators understand the words
to mean that Simon took the Lord aside. Peter took the Lord aside. Just the two of them took Him
off where they would be by themselves for a private time at some distance
and perhaps out of the hearing of the other disciple. And then
we read, began to rebuke him, to reprove the Lord, to chide
him. Be it far from thee, Lord, this
shall never happen unto thee. Now, you may take this passage
and you may see it rendered in different versions of the Scripture
and by different interpreters and commentators as Peter saying,
God pity thee, God be merciful, God be propitious to thee, mercy
on you. In no way. shall this be, not
to you, not to the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, the
Anointed One of God. But since this is taking us too
far off of our intended subject, suffice it to say that Peter
did not intend to be an instrument of the devil. But the Lord sternly
rebukes this apostle for what he had said. He was not yet enlightened,
as he would later be, upon this aspect of Christ's work, his
actual death at the hands of the wicked. Well, let's go back
to the heart of our text in Matthew. 16, 13 through 17. And on a certain occasion, here
the Lord used again what Spurgeon called the Socratic method of
drawing out their minds." He puts the question to them. Who
do men say that the Son of Man is? That's his first question.
Speaking, of course, of Himself. And by the way, this is probably
the most frequent way in which our Lord referred to Himself
during His earthly ministry, the Son of Man. Notice how many
times in the Scripture He calls Himself the Son of Man. He more frequently, I believe,
uses this term in speaking of himself or his work, Son of Man. But he does not deny his divinity,
for he is both God and man. And in Psalms 80, verse 17, Daniel
7, and verse 13, speaks of one like the Son of Man and the Son
of David in Daniel chapter 3 and verse 25. So he asked his disciples,
evidently kind of in a private moment, what are or what were
the prevailing views which they heard expressed about him or
concerning him? What were some of the more prevalent
opinions that were being issued concerning him? Now, we understand,
I trust, that the Lord asked this question in regard to the
public ministry, to the mighty works and the miracle, and the
reaction to his teaching that they had heard from place to
place. Or remember, the Lord everywhere
he went made an impression. Everywhere he went there was
a reaction of some sort. Needless to say, the Lord here
is not fishing for a compliment. He knows every thought of every
heart, every word on every tongue, and every motive. But this question
will redound eventually to the benefit of the disciple. And so they answer him, some
take you to be John the Baptist, perhaps following the notion
of old wicked heritage. Matthew 14, 1 and 2, who thought
that he was perhaps John risen from the dead. Others took him
to be Elijah, either from his fiery preaching or from that
prophecy in the book of Malachi. Still others thought that he
might be the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, maybe from being a
man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Matthew 16 and 14
are one of the prophet. And in Luke's
account 9.19, some were even willing to consider that one
of the Old Testament prophets had risen from the dead and peered
among them. And some conceded that he was
that special prophet that Moses said would be raised up like
unto him. Deuteronomy 18, 15 and Acts 3,
verses 22 and 23. Now, let's make this point of
emphasis as we move along. People on several occasions saw
the works of the Lord, or they heard His marvelous teaching
and they took Him to be a prophet. They said, we never heard it
on this wife. Never man spake like this man. John 4.19. The woman at the well
said, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. The man, born
blind and given his sight by our Lord, when asked by the Pharisees,
What do you think of him? What do you say of him? He answered,
John 9 and verse 17, He is a prophet, said the man who could see. John
7 and verse 40, Some heard him and said, of a truth, this is
the prophet, to which we say, yea, a prophet and more than
a prophet. The Lord was indeed a prophet
come from God. But to stop short of all of those
who see Him only as a prophet, only as a good teacher, only
as a fine example, only as a model of behavior and such like, they
fall far short of the truth of the Lord. So the Lord, hearing
what He already knew, puts then the question directly to his
disciples. And it's in Matthew 16, 15, and
we read it. But whom say you that I am? Literally, whom say you me to
be? One interlinear has it this way. Quote, whom do you pronounce
me to be? Unquote. There is a contrast
that is drawn here. And the contrast is between men
and you. Men referring to the people at
large, to the general drift of the people of that age, those
with whom he had contact or who had heard reports of him, And
the contrast is made with the word but. What do men say? But. Men take me to be this and
that. But you. Whom do you take me
to be? What is your view of me? What is your estimate and assessment
of me? What opinion do you hold of me? Who am I in your eye and in your
mind? Well, wouldn't you know it? It
would be Simon Peter who would answer, but he makes a good confession. However, the Lord had not addressed
Peter individually as seen in the context in verse 13, He asked
his disciples, and in verse 14, they all participated and they
said, and then in verse 15, he said unto them, that is the group. But it is not surprising that
the apostle Peter answers first and takes the leap. And this
is good considering, I think, the part that he was to have
in the early church and among the Jew in Jerusalem. And see,
he does not say, some say that you are the Christ, the Son of
the living God, but instead, Simon makes the confession out
of his own heart, mouth, and soul You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God. My, what a summation of the person
and the character of our Lord. No doubt you are familiar with
that expanded and similar confession of the same Apostle Peter in
John chapter 6 and verse 68 and 69. The Lord saw many leave.
He said to them, Will you go away also? It is Peter that said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. The apostle,
therefore, makes a statement of faith and sums up at the same
time the creed of the Christian church. He states the heart of
the Christian faith, what Lange called the first and fundamental
confession of faith and the germ of the apostle's creed, unquote. Let's look closer at this remarkable
confession of the man and the apostle. And of course, I speak
of Simon Peter, who was to be not a pope, mind you, but to
be given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. In verse 19, lead
the people after Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, and that the
Gentiles by his mouth should hear the word of the gospel and
believe. Acts 10, Acts 15 and verse 7. Now, let's see the essence of
the confession of those whose heart the Lord has opened. from three combined places. Here in Matthew 16, 16, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Again, John 6 and
verse 69, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And in Matthew 14 and verse 33,
of a truth, Thou art the Son of God. Now, these establish
the relation of the Son to the Father, of Christ to God, and
it does so in two ways. Number one, he is the Christ. He's the anointed, the Messiah. Number two, he is the Son of
God. A.T. Robertson, in his writings,
Word Pictures from the Greek in the New Testament, points
out the articles in verse 16, such as the Christ, the Son of
the living God. not a, not one, but Thee. Thee, Son of Thee, living God,
the Christ. Thou art the Christ or the Anointed. Christ is the Anointed One of
God. We won't turn there, but in Luke
4.18, in Acts 4 and verse 27, Acts 10 and verse 38, Whom God
hath anointed. God anointed Jesus with the power
and the Holy Spirit. This means he's the Messiah,
the Messiah himself. He is not an imposter. He is not a false Messiah, but
he is a true spiritual one anointed by God and sent into the world. Let's deviate long enough to
remind ourselves of the significance of anointing in the Scripture. It goes way back in the Old Testament,
as you know. The significance of being anointed. And of anointed under the old
economy. The priests were anointed with
oil. Exodus 28, 41, and 30, and 30. Aaron and his sons, the first
king of Israel, was anointed." 1 Samuel 15-16. The tabernacle itself and all
of the vessels were anointed, for they were for divine use.
and verse 26. All that pertained unto it was
anointed in Exodus chapter 40 and verse 9. Now, the significance
of anointing in Exodus chapter 28 and verse 41, whilst to concentrate
and to sanctify them that they might minister unto me in the
priest's office. Thus, under the old economy,
the priests and the kings were anointed in order to signify
their appointment unto their office, and then to act under
the authority of God, as the servants, the officers, the magistrates
of God Almighty. And the people understood this
arrangement of anointing, that the Anointed One, that His anointing
gave Him a special standing before God, an Anointed One. As an example of that, remember
an occasion in the life of David and of his enemy Saul. You remember, if you do, Saul
and his men asleep in the night, and the Lord had flung a deep
sleep upon them so that they did not even hear David and his
men come into the camp. And David might well have killed
Saul, his enemy, upon that occasion. But David was reluctant to kill
Saul when it would have been very easy. And why was that? Well, in 1 Samuel 26, verse 5
through verse 12, we have David's reason. He would not lift up
his hand against the Lord's anointed. May God forbid that I lift up
my hand against God's anointed, and he would not do it. Psalm
105 and 15. And the Lord Jesus, The Son of God is called the
Lord's anointed. Thy holy child, Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed, Acts 4.27. Again in Acts 10.38, anointed
Him with the Holy Spirit. As I understand it, the Hebrew
word Messiah and the Greek word Christos translate to anoint,
or the anointed. Remember those two verses in
Acts 4.27 and 10.38, which speak of the Lord as being anointed
by God. Not by a prophet, not by a human
being, but by God Himself. and not anointed with oil or
the blood of beasts as was under the old economy, but with the
Holy Spirit." He remembers baptism in Matthew 3, 16 and 17. Now this anointing of the Lord
includes both his consecration and his preparation for the work
given unto him that he was to do. And yet, the unbelieving
Jew and the wicked Gentile did lift their hand against God's
anointed, God's son and God's servant, the one that God had
anointed and put him to death. Now, coming to the second part
of the confession of the Apostle Peter, in behalf of the other
disciples and all true Christians everywhere, it stands like this. Number two, thou art the Son
of the living God, which is again in John 6, verse 69, that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Here are the tenses used in John
6 and 69. It is that we have believed,
we have known that you are the Holy One of God. They were convinced
of it. They had laid hold of it. And the we is expressive and
is emphatic. We will not go away. Where could we go? Who else has
the words of eternal life? Now consider, what has one left
who gives up Christ? What have they left? What hope
have they? What chance or hope have they
under life eternal if they give up Christ or turn away from Him
or have another Jesus or pervert the doctrine of Christ? Where did those go? In John chapter
6, who went back and walked no more with Him. Have you ever
thought about that? No doubt they went back to their
Phariseeism, back to their Sadduceean doctrine again, back to Judaism
which was near the end of its course with the death of Christ. What will they have who turn
away or turn back from Christ? He is the Son of the living God. He is the eternal Son of the
eternal God. He is the uncreated Son of God. How many ways can we say it? Why say that and emphasize it?
Because there are those who teach that Christ is not very God,
but that He is the Son of God, and they base it upon Him being
called so often the Son of God in the Scripture. And yet He
is the only begotten Son of God, and being the eternal Son, is
called in the Scripture both God and Creator. In the beginning of John's Gospel,
the first few verses, He is called God and He is called Creator,
which means that He existed eternally, never was out of existence. Now you take this confession
of the Apostle Peter. I think it is all the more bold
when we consider when we consider that it was a going against the
strong unbelief of the Jews of that particular time. The tide
of Jewish unbelief was flowing in the other direction. John
9.22. Do you remember that if any confess
that he was the Christ, they were to be put out of the synagogue,
excommunicated, cast out, and cut off. Well, now let's see
how the Lord responds to the confession of the apostle. And let's do so in verse 17. Notice that he pronounces the
apostle a highly blessed man for having such knowledge. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. How few! have this view of Christ. Few there are who can match the
confession of this disciple. It puts one among the privileged
and the blessed few. But, says the Lord, blessed is
everyone who holds Christ to be the anointed One and the Son
of the living God. Why is one so blessed? as the Lord says unto him. Wherein
lies the blessing of having come to know and being persuaded that
He is the Christ and the Son of the living God? Why is that
so blessed? Why does the Lord say you are
especially blessed? Well, because it is not It is
not a knowledge that comes by human aid or by natural reasoning,
not by observation, not from another man, not from the seminary
or Bible school. Such knowledge comes only by
divine revelation. Look what the Lord said, "'Blessed
Barjon, flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but
My Father which is in heaven.'" Compare, if you will, Matthew
11, verse 25, And verse 26, that the Lord thanks the Father that
He both hides and reveals things from certain men. And this is
good in His sight. It pleased God to do so. That verse of Scripture said,
Matthew 11, 25 through verse 27 said, the Son reveals the
Father and the Father reveals the Son. They only mutually fully know
each other and are able to reveal themselves or the other. The
Father reveals to us the Son. The Son has come and has revealed
unto us the Father. Now, none can know the truth
of the person of Christ except by a special revelation. And I don't mean one like Paul
had on the road to Damascus. I mean an inward revealing by
the blessed Holy Spirit. If you want to know something,
it comes not apart from regeneration. It is a part or work or fruit
of regeneration. None can know Christ except by
special revelation. Without it, one might look upon
the Lord from a mere human standpoint, a philosopher, an example, a
good man, a good Jew, or even a martyr, or whatever their conclusion
might be. But I say to you this morning,
my brother and sister, consider yourself to be highly, highly
blessed and greatly favored if you believe that Christ is the
Anointed One of God and is the very Son of God, having existed
eternally and become incarnate and come down from the Father
out of heaven. If you believe that He is the
Anointed, the Messiah, and the Son of the living God, you are
highly blessed, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto you, but our Father which is in heaven. What think ye of
Christ? Whose son is he? Who do you say
that Jesus is? An important question indeed.