Alright, the reading of the text,
Matthew 16, 13 through 20. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do
men say that I the Son of Man am? And they said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, 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. And I say unto thee, or to you,
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven," I
think really says in the Greek, shall have already been loosed
in heaven. Then charged he his disciples
that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Now look at verse 16. That's
our principal text again. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Now, a few facts here will serve
us well in entering into this text. First of all, we remember
that this event we have in Matthew, in the first Gospel, is also
in Mark 8, 27-29, and it is included in Luke 9, 18-20 as well, this same event, so
that we have a three-fold account of the question and of the confession
of Simon Peter. And that furnishes us a fuller
version, our vision, with more details and a more precise statement
of all that is involved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, we must
notice, or could notice, that this is a pivotal point in the
ministry of our Lord in relation to His disciples and the setting
up and the establishing of the church over which they are to
oversee and to preach. And we read in Matthew chapter
16 and verse 21, from that time forth began Jesus to show His
disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed
and be raised again on the third day. In Mark 8 and verse 31,
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things,
and be killed, and rise again after three days." Luke also
weighs in upon this, chapter 9, verse 22, saying, "...the
Son of Man must suffer many things, be slain, and rise again upon
the third day." So that it is a pivotal point in the ministry
of our Lord. we see what might strike us as
a very strange restriction that our Lord has imposed upon the
disciples on this occasion. And so it might also have seemed
strange and unusual to the disciples in that day when, in Matthew
16 and verse 20, our Lord straightly charged His disciples that they
should tell no man that he was the Christ. You have the same
in Mark chapter 8 and verse 30 and Luke chapter 9 and verse
21. And these contain some pretty
stern words too. He charged. He warned. He straightly charged them. He put them under His command. He would temporarily muzzle them,
as someone has said, but would remove these restraints of declaring
Him to be the Christ once He was risen from the dead, and
then they were to declare far and wide the wonderful news of
Christ. But the event in our text this
evening is said to occur at the near to the coast of Caesarea
Philippi, as the Lord and His disciples were upon a journey,
and might be on that occasion that they were alone. For once
the Lord and His disciples were for the most part alone, and
from the crowds that often surrounded, followed our Lord and hounded
Him everywhere He went. But He takes occasion here that
He might catechize His own disciples on a very important matter, and
in doing so, that He might establish them firmly in the truth of His
person. Then more prepare them for His
approaching death, when He would be gone, and the Spirit would
come and empower them. It was often the Lord's style
that he led a discussion with a question. In verse 13, whom
do men say that I the Son of Man am? Who are men taking me
to be? What are men saying that I am? What is the general view of much
of the public with regard to me and my person and my work? Note his use of the term, Son
of Man, as he refers to himself in that way. The Lord often referred
to Himself, a lot of times in this way, as the Son of Man or
Son of Men. They were to consider the expression. It could dazzle us and have us
scratching our head in bewilderment when we think of the unipersonality
of Christ our Lord. the best expositors that I can
find and read, are at a loss to fully open and fully declare
the meaning of the title that Jesus so often applied unto Himself,
the Son of Man. And when Stephen was martyred,
he said in Acts 7, verse 56, Behold, I see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God. Jesus Himself asked in John 6
and verse 62, what and if you see the Son of Man ascend up
where He was before? In John 3 and verse 14 He said,
the Son of Man must be lifted up. And of course He meant lifted
up on the cross as to die there. It may refer to the indwelling
of the second person in flesh, having his humanity in a way
that no other person ever had their humanity, or having the
hypostatic union of the two natures, human and divine, unionized or
hypostasized in the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many
consider this title, Son of Man, would consume our whole study
if we were to look at every aspect. But, to the question which our
Lord put to His disciples, who are men saying that I am? Who are men declaring me to be? How are they describing me? Now, know this, that the Lord
does not ask for His information. It is not that He is ignorant
of it and would like to hear. Rather, He asks that His disciples
might be grounded and that it might be for their good that
they might be grounded more and more in the truth of who He was
and that His person might be fully realized by them. That
they might not be sidetracked by the opinions of men who go
off this way or that way, that they might live under the influence,
not of faulty doctrine, but of the truth of Christ. Though He
dwelt in human flesh, yet He was the Son of God. He was very
God dwelling in that human flesh. Now, who were men believing Him
to be? That's the question that he asked.
And their answer, I think, Calvin, has made a valid point And I'll
use it. They mention such as speak well
of Christ as did Nicodemus when he did so in John chapter 3 and
verse 2. They thought of men who spoke
well of the Lord. For there must be a unified consensus
with regard unto the people and the person of Christ. But opinions
vary as to who the Lord is or what He is. Some said, you're
John the Baptist. Herod thought that John the Baptist
had come back from the dead. Matthew 14 and 2. Others were
saying, Elijah, as they read that passage in the end of Malachi,
that Elijah should come in the end of the day. Still others
said that he was Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet. Some
of them simply took him to be one of the prophets of old risen
from the dead by God and brought to life again. Which tells us
that He was not yet fully reckoned to be the very Messiah by the
general consent and run of the people, the eternal Christ of
God. Not yet was He fully understood
by that by many people, by many who were not antagonistic towards
Him still. They did not yet fully understand,
and they fell short of the mark as to who the Person of Christ
is. Then in Matthew 16 and 15, the
Lord puts the questions to His disciples plainly. as if to say
to them, forget what the generality of men are saying. Forget what
the religious are saying and the enemies that are among them. You! Who do you take me to be? Many concede me to be a famous
prophet. Some have thought that. But what
say you? Who am I in your estimation? Now the contrast is between men
and you. Men are saying one thing, but
what do you say? Between nominal professors and
observers, and the disciples that were trained for years by
the Lord Jesus. They had heard His words, they
had seen His miracle, they had been constantly with Him all
of that time, and now He puts the question, whom do you say
that I am? How sad had they concurred with
the people. How awful would it have been
if they had said, well, you are the foremost teacher of your
time. You are at the head of the class
when it comes to teacher. Or suppose they had said to him,
you are a great preacher. You have many great and wonderful
things to say. The most religious influential
figure of our day, of our time, and of our century. You ought
to be man of the year. You're a great philosopher. You're
a great social reformer." How sad had they answered in such
a way. But Peter, as was often his style,
answered first and led the way in verse 16, and actually answers
for them all and for us all. Now his confession is brief,
as it is recorded in the Scripture. But it is theologically sound
and it contains the sum of the Christian faith. And it is the
very foundation stone of Christianity and the church of the living
God in this world. The whole essence of saving faith
is contained in the confession of Simon Peter. You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Luke 9 and verse 20 gives it,
the Christ of God. You are the Christ of God. Mark
8.29 has it as, Thou art the Christ. What a confession has
Peter made. Now there are two distinctions
that elevate the confession of Simon Peter above that of the
generality of the opinions of the people. One concerns the
sonship of Christ the Lord. Son of Man, including His incarnation
in humanity, while the Apostle Peter's confession rested upon
the divine Sonship of Christ. All of their guesses, all of
their opinions as to His identity, put Him simply in the category
of a man. Perhaps a good man, a great man,
but in the category of a man. Jeremiah, John the Baptist, or
a prophet. Great men and servants of God
all were, but Peter uses two designations to honor His Lord. First of all, He calls Him the
Christ. Thou art the Christ. And of course, Christ is Messiah
or literally means the Anointed One. You are the Anointed One. You are the Christ, which are
epithets given to the Lord Jesus from words which closely resemble
one another. To anoint means to anoint with
oil by touching or by smearing, signifying, as it does, the consecration
unto an office or a religious service. Thou art the Anointed
One, the Anointed One of God. And Scripture is clear that He
is the Anointed One of God. Forgive a short digression, but
on the first or the old economy, anointing was a common practice. And it was done by smearing or
in some way pouring or dripping oil upon one. For example, Aaron
and his sons were anointed and were consecrated by the oil with
which they were anointed at the entrance of their office of priesthood. Kings were anointed. King Saul
in 1 Kings 15, David in 1 Samuel 13-16, Solomon in 1 Kings 1 and
verse 39. Also anointed were various parts
and vessels of the tabernacle in that day. They were anointed
or consecrated unto the service of God. David Brown wrote, In
his large book, The Four Gospels, the anointing was applied in
the Old Testament to kings, priests, and prophets. And I just said
that, and we agree. Now there's another thing. That
is the seriousness of the Old Testament expression, the Lord's
anointed. You'll meet that a few times
in the Old Testament. His anointed. The anointed of
the Lord. You meet these again and again. and the reluctance of one to
defy or smite or rise up or do any harm to any that the Lord
had anointed. Godly people were reluctant to
rise up against the Lord's anointed. For example, in 1 Samuel 26 and
verse 9, there was David's reluctance to kill Saul, as evil as he was,
saying, Destroy him not, that is King Saul, for who can stretch
forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?" As
evil as Saul was, much wrong as he had done David, yet it
was still in David's mind. David says to the man who Saul
commanded to help Saul in this life in 2 Samuel 1 and 14, how
is it, he said, that you were not afraid to stretch forth your
hand against the anointed of the Lord? 2 Samuel 1 verse 15
and 16, David had the man put to death because he admitted
slaying the Lord's anointed one. It was just not to be done. the Anointed One of the Lord. Now, these things help us better
understand the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ being called
the Christ, the Messiah, or the Anointed One. He is the Anointed
One of God. He is the One that God has sent. He is the Christ anointed and
ordained by God. Remember in John 1.41, When Andrew
said unto Simon, we have found the Messiah which is being interpreted,
the Christ, the margin has it, the Anointed. We have found the
Lord's Anointed One. So said the Samaritan woman in
John 4 and 25, I know that Messiah comes. He that is called Christ,
or the Anointed, thus He will tell us all things. Thus, what
Peter was confessing by using the Christ is included in his
all-inclusive confession of the wonderful person of Christ. Just this, in calling Jesus the
Christ, the apostle Simon Peter was confessing Him to be the
specially anointed One of God. Anointed, not with the oil of
gladness, but anointed with the blessed a Holy Spirit of God,
anointed as King and Priest and Prophet, especially anointed
so by God Himself. Well, consider the passage in
Luke 4, 16-21, when Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth. And He went into the synagogue
there on a Sabbath day, and He read a passage from what we know
as being Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 and 2, and it says this, and
I quote, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and
recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that
are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord And
then in Luke, as the Lord closed that book, He sat down and the
people began to wonder as the Lord said this, This day is this
Scripture fulfilled in your ears. Luke 4 and verse 21. In other
words, He is identifying Himself as the One that Isaiah wrote
or spoke about. Scripture is fulfilled in your
ears." Consider again the answer of the Samaritan woman saying,
in John 4 and verse 25, I know that Messiah, which is called
Christ, which is called Christ, the Anointed, Jesus answered
in verse 26, I, speaking to you, am He. I am the One. I am Messiah. I am the Anointed. And have you considered that
passage in Acts chapter 4 and verse 27 when Peter and John
quote a passage from Psalms chapter 2 and verse 2, Jesus whom thou
hast anointed. Anointed specially for the work
which the Lord God had sent Him to do. Specially stated in Luke's
account, Luke 9 and 20, the Christ of God anointed of God, Peter
confesses Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah. Thou art the
Christ, or the Anointed One. Finally, let's look at the second
designation given the Lord in this excellent confession made
by Simon Peter. It's found in Matthew 16, 16
also. And secondly, he calls Him the
Son of the Living God. Thou art the Christ," and then
he continues on, "...the Son of the living God." Not only
did Simon acknowledge Jesus to be the promised Messiah and the
anointed one of God, but also he expressed it to be his faith
and belief that Jesus was, as J.C. Philpott put it, and I quote,
"...the true, actual, and real Son of God." The testimony of
Martha, the sister of Lazarus, runs parallel to Simon's in Matthew
11, verse 27. She says, I believe that you
are the Christ, the One that has come from God, which should
come into the world. And from the two descriptions
so often appear together in the words of the authors and of the
apostles, that He is both the Christ and the Son of the living
God. Some commentators believe that
Jesus in the Lord's time held that Messiah would also be the
Son of God. The Jews believe that when Messiah
came, He would be the Son of God until they changed their
mind about Him and rejected Him as an imposter. Consider how
the high priest adjures the Lord to answer, whether thou be the
Christ, the Son, of God. In Mark 14, verse 61, are you
the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? So that these things are connected
together. Consider Acts 9, verse 20, when
Saul was converted, straightway he preached Christ in the synagogue,
that he was the Son of God. I've been following an internet
discussion or fight, I guess you'd call it. And the subject
that the men are discussing is, what does a Christian believe,
and when does he believe it? How soon does he believe it?
Of course, they've been all over the map on it. But here we have
Saul, right after his conversion, preaching Jesus that He is the
Son of God. That it was not that the Jews
denied that Jesus was Messiah, would also be the true and unique
Son of the living God. It held that Messiah would be
Son of God without question. And Saul preached that right
after his conversion. Their deadly error in denying
the Lord Jesus Christ to be the very Son of God has set them
off in error and apostasy from which they may never recover. The Jews, on the other hand,
called him a blasphemer. proclaiming his equality with
God. For such they sought to stone
him when he said, I and my Father are one. But Jesus often used
the two designations, the Father and the Son. He being the Son,
the Father being the Father. So often calling God my Father. So often calling Himself the
Son. That is, the Son of God. The
Father sent the Son into the world. And this helps us to understand. Another time when the Lord confounded
the Pharisees, Matthew 21, it's in verse 44 through 46, by asking
them the question in the 42nd verse, concerning the Christ, whose
son is he?" In other words, the question, the Christ, whose son
is he? And they take that to be a very
easy question. That Christ is the son of David,
as they said immediately. And indeed, as to his genealogy
after the flesh, he's called the seed of David, Matthew 1.1. For he descended through the
house and the family and the tribe of David. that Acts 2.30,
God had sworn to David in Psalms 132 and verse 11, that of the
fruit of his loins He'd raise up one to sit upon His throne. But the Lord asked the Pharisees,
if Christ is the Son of David, how does David, speaking in the
Spirit, then call Him Lord? He refers to Psalms 110 and verse
1. We should consider also The way
this question is framed in Mark 12, verse 35 and 36, why do the
scribes teach that the Messiah would be the son of David? He applies the same thing as
Matthew. Now, David was guided by the
Holy Spirit when he called Messiah his Lord. And the point is, Jesus
is making Messiah would be more than a common, ordinary man. And since David called Him Lord,
He is therefore more than a common man. Also the passage in Matthew
22, 41-46, and Mark 12, 35-37, The Lord's purpose seems not
to be at the time to insist that He was Messiah, but that Messiah
when He came would be the one David called Lord. David's very Lord. Now back to
the confession of Simon Peter. In the second half of it, you
are the son of the living God. God's anointed Son, God's living
Son. Why do the Scriptures so frequently
refer to God as being the living God? Both Old and New Testament
do that. First, this sets God apart from
the false idols and deities of all of the heathen, all the graven
images. For the two epithets often used
to define God are One true and two living. And you'll find that
again and again. The true and the living God. For He only is God. And Jesus? He is the eternal
Son of the true and the living God. He came from the Father. He is equal with the Father.
So that He said, He has seen me, has seen also the Father. Before time is gone, Let us bring
in another of the confessions of Simon Peter, this time found
in John chapter 6 and verse 66 through 69. Jesus had laid some
pretty heavy sovereignty doctrine upon His hearers on this occasion. Many had forsaken Him hearing
that in verse 66. Jesus asked the Twelve, Also
go away, I think it is. Are you also desiring to go away? Peter answers again, very straightforward,
for confessing the Lord and confessing in the name of all those that
were there and us as well. As he says in John 6 and verse
68 and verse 69, Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art not Christ,
the Son of the living God. To what other could we go? You
have the wonderful words of truth and of life. We shall find them
from no other. You alone are the Son of the
living God. For the twelve, it was a bold
confession. in the light of the defecting
of many and the animosity of so many of the Jews against our
Lord. Thus, Simon's confession embraced
two things. A, that Jesus of Nazareth is
the foretold Messiah in the Old Testament Scripture, and B, that
He was the very unique and living Son of the living God. Now, J.C. Philpott laid out two
propositions on the matter in his book, The Eternal Sonship,
I believe, number one, that Jesus Christ is the very Son of the
living God. And number two, that such a belief
in Him is essential unto salvation. None are saved who deny these
two things, that He is the Son of the living God. This is the
foundation of Christianity. 1 John tells us, how to try the
Spirit, using the sonship of Christ as a measure. We must save it for another time,
for our time is gone here. But the Lord accepted Peter's
confession and pronounced him blessed and said that it was
a revelation from the Father in heaven. Again, we ask, what
think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? Do you know
Him to be the Son of the living God? Is that how you see Him?
The Son, the Christ, the anointed Son of the living God. To whom
else can you go? He has the words of eternal life. And thank the Lord that that
revelation has been made to us as it was unto Simon. Okay, let's
bow for a word of prayer, please.