Turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. The name of the message is, He
must. Two words. He must. He must. Now, this morning,
we looked at verses 24 to 28 of Matthew chapter 16, and I'd
like us to turn back to that portion of Scripture tonight.
Matthew chapter 16. And tonight, we're going to read
verses 21 to 23. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how he must go unto Jerusalem and
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes
and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took
him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee. So he took him aside and
said this to him. But he turned and said unto Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me. For thou
savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be
of man. Now in verse 21, we see that
our Lord reveals to his disciples a great and startling truth to
them, the fact that he must go. to jerusalem and the fact that
he must die and so we tie that in with this morning's message
and they thought he was a conquering messiah this goes contrary to
what they're thinking they've been arguing about who is the
greatest remember who's going to be the greatest in his kingdom
and and now he's telling them i have to go to jerusalem and
i have to die at the hands of the scribes and the pharisees
so this would be startling to them this would come out of nowhere
to them it would be a startling truth And he brings forth very
clearly in verse 21 his approaching death. Let's look at that verse
again. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples
how that he must, look at that, he must go. There's the title
of our sermon, He Must. He must go. Look at that. There's
no doubt. There's no plan B. He must go
unto Jerusalem. We know in Isaiah, it says of
the Messiah, He set His face like a flint to Jerusalem, and
that's like a stone. Well, now we see why. He set
His face to that which He has come to accomplish, that which
would be His final work. See, He's lived a perfect life
up to the point of the cross, and now He dies in the sinner's
place. My, oh, my. He must go on to Jerusalem. And
what? And suffer. Well, that's sure contrary to
what the apostles thought, right? Because, again, they were arguing,
well, who's going to be the prime minister? Who's going to be second
in command? Well, no one if he's dying. You see how startling that would
be to them? My oh my. But look what he says to them
too. And suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests
and scribes, and be killed. See, they didn't realize, and
we're going to look at this in a minute, they didn't realize,
as I mentioned this morning, that he has to be a suffering
Messiah. And look at this though. And
be raised again the third day. Have you noticed something with
this? He's talking like he already knows what's going to happen,
right? because he's God, isn't he? And he knows what? He knows
the end from the beginning. He already knows this is going
to happen. Isn't that amazing? It's incredible. It's absolutely
incredible. And observe here the tenderness
that our Lord Jesus Christ tells them this. He begins to prepare
their minds. He begins to prepare the minds
of the disciples for the great coming events. That one great
coming event is death upon the cross. He speaks to them of His
death, which He will suffer at the hands of the elders and chief
priests and scribes. It's going to happen. He must
go. He must. And we see here that
this is God incarnate in the flesh, remember, too. He's the
promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see here that
He didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom, did He? Like they thought,
He came here to die. The truth comes forth in Matthew
121, right? Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. So that truth
comes forth. That's what He came here to do.
If you're a believer in Christ, He came to save you from your
sins. Remember today I said, those
are our sins. And He tells the disciples here,
I have to go there. This has to happen. It must.
It must. Even though it's so contrary
to their thinking. But oh, what tenderness he speaks to them
of his death, that he'll suffer at the hands of the elders and
chief priests and scribes. And remember, again, he's God
incarnate in the flesh. He didn't come here to make an
earthly kingdom and be ministered to, because that's what a king
would be. They'd be ministered to, right? He didn't come here
to do that. He came to do what no king has
ever done. Not that I've heard of. Die for the sins of his people.
How many kings in history do you know? I don't know if I even
know of one that died for his people other than Christ. Most
kings go, I'm not going to die for them peasants, right? That's
what they used to think of some of their people, unfortunately.
But here's Christ. He comes to this earth to die
for the very ones who in their natural flesh have an enmity
towards him. Rebels at their hearts. But there
is peace. And as I bought out this morning,
their souls are very dear to him. He called them his brethren,
didn't he? They're dear to him, his people, my oh my. So we see
this great treat brought forth here that Christ came to this
world to shed his blood as a sacrifice for the sins of his people to
give his life a ransom for many, not all, but many. And don't
be discouraged because it's a number that no man can number out of
every tribe, kindred tongue in nation, one in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? That's
incredible. And this is the first time one
commentator bought forth that he placed before them this astounding
announcement. That's why they're startled.
That's why Peter reacts in the way he does. They'd not heard
this before. Again, in their minds they thought,
well, he's going to set up a kingdom, and we're going to be sitting
on his throne, we'll be sitting on his right or left side and
ruling with him. Now he tells them, no, I've come
here to die. So how astounding this announcement would be. The
fact that he had not come on earth to make a kingdom. Now
it's almost incomprehensible for us as Gentiles to understand
the magnitude of what he's saying to them as Jews. And to the Jews,
this was incomprehensible. Those who were Jewish and the
Lord saved them, this was incomprehensible because to them, again, the Messiah
was going to come and set up this earthly kingdom and rule.
And think of this. I just thought of this. He didn't
need to do that, right? He's already Lord over all. What
would that do for him? He already rules and reigns.
He don't need no kingdom set up on this earth. He's already
the king of kings and the lord of lords. My, that's incredible. So, but to the Jewish disciples,
this was incomprehensible. Like the Jews, they had no idea
of the suffering Messiah. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
53. They had no idea of a suffering Messiah. They did not understand
Isaiah 53, that Christ is a suffering Messiah. They didn't understand
that this was literal. They thought it was just figurative.
No, this is literal. Christ is a suffering Messiah. And we who are the people of
God have had that revealed to us, haven't we? Look at this.
In light of that, let's read this passage knowing that Christ
is the suffering Messiah. Isaiah 53, verse 1. Who hath believed our reports?
Who has believed the pronouncement of the gospel? And to whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant, this is speaking of the Messiah, and as a root
out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor commonness,
and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. I've mentioned this before and I'll mention it again. The
tabernacle in the wilderness was covered in badger skins.
It did not look any different than any of the other buildings
from the outside. See what it says here? No form
nor calmness. There's nothing in Him inherently
that was striking. He just looked like a normal
man. But inside, oh, He's God incarnate in the flesh. And when
you went inside that holy of holies, that tabernacle, it was
just inlaid with gold, which pictures His holiness, of course.
Pictures His holiness. Look at this. And when we shall
see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. So natural
man has no desire for Christ. No desire. Just looks like another
man. He is despised and rejected of
man. We know that. Everybody, the
religious who's who of that time rejected him. The religious who's
who rejected him. He's despised and rejected of
man. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it
were our faces from Him in our natural state, right? We hid
our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. Did you have any esteem for Christ
before the Lord saved you? I didn't. I didn't, to my shame.
Now I sure esteem him, do you? Oh my, he's the king of kings
and the Lord of lords. He's my all in all. Is it so
for you? Oh my. Surely he hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. Now look at this. I want you
to put your name in here. I remember an old preacher. It
was Henry who said this. Put your name in here. But he
was wounded for Wayne Boyd's transgressions. If you're a believer,
put your name in there. Isn't that amazing? He's wounded
for my transgressions. And the R there means all the
body of Christ. He's wounded for our transgression.
He was praised for Wayne Boyd's iniquities. Put your name in
there. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, Wayne Boyd
is healed. Put your name in there if you're
a believer. Oh, my. He's a suffering Savior. He's a suffering Messiah. Now
here we are, all we like sheep have gone astray. We just wandered
off. We have turned everyone to his own way, doing what we
think is right in our own eyes. That's what man does. Natural
man does whatever he thinks is right in his own eyes. You see
how I talk about self-denial being we look to Christ now,
we don't look to self anymore? Now we look to Christ, and we
follow him. We follow him, just like he commands
us to do. all we like sheep have gone astray
we turned everyone to his own way and the Lord had laid on
him the iniquity of us all all the iniquity of all the all the
elect of God was imputed to Christ and he's sinless the sinless
spotless Lamb of God dying on the cross he must go to Jerusalem
remember he must for that very reason He was oppressed and He
was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He's bought as
a lamb to the slaughter. Why didn't He open His mouth?
Because He's the silent substitute, suffering in the place of His
people. Oh, and He's bought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before His shearers is dumb, so He opened not His
mouth. He's quiet. He's the perfect substitute.
He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall
declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the
land of the living, for the transgression of My people was He stricken.
Now remember, I'm going to read quickly what it says over there,
just quickly, but keep there, we're going to keep going. When
He said, From that time forth began Jesus to show His disciples
how He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and
be raised again the third day. We're seeing that here, aren't
we? We're seeing that here. See, the Messiah prophesied is
a suffering Messiah. A suffering Messiah. And He made
His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death. Because
He had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in His mouth.
He died the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. Sinless in thought,
sinless in word, sinless in deed, sinless in every way. The total
opposite of us. God incarnate in the flesh. Look at this though. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. That's Jehovah. Yet it pleased
Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Oh,
the grief that our Lord went through. Pay the ransom for our
souls, beloved. when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. Remember, he's spotless, he's
sinless. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his
hands. And oh, has that not happened?
The elect are a number that no man can number. look at this
God will see he shall see the travail of his soul and shall
be what Oh Mark that word right there mark that word underline
it if you can or do whatever you want with but never forget
this God will see the travail of the Messiah's soul the Lord
Jesus Christ and shall be satisfied Now there's two main themes that
are coming through in this passage here that's all about the gospel. The suffering substitute and
the satisfaction of God. The suffering substitute and
the satisfaction of God by that sacrifice which the Lord Jesus
Christ did. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify what? Many. How are we justified? By
faith in who? The Lord Jesus Christ. And that
faith is given to us by the Father. For he shall bear what? Their
iniquities. He paid everything God demanded
for our sins. My, oh, my. Therefore will I
divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
small with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death. He gave his life for us. And
he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and
made intercession for the transgressors. Again, the Jews had no idea of
a suffering Messiah. They did not understand that
this chapter that we just read, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, must
be literally fulfilled by the Messiah, literally fulfilled. But they didn't understand that.
They thought he was going to come back and be again a conquering
set up a kingdom, an earthly kingdom. As I said earlier, it's
already His. He's already King of kings and
Lord of lords. He doesn't need to do that, does
He? But He must redeem His people from their sins. That He must
do. He must do that. Or what? Or
we'll never be saved. Or no one will be saved. And
the religious Jews did not see that the sacrifices of the law
were all meant to point to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They did not see that. Their whole mind was set on the
glorious second coming of the Messiah. which is yet to take
place, which we looked at this morning at the end of the message.
The second coming of Christ. He is coming back. He is coming
back. That's at the end of the world.
My! And praise be to God, He is.
And we say, even so, Lord, come quickly. Don't we? Just like
our brothers and sisters did before us. So again, the Jews
believe that our Lord would set up an earthly kingdom. The Messiah
would set up an earthly kingdom. Now we as believers can see His
cross, can't we? We look back and see Him on the
cross dying for us and being risen again. And we've been given
an understanding that Christ must die to redeem us, that He
must suffer in our place. God's justice demands satisfaction,
doesn't it? And it will either be satisfied
in the Savior or in the sinner. one or the other and God's people
say praise God that justice that was due me was satisfied in Christ
I'm so thankful and we've been given an understanding God's
people get me given understanding that Christ must die to redeem
us from our sins and therefore by the teaching of the Holy Spirit
of God we have a right understanding of Isaiah 53 but it's all because
the Lord's taught us that it's all because he's been pleased
to reveal that now let's read verse 22 then Peter took him
took Christ Matthew 16 20 22 here we go this is this is pretty
incredible here then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying
be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee now what
did we learn from this passage here before us when Peter rebukes
the Lord of glory Our Lord just told him he must die and we see
here Peter began to rebuke him He began to rebuke God incarnate
in the flesh The whole reason he came was to redeem his people
from their sins the whole reason he came here And what can we
learn here? Well, we can learn that there
may be much spiritual ignorance even in a true disciple of Christ.
That's what we can learn right here. There may be much spiritual
ignorance in a true disciple of Christ. And what did Peter
do here? Well, he tries to discourage our Lord. He tries to discourage
God incarnate in the flesh from suffering on the cross. Look
what it says. Then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall
not be unto thee. That won't happen, Lord. Oh,
my goodness. Peter takes the Lord of glory
again, God incarnate in the flesh, and tries to discourage him from
going to the cross. Peter here shows his spiritual
ignorance before us. And there are times when we who
are followers of Christ can do the same thing. Peter does not
see the great purpose for our Lord's coming, does he? See,
this is just being revealed to them. But Peter doesn't see this
because he thinks, again, that there's going to be a literal
kingdom on this earth. And in his ignorance of the spiritual
things that Christ brought forth, he says, no, no, Lord. No, no.
Let it not be. We see here that what he actually
did, he tried to prevent Christ from dying upon the cross. Was Peter a converted man? Yes,
absolutely he was. Yes, he was. He really believed
that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. Yes, he was. His heart was right
in the sight of God. And I don't know of anyone else
who loved the Lord more than Peter. Really, when you look,
He loved the Lord. I know we all love the Lord,
but we know from reading the scriptures that Peter had a very
deep love for our Savior. He wrote in his second epistle,
if you want to turn there you can, 2 Peter 1, verses 1 and
2, he wrote that he obtained like precious faith. And that's
through Christ. Faith in the Savior. Listen to
what he writes in 2 Peter 1, verses 1 and 2. Simon Peter,
the very same one who said this to the Lord, Simon Peter, a servant
apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious
faith see he knows he's obtained this faith he knows it's a gift
from God with us through the righteousness of God and who
is that and our Savior Jesus Christ well in the gospel right
remember we we've read this before in the gospel the righteousness
of God is revealed in that being Christ that being Christ Then
he goes on to say, grace and peace be multiplied unto you
through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Peter
was amazed that God would deliver his son to such a death for sinners. And then he wrote this in his
first epistle. See he learned some things after time and he
writes this in his first epistle. He writes this in verses 18 to
20. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with credible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you. He's learned something now. He's
learned that Christ had to come and die. Now these words that
we see Peter speak, we're not to look at that and go, look,
Peter was, he was really, we know he's out of line saying
that. But we ought never to judge Peter, because we could do the
same thing. We're just as susceptible as Peter was to these things.
These words before us are meant to teach us, meant to teach us
that we must neither regard good man as infallible, and we ought
not to put no man on a pedestal, whether they're a preacher or
not. Don't ever put a man on a pedestal, never. We're fallible,
we're not infallible. He's infallible, we're fallible.
Yeah, he's infallible, he's perfect. And you know, Bruce Crabtree
told me a long time ago, even good man can be wrong sometimes.
That's what I thought of when I saw this passage. And we should
be the first to put up our hands and say, yeah, we know that,
I know that. But we see it here, don't we? We see Peter's wrong
in this situation. Think of this, too. I thought
about this as I was putting this together. Hear Peter saying that
to Christ. But Christ must go to the cross
to redeem Peter. See, Peter didn't understand
that. Again, this is the first time this is being revealed to
them, that Christ must die. And then we saw what I read there
in 1 Peter 1, 18 to 20, right? With that in mind, listen to
this. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested
in these last times. This is the same Peter. who wrote
that is the same Peter who took the Lord aside. See, he's learned
some things now, hasn't he? He's learned some things. Christ
must die to redeem Peter's soul. And yet we see in this passage,
Peter's trying to discourage him from doing so, not knowing
that Christ must die. One may be a false professor,
a wolf in sheep's clothing, and from all outward appearances
be a believer in all outward appearances, and yet they're
full of dead man's bones, and they have no grace in them at
all. One, though, also might be of
very weak faith, very weak faith. And one may be a bright and shining
light in the church of Christ, but don't forget that they're
all just men, just men, just as liable to commit great mistakes,
and this is why our Lord told us to forgive our brethren 70
times 70, which is an innumerable amount of times. We're to keep
short accounts, like I said a few weeks ago. May God give us grace
to do so. Another brother's knowledge may
be small in the things of the Lord, and he may fail to judge
rightly on many things. He may err in both word and deed,
but does he have faith and love towards Christ? If so, deal patiently
with him. Deal patiently with him. What
he does not see now, he may see later on, as he grows in the
grace and knowledge and truth of the things of Christ. Just
like Peter. Peter was in the dark in this
situation. He's in the dark. Now, he's a saved man. We're
going to look at what the Lord says about Peter just a few verses
up from this. He's a saved man. We see here
that one can be a true disciple and yet be a weak disciple or
ignorant about certain things. Again, Peter was no doubt a born-again
believer, a true believer. How do we know? Well, let's just
go up, go up verses 13 to 17, the same chapter, Matthew chapter
16. Look at this. Look at this statement here.
When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked
his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man,
am? And he said, some say thou art
John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of
the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? Now he wants to know personally,
who do you think I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ. Thou art the Messiah, the Son
of the living God. Now look at that. How do we know
he's a believer? Well, that statement's incredible,
isn't it? Look what the Lord says to him.
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. He had this revealed to him by
God, the Holy Spirit, and it's the Father who had it happen.
Isn't that wonderful? So who can read this conversation
with Peter and Christ in those verses we just read and imagine
that Peter was not yet converted? Oh, he was converted. He was
converted. Peter, our beloved brother in
Christ, behaved very foolishly and ignorant when he took the
Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, and began to rebuke him,
saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this should not be unto
thee. Peter actually rebuked the Lord Jesus Christ and sought,
like Satan, to hinder him from doing what he had come to do.
This man who was so faithful in many, many things became an
instrument of Satan in his time of weakness. How do we know that? Well, look at the next verse.
Look at verse 23. But he turned and said unto Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me,
for thou savest not the things that be of God, those that be
of man. Now, something I'd like us to
take away from this passage is that there's no doctrine of Scripture
so deeply important. So deeply important is the doctrine
of Christ's atoning death. No doctrine more important than
that. because with his death, all the sins of his people are
forgiven. The wrath that was due us fell upon him. The law
of God is satisfied. Believers clothed in the righteousness
not their own, an alien righteousness, the old-timers used to say, the
old preachers used to say, an alien righteousness, the righteousness
of Christ. And we have clear proof of this
language used by our Lord in Rebekah and Peter. He called
him the awful name Satan. as if he was an adversary and
doing the devil's work and trying to prevent his death. Because
he had become an instrument of Satan, the Lord rebuked his disciple
as Satan. He turned and said unto Peter,
get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me,
for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of man. Wanted Peter wanted now think
of this. He's thinking of an earthly kingdom. He's thinking
of prestige. He's thinking of honor He's thinking
of the things man notoriety. I love what John the Baptist
said he must increase and I must decrease That's what we're taught
isn't it as believers? So the Lord tells him you're
not seeking the things of God by saying this You're seeking
the things of man You're putting the things of man before the
things of God He spoke to Peter as though he were Satan himself,
but we know he was just being used by him. He had become Satan's
instrument. Note the words. Thou art an offense
unto me, a stumbling block. Look at this. Thou savest not
the things that be of God, but those that be of man. Peter,
again, was looking at things, judging things, and acting from
a purely human, carnal, and emotional point of view. He was acting
in the flesh. He's a saved man, but he's acting
in the flesh. Now, we're all susceptible to
that. I don't know a believer who's not. We're all susceptible.
He's acting in the flesh. Just as the apostles were acting
in the flesh when we looked at this morning, well, who's going
to be the greatest? They were just acting in the
flesh, beloved. That's what they were doing. So what do we see
here then? We see that Peter's flesh was
in the way. Peter's flesh was in the way.
His flesh kept him from seeing at that time the blessed necessity
of our Savior's death. Now we looked at how the Lord
called Peter blessed in verse 17, right? He did, he called
him that. And now he says, get thee behind me, thou art an offense
to me. Oh my. He tells the man whose confession
in verse 17 he had just commended so highly, he tells him, thou
savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be
of man. Oh my. Stronger words than these
have never fallen from our Lord's lips. The error that drew forth
such a stern rebuke from our loving Savior. And remember,
He's rebuking Him in love. He's rebuking Peter in love.
But how precious does He hold His sacrifice The fact that he
purchased his bride with his own precious blood. How precious
is that to him? And we see how precious it is
in his rebuke to Peter. Oh my, how important is the atonement
that Christ came to make? Look at verse 21 again. We see
the title of the message again right here in verse 21. Look
at this. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his
disciples how that he must go. He must go. He must go on to
Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.
He must. He must go. What must he do? Well, we see he must go to Jerusalem.
He must. He must go there. Just as he
remember in John chapter three, he must needs go through Samaria
because there was a woman he had a divine appointment with
at the well. And not just her. We find out as we read further
in that chapter. But there was a whole bunch of his lost sheep
over there. Oh, my. And he says, I must need to go
through Samaria. Well, here he says he must go
unto Jerusalem. He must. See the word there in
verse 21, the must word there? It's defined in the Greek as
it is necessary. And I thought this was incredible.
It's necessary as binding. He's bound to go to Jerusalem. He's bound from the everlasting
covenant that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit made in eternity.
The father gave a people to Christ. Christ said, I'll bleed and die.
I'll redeem them with my own precious blood. I'll become a
man and I'll redeem them with my precious blood. And the Holy
Spirit said, I'll fetch him. I'll draw him to you. And how
is that covenant ratified? Well, covenants ratified by blood
and covenant that everlasting covenant is ratified by the precious
blood of Christ. And he must go unto Jerusalem. He's bound to go to Jerusalem. He's bound to go there. He's
bound by the everlasting covenant to do this. And this gives even
more light to the fact that He came to save His people from
their sins. It gives even more light to us
on that fact. It was absolutely necessary that
Christ go to the cross. It was absolutely necessary that
He goes to that cross to redeem His people from their sins. His
people, people given to Him by the Father. He must go and He
must die and He must ransom their souls by the shedding of His
precious blood. He must, He must do this. It
was absolutely necessary. He must go and die a ransom for
their souls. He must do this by the shedding
of His precious blood. Let's read verse 21 with this
in our minds again. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how he must go unto Jerusalem and
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes
and be killed, be raised again the third day. So the truth brought
forth here is that our Lord would have us to regard his crucifixion
as the great real truth of Christianity. Right views of his vicarious
death and the benefits resulting from it is the very foundation
of all truth. Let us never forget that. His
atoning death is paramount to what we believe. We may differ
with man on many things, but if we differ on Christ's atoning
death, someone doesn't know Christ. If we are wrong here, like if
we're wrong at the fall, We get it wrong with it all. Error about
Christ's death is a disease of the heart. Turn if you would
to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Now the sum of all our hopes
must be Christ and Christ alone. He is the sum of all our hopes.
His perfect sin atoning death on the cross in the place of
his people. And this is bought out in this
passage here. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 9 to 11. For
God hath not appointed us to wrath. Why? Because the wrath
do us. And remember, Paul's right in
the born again, blood washed believers. The wrath that was
due us fell upon Christ. God's not appointed his people
to wrath. Praise be to God. But to obtain
salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ in and through Christ, our one
and only hope who died for us again, like about it this morning,
he died for my sins. If you're a believer, he died
for your sins. We could put our names in Isaiah 53 in that one
portion there. who died for us that whether
we wake or sleep we should live together with him that's whether
we wake or buried in the grave wherefore comfort yourselves
together and edify one another even as also you do turn if you
would one more portion 1st peter 3 18 here's the greatest truth
that man will ever know, and it must be revealed to us by
the Holy Spirit of God." Look at this. Here's the greatest
truth. This is amazing. Greatest truth that man will
ever know, and it must be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit of God.
1 Peter 3, 18. For Christ, Messiah, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, for Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just one for the unjust, the perfect
one for the imperfect ones, the sinless one for sinners, The
godly one for the ungodly. Why? That he might bring us to
God. Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
Look at that. The just one dying for the unjust. So this is why our Lord rebuked
Peter too. Because the atonement is paramount. If he doesn't die on that cross,
then no one's saved. No one. Because we can't pay
for one sin. Let alone, we couldn't even add
up how many times we've sinned in our lives. We can't even pay
for one of them. And yet Christ goes to that cross.
He says, I must go. I must go to Jerusalem. I must
die at the hands of the scribes and Pharisees. I'll be raised
the third day, though. I'll be raised on the third day.
And what do we say? Praise be to God. He was raised
again. He's raised for our justification. So we see then that Christ must
go to Jerusalem, just like he must go to Samaria at that time.
He must. And do you know where we read
in the scripture where he went? It was because he must. Zacchaeus
was up in that tree, not because he just wanted to go up that
tree, but because he must be up in that tree. He didn't know
that. He climbed the tree himself, didn't he? And the Lord was walking
by at that exact time because he must. So when you read the
miracles that occurred, remember the one with the man we looked
at and they were lowering that guy down through the roof? They
did that because they must. But our Lord was right in that
room at that time because he must be, because that was the
appointed time of love for that man. My oh my. So we see that
Christ must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer many things of
the elders and chief priests and the scribes and be killed
and be raised again the third day. He must. He's bound by his
word, beloved. He's bound by his word in the
everlasting covenant of grace. And he willingly does this. Why? Because of his great love for
his people. He willingly does it. To God be the glory. May
the lips of his people be filled with praise this week as we think
upon these wonderful truths.