Matthew 16:13-17: {13}Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” {14} And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” {15} He *said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” {16} Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” {17} And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
Next week and the week after, my son has his final exam. This is going to be a different exam because he will take it without going to school even for a single day. After a few months, he will have his final exam, and before that, there’s a preparatory exam. Today, we are going to look at the preparation and final exam for the disciples of Jesus. They joined the school of Jesus of Nazareth and studied for over two years now, and this is the climax, the apex, the high point of all Jesus’ teaching and training of the disciples. This exam has one preparatory question and one final question.
The preparatory question is, “Who do men say that I am?”
The final question is in verse 15, “But who do you say that I am?” He really asked the ultimate question, a question that every human being on the face of the earth must face: Who is Jesus Christ? And on the answer to that question hinges the eternal destiny of every man.
This is a monumentally important passage, the apex in the Gospel of Matthew. Its great importance is indicated by the fact that this incident is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This is not only the apex of Matthew, but we can call it the apex or the thesis of the New Testament; it is the thesis even of the Old Testament. The great question the Bible answers is: Who is Jesus Christ?
As a result of this exam, comes a great confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That great supreme confession is the basic foundation and reality of Christianity. This is the greatest confession. All good churches have confessions of faith. Those from a Presbyterian background have the Westminster Confession of Faith. Congregationalists have the Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order, and many Baptists have the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. And of course, for many centuries Christians all around the world recited “the Apostles’ Creed.” Yes, we believe our 1689 is more accurate to the Bible and the greatest. But if there is one confession that is greater than any, this confession is the confession upon which all others absolutely must be based. In fact, if there is one confession—above all others—that it is essential to believe in order to be saved, it is this. I am calling this a blessed confession because it is the only “confession” that had the direct endorsement of God’s own blessing placed upon it immediately after it was first uttered. Because anyone who makes this confession from their heart is the most blessed in the world, blessed with infinite spiritual blessings.
This chapter itself is a very important turning point in the Gospel of Matthew: first, for this confession, and secondly, based on the foundation of this confession, the Lord talks about why He actually came into this world. In verse 21, the Lord begins to talk about His suffering, death, and resurrection to the disciples for the first time. In verse 18, He talks about building the church, which is mentioned for the first time in the Gospel of Matthew.
For two years plus, our Lord has been moving toward this moment, teaching, re-teaching, affirming, reaffirming, establishing, re-establishing, building, and re-building their confidence and commitment, until ultimately Peter, on behalf of all of them, can say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It is a monumental moment in the ministry of our Lord and the life of His disciples.
And I pray that this moment somehow can seize our hearts as it must have seized the hearts of those disciples 2,000 years ago. As we look at this blessed confession, may God the Holy Spirit write this confession as if written in stone in our hearts, and may the Lord Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, bless all of this this morning.
We will unfold the passage with three headings:
- Circumstances of the Confession
- Preparatory Exam Question
- Final Exam Question and the Confession (The Answer)
1. Circumstances of the Confession
When something so monumental happens, we want to know where it happened and in what setting it occurred.
Verse 13: “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?'”
You’ll remember that for some weeks and even months, Jesus has sought seclusion to spend time with the disciples, away from the crowd, from the religious leaders and their jealousy and attacks, and from Herod, who feared Him as John the Baptist and wanted to kill Him. As we approach this text, we find Him withdrawing even further away from Israel. He has come to Caesarea Philippi.
Now, when you hear the word Caesarea, you can simply note that it means “of Caesar.” It is a town named for Caesar. There is another town called Caesarea directly west of the city of Jerusalem. This is another Caesarea, far away, called Caesarea Philippi; it is a different district altogether. If you were at the north end of the Sea of Galilee and kept going up, there is a long, high plateau. That plateau stretches out along the foot of Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon ascends into the sky around 10,000 feet; it’s snow-covered most of the year, like Kashmir—a very beautiful place naturally. It is the naturally beautiful hill country of Mount Hermon. On top of that, Caesar Augustus presented it to Herod the Great. He built a temple there to honor the emperor and named it after Caesar, calling it Caesarea. Herod had another son called Philip. Philip got this after his father died and beautifully developed the town, making it a world-class place. Because he developed it, he wanted to add his name, but he couldn’t remove Caesar’s name, so he called it Caesarea Philippi.
It would be a nice retreat spot for the Lord and the disciples, not only away from Jewish opposition but also from the heat of the Galilean lowlands; it is like a small hill station retreat. Also, this is outside the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist and thought Jesus was him risen, and was trying to catch Jesus. This is territory controlled by Philip the Tetrarch. Herod Antipas’s power doesn’t work here.
So, they are in one of the most beautiful places, with long roads and beautiful scenery of God’s creation. This is a crossroads between the Gentile world and the Jewish world. This is where He asked them the all-encompassing question that every religion in the world must answer. The answer to this question is a crossroads in every man’s life: whether he will go to heavenly Jerusalem or eternal hell? Who is Jesus Christ?
If you understand the spiritual climate, Luke says Jesus was praying before this confession, and the disciples were with Him when He was praying. So, it occurred in that prayerful climate, in a location good for undisturbed teaching and deep thinking without distraction.
Imagine you are walking with them. A new beautiful day, nice climate, long roads for walking, looking at the beautiful creation of God in that hill station, away from the crowd and the influence of the leaven of the PSH. There is no pressure from the crowd, no attacks from enemies. They are away from the world, fellowshipping with one another. It is a very good time for long, prayerful, deep meditation on all that Christ has done and what it means. Their minds are not distracted by worldly influences and are receptive to the teaching of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit.
In this situation, the Lord gives them the first preparatory exam question.
2. Preparatory Exam Question
Verse 13: “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?'”
“Who do men say that I am?” Along the way, as they were deeply meditating in the calm, the Lord, coming from prayer, pauses and asks them the question as they are walking.
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The title “Son of Man” is a prophetic title of the Messiah, but He uses it more as a sign of His humiliation, as a sign of His identification with humanity. “Now, I’ve been around for two plus years, and I’ve been preaching and teaching and healing and doing signs and wonders and mighty deeds, and what is the result of all of this? Who do people say I am?”
He didn’t ask this because He didn’t know; He knew what every man thought of Him. Like I said, this is a preparatory exam for the disciples. He is preparing them for the final exam, which is the next question. He wanted a clear statement of the wrong answer from the disciples’ mouths, and then He wanted to hit them with the right answer and, therefore, make it stand out by contrast. See the right answer placed against the public wrong answer.
He is not asking what the religious leaders say about who He is. They have already made a judgment; the Pharisees called Him Beelzebub, or the devil, saying He did miracles by Satan’s power. He is asking what the general public who enjoyed the blessing of His ministry say about Him. “Who did the multitudes think that I am—people who have seen My powerful miracles, who had eaten My food, who have seen Me open eyes, made the lame walk, healed lepers? Those who heard My preaching and were astonished at My preaching—what is the current thought?”
Answer to the Preparatory Exam
Verse 14: “And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.'”
The answer is consistent across all three Gospels.
- John the Baptist: Some think He is John the Baptist. You remember Herod believed this: he had beheaded John, and “he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist, he’s risen from the dead and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.” Many people believed that He was John the Baptist. Notice, they don’t think He is the Messiah, but a forerunner of the Messiah. Having been risen from the dead, it explained how He could do the supernatural things He did. Obviously, this belief was held only by those who had not seen Jesus and John the Baptist together at the time of the baptism.
- Elijah: There’s another opinion: “Oh no, we have seen both together. He is not John the Baptist. He is Elijah.” In the Messianic expectation of the Jews, Elijah was to play an important role. The last prophet, Malachi, said (4:5): “Behold, I will send Elijah before the great and day of Jehovah.” Jews believed that Elijah would come back from heaven prior to the coming of the Messiah. Again, please note, they say this based on the same thinking: He is a forerunner of the Messiah, not the Messiah.
- Jeremiah, or one of the prophets: Then, “One of the prophets.” Jeremiah. How come Jeremiah comes here? There was no expectation of him like Elijah. You see, like the RC Church added some books to the Bible, the Old Testament also had some Apocrypha—called the Maccabees. In there, there are many interesting stories and legends. One of them is fascinating: in Herod’s Temple at Jesus’ time, there was no Ark of the Covenant, as it disappeared during the captivity. The Maccabees have a legend that Jeremiah, prior to the Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C., took the Ark of the Covenant and the altar of incense out of the Temple in order that the Gentiles wouldn’t take it and desecrate it, and he hid it in Mount Nebo. The legend and superstition say—and the Jews held onto this—that before the Messiah comes back to establish His Kingdom, Jeremiah will return and will go get the Ark of the Covenant and the altar of incense and restore them to their place, and then the Messiah will come. See, like so many Dispensationalists believe in a secret rapture, they also believed this story, so some thought Jeremiah. Some believed He is one of the prophets.
So, the talk of the town had different opinions: some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, some Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. When people gathered in the market, women near the wells, men in fields to work, the conversation turned to the mighty worker. They were asking, “Who do you think He is? He cannot be an ordinary man. He must be John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah.” For some, “No, He must be one of the prophets.”
You see, they all agree: He is not an ordinary human being. In their thinking, the resurrection sort of has to be in there; He must be someone risen, or they can’t explain the supernatural character. They never deny Jesus’ miracles. They never deny that they had to come supernaturally. They knew He had to be from out of this world.
I know God should reveal this Christ to anyone, but at a human level, do you see why they didn’t see Him as the Messiah? Just a forerunner, or someone risen to prepare the way for the Messiah. See, this is the power of the leaven of the PSH. Because these people, instead of allowing people to see and understand God’s Word, corrupted their minds by false teaching, showing the Messiah in a completely different picture: as a political, powerful ruler who will come and overthrow the Romans and make Israel a great nation at a worldly, political level. That leaven had spread across the entire nation, today like the false teaching of the secret rapture. So, when Jesus comes in a humble, spiritual form, with this leaven deeply in their minds, they can never see Him as the Messiah, so they equate Him to someone lower than Him. Do you see how horrible the leaven is? Do you see why the Lord warned the disciples to beware?
Notice the people don’t think in an insulting way; they understand He is someone big: John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah. Though those were noble and good, it was literally light years away from the spiritual reality. John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah were all sinners who would have gone to hell if not for the grace of Jesus Christ dying for their sins. All the prophets, however great they may have been, are fallen sons of Adam. He doesn’t fit any of them.
Do you ever stop to listen to what the people around you say about your Lord? Everyone, it seems, has an opinion of Him. Even today, people don’t accept Jesus, but they appreciate Him with big, grand titles, but they don’t see Him for who He is. Napoleon said, “I know men, and Jesus Christ is no mere man.” Strauss said: “He’s the highest model of religion.” John Stuart Mill said: “He’s the guide of humanity.” Today, He is a superstar. But all these are light years away from the truth of who Jesus is. No human category properly fits Jesus.
3. Final Exam Question
After the preparatory exam and the answer, we now come to the Final Exam Question.
Here is the question of all questions. Now, Jesus turns in a pointed way, keenly looking at them with His sharp eyes. They say, “I am John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah…”
Verse 15: *“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?'”
“But who do you—even you, My followers, who have seen the same miracles and heard the same preaching as they have heard, who have been close to Me for more than two years—who do you say that I am?”
In other words, the Lord is pressing them toward a resolution concerning their conviction of His identity. “You have taken the consensus of the people; now what is your confession, the deepest conviction of your heart?”
What a crucial question. Jesus came into the world to reveal Himself. Only when they know who He is in the depths of their soul can they do the work He has called them to do. He was revealing Himself through all His preaching and works. Could they carry on the Kingdom? Did they really know who He is? Nothing is as important for Him and the extension of His Kingdom as that question.
Blessed Confession
What was their answer? The one-question final examination: “Who do you say that I am?” And that’s every person’s final examination.
Verse 16: Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Simon Peter, the spokesman on behalf of the others, declares this confession. Chrysostom, the saint of old, called him “the director of the apostolic choir.” He was the mouthpiece. Whenever there was some speaking to be done, he did it. What a great confession!
Notice the verse calls him Simon Peter. This gives an official character to the confession. This is a very official, formal confession. Simon Peter, his full name, says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It’s a formal confession, and it demands a formal designation, not an offhanded one.
What Peter was affirming and confessing was the conviction of his own heart about Jesus. It is decisive, emphatic, brief, and unqualified. It is completely different from the people’s answer, which was guessing and unsure. This answer is certain and sure.
We must understand that the name Christ is not a name; it is an official title. Like all parents, we struggled so much to name our child, finally deciding on two names, Jerusha Gracelyn. But though they are nice names, they don’t refer to any title or office. But when Peter said, “You are the Christ,” he used the title Christos, which means “Anointed One,” coming from the word Crio, meaning “to anoint.”
“You are the Christ.” “You’re the promised Messiah.” “You’re the One we’ve been looking for, the Anointed One.” The entire Old Testament story is of three anointed people: Prophet, Priest, and King. They are all shadows and promises of the coming final, Eternal Prophet, Eternal Priest, and Eternal King. “You are the one promised in the Old Testament as God’s Messiah who would be anointed by the Spirit to fulfill every function of the Messianic office, who would set up the Messianic kingdom.”
In the fallen world, the hopes, desires, dreams, and all the promises of all our forefathers, fathers, and our children are embodied in You. You’re it. You’re the one God said You’d be. All the Scriptures, all the promises, covenants, and for thousands of years, the types, sacrifices, rituals, and ceremonies we followed were all pointing to You and were shadows of You.
You may ask, didn’t they believe this earlier, and that is why they followed Him? Yes and no. This conviction didn’t come suddenly to Peter, like a bolt of lightning. There was a growing conviction that “this is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Initially, it was like a mustard seed of faith. Remember how Peter first came to know Christ in John 1? Andrew and John, believing the testimony of John the Baptist, went with Christ. The next day, Andrew runs to get Peter and says, “We have found the Messiah.” He brought him to Christ.
Then Peter began to follow Christ. From then on, it was an indefinite, tentative belief. Remember, they were poisoned by the leaven of the PSH that the Messiah is a political ruler. If Jesus had suddenly knocked off the Romans and set up the Kingdom, they would have just gone right along with Him.
But then, all of a sudden, the humility and the rejection by leaders began, and they began to wonder whether what they thought at the beginning was in fact true at all. John the Baptist, who had said, “I bear witness this is the Son of God,” and “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” when he was a prisoner and wasn’t seeing Jesus do what he thought He would do, sent a messenger in Matthew chapter 11 to say to Jesus, “Are you the Messiah or are we looking for somebody else?”
So, while there was an initial firm conviction, that assent was muffled and confused in their minds because it didn’t seem to be working the way they thought it should. They were strong in faith at one time and weak at another time.
And so the Lord has brought them through two and a half years, and I think when they come to this point, there is a confident affirming that they really do now believe this is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. They’re convinced of this. Even though as He goes to the cross particularly, they begin to shake a little, you know?
But I think at this point, this is an affirmation of a supreme confession that they believe He’s the Messiah. And they held onto that. Later, at Pentecost, the Spirit of God imbedded it in their hearts when He came and made them the men that changed the world. This is their confession.
It took all of this time to get them to this place, through all of the struggles and hatred of the Pharisees and the rejection of the people and the confusion of their Messianic expectations and God’s plan being different than the plan they thought. Yet, they arrive at that point.
Starting from a vague belief, now over a period of two years, they have lived in close contact, following Him in His personal and public life, seeing all His ministry in intimate connection, observing His life and reaction in every set of circumstances—personal, private, and His public works—closely observing His life 24 hours a day. They left their jobs and families and were fully committed to following Him, seeing His spotless life in private or public, with no sinful words or actions they could observe. They see His perfect, sinless life. Everything is now coming to a clear, unshakable perception. Guesswork faith and tentative perception have now become definite, solid, and unshakable conviction.
Look at the words. It is not a hesitant note: “We believe maybe You are…” or “fairly sure.” The disciples’ knowledge is more definite, more clear, more assured. “You are the Christ… the Son of the living God.” In English, the definite article “the Christ” emphasizes, “You, Jesus—it is You and You alone are the Christ—the only Christ; and there is no other Christ but You!” They see Him as the fulfillment of the promises of the Scriptures. It’s to see Him as the One that the Scriptures spoke of.
“You’re the Messiah, You’re the fulfiller of our hopes, You’re the source of our salvation, You’re the heaven-sent, long-awaited King, You’re the desire of the nations, the One of whom the prophets spoke, the One to whom the sacrifices pointed, the One the Psalms sang about, the One the pictures and symbols and types all prefigured—You’re the One.”
Then, Peter added: “The Son of the living God.” Not only Son of Man, but Son of God. Not only God, but the living God, as opposed to the dead gods/idols in the world, the only living God. When Jesus is called the Son of God, it is saying that He is one in essence with God. This was one with God. Son means equal with God. It’s the Son of essence, not the Son of servitude. Though they didn’t understand the Trinity fully now, this confession affirms that Jesus pre-existed in eternity as the Second Person of the Triune Godhead.
You remember the Jews took up stones to stone Him because He said God was His Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:17-18)? And so they are saying, “You’re equal with God. You are the Messiah, the Savior.” Co-equal.
Final Exam Result: A Blessed Confession
Verse 17: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.'”
I could see a broad, joyful smile on the Lord’s face, rejoicing over Peter’s answer. Jesus blesses Peter for his confession. “Blessed”—oh, very enviable. Blessed is self-contained happiness. All men’s poor happiness comes from outside and is dependent on circumstances. But your happiness is now inside you. The Greeks said that when a man can attain a stage where happiness doesn’t depend on anything outside, that is true spiritual stage. “Peter, you have attained that blessed stage; you have attained the spiritual illumination stage.”
How did you attain this state? “Here’s the source. You didn’t get that information about who I am from your humanness”—flesh and blood being a metonym for humanness—it’s referring to his humanness. “It wasn’t your reason, it wasn’t your superior intellect, it isn’t your merit, your calculation, your analysis, your intuition, it isn’t your religious tradition that showed you this—it is the opposite.” There’s nothing in the human realm that could reveal this. “No man calls Jesus Lord,” said Paul, “but by the Spirit of God revealing Him.” It is God who discloses His Son to the human understanding. Though God uses means, means alone cannot help us get to spiritual illumination.
The conclusions of flesh and blood—John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah—are unblessed. Gazing at Jesus as if He were John the Baptist or Elias brought no blessing with it, and if Jesus is not known by the revelation of the Father, He is not known as a well-spring of blessedness to the soul.
He calls him Simon, son of Jonah. He doesn’t use the term Peter. He’s calling him by his old human name, his name before his conversion, so that He’ll emphasize the inadequacy, the ineptitude, and the blindness of his humanness. “You, just Simon son of John, could never have understood who I am on your own.”
In Matthew 11:27, “No man knows the Son but the Father, neither knows any man the Father except the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” The Father reveals the Son, the Son reveals the Father; only by divine revelation can we know Christ. The Father, who sent Jesus to us, must also make Jesus known to each one of us, or we shall remain in ignorance of Him. Man cannot by searching find out God.
Those years of following Jesus and listening to Jesus—the Father revealed Jesus to them by spiritual illumination. The light began to dawn and the Spirit of God opened their heart. The revelation came through the presence of Christ Himself until their consciousness was wide open to the fact that this was the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
This confession has the highest possible authority. It was not a product of human discovery or of human disclosure. “Flesh and blood” did not reveal it because it could not have been known by human means. Rather, Jesus affirms that it was revealed to Peter by the Father Himself. “It was by the spiritual illumination of my Father you received this, Peter.”
If a man or a woman is able to say, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God,” then they are speaking words of the most profound truth. But they are not speaking words that come from mere human insight. They are repeating a truth that, when first uttered, was declared to be the revelation of God the Father to men concerning His beloved Son.
That means that this confession truly is “the blessed confession.” These words possess the greatest possible authority. It is the only confession that received immediate divine endorsement and approval after it was uttered. It has the blessing of the One about whom it speaks.
And as we will see in weeks to come, it is the confession on which Jesus Christ promised to build His church.
Dear brothers and sisters, every element of this confession is absolutely essential. Unless Jesus is the Christ—the promised Messiah, born into the human family through the lineage of King David in accordance with the Scriptures; and unless He is also the sinless Son of God—the Second Person of the Triune Godhead who condescended to become the sacrifice on our behalf for our sins—then He cannot save us. And unless we personally, individually, and intelligently—from the heart—confess with Peter that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and place our trust in Him for our salvation, then we cannot be saved. Without this, He cannot save us; without believing this, we cannot be saved.
This is a blessed confession because it brings all spiritual blessings into our life, as Ephesians says: He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
1. Unshakable Certainty: All knowledge we get through flesh and blood, hearsay, is not based on unchanging ideas; it is not definite. Truth thus revealed comes with a force far transcending the arguments of pure reason. It is more definitely and clearly known than anything in the world, more sure than if we have seen it with our own eyes, more sure than two times two equals four. By this spiritual illumination, I venture to assert that what the Holy Spirit writes on the soul is as engraved in stone. It has this mark—it comes with an infallible certainty to the heart. If you read of Jesus in books or hear of Him from ministers, it is well, but if the Father reveals Him to you, it is infinitely better, for then no shadow of suspicion rests upon the testimony. The witness of God cannot be questioned. There is no doubting when the Father is witnessing to the heart. Doubts cannot come. To the illuminated mind, the witness of the Father is absolute certainty. Oh for more of it! Shouldn’t we learn everything like this? What a blessing to learn truths like this by divine spiritual illumination!
2. Transformation: This knowledge is not just academic knowledge. When a man receives this, a spiritual operation goes on in him. When the Father reveals Christ to a man, He at the same time reveals the depravity of man to himself. This discovery of the sin and ruin of self leads on to humiliation, contrition, repentance, and renewal. The man is moved to desire the Messiah and His offices more and more than anything in life. Jesus becomes everything for such an illuminated mind, longing to be like Jesus, and this is a blessed fruit of knowing Jesus. All manner of holy and blessed work goes on in the heart at the time when Jesus becomes known: faith, hope, love, patience, zeal, and joy in the Holy Spirit come with a discovery of the glories of Jesus. From Him, there grows up in the soul all those holy fruits which are well pleasing unto God.
3. Profound Restfulness: There also comes with this revelation a remarkable restfulness. The mind before flitted about like a bat at eventide, but now it rests like the dove when she was clasped in Noah’s hands and taken into the ark. Get a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in your soul from the Father Himself, and “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep thy heart and mind.” You have found what every nation and human soul is searching for. Your illuminated mind sees all you need is in Christ, and you feel like singing all the time. This is one of the marks of the revelation of Christ in the soul: it brings an inward repose which is the pledge and earnest of the heavenly rest.
4. It is Eternal Life: Our Savior said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” “This is life eternal.” If you know Jesus as sent of God, you have eternal life. The knowledge of Him is eternal life. Do you not only know a great deal about Him, but I trust you know HIM? Do you know Jesus Himself? Have you ever spoken to Him? Has He ever spoken to you? Have you ever leaned your head on His bosom? Do you know His heart? Does He know your heart by your having told your heart to Him? Is He a friend, an acquaintance, a brother to you? This is eternal life. This kind of knowledge is revealed to us by the Father. Flesh and blood cannot make us friends of Christ.
5. Foreknown and Chosen: What a favor to be so instructed of the Father as to know the Son! If you know Christ, the Father foreknew you. “Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.” If you know Christ, your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life; you are in the family register of heaven, and you shall, by and by, be with Him where He is. Well did the Savior say, “Blessed art thou.”
6. Abides Forever: There is this one more mark about it, that this conviction of the Godhead and glory of Christ abides forever. The man who has obtained his religion from other people may have it taken away by other people, but he who has received it from the Father holds it by a tenure that cannot be broken. That which we have learned from the Father will never be unlearned. Nothing can erase what the Holy Spirit has engraved.
7. Blessing in Every Condition: If you know this, you are blessed. In every condition, he is blessed. Are you very ill? You are blessed in being ill. Are you prospering in the world? If you know Christ, your prosperity is blessed. Do you lament that you are going down in the world? Mourn not, for your adversity is blessed. Are you very simple-minded and have not much education? Never mind, you are blessed if you know Christ; His knowledge is the most excellent of the sciences. Are you well-instructed? Rejoice not in all knowledge, but glory in this one thing: that you know Jesus and are blessed. Paul, before knowing Jesus Christ, counted all things as rubbish. “I want to know Him.” Jesus says you are blessed, and I know that he whom Christ blesses is blessed, and none shall reverse the word.
8. Qualification for Service: I close, desiring that every man among you may know this blessedness to the full. If you do know it, it will qualify you for honorable service. Peter was the man who knew and confessed the Lord’s Christ as the Son of the living God, and he was not only blessed himself, but he was chosen to be one of the first stones of the church whose foundation courses were then being laid. Peter was described by his Lord as a piece of rock, and on that rock would the Lord build His church. Peter was to have the keys because in his faith in the Savior God, he already possessed the key of all Gospel truth. Having received the word by a revelation from the Father, he became a fit person to be built into the church at its first founding.
Applications
The greatest question in light of the passage we meditated on—there is nothing more important in your life and my life than your answer to the question: Who do you say that I am?
Picture the Lord Jesus standing in our midst this morning, in all the power of His resurrection life, and saying, “Who do men say that I am?” Today, the world says, “He is a good man, a healer, a prophet, one of the gods.”
Then, keenly looking at you, eye-to-eye, He asks: “Don’t lie. I know your heart. Who do you, in your inmost being, as an expression of deep belief in your heart, who do you say that I am?”
You who have seen in the Gospel of Matthew so many things—these are not nice stories, but the infallible, true Word of God without a single error—in 15 chapters:
- Chapter 1: His glorious genealogy—Abraham to David (14 generations), David to captivity (14 generations), and even after captivity (14 generations). Christ was born in the line of Abraham and the line of David, fulfilling all the promises of Abraham and David’s covenants.
- Chapter 2: He was miraculously born to a virgin, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” His birth was announced in the sky, and though His own people rejected Him, Magi from far away saw His birth announcement and came and worshipped Him as a King.
- Chapter 3: You have seen John the Baptist, the greatest man born of women, give witness: “This is Christ.” The Holy Spirit came from heaven as a dove, and the voice of the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
- Chapter 4: You saw Him as the Victor and Conqueror over the god of this world, Satan, who controls everyone in the world. Satan threw all his subtlety and tempting power, but couldn’t win over this Person, and he had to run away. Christ came as the Overcomer, achieving victory.
- Chapters 5-7: His glorious Sermon on the Mount. He spoke and preached truth in depth, purity, and wisdom that no human can speak. His authoritative preaching rises above the teachings of His generation. In every generation, the whole crowd was astonished. You sat with me under that mountain for, I think, close to a year, reading that glorious sermon verse by verse. He laid out the steps to heaven in the Beatitudes, the witness of believers as salt and light, the true meaning of the Law, how to live a true spiritual life of the heart, how to pray, what to pray, how to conduct religious activities (fasting, alms-giving), where to lay our treasures, how to handle money, and live in this world. “Not to worry about what we will eat, but seek the Kingdom.” The care of the Father. The narrow way to heaven, and judgment. Just in three chapters, the entire heart of true spirituality taught everywhere in the Bible is condensed.
- Chapters 8-9: After His preaching ministry, came His works—His miraculous ministry: healing the leper, the Centurion’s servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, and innumerable multitudes; calming the raging sea; healing the uncontrollable demon-possessed men in Gadarenes; forgiving the paralytic dropped from the roof; raising the dead girl of the ruler of the temple; healing two blind men and a mute man. We saw how He fed the multitudes—breaking and giving, breaking and giving—out of divine creative power until thousands were fed, exactly estimating how much each stomach would need, with no extra. These are just samples, enough to show that He has power over all diseases, power over demons (who shudder and run away from His power), power over creation (He creates body parts and creates food), power over death (raising people from death), and finally, the ultimate power even over sin (He forgives sins).
- Chapter 10: As King, He prepares and sends His ambassadors to preach His message.
- Chapter 11: Even when John the Baptist was stumbling, He says, “Blessed is one who doesn’t stumble over Me.” He rebukes and puts woe on the cities (Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum) that did not repent at His preaching. At the same time, He calls all those who labor and are heavily burdened: “Come to Me, I will give rest.”
- Chapter 12: He declares, “I am the Lord of the Sabbath,” explaining the true meaning of the Sabbath. When leaders judge that He drives out demons by Satan, He declares that because they reacted like this, they became unsavable and committed the sin against the Holy Spirit.
- Chapter 13: We saw His wisdom in preaching the hidden secrets of the Kingdom in the form of parables, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy: “Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.” The parable of the sower (how the Kingdom is spread), wheat and tares (how the Kingdom grows in the midst of mixture), the small way it begins and grows (mustard seed and leaven), the infinite value of the Kingdom (hidden treasure, pearl of great price), and the final separation and judgment (big dragnet).
- Chapter 14: Feeding 5,000 and walking on water.
- Chapter 15: The revolutionary truth that defilement comes from the heart. Heart religion. Healing multitudes in Gentile territory (Tyre, Sidon, and Decapolis) and feeding 4,000 Gentile men.
After seeing all this, you come to Chapter 16 now. Who do you say that I am?
All these lessons—where has it brought you? Today is the exam for you and me before Jesus Christ. Has it brought you only as far as the multitudes? They were prepared to acknowledge that He was not an ordinary man. They said nothing insulting. People didn’t say He was a fake or a magician. They had great admiration and high respect: “John the Baptist”—just human, but divinely raised from the dead with powerful miracles. “Elijah come back powerfully from heaven, or Jeremiah, or one of the great prophets.” “Yes, He is great, a prophet. I just need Him weekly once.”
If you know no more of Christ than you have found out for yourselves, even by reading the Word of God, unaided by the Father, you are not blessed. If you know no more of Jesus than flesh and blood has revealed to you, it has brought you no more blessing.
If that is all you have come to see and experience in your heart—noble, admirable, lofty, exalted thoughts of Jesus, putting Him in the category of the best men—then, my friend, you, like those people, are spiritual light years away from the proper conception of Jesus Christ. Nothing less than the confession: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God” is the reality.
You shouldn’t make this like reciting a child’s tables or a parrot. You can teach a parrot to say, “You are Christ, the Son of the living God.” But it is just simply an exercise of the larynx and electronic voice recognition. It doesn’t have spiritual perception, deep thought, and heart conviction.
I am not asking you just because you are in a Christian house and made to attend the church, and all the preaching has made you say, “You are Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Have you known what it was that caused Peter to make this blessed confession? Jesus said, “Blessed you are, Simon… flesh and blood didn’t reveal this to you, but My Father.” Not by human agencies and means, but a divine revelation by My Father. It is because My Father has effected in you the work of spiritual illumination.
Today, you answer. If Jesus Christ comes and takes you aside to the next park, and then it is you and Him sitting, He lays His hand on your shoulder, He looks at your eyes and says, “Who do you say that I am?”
Could you look at His eyes, like a flame of fire that searches the innermost depths of your being, and say, “You are the Christ, God’s anointed Messiah, the Son of the living God?”
In my depravity and sinfulness, I am blind and ignorant, I am guilty and defiled, and controlled by a corrupt nature—my three greatest problems because of the Fall and sin. In all the Old Testament offices and pictures, God gave temporary treatment for these three problems by three anointed offices: Prophet, Priest, and King. In all those pictures, God promises that He will deliver me from my ignorance and blindness by the Prophet, He will deliver my guiltiness through a Priest, and He will deliver me from my sinful, corrupt nature through the King.
- O Lord Jesus, You are God’s great and final Prophet. Lord Jesus, You are the Prophet who will deliver me from my blind ignorance by teaching all truth. You are God’s anointed Prophet. In You, I have come to see the truth—the truth about myself as a sinner, the truth about my standing before the Father as condemned and under wrath. You have shown me what my nature is before God’s throne and judgment. You have taught there is no way of salvation but by Your work. You have taught that I must turn from my sins and lay hold of You in faith in Your work. You are the Prophet of all that matters of life and death in the world to come.
- You are the Messiah, You are God’s anointed Priest, who took upon Himself all of my transgressions and offered Himself to God without spot on my behalf. Lord Jesus, You are the Christ, the anointed Priest. In my guilt and defilement, You alone can answer all my needs as a sinner. When I live with the full guiltiness of my sin, oh, the burden of my conscience—Lord Jesus, You are my Priest! You became my Priest and Sacrifice, both Offerer and Offering, as a Suffering One. By His own sacrifice, He has put away sin forever, and even today, by constant intercession, today applies the virtue and efficiency of His blood to save me to the uttermost—to forgive, cleanse me, and sanctify me from all sins. You are my Priest.
- You are the Christ, the anointed King, David’s greater Son, seated now upon David’s throne. You brought me out of the tyranny of the reign of the devil. You brought me from the kingdom of darkness. I was a slave whom Satan drove with his whips, going headlong into hell. Oh, my mighty, anointed King, You set me free. You brought me under Your gracious throne. My King Jesus, You rule over me. You are the KING OF KINGS, a great King above all gods, the eternal, glorious, sovereign King whose kingdom never ends. May Your kingdom reign over my heart. My heart is like a ship tossed here and there with the waves of life: waves of fear, waves of worldly worries, fear of men, tensions. But when You reign in my heart as King, oh, I find my heart is fixed in God like an anchored ship, unshakable. When You reign in my heart, all my soul faculties and body faculties function properly and are composed. Your reign alone can fix my heart and bring peace and joy in the Holy Spirit with it. The Kingdom of grace enriches the soul. Grace sheds a glory and luster upon the soul. The Kingdom of God enlightens us and opens our eyes, opens our ears to hear the King’s voice, and fills our heart with grace. The Kingdom of grace set up in the heart is our spiritual defense. He is fortified against the assaults of temptation and the terrors of hell.
Lord Jesus, You are my King. For other men, You may be John the Baptist, Elijah; they may need You weekly once. But Lord, as my Messiah, Christos, Prophet, Priest, and King, I need You every second of my life. I cannot live without You. I have seen the depths of my depravity, and my greatest need is You.
Is this your confession? If He asks you, “Who do you say that I am?”
If you can say to Him, even in the park, “Yes, Lord, You are my Christ, my Anointed One, my Prophet, my Priest, my King, who rules me. I cannot live without You even one day. You are my world, my life, nothing more important to my soul than You, Lord Jesus, my Christ.” If you can say that…
…Oh, hear Him smiling, saying, “Blessed are you!” “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal this to you.” Don’t think this came to you because of your parents, your own reading, your pastor, or even the church taught this. But My Father revealed this to you by spiritual illumination. You are blessed; you have found self-contained bliss, a great stage in life.
If you have not come to this, you don’t come to experience the blessedness this confession brings. How frustrated He must be with you. He may have to do a spiritual operation on you: “What were you doing when I taught you in GRBC 15 chapters for the last three years? Were you just going home and discussing, ‘Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand/realize? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?'”
See, this confession was not made at the height of Jesus’ popularity, when the leaders and most of the nation were turning against Him, when they were planning to kill Him. Many of the disciples went away, and even their leaders were offended. Peter was ready to confess: “Lord, we don’t care what the world says about You… we know You to be the Christ.”
You see the mark of a saving confession of Christ is that it is never made with the view of the prevailing opinion of Jesus; it is often made in direct opposition to the prevailing opinion of Jesus.
Are you prepared to be considered mentally unstable, a fanatic, old-style, or mindless because you believe what Scripture says about Him?
A confession that is made only in the presence of like confessors is not a true confession. Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men, whom I am, him will I also confess before My Father and all the angels.” May God help us to be honest.
“Lord, You may be whatever to the world. Whatever people and history may say about You, my family, friends, community, and nation may say, But I know You are the Christ.“
If you are not in a position to make this, “Oh,” says one, “but the Father has never spoken to me in that way.” I am sorry for you. Ask Him to do so. I am glad that you confess your want of such an experience, but it is a very serious want. The Lord must deal with you, His Spirit must come into contact with your spirit, there must be an inward illumination by the Holy Ghost, or else you will never be truly blessed. Then plead with God for two things for you:
- Go spiritually to Caesarea Philippi, away from the distraction of the world, and think deeply of all that you studied in Matthew, and pray over it and ask God to reveal Jesus Christ to you. Meditate and think seriously of this question. Peter’s knowledge is serious, thoughtful; it comes from deep meditation where the Father revealed to him who Christ is. The world is hasty, not serious; “this is not important,” they think, so hastily they say, “Ah, maybe John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah.” The disciples’ knowledge is more definite, more clear, more assured. But the world’s notions are all in the clouds; they cannot make Him out. First, ask God: May God show to you how desperately you need Jesus. All that He is, His offices—how much you need Him as a Prophet to open your blind, ignorant eyes, your Priest to forgive and intercede for you, and your King to rule over you and defend you. If you cannot see this great need, it is your spiritual blindness that keeps you insensitive to Jesus and His glory.
- Secondly, then pray: May God, having shown your need, show you how perfectly suited Christ is to meet that need for everything He is, as the Christ, as God. He is not a luxury, but answerable to every area of our life, in need and sin. May God grant that prayer will be answered.
It is the Father who reveals, but He reveals through the means. We may not know Christ just by reading the Bible, but the Father uses those means to make the revelation to us.
Oh, we need to pray for every member in the church, that each one of us should come to this confession and be blessed by it. Therefore, do, first and foremost, cry to God, “Lord, reveal Your Son in me!” It is a prayer I would have you all put up: “O Lord God, the Giver of Christ, shine into my heart, that I may see Your unspeakable gift! By Your Holy Spirit enable me to know who and what Jesus is, that I may accept Him as You have proposed Him to me. You did give Him out of Your bosom, give Him into mine. Enable me to speak of Him, as of one whose glory I have beheld, whose power I have felt.”
Go home and pray the Father to reveal His Son Jesus Christ to you. Then, when you go out to speak, you will speak with confidence. Men, perhaps, will say, “He is very dogmatic.” But a brave confession is much needed nowadays.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 