The Turning Point of Mark

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If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Mark chapter 8, and hold your place at verse 27.
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I want to give an introduction before we read the text, because we have come to what is, in my estimation, one of the most important verses, or section of verses, in the Gospel of Mark.
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Many of you were not here last week, but we did have Wednesday night last week, and you may be wondering why we're starting on verse 27, because when we left, we ended at the end of chapter 7, and if you're wondering, did I make it through 26 verses in one shot, I did.
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And I laughed, Jackie was here, and we laughed a little bit, because I normally don't do so much.
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But what I showed last week was that what we see in verses 1 to 26 is a parallel event in the life of Christ that was very similar to what we studied in chapters 6 and 7.
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Not the same event, not as if it's telling the same story again, but parallel in the sense that it was very similar to things that had already happened.
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We had in chapter 6 the feeding of the 5,000, well at the beginning of chapter 8 you have the feeding of the 4,000.
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In chapter 6 we had Jesus disputing with the Pharisees, and then in chapter 8 we have Jesus disputing with the Pharisees.
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In chapter 6 and 7 we have the misunderstanding of the disciples as to what Jesus was teaching, and Jesus corrects his disciples.
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Well, we see that again in chapter 8, when he's talking about the leaven, and he corrects their understanding of the leaven.
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And then at the end we had Jesus giving a peculiar healing.
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If you'll remember, he healed the man who was deaf and dumb.
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And then in chapter 8, verses 22 to 26, he heals a man who is blind.
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And we talked last week about the fact that these two miracles are unique in that they are only recorded in the Gospel of Mark.
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Those two particular miracles both end a series of Jesus' works that were very similar one to the other.
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And so we see somewhat of a pattern in Mark's Gospel.
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Jesus does this great, wonderful miracle where he feeds people.
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He has this debate and dispute with the Pharisees.
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He has this time of teaching with the apostles, and then he has this unique miracle that only happens in the Book of Mark, and we see this twice in these few verses.
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And everything leads up to this moment in chapter 8, verse 27, which I showed this last week.
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I'm going to draw it again on the board.
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I really think this is the fulcrum.
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One commentator used that word, and if you remember from your science classes, the fulcrum is the thing on which the lever turns, right? And so this passage, this chapter 8, beginning at verse 27, this becomes the fulcrum.
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Everything up until this point, Jesus has been giving a revelation of his identity.
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It's been mainly what he does.
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So this is revealing who he is, and we get to this verse, and he asks the question.
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We're going to read it in a moment, but you know what's coming.
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He's going to ask the question, who do people say that I am, right? And everything to this point is leading to that very important question, and then after that, Jesus is going to go, it's going to be a beeline toward the cross.
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This sort of meets us at this fulcrum point, and then everything's going to focus on getting to the cross.
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In fact, it's only two chapters away from the beginning of Holy Week.
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The whole last part of Mark is the Passion Week, the Passion Narrative.
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In fact, some people have said Mark's Gospel is really just the Passion Narrative with an extended introduction, because this is where Mark is trying to get us, and he keeps using that word immediately, immediately, because he's getting us to this moment which will change the world.
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So the pivot point of Mark's Gospel is Mark 8, verses 27 to 30, and that same event is paralleled in Matthew 16, 13 to 20, and we're going to look at that, and it is paralleled in Luke's Gospel in Luke 9, 18 to 20.
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So we're going to look at all of these tonight.
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All of these will go together, but we're going to read beginning in Mark 8, verses 27, all the way down to 9, verses 1, because the chapter breaks at an inconvenient place, so we're going to read into 9, verses 1.
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It says, And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
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And on the way he asked his disciples, Who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others one of the prophets.
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And he asked them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered, You are the Christ.
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And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
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Verse 31, And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
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And he said this plainly.
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And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
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But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
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And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
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And whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake in the Gospels will save it.
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For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
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And he said to them, Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I ask now that as we look at this passage that you would give me grace to preach it well, that you would keep me from error, that you would open the hearts of your people to the truth, and that the truth would abide in us by the power of the Spirit.
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And Lord, I pray that you would use this to help us further our understanding of the Gospel and particularly of what Jesus says here, in that calling him Christ is a gift of God.
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And Lord, we thank you for that gift, and it's in Christ's name we pray, Amen.
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One of the things that we often do, or we always do in this church, is when we have someone join the church, whether they are coming by way of having been saved and baptized, or whether they come having been a member at another church, we always bring them up and ask them to affirm what we call the good confession.
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Now, you probably have been here for a while.
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I know Holly and Mike, you guys have been here probably the longest of anybody.
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You guys came, what, like a long time ago.
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Before it was cool.
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Before it was cool, yeah.
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That's funny.
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You've heard that a lot.
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Somebody comes up, we will say to them, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? Now, that particular phrase may not be something that other churches do, but I know that it's something that we have always done, and it comes from this passage.
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I do want to ask, is that something that was unique to here, or have y'all seen other churches that require that, or ask that? Not in front of everybody, okay.
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My reason for asking it is just curious more than anything else, because I know sometimes we do things that are a little peculiar, but this particular phraseology of the question is based upon this question of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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It's based upon this moment, which took place in Caesarea Philippi, often called the Good Confession, or the Caesarea Philippi Confession.
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Caesarea Philippi is an area that was named after both Caesar and Philip the Tetrarch.
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There was another area called Caesarea.
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You'll read about that in Scripture.
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That is in the southern area, and then the northern area is the area known as Caesarea Philippi.
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It's just a different place, and again, carrying the name of Caesar was something that was very common, because Caesar, of course, it was good to show honor to the Caesar, but also Philip the Tetrarch, this place was named after him.
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And Jesus is there, and it's mentioned also in Matthew 16, when we go and read that in a moment, that Caesarea Philippi is the place where this happened.
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So we know that those two events are parallel, and I bring that out, because when you read only Mark's Gospel, it comes and goes very briefly.
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There's only three verses.
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You know, 27 to 30 is very quick, but when we go and look at Matthew's Gospel, we're going to see that there's a lot more that's said here, and a lot more that we learn about this confession.
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And what we're going to see tonight as we go through Matthew's account, when we get there, is this particular point in Matthew's Gospel is actually used by Roman Catholics as one of their main passages for affirming the papacy.
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So we're going to talk about that and why they use this passage for that reason.
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But before we get to Matthew's Gospel, I just want to make some comments here on what is happening in Mark's Gospel.
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Jesus is asking his apostles a question, and the question is in regard to his identity.
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Now, this may seem odd when we consider the fact that Jesus has already affirmed his identity in many ways throughout the Gospel of Mark.
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You remember when Jesus was in the boat and he calmed the storm? What did the men say? This is the Son of God.
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They identified him as the Son of God.
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Now, if we look to other Gospels, we would see Jesus is also identified, such as in John's Gospel, as soon as he shows up on the scene.
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Do you remember John the Baptist when Jesus showed up on the scene? What did John say? Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, right? So, Jesus has not had his identity hidden.
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Jesus has not had his identity squelched, but this moment becomes a moment of testing.
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It becomes a moment of opportunity to hear his apostles affirm what and who he is.
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And so, Jesus inquires of his apostles.
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I think it was R.C.
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Sproul who said he interrogates them, which maybe is a little bit more of a heavy word that we think about, but he does ask of them a very important question.
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He says, who do people say that I am? Years and years ago, before this room was even here, this used to be about half the size and there was an adult Sunday school in this room.
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It was Jack Bunning's Sunday school class.
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I'm talking 2007 at least.
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It had to have been that far back because the people involved in my mind, I know, left around 2008, so I know it was before that.
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But I was standing over there and I was teaching on this passage, but I was teaching Matthew's account.
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And in Matthew's account, he says, who do the people say the son of man is? Who do the people say the son of man is? And one of the guys wanted to argue and he said, Jesus isn't asking who I am.
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He's asking who do they think the son of man is when they give the answer that it is John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets that they are the son of man.
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But that's not what Jesus was asking.
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And we know that when we compare it to Mark's gospel.
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Jesus isn't giving an esoteric question.
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Who do the people say the son of man may be? That's not what he's saying.
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And again, that was the argument that the man gave me and I responded.
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I said, well, if you look at the parallel passage, you see that's not the case.
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Because in Mark's gospel, it's clear the question.
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Jesus wants a verdict regarding himself.
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Steve Lawson is a pastor.
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Many of you probably have heard his sermons.
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Steve Lawson's very powerful preacher of the gospel.
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And one of the things that he does in his preaching class, I've taken preaching classes online from him.
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He talks about the importance of the verdict in the sermon.
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And what he means is when you're preaching, the difference between preaching and teaching, according to him, he says, you can teach something and it simply be information.
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He said, but when you're preaching, there's always a call for a verdict.
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You're calling for a response.
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You're calling for the person to give either an answer of repentance or affirmation or life change something.
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There's always a call for a verdict.
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And he said, the verdict is often who is Christ.
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And that's the one verdict that every man in some form or fashion is going to have to give.
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And it will be the most important verdict.
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It will be the most important in one sense.
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I know we don't like this word, it's Calvinist, but the most important decision that he will ever make because one day that decision will determine his eternal standing before God.
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Who do the people say that I am? It's one of the most important questions Jesus ever asked anyone.
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He said, who do they say that I am? And the apostles respond, they deliberate, and the response is interesting because he gives three different responses here in Mark's gospel.
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The first, they said, some say John the Baptist.
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Now, if you remember a few chapters back when we studied about the death of John the Baptist, do you remember why that story came up in Mark's gospel? The story of the death of John the Baptist in Mark's gospel comes up as a memory.
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The narrator is saying, Herod heard about Jesus and he thought that Jesus was John the Baptist returned from the dead.
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And then the narrator, Mark, takes us back to the time where John is in prison and he tells the story of Salome and how she danced before him and how she asked for the head and the head was taken and given to her on a platter.
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He tells us that narrative.
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The reason for telling us that narrative was because Herod thought Jesus was John come back from the dead.
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Herod knew John was dead.
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He saw the head.
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If anyone knew John the Baptist was dead, I mean, some people may not have known he was dead.
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Some people may have saw Jesus thought he was John and just made the mistake that's John because I've heard about a man who goes about preaching looks like him, right? But Herod knew he was dead.
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Herod knew he had taken the head of John the Baptist.
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And yet he still believed when he heard about Jesus and his miracles.
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This is John come back.
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This is John come back as judgment against me.
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He was a superstitious pagan and not much different than modern pagans, lives in just absolute superstition.
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Well, when Jesus asked the disciples, who do the people say that I am? The first answer was the superstitious answer.
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Some people think you're a reincarnated or resurrected John the Baptist.
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And where did that idea come from? May have come from Herod himself because Herod had said, this is John the Baptist come back.
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So that was the first answer.
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Some people think you're John the Baptist.
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Well, we know Jesus is not John the Baptist.
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The second answer is an eschatological answer.
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In the final chapter of the book of Malachi, which is the last book that was written in the Old Testament period.
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Well, let me back that up.
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Possibly portions of Chronicles.
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But Malachi is the last prophet who writes in the Old Testament and represents the end of the Old Covenant era.
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We have what we call the intertestamental period.
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Jackie, you've been in my New Testament class or my Old Testament class where we talk about that intertestamental period, which is the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew.
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Well, at the end of Malachi's gospel, one of the promises was that Elijah would come and would be the forerunner of the Messiah.
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That Elijah was going to come before the great and terrible day of the Lord.
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So some people seeing Jesus thought, well, this guy is doing miracles, feeding thousands of people.
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He's raising people from the dead.
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He's giving sight to the blind.
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He's giving hearing to the deaf.
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This man represents the end times.
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And let me ask you a question.
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If there was a dude out there today who was walking around doing things like this, I know people claim to do it, but we know.
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The guys who claim miracles aren't doing the kind of miracles Jesus did.
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Benny Hinn's slapping people with jackets.
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He's not putting the ears back on, right? We know the difference.
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If there was someone doing the things Jesus did, there were people who would think it was the end times.
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People would think that skies are about to part.
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People would think that the horses are galloping and they're on the way.
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Well, that's the question.
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Who do they say I am? Elijah, you're the one who is bringing in the end.
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Okay, just quick quiz for all you astute Bible students.
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Who was Elijah? John the Baptist.
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Jesus said that.
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Jesus said that he came in the spirit of Elijah when he came to be the forerunner of the Messiah, which is interesting because John said he wasn't Elijah.
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Somebody asked him if he was Elijah and he said no.
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And personally, technically he wasn't, but Jesus said he came in the spirit of Elijah.
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He came to fulfill that promise of Elijah making straight the way of the Lord.
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But some people thought that that was Jesus.
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Now, the last one is one of the prophets.
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Now, do any of your Bibles and John, Mike, yours may.
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Does your Bible say Jeremiah there? Does yours say Jeremiah there? Is it Mark? You're in Mark's Gospel and it says Jeremiah.
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Okay, some are different.
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Mine just says one of the prophets, but some specifically reference Jeremiah.
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And there was a, remember I mentioned the intertestamental period? One of the writings that came out of the intertestamental period was the writings of the Maccabees.
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You guys have ever heard of the Maccabees? That's the books we often refer to as the Apocrypha.
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And there was a reference in the Apocrypha to Jeremiah being a part of the end times.
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And so this may be a reference to that which would have been well-known among the Jewish people because even though the Apocrypha was not considered scripture, it was history.
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And it was used and understood as part of the historical history of Israel.
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And so they would have understood that.
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The reason why I'm pointing this out is they all had these ideas based on a preconceived notion of who Jesus might be.
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Who might He be? He might be John the Baptist.
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That's what Herod thinks.
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He might be Elijah.
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He might be bringing about the end of the world.
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He might be one of the prophets, possibly Jeremiah because we've heard He's coming.
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But notice what answer they don't give when Jesus says, who do the people say that I am? Notice that they don't say the Messiah.
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And if we look at, we're going to look at the parallel passage in a minute, but if we look at the parallel passage, they don't say that there either.
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John MacArthur makes a point about that.
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MacArthur says that part of the reason why they did not say that this was the Messiah was because all of the things Jesus was doing, while miraculous, were not the things that they thought the Messiah was going to do.
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Because the thing they thought the Messiah was going to do was going to overthrow Rome and to bring about a messianic kingdom with him as the king and Israel as the, and as it were, capital of the world.
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And Jesus wasn't doing that.
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Jesus was doing other things.
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Jesus was submitting to authority.
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He was paying taxes.
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Remember, he had Peter go catch a fish so he could have enough money to pay his taxes, right? When they asked him, should we give money to Caesar? He says, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and unto God the things that are God.
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So he's not doing the things that they think are in relation to the messianic kingdom.
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So when he asked them, who do the people say that I am? They don't say Messiah.
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They say John the Baptist.
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They say one of the prophets or Elijah.
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So that's question one.
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Question one, who do the people say that I am? And then question two, and then he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Now, it's important to recognize that when Jesus says, who do you say that I am? This is, this is a question that is going to be answered by one individual but I do believe, based upon the language, that he is answering for the group.
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I, even though we're going to see in Matthew's gospel that this is given to him by God, I still think Peter is answering on behalf of the apostles, not just himself, because I do believe all of the apostles, given the opportunity, would have answered the same way.
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Peter simply is the mouthpiece of the apostles.
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He is the one, as I said, of all the apostles, he is the one I tend to relate to the most.
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He has a big mouth.
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He doesn't know when to shut up.
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He often says things without thinking and gets in trouble for it and then later has to apologize.
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And if there is anybody that I relate to in scripture, it's him.
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And yet, the good thing was he was the mouthpiece.
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Anytime something was spoken in general, outside of a few words from Thomas and a few others, we generally hear from the mouth of Peter.
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And if you remember our study of Mark, whose apostolic authority is Mark writing under based upon what we studied in the early part of this book? Was Mark.
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I'm sorry, was Peter, right? In fact, it is very early attested that Mark's gospel was written from the memories of Peter.
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There's early attestation for that among the early fathers that that was what was believed.
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And again, we talk about apostolic authority, right? So Matthew is an apostle.
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Luke is not, but he's writing under Paul's authority.
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John is an apostle.
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But who is Mark? Mark is the cousin of Barnabas.
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We're going to talk about him in a few weeks in our Colossians study because his name comes up in the end of Colossians.
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I think it's one of the several names that said there at the end.
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And who is he writing under whose authority? Peter.
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And I bring that up because when we come here, I would have expected a lot more.
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And we're going to see in Matthew.
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There is a lot more.
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This conversation goes on for a bit, but all we get here is Peter's short forward response.
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Thou art the Christ.
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You are the Christ.
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And then Jesus is common response.
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Tell no one about this, which has been the common refrain in Mark's gospel.
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Again, appealing to Dr.
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MacArthur.
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He had an interesting thought on that that I had not considered.
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He said that it is possible that Jesus is saying at this point, not to say anything, because the fullness of the gospel had not yet come.
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I think that's reasonable to consider.
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I have more to think about.
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Before I make him an absolute affirmation of that, but I thought I'd pass that idea on to you for your consideration.
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But I will say this.
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It is interesting because the very next thing he goes into is the rest of the story.
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And the rest of the story is I'm going to die.
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I'm going to raise.
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You're going to go to your deaths, take up your cross and follow me.
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He's about to get in to the rest of the story.
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But before we get there, before we get to verses 31 to the end of the chapter, I do want us to go over and look at Matthew's parallel account, because Matthew's parallel account is I think is is very important.
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So go to chapter 16, verse 13, and we'll read down to.
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Verse 20 says, Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, again, same same event, same place.
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He asked his disciples, who do the people say the son of man is now? Why did why is it written differently as how Jesus asked? Well, it's possible that Mark is simplifying the question.
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It's more likely that Jesus actually said it the way it is in Matthew.
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And Mark is simply doing what we call telescoping or simplifying the narrative.
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But why does Jesus identify himself as the son of man? You want to know? It's OK if you if you know that is true.
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That is true.
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And he often identifies himself as the son of man.
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But there's there's a little bit more to it.
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That's true.
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But there's a little bit more to it than that.
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Why does Jesus identify himself as the son of man? In Daniel's gospel gospel and Daniel's prophecies, there is a prophecy of one who would come and he was called the son of man.
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And that phrase is picked up by Jesus and used of himself throughout the gospels.
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We see Jesus referred to himself as if you go back into the latter chapters of Daniel, you'll see this one, this figure who is the son of man, who approaches the ancient of days.
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That is Jesus identifying himself with that prophecy.
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So Jesus often uses the phrase son of man to identify himself with Daniel's prophecy.
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So, yes, does it relate to his humanity? Absolutely.
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But it also relates to that particular term and that particular phrase.
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So we see that question.
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Who do the people say the son of man is? And they said to him, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
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There's the Jeremiah.
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It is in Matthew's gospel, as I mentioned before.
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Verse 15, he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
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So right away, there is an addition to what was said in Mark's gospel.
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A contradiction, but more information.
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That's what we get when we harmonize the text.
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We get to see a fuller understanding.
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Matthew's giving us the fuller understanding in Mark's.
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And this is why I say this bothers me a little, not because I think the scriptures in any way inadequate or incorrect.
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It just bothers me that Peter is telling the story in Mark's gospel.
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And all he gives us is four words.
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He gives us that short sentence.
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And this was his moment.
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And maybe that's why.
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Maybe he's not addressing it from the position of his moment, but Matthew does.
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Matthew points out that this is a moment in the life of Peter that is hugely significant.
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In fact, in Mark's gospel, we're going to see in a moment that he actually Mark's gospel focuses on the rebuke of Peter.
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Remember, because Peter pulls him to the side and challenges him.
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Maybe that's what Peter is concerned about.
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But in Matthew's gospel, he said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
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And Jesus answered him.
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This is not in Mark's gospel.
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This is only in Matthew's gospel.
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And Jesus answered and said, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah.
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The prefix bar means son of.
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So some of your some of your translations may say Simon, son of Jonah.
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Anytime you see a name in the Bible that begins with the B-A-R prefix like Bartholomew or Bartimaeus or Bar, who is the one Barabbas, the man who was Jesus's replacement or Jesus replaced on the cross.
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Those all mean son of something like Barabbas, interestingly, means son of the father.
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Baraba means son of father.
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And it probably meant he didn't know who his father was.
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To say like son of dad.
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Well, who's dad? Don't know.
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He was probably a bastard child and they're indicated by his name.
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And of course, we don't know that.
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I'm just basing that on some some speculation based upon his name.
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But those we see the term here.
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Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.
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I mentioned earlier.
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When we welcome people into membership, we ask them to either repeat or to affirm the good confession.
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Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God? Here is the reason.
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Because Jesus said.
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For someone to make this confession truly.
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It's a gift of God.
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For someone to make this confession.
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Now anyone can say words.
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But what does the Bible say? It says no one can say Jesus is Lord unless it be given him by the spirit, right? That doesn't mean no one can utter those words, but those words to have meaning those words to have life, those words to be genuine.
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Has to come from God.
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Has to be a work of the spirit.
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This again, getting back to our understanding of what it what what is required of faith? What is it? What is required for you to have faith? God must give you the ability.
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Go ahead.
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Yes, but can you do that apart from the work of the spirit? No, right? Because Jesus said no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by my father.
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That work of faith is a work of God.
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This is the work of God that you believe in him who he is sent, right? God does that work.
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And so Peter has made this confession.
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He's made this good confession.
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Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
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And Jesus said you didn't come up with that one on your own.
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Those people out there, they came up with their answer on their own.
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They came up with John the Baptist on their own.
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They come up with me being a prophet or me being Elijah or me being Jeremiah.
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They came up with that on their own.
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But you know who I really am.
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And the reason why you know who I really am is because God has revealed it to you.
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And remember what he's saying about Jesus when he says you are the Christ.
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The word Christ is the Greek equivalent of the word Messiah.
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And the word Messiah and the word Christ both mean the anointed one.
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Anointed one in reference to this one who would come particularly and uniquely anointed by God for the task of saving his people.
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Remember who were anointed in the Old Testament? Prophets, priests, and kings.
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Were anointed to those offices? Well, the one anointed one would bear all three.
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Our confession, the 1646 confession, if you read the 52 articles, there are like six articles that express the three offices of Christ as prophet, priest, and king and why that matters to the church.
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As the prophet, he speaks to us from God.
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As our priest, he takes us to God through him.
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And as king, he rules over his church.
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That's what we're asking someone to affirm when they become members of the church.
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Do you believe that? Do you believe that Christ is the Messiah? Do you believe that Christ is the anointed one? Do you believe that he is prophet, priest, and king? And do you believe he's the son of God? Because that's what Peter said.
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You are the Christ, the son of the living God.
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And notice he says living God.
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They were surrounded by dead gods.
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They were in a pagan area.
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They would have seen the statues to all of the false gods, like Paul when he went to Greece and he saw all the statues to the false gods.
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They would have been all around.
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But our God is not a false god who abides within a stone, but our God is the living God who lives forever.
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So verse 18, Jesus responds.
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I want to say differently than Mark, but not differently in the sense that if you go to verse 20, you'll see he says the same thing.
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He strictly tells his disciples, tell no one that he was the Christ.
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So that statement is there.
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But in verse 19 and 18, we have this aside that he gives to Peter that is specifically unique in this moment.
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And it has caused great controversy and consternation in the history of the church.
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He says in verse 18, I tell you, you are Peter.
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And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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I will give you the keys of the kingdom and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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Those two verses have been used by Rome to establish an unholy succession of popes that down to this very day continues to be a scourge on the face of Christianity.
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And I remember when I was, I graduated seminary in 2008 and somewhere years later, I went back and took a Greek intensive.
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I did a few months of just redoing some Greek work.
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I wanted to study some more.
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They offered the class, so I went.
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I ended up substitute teaching the class because the professor had to be out.
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So I was there and I was able to teach a little and it was fun.
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But while I was there with the class, we were talking, and this was all new students.
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Most of them hadn't graduated and all that.
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And we were talking and talking about my sermon for the week.
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And for whatever reason, that week I had preached on the illegitimacy of the papacy.
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I forget what the title of the sermon was, but basically was how the pope was a false position, a false teacher, and a false understanding of Christianity.
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And they were all stunned.
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Now, this was a Baptist group.
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I would have thought they would have all been like, yeah, yeah, pass the peanuts.
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You know, no, they were, I can't believe you would say that.
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Now, I believe it.
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I just can't believe you'll say it.
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And I said, well, I can't believe you believe it and you won't say it.
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I mean, where's your conviction? If you believe it, say it.
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But the reality, though, it reminded me of is when it comes to the issue of the pope, there are some things that people just consider to be off limits.
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They won't address certain issues.
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They may, you know, behind closed doors, but they won't come out and just say, the pope is a false prophet.
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The pope is a false teacher, and his position is dangerous for Christians.
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People don't want to hear that.
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They think you're being harsh.
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Oh, you're being, isn't he such a nice man? Isn't he such a sweet man? He's got his pretty robes, and he rides in his little popemobile and all that.
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Isn't it great? Well, yeah, he's, I call him the hippie pope.
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He's very, very liberal, very weird.
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But even the most sought after popes, even the most, you know, they have all held the title Vicar of Christ, meaning the one who stands in the place of Christ.
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That's what vicar means, vicarious.
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They've all held the title Pontifus Maximus, which means the great bridge builder.
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That's what that title means, the greatest of bridge, the one who makes the bridge between God and man.
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They call him Holy Father.
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All three of those titles, by the way, are titles that are to be applied only to the Trinity.
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The Spirit of God is the Vicar of Christ.
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He is the one who, Jesus said, if I go away, the Spirit will come, and he will be like me, the pericaletos.
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He is like me.
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The Spirit of God is the Vicar of Christ.
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Christ himself is the great bridge builder.
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He is the Pontifus Maximus, and the Father is the Holy Father, and the pope holds all three titles for himself and does so to his own peril.
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Because he's going to face God one day knowing that he's done so.
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So, no, I have no inkling at all that what Jesus is doing here is establishing a succession of popes who would begin with Peter and then end when the final pope stands at the return of Christ.
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But that is what is believed by Rome, and they believe it based upon these passages.
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They believe that when Jesus said, on this rock, I will build my church, that he was saying that he would build his church upon Peter and that he would build his church on Peter's successors, and that the rock continues to stand throughout the succession of Peter's descendants.
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I will surprise you by what I'm about to say.
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And don't run away because I'm allowed to surprise you.
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I don't take the typical Reformed understanding of this text.
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The typical Reformed understanding is that Peter's not the rock, the confession is the rock, and that's how we should understand it.
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Linguistically, it doesn't work.
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And I will argue it's not.
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The rock is, in fact, Peter, but it's not in the way Rome understands it.
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If you go to Ephesians, it says that the church is built on the apostles and the prophets, and Christ is the cornerstone.
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When Jesus speaks to Peter, he's speaking to them all.
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And he is saying, I'm going to build my church on the apostles because they are the ones who are the foundation of the church, according to Ephesians.
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So I don't have a problem with saying, when he says, you're the rock, I don't have a problem with that because I don't think it leads to the succession that we have in Rome.
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But what it does do is it establishes apostolic authority.
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And we do believe in apostolic authority.
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And that's what we see in verse 19.
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What does he say? I will give you, you plural, you men, I will give you the keys of the kingdom and whatever you bind on earth should be bound in heaven.
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Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
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When do they receive those keys? You ever asked that question? Have you ever asked yourself the question? Jesus said, I'll give you the keys of the kingdom.
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When do they receive them? Matthew 18.
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Matthew 18 is when Jesus says, if any man sins, go to him and tell him his fault.
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And if he doesn't repent, take two witnesses, right? But then take him before the church.
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Because what? What does the church do? The church has the authority to bind or loose.
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The church has the authority to put out or receive in.
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This authority, which begins with the apostles, expends to the church.
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And that's what I believe Jesus is referring to.
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I don't think that what we have here is the ability for a priest to sit in a little room and to give the holy forgiveness when someone comes in and speaks through a screen and says, holy father, it's been two years since my last confession and all of that.
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That's not the view here.
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The view is that the church, how does somebody become a part of the body of Christ? They're welcomed by the church.
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How is someone removed from the body of Christ? They're disciplined by the church.
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Where are the keys to the kingdom? In the church.
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Now, does that mean the church is always right? No, the church can make mistakes and the church has to deal with those mistakes.
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But I do believe if you compare Matthew 16 with Matthew 18, I think that brings a fuller understanding.
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The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
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Christ, of course, the chief cornerstone.
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Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, if any man builds on anything other than Christ, right? It's wrong.
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So Christ is the chief cornerstone.
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But we all affirm apostolic authority.
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Now that I've made everybody super uncomfortable, here's what I'm willing to say.
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I'm willing to say this.
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If you believe that the traditional understanding of the rock and Peter and those things, that that is the confession, you're in line with a lot of other reformers and you can tell me I'm wrong and that's okay because I could be wrong about this.
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But I am willing only to say, having looked at the language itself, there's an argument that when he says Peter and Petra, Petrus and Petra, that there's two different words there.
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Linguistically, it just doesn't really hold water.
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The argument is very, very, very loose.
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And so it doesn't convince me.
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It may convince you and that's okay.
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We can still be friends.
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And for what a lesson that I hope was encouraging is probably gonna be the only thing you remember is the part you disagree with me on and that's okay.
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At least I sent you home with something.
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But here's the important part.
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Throughout all of this, Jesus is responding to Peter and he is saying, on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Oh, absolutely.
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Yes.
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They would call us separated brethren.
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Prior to Vatican II, we were apostate.
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Vatican II made us separated brethren because Council of Trent says we are anathema.
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It says any man who says we're justified by faith alone, apart from works, is anathema.
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We are considered to be, according to the Council of Trent, we are considered to be lost.
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But Vatican II came in and sort of softened that up as they were trying to reunify with the separated brethren.
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But yeah.
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Yes, if you ask a Roman Catholic, they will say Mother Church is the true church.
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That's the Roman Catholic Church.
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And if you are not a part of Mother Church, then you are outside of the will of God.
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They do believe that.
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They believe that the Cathedra Petri, which is the seat of Peter, persists until this day and is sat upon by the successor of Peter, who is the Pope.
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And so they base all of that, honestly, on a misreading of one verse.
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Misunderstanding of one passage.
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Well, you could say 18 and 19, but it's, as I said, an absolute misunderstanding as far as I'm concerned.
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To build all of that, it's just like their view of Mary.
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And again, it's not beat up on Catholics night, but since we're here, if you look at what the Bible actually says about Mary, and then you compare that to the Marian dogmas, which are the teachings that come out of Rome.
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Marian dogma, meaning that which is to be believed.
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That's what the word dogma means.
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It means that which is to be believed.
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Marian dogmas are things like Mary did not die.
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She was assumed into heaven.
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She did not die.
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She was a perpetual virgin.
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She never laid with Joseph in a marital sense.
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She was sinless because her birth was an immaculate conception that she was conceived.
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Honestly, where it comes from, because I've had this conversation from the Magnificat, which is Mary's song, where he says, blessed are you among women, when Gabriel said that to her.
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And then she said, my soul magnifies the Lord.
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You know, I'm his servant.
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That exchange is used as one of the foundations for their argument.
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And the other thing that Rome will say is they're not dependent upon scripture alone.
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In fact, they'll say sola scriptura is a lie.
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They say, if you believe sola scriptura, you believe something false.
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Therefore, they have the ability to put on par with scripture tradition.
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And their traditions say Mary was assumed into heaven.
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Their traditions say Mary was sinless.
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And therefore, they have an equal authority that says she was.
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So they don't need the scripture to say it.
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The Pope just has to proclaim it.
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That's right.
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Yeah, yeah.
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If he sits on the front seat.
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Yeah, he has to speak ex cathedra.
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Yes, ex cathedra.
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Yeah, it is sad to see that.
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And I've had those similar conversations with people.
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And it's like there's at a certain point, the wall comes up.
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Yeah, that certainly gives us something to pray for in regard to her life, for sure.
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Well, beloved, I am not going to get to verses 31 to 38.
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And I wasn't sure if I was or not.
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I read them earlier because I wanted to mention where we're going.
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But after this, Jesus follows up the best news ever.
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We say best news ever, the best moment ever where he confessed, the disciples have confessed, thou art the Christ, son of the living God.
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Flesh and bone hasn't given you this.
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God gave you this with the promise of the crucifixion.
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And it's like Jesus has built them up.
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And then now he's going to hit them with reality.
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This role of Messiah that I've been called to is a role that is going to lead me to the cross.
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So we're going to look at that when we come back together.
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All right, let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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Pray that it will be used to move our hearts towards a closer relationship with you.
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I pray, Lord, where I have been clear and accurate that you would write these truths on our hearts by the power of your spirit.
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And Lord, where I have been inaccurate, Lord, that you would take them away from us, Lord, that we would only focus on what is true.
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In Christ's name, amen.