The Most Significant Words Matthew 16:13-20 Part I

Eureka Baptist Church iconEureka Baptist Church

2 views

0 comments

00:14
Every one of us comes into this world as enemies of God. It is our sin that separates us from our relationship with our
00:24
Creator. This can be hard to see early on in life because children are so sweet.
00:30
Even as they leave, we see the sweetness of children. We love the children of our church. They bring so much joy to our hearts.
00:38
In one sense, they have so much innocence. There's so much they don't know, and they have so much dependence on their parents.
00:46
But even though we see the sweetness of children, we need to understand that from conception, a human is a sinner and an enemy of God.
00:57
King David wrote in Psalm 51 .5, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
01:05
The Lord said in Genesis 8 .21 before the flood that the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.
01:16
What we see in children, as precious as they are, is selfishness. We need to teach children to share their toys because naturally, they don't want to.
01:26
They want all the toys for themselves. When we see children do this, we should be very patient with them.
01:32
Our focus should be on the future by communicating the Gospel so that they turn from their sins and put their trust in Christ and move from a life of selfishness to a life of living for God and a life of selflessness.
01:48
Little ones need to understand the world they entered into. From Adam, the first human, the father of Esau, every human comes into this world with a sinful nature that is against God's will.
02:00
God calls every person to submit to Him. As one makes his or her journey through life, from youth to old, at some point on this journey, this submission needs to take place.
02:15
And if it doesn't, then hell awaits. Submission comes through difficulty.
02:22
This submission comes through dying to oneself. To come into a relationship with God means believing,
02:30
I'm not going to do it my own way any longer. I'm not going to live for myself. I'm not going to live for my own selfish pursuits.
02:41
I'm going to live for the One who created me. I'm going to trust Him because He knows what is best for me.
02:50
I'm going to live for the One who is going to bring me to a place of joyfulness forever.
03:00
But that's not how sin works, right? Sin lies to us. Sin tells us this will make you happy.
03:07
So go down this path. But God tells us the opposite. Go down this path and you will travel down the path of blessing.
03:16
The only way that one can enter into God's fellowship is to turn away from selfishness, pride, and rebellion.
03:25
If you want a definition for sin, that's what sin is. Selfishness, pride, and rebellion.
03:31
You are no longer the master of your life. He becomes your master. This surrender is the most important action that anyone can take in one's journey through this life.
03:43
Every human is either a rebel or in submission to the Creator. Everyone either rejects
03:49
Him or proclaims Him. During Jesus' life, He had a group of men who followed
03:56
Him known as the disciples. When He truly follows Jesus unashamedly
04:01
He proclaims one's allegiance to Him. Either He is your allegiance or your allegiance is to your own sinful desires.
04:12
This morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to see the most well -known disciple,
04:18
Peter, publicly proclaim his allegiance to Christ. An allegiance that is imperative for every person on earth.
04:28
So this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 16. We'll look at verses 13 through 20.
04:38
And this is going to take two Sundays to get through because there's so much to see here. It's incredible how much there is to pull out from these eight verses.
04:47
And if you're using a red Bible, it's on page 977. This sermon is titled, The Most Significant Words.
04:53
And I'm going to begin by reading the text. Matthew 16 verses 13 through 20.
05:01
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked
05:07
His disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say
05:14
John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. And others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
05:22
He said to them, who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the
05:31
Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you
05:37
Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
05:44
Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are
05:49
Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
06:00
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
06:06
And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then He strictly charged the disciples to tell no one.
06:18
Here's our big idea. Understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
06:28
Understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king. And over the next two
06:34
Sundays, we're going to see four reasons why. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one
06:40
Sunday ago. Last week, we looked at verses five through 12 of Matthew 16.
06:47
And in that passage, we were instructed by Jesus to watch out for the evil that lurks on the inside and out.
06:53
What we saw were three disciplines, how? We saw that you are to avoid the ungodly influence of others, the forgetfulness of your own hearts, and the false teachings in the world.
07:05
Jesus warns us that there are many landmines on the inside and out. We need to be vigilant not to be led astray by evil.
07:13
Now, this leads us once again to our text that we have already read, but now we're going to zero in on. And we'll begin by zeroing in on verses 13 and 14.
07:23
As Matthew writes, once again, that when Jesus came into the district of Caesarei Philippi, He asked
07:29
His disciples, who do you say that the Son of Man is? What's interesting here is the way that they respond to Him.
07:38
What they tell Him is, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others
07:44
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Now last week, we saw that Jesus and His disciples were on the west shore of the
07:54
Sea of Galilee. What verse 13 tells us is that they went to the district of Caesarea Philippi.
08:02
This region is located on the north part of the Sea of Galilee. It's not on the sea, but it's a little ways north of the sea.
08:12
And while they're in this place, Jesus asked them a very important question. He asked them, who do people say that the
08:18
Son of Man is? This was a hot topic at this point in history during Jesus' ministry.
08:26
People were saying all kinds of things as to His identity. In Matthew 14 .5,
08:32
what Matthew noted is that the masses of people held Jesus to be a prophet. In John 4 .29,
08:39
the people asked the question, can this be the Christ? While the common people believed
08:44
Jesus was a prophet from God, or even that this could be the Messiah, His greatest earthly opponents, the
08:51
Judas leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the chief priests, they did not believe this.
09:00
They did not believe this because He was opposed to them. If He's from God, then that means we're not.
09:07
And of course, that can't be true, right? But you know what's interesting?
09:14
The Jewish leaders, His greatest opponents, the very ones who would crucify Him through the
09:19
Romans later on, they could not deny the supernatural nature of Jesus Christ.
09:31
In Matthew 14 .2, Herod was afraid of Jesus' miraculous power. Remember, John the
09:37
Baptist confronted Herod, telling him that it was not lawful for him to commit incest. Herod wanted him dead, and when the opportunity was given to him, he put
09:46
John the Baptist to death through beheading.
09:54
As Jesus gained more popularity and He performed miracles, Herod believed that Jesus was
09:59
John the Baptist raised from the dead. He was afraid that judgment was coming for him.
10:06
The Pharisees, who were some of Jesus' greatest earthly enemies, also could not deny Jesus' power.
10:12
What the Pharisees said in Matthew 9 .34 is that He casts out demons by the
10:17
Prince of Demons. They knew that these miracles were true.
10:26
What the Jewish leaders are saying is we cannot deny this fact, which shows that He is supernatural.
10:35
And if someone is supernatural, there can only be two conclusions as to where this supernatural ability is coming from.
10:43
It's either from God or from Satan. Those are the two options.
10:50
And of course, they can't say He's from God. As Jesus asks His disciples in verse 13 of our text, who do people say that the
10:59
Son of Man is? They respond by telling Him in verse 14, some say
11:05
John the Baptist. Others say Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
11:12
This is similar to what the Jewish leaders asked John the Baptist in John 1 .21.
11:18
They asked him, are you Elijah? Are you the prophet? They knew there was something special about John.
11:28
But the Jewish leaders rejected John and Jesus because they were opposed to them in their teaching.
11:35
John the Baptist and Jesus were there to expose them, to call out their hypocrisy, to expose this false religious system that had developed in Judaism at this time.
11:54
To follow these Jewish leaders was to be led away from God, not to God. And Jesus came to bring people into a relationship with His Father through Him.
12:07
In verse 14 of our text, the disciples run through the list of what people are saying about Jesus.
12:13
Some say what Herod said, that Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead.
12:19
Others said that He is Elijah. Now that's interesting. Okay, we have to put ourselves in their shoes.
12:26
These are first century Jews. They know what the Old Testament says.
12:32
They know that these things are coming. Earlier in Matthew 11 .14,
12:38
Jesus identified John the Baptist as the Elijah predicted in the Old Testament book of Malachi.
12:45
The Old Testament passage that predicted John the Baptist as Elijah is Malachi chapter four, verses five through six, where the prophet proclaimed, behold,
12:54
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
13:09
Now some Jews thought that Elijah would come back to earth and preach in the last days.
13:16
Remember, Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind to heaven as second Kings two explains.
13:23
He never died. And so some thought he would come to the earth. He went to heaven. He's going to come back and preach.
13:31
But John is not literal Elijah, but one who has the spirit of Elijah.
13:41
In Luke 1 .17, the priest Zachariah said concerning John the Baptist, he will go before Jesus in the spirit and power of Elijah.
13:51
In John 1 .21, John was asked if he was Elijah. And he said he was not.
13:57
What John meant there was that he was not the literal Elijah who went to heaven and came back.
14:04
He's a different person. But as I mentioned, Elijah was taken up to heaven.
14:11
He is one of only two people in the history of the world who have not died.
14:17
Who's the other one? Anybody know? Enoch. God sent
14:24
John the Baptist with the spirit of Elijah so that Israel would repent and turn to receive the
14:30
Messiah. So when Jesus says Elijah has come, that's what he's talking about. John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah and he preached repentance to the people.
14:40
And his purpose was to prepare the way for the Messiah. But the
14:46
Jewish nation largely rejected John the Baptist. And because they rejected John, the kingdom could not start.
14:55
The kingdom is offered to Israel. Israel rejects the kingdom.
15:00
Therefore, the kingdom can't come to the earth. Remember, put ourselves in the shoes of these first century
15:06
Jews. They believe the Messiah is gonna come to the earth. He's gonna drive out their enemies.
15:12
He's gonna reign and rule with his people in Israel. That's what they're waiting on.
15:19
But the Jewish people rejected John. They rejected Jesus, so the kingdom could not start.
15:26
So to fulfill the prophecy of Malachi about Elijah, there still needs to be an
15:33
Elijah to come. So yes, John the Baptist fulfills it partially, but there still needs to be an
15:38
Elijah to come. And this prophecy will be fulfilled during the final seven year tribulation right before the return of Christ.
15:48
The Elijah -like prophet will be one of the two witnesses described in Revelation chapter 11, verses one through 19.
15:56
And I believe it's gonna be the literal Elijah who is in heaven right now, who will come back to the earth. He will preach.
16:03
The first time Israel rejected John the Baptist and rejected Christ, this time they're gonna listen to this
16:11
Elijah. And when Christ comes back to the earth, they are gonna receive their king.
16:19
In our text, what the disciples are saying is that some of the
16:25
Jewish people in the first century think that Jesus is this end times prophet.
16:30
This Elijah predicted in the Old Testament. Remember, he's coming.
16:36
He might be Elijah. People were also saying that Jesus was Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
16:44
If people are saying that Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead, then they have no problem saying that he is
16:51
Jeremiah or one of the prophets raised from the dead. But what all people agree on without question, whether it's the common folks or his enemies who had power, what all of them agree upon is that there is something very special about this man.
17:13
He has a power that he carries that ordinary people do not. The masses of people are saying he is a prophet.
17:22
While his enemies are saying his power comes from Satan. But everyone agrees he's supernatural.
17:30
This man is different. He's not like other people. There's something unique about him.
17:39
This was the talk about Jesus in ancient times. But in 2021, the world that we live in, we live in a world dominated by secularism.
17:51
We live in a world where miracles are seen as fiction. If life came about through trillions of natural mutations over billions of years, then of course this talk of miracles in the
18:05
Bible is fiction. These are the stories you read to your children because they're entertaining.
18:14
A global flood, that's pretty interesting. Let's read this to our kids. The lion's den, let's read those to these kids.
18:23
Jonah and the whale, they're fun stories, but they're disconnected from life.
18:29
That's what the secular world thinks. So what do they do with Jesus though within this secular worldview?
18:40
This is what they do. They explain away his miracles. They read the
18:46
New Testament. They read the Gospels and they say, well, let's just forget about those miracles. Let's just take what we like, leave out what we don't like, and let's make a
18:57
Jesus of our own making. That's what liberals and secularists have done.
19:03
They do not see him as the supernatural man described in the
19:08
Bible, but they do see him as a very special person from history. They do not see him coming from supernatural origin like everyone else who lived in the first century.
19:22
I remind you, even his enemies could not deny his miracles. Their only option was to ascribe his miracles to Satan.
19:31
This dominant belief in the supernatural in Jesus' day tells us something about our own world. It's different.
19:39
Most of world history was not ultra -secular like ours, but there are still people today who believe
19:48
Jesus was otherworldly. Every branch of Christianity, true or false, believes this.
19:54
Islam believes that Jesus had a supernatural origin. Everywhere you look, just about everyone has a nostalgia about Jesus.
20:05
Remember those bracelets? WWJD? What would Jesus do? I think most of the people who wore those weren't even
20:11
Christians, or they weren't committed Christians. People have pictures of Jesus on their walls, and yet they haven't stepped in church in 10 years.
20:22
People have tattoos with crosses on them. People have necklaces with crosses.
20:31
People who were not Christians during their life, when they die, they put a cross on the side of the road.
20:38
There's this nostalgia about Jesus among everybody. And it's interesting, sometimes
20:46
I post something on my Facebook page, and then someone comes and tries to tell me that I'm understanding Jesus all wrong.
20:52
And I'm like, well, look at these 10 verses that you're completely neglecting. He's trying to make a
20:57
Jesus of his own making. But he's still nostalgic about Jesus.
21:05
So he's not just seen in churches, right? We have crosses here. We're Christians here.
21:13
He's not just seen in churches. He's seen everywhere in society. People are drawn to him.
21:20
But here's the problem. They are not drawn to the real Jesus, as we will see more in the second point.
21:29
But why is it that people are drawn to him? Why is it that people see him as unique from just about everyone else in world history?
21:38
We know why. He's not only man, he is God. He is the creator.
21:47
He owns everyone. And people cannot get away from him, even if they're wrong about who he is.
21:55
Understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king. The first reason why is that many know there is something otherworldly about Jesus.
22:06
Many know there is something otherworldly about Jesus. Here's the second reason why.
22:20
You are to understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king. And that is, with God's help, some come to believe in his uniqueness above all others.
22:32
With God's help, some come to believe in his uniqueness above all others. In the first point, we saw that people cannot get away from the influence of Jesus.
22:42
And most people are nostalgic toward him in some way. But when it comes to believing in who
22:49
Jesus really is, and surrendering to him, and giving your whole life to him, this group in the world is a minority.
23:02
I was talking to family over the last couple of days, and I asked them the question, what have you learned since March of 2020?
23:11
You know, since the world really changed. And it was interesting getting some of the answers.
23:18
I mean, you can make a whole book about this. Let's do chapters, right? I learned this. Okay, let's write five pages on that.
23:25
Then write this. You know, you could really write a book about that. What did you learn in 2020 and 2021?
23:32
And one of the things that came to my mind is the path is narrow.
23:41
Right? The path is narrow. It really is. And we've always known that because it says that in Matthew chapter seven, right?
23:50
Jesus says the wide is the path that leads to destruction. And narrow is the path that leads to life, and few find it.
23:57
But I feel like we've seen it more and more that the path is narrow.
24:06
And what we see in these verses here is that Jesus asked the question to the disciples in verse 13, who do people say that the
24:11
Son of Man is? But then He turns this question to the disciples in verse 15, right? They spent all this time with Him.
24:18
They have known Him and know Him unlike anyone else. So this is what they say about Him. And this is what
24:25
Peter says on behalf of his disciples in verse 16. Let's not get there first.
24:33
So he asked the question, who do you say that I am? We have to remember at this point, the disciples have walked with Jesus for quite some time.
24:43
And when Jesus called them, they left everything to follow Him. In some capacity, they left their trades so that they could spend more time with Him.
24:54
During this time, Jesus poured Himself into them. And this is what we call discipleship.
25:00
Discipleship is when someone who is further along helps someone who is not as far along.
25:07
The goal of discipleship is to not only grow the disciple, but also to make this disciple more influential to others.
25:17
Okay, one person can't do everything. So you pour yourself into others, and then they pour themselves into other people.
25:25
And this is something we're doing at this church. And my prayer is that more of this would happen. This is one -on -one time that makes a difference.
25:36
This is how Jesus spent His time during His ministry. All the things, all the things He could have done. Right, He could have had...
25:43
Okay, every night, I'm gonna give this big public proclamation, and we're gonna invite all the crowds out. Now, He did give public proclamations, but that's not how
25:51
He spent most of His time. He spent most of His time with 12 ordinary people.
25:59
And these are not the 12 people that you would have picked. These were not the sophisticated. These were not the charming.
26:07
These were just ordinary people, fishermen, tax collectors. But this is what
26:13
Jesus did. This is how He spent most of His time. Isn't that fascinating? And it changed the world.
26:20
It was wise. He knew what He was doing. And it is my belief that these men, minus Judas, were genuine believers the moment they began to follow
26:32
Jesus. They left everything to follow Him, which shows their true faith. But what we have seen to this point is that they had a small faith.
26:41
A true faith, but a small faith. When Peter walked out on the water, he became afraid as his eyes moved away from Jesus, he began to sink.
26:53
This was a lack of faith. But he showed some faith, right, to get out of the boat in the first place.
27:01
Last week in chapter 16, verse eight, we saw Jesus call out His disciples for their lack of faith.
27:08
He uses the phrase there that He used several times, O you of little faith. The disciples, while having faith, have not been great models of faith to this point.
27:20
And you and I can relate to this in those moments where our faith is weak. But these disciples, minus Judas, would become great models of faith.
27:31
Twelve ordinary men who became champions, who were courageous, who gave everything for their faith in Christ.
27:41
What the book of Acts records is these men preaching boldly. Several of these men were the key writers of the
27:49
New Testament. And church history records that 10 of these men were martyred for their faith in Christ and John was exiled to an island in the
27:57
Mediterranean. A glimmer of this future faith and courage we will see right here.
28:05
In verse 16, the most well -known disciple and the leader of the disciples responds to Jesus' question as to what he and they believe about Jesus' identity.
28:16
This is what he said in response to Jesus' question. Who do you say that I am?
28:22
Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the
28:28
Son of the living God. Correct.
28:35
That's the correct answer right there. You are the Christ, the Son of the living
28:41
God. One thing you must understand about Peter is that he was impulsive.
28:48
Sometimes impulsive just looks great, right? Like right here. But sometimes it really backfires.
28:54
And we see that in Peter's life. In fact, we're going to see that coming up later on in this chapter where he says something horrible to Jesus out of his impulsiveness.
29:08
And as Jesus asks this question, he doesn't just ask this question to Peter. We must understand that.
29:14
He asks it to all the disciples and Peter speaks on their behalf. Influential 4th century preacher,
29:22
John Chrysostom, he was known as the golden mouth because of his preaching. He called
29:28
Peter the director of the apostolic choir. So Roman Catholics have something right here.
29:37
There's something special about Peter. But of course they got the papacy wrong. I'm gonna explain that more next Sunday. But he is speaking on behalf of the disciples.
29:49
And this was not the first time that the disciples called Jesus the Messiah. When the disciple
29:54
Andrew first met Jesus, he exclaimed that he was the Messiah. And Nathanael called Jesus the
29:59
Son of God, the King of Israel. But they had doubts about Jesus.
30:06
We saw this most clearly with the feeding of the thousands. Three times they doubted that He could provide bread.
30:13
But even though at this point they believed Jesus was the Messiah, it was not embedded strongly in them until right now.
30:26
The confession that Peter and the other disciples, minus Judas, agree with is that Jesus is the long -awaited
30:35
Messiah predicted in the Old Testament. The Greek word for the Hebrew word
30:40
Messiah is Christ. This is why He is called Jesus Christ.
30:46
The name Christ became so attached to His name Jesus that they just called
30:52
Him Jesus Christ. And that's what it's written later on in the New Testament as Paul writes and others.
30:58
They call Him Jesus Christ. And not only do the disciples believe that Jesus is the
31:04
King of Israel and the King of the world, but He's also God. When you look at Old Testament passages about the
31:12
Messiah, what you discover is that the Messiah is not just a man.
31:18
He's God. The prophecy Isaiah 9, verse 6 is a good place to see this.
31:25
For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government shall be upon His shoulder.
31:33
And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
31:42
That's not just a man. Those titles attached to Him have divinity in mind.
31:52
He is King and He is God. The disciples understand this and they make this important proclamation.
32:03
He is the Christ and the Son of the living God. And they spent this time with Him.
32:11
And they're persuaded. We thought you might be this. We were leaning in that direction, but we had doubts.
32:19
But now we know with confidence you are the Christ, the
32:24
Son of the living God. In the previous point, what we saw is that people in the 1st century and people today know that there's something special about Him.
32:38
When you hear George Washington's name, you think, oh man, great American. Great man from history.
32:45
When you hear Alexander the Great's name, you think, oh man, he was a conqueror from world history. And when you hear
32:51
Julius Caesar's name, you think certain things. When you hear Cleopatra's name, you think certain things.
32:58
When you hear Jesus' name, it's different. Everybody has to acknowledge that. It's different.
33:04
There's worship attached to Him. We know that there's a lot of flaky
33:11
Christians out there, but something like 1 5th or 1 6th of the world in some way identifies as Christian, which means follower of Christ.
33:23
There's nothing like that in the world. It's amazing. Most people fall short though in their proclamation of who
33:33
Jesus is. He was a special man from history. There was something special about Him. But most people fall short in saying who
33:41
He really is. But right here, the disciples are not falling short.
33:47
They know who He is in full. If you don't have the right
33:53
Jesus, you have a false gospel. You have a different religion. It's dangerous.
33:58
We need to get Jesus right. And the way you get Him right is by believing what the
34:03
Bible says about Him, not picking and choosing, which so many people do. They know who
34:11
He is in full. This is what one author wrote. He was the fulfiller of their hopes, the source of their salvation, the desire of the nations.
34:24
As Jesus makes this confession on behalf of the disciples, Jesus responds to him in verse 17. Jesus answered him, and blessed are you,
34:34
Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
34:43
You notice here that Jesus calls Peter by his first name, Simon Barjona. Simon is his birth name.
34:50
Barjona is his father's name. And you see this in the Bible. They're called by their son.
34:57
They're called son of whoever their father is. And that went away at some point in history, but at this point, it's very active.
35:06
And from this point forward, he would be called Peter. And we will see that next
35:12
Sunday, why he is called Peter. What we need to see here is the blessing that is upon Peter.
35:19
To be blessed means that God's favor is upon him. It means that he is blessed now and forever.
35:26
This position is where most of the world is not. But Peter and every disciple through history is.
35:35
When you confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, what
35:41
Jesus tells Peter is that the only reason you are in this position is because God's hand has been over you.
35:52
As He says, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. You didn't come up with this on your own.
36:03
What Jesus is communicating is that no one comes to true faith in Christ without God's help.
36:10
The Apostle Paul says this very thing in Ephesians 1, verses 4 -7. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
36:22
In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which
36:34
He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.
36:45
Let me explain what Jesus and Paul are communicating here. It's not as if an unbeliever is going through their day and you magically become a
36:53
Christian. You go from being completely indifferent to Christ and then, whoa, wait, I'm a Christian. No.
37:01
God plays a role. And you play a role. For some people, God has been working on the heart for years and the person finally surrenders to Jesus.
37:11
For others, it is more sudden. The Apostle Paul in the book of Acts is on the road to Damascus to persecute more
37:18
Christians. And Jesus appears to him. And shortly after Jesus appears to him, Paul becomes a
37:24
Christian. Everyone in this room who became a Christian, God softened your heart before you became one.
37:35
But as He softened your heart, you believed. Without that softening, it is impossible for you to become a
37:42
Christian because in your hardness of heart, you will never choose Christ on your own. God the
37:50
Father uses the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to do this. The Holy Spirit, I've heard it described this way, is like a salesman who has your best interest in mind.
38:04
He wants to sell you on Jesus, but you need to make the decision. He shows you your sin.
38:11
He shows you that Jesus is the only Savior. He urges you not to travel down the wide path that leads to destruction.
38:20
He turns a light on in your heart where you start to see Jesus as precious.
38:28
He urges you and I to follow the narrow path, to follow Jesus, the only place where there's everlasting life.
38:35
This is the work that the Holy Spirit does. When you come into this world, you can't just believe in Jesus.
38:43
The Holy Spirit has to do a little work in your heart. In fact, I would say a big work in your heart before you can come to faith in Christ.
38:53
And what Jesus is telling Peter is that you didn't do this on your own. You did not make yourself my follower.
39:03
God drew you to me, and you followed his lead.
39:09
Jesus says in John 6, all who come to me are drawn by the
39:14
Father, and everyone who comes to me I will never cast out.
39:20
Okay, so he draws you and you want him and you believe in him.
39:28
And what happens here is new life in Christ. Peter not only believed true facts about Jesus, but he also loved him deeply.
39:37
And so is the story of every Christian. What you come to see is that he makes life worth living.
39:45
Like how do you know you're a true Christian? Do you love the biblical Jesus? Do you truly love him?
39:52
Not just, oh, I believe facts about him. Not just, you know, I prayed a prayer when
39:58
I was younger and I'm still counting on that prayer to save me, but he means nothing to my life right now.
40:05
That's not true faith. True faith is you love him. You truly love him.
40:11
I mean, think about those people in your life who you love dearly. You love Jesus that way. In the first point, what we saw about those people is that they saw
40:21
Jesus as nostalgic. They're interested in him. There's something special about him.
40:27
But Peter and everyone who makes a sincere confession like he did here, sees
40:33
Jesus for who he is and follows him. And this is the trouble with so much of American Christianity.
40:40
To be a true Christian is to identify as a Christian alone, but to surrender your life to him.
40:48
Okay, so there has to be the confession and there has to be the surrender. Both pieces need to be there.
40:55
And if this surrender is not there, then true belief is not there. To be a true follower of Christ is to have deep convictions about him and to live accordingly.
41:06
You can't drift too far from him if you truly belong to him because he means that much to you.
41:13
Jesus says in John 16, 19, if you love me, then you will do what
41:19
I command. It means to live as Christ and to die as gain as Philippians 1 .21
41:26
says. Jesus is not the cherry on top of your life. He is your life. That's what
41:31
Colossians says in Colossians chapter three. He is your life. Can you imagine living one day without him?
41:43
To the one who was saved, God shows you this. And you have this strong confession like Peter had, the light turns on and you see it.
41:52
And when you have this, there's only one way to live. As the old song says, all to Jesus I surrender.
42:00
All to thee I freely give. I will ever love and trust you in your presence daily live. I surrender all.
42:08
I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. What a beautiful song that is.
42:17
This is the life that truly confesses Jesus as the Christ. The son of the living
42:23
God. And you see that in Peter's life. Peter's making this confession. You are the son.
42:30
You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And you know what?
42:35
As we look at Peter's life, the rest of his life during Jesus' ministry, it wasn't flashy, right? He denied
42:40
Jesus three times. There's this vulnerability that's there. There's still this doubt that is there.
42:46
But as Peter's life went on, it validated this confession. Read 1 and 2
42:54
Peter. Peter wrote that. Realized that he died for his faith in Christ. It was a true confession.
43:02
And everybody who has a true confession has a true life lived for him. James says, faith without deeds is dead.
43:12
Right, you see how the Bible connects. All these, whether it's Paul, whether it's Jesus, whether it's any of the disciples, they all agree, this is what true faith looks like.
43:24
And my prayer is that everyone would have this true faith. Everyone in this room, and that we would communicate this to others in our life.
43:32
To have true faith in Jesus Christ. To be able to make this confession. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And mean it.
43:38
Not just to give lip service to it. So we are to understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
43:48
And the second reason why is that with God's help, some come to believe in his uniqueness above all others.
43:57
Now next Sunday, we will see the third and fourth reason why we must understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
44:07
And I'll tell you what, there's so much to look at in these verses remaining. Where Jesus calls
44:14
Peter the rock, and he says, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
44:21
And you have the keys to heaven. The keys to the kingdom of heaven.
44:27
I tell you what, there's a lot to look at, and I can't wait to look at it with you. Because if you get this wrong, then you're in a false religion.
44:36
But if you get it right, then you're truly following God. Okay, and we're gonna get it right next week, okay?
44:42
As we see what is really there. But this time let's bow our heads in prayer.
44:51
Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. What a treasure it is. It truly is a treasure chest.
44:57
And to think how many Bibles we have, and how many Bibles are on our shelves, how many Bibles are in the world, and yet how little it's opened.
45:06
And I know in my own life, Lord, I can surely open up the Bible a lot more than I do. And I think we can all say that.
45:13
But when we see it, Lord, it truly fills us up. And thank you for your word.
45:19
And my prayer, Lord, is that everyone in this room would have this confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
45:24
God. And that we would get this message out to others too. And that we would see sincere faith all across the board as this confession is made, as we understand who
45:37
Jesus truly is. And we praise you, Lord, for your Son, who you sent to die in our place, and who rose victoriously, and who will come again and reign forever with his people.
45:52
And may we live with that hope this day and this week. In Jesus' name,