[0:00] I'd encourage you at this time, if you'd open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 17, 16, Matthew chapter 16. We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Matthew.
[0:14] And today we're looking at just three verses, Matthew 16, verses 21 through 23. Matthew 16, 21.
[0:26] From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
[0:42] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me.
[0:56] For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Well, you may remember, last week we saw Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ.
[1:08] And we talked about this some last week, and we're going to expand on that today. But when he said Jesus is the Christ, Christ just means the anointed one or Messiah. Those words are used interchangeably. Messiah would have been a closer or a transliteration of the Hebrew word.
[1:23] But Messiah, Christ, the anointed one, Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. And that's back in verse 16, if you want to look back, Matthew 16, 16. And we talked about the idea of the son of the living God is claiming that God is, that Jesus is God.
[1:40] He's deity. He's divine. And so Peter has confessed that he's the Messiah, and all that that entails, and we're going to talk about that today. But also that he is God incarnate.
[1:53] And what we saw last week is that this represents a much greater understanding on the part of the disciples. Peter's really speaking as spokesman for the disciples. This has been revealed to him, but apparently to at least most of them, their understanding, they're beginning to see that Jesus is the promised Old Testament Messiah, and that he's God in human flesh.
[2:14] And Jesus goes on to say that this has been revealed to them by God the Father. And so they come to this knowledge not of their own understanding or their own reasoning or their own intellect, but because God has spiritually revealed to them that's who Jesus is.
[2:30] And so Jesus affirms that he is the Messiah, that he is divine by saying this, and that this is something that comes from God. And so what we see is that in this progression in Matthew, there's greater opposition to Jesus by the crowds, those who are not his followers, but his followers are coming to a greater and greater understanding of who Jesus is.
[2:52] And as I said, this really hits the high point last week where Peter confesses he's the Messiah and he is God. So in this passage, what we see is really the understanding of what Messiah means contrasted, or Peter's and the disciples' understanding of what Messiah means contrasted with what Jesus rightly understands the Messiah or himself to be as the Messiah.
[3:18] And so we see this contrast. They've confessed that he's the Messiah and it's been revealed to them by God that this is the one that's been promised in the Old Testament, the Messiah, but their expectation of the Messiah is actually wrong.
[3:30] It's still very similar to that of the prevailing view of the culture at that time. And so I would define that and say that this passage that we're looking at today, these three verses are all about what Messiah means, what Christ means, if we want to say that.
[3:47] I know sometimes we think of Jesus Christ and we think of Christ as Jesus' last name. Christ isn't Jesus' last name. It's really a description of who he is. It's a title given to him and it's interchangeable with Messiah.
[4:03] And so what we see in this passage is what does Messiah mean? That's the question that's being answered. And we see Peter and the disciples' understanding of that and we see Jesus' correction of that.
[4:13] And so what we want to consider today is what does it mean? What does it mean that Jesus is the Messiah? He's affirmed that he's the Messiah and he's affirmed that this is a knowledge that comes to us through God the Father.
[4:26] But that doesn't mean we're always going to understand what Messiah means. And so Jesus is defining for us what that means and he does it somewhat by contrast in Peter's misconception. So as we look at the text beginning in our first verse, it says, From that time Jesus began to show his disciples.
[4:43] Now from what time? Well the time he's speaking of is the time that just preceded. What's just happened? It's what we've just talked about. Peter has confessed Jesus is the Messiah and God.
[4:55] And so from that time, from the time of Peter's confession, from the time of this revelation of who Jesus is to the disciples, now Jesus begins to, we could say, teach in a deeper way.
[5:07] He begins to reveal more to them because they're ready for it now. They're prepared for it. You may remember back in chapter 13, we talked about the kingdom parables. And Jesus intentionally spoke in parables so that those who did not have eyes to see or ears to hear would not see or understand or hear.
[5:24] And so now we see the contrast that the disciples have been given eyes to see who Jesus is. And ears to hear who he is. And really a heart to understand who he is.
[5:36] And so now Jesus is able to speak to them and explain to them more about what it means to be the Messiah. And so when we get to from that time on, it really represents a dramatic shift in the gospel.
[5:49] Up until that point, he is indirectly alluded to who he is and what's going to happen to him. You may remember things like the prophecy of Jonah.
[5:59] He says, no sign will be given you except the sign of Jonah. He said that twice in different contexts. And in the first context, at least, he explains, just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, so the Son of Man must be in the belly of the earth.
[6:13] And so there's this hint to what does that mean? But there's these illusions. But now he begins to speak more clearly. They understand that he is divine.
[6:23] They understand that he's the Messiah. But they have to come to an understanding of what Messiah means. And that's really what Jesus is beginning to teach them. We see from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and die.
[6:38] And so we've seen previously as we've gone through Matthew some of the misconceptions of what Messiah means. I think quickly we could just say that the expectation of the Messiah was that the Messiah was to be a son of David.
[6:53] Now, we could look at it really is beyond all that. We could say there's also the idea that a son of Eve, of Adam and Eve, that's going to crush the head of the serpent. We know it's also the offspring of Abraham.
[7:05] But in particular, what was focused on that day was that there would come a son of David, someone from David's line, who would reign on the throne forever. And now, during this time, they've been without a king for hundreds of years.
[7:20] And so the question is, is God going to fulfill his promise? Is he going to send that Davidic king to rule? And if that king comes, what's going to happen with them being under Roman authority?
[7:32] Well, this coming king, this Messiah, will overthrow the Roman power. And he will take over perhaps even the Roman Empire. But he will reign over his people. And he will sit on the throne forever.
[7:43] And so they took what was there in prophecy, what was there in the covenants, and they understood it in a way. And some of it's good. Jesus is coming.
[7:54] He's the king. He will reign forever. But their understanding is wrong. And that's what Jesus is explaining to them. They were expecting him to come with military might and fight a war against Roman powers and defeat them.
[8:09] And so what they longed for, what they looked for, was an earthly king. And that was common that day and age. And I think it's no doubt that the disciples shared in some of these misconceptions.
[8:20] We even see it with the sons of Zebedee. The two disciples are fighting over who's going to sit at Jesus' right hand and left hand. And the idea is Jesus is going to be reigning on a throne in Jerusalem.
[8:31] And they want to sit at his right hand and left hand. And Jesus interprets it and sees it as you don't know what you're asking because his kingdom's in heaven. And what they're asking is beyond what they could possibly comprehend.
[8:44] And I think even the fact that it says Jesus from that time on began to show them points to the fact of their misconception. It's going to take time. They're not going to get it right away as is obvious with Peter's response here in this passage.
[8:58] And so they still don't get it even when Jesus is arrested. Right? They all flee. They go their different ways. They still haven't understood. They really don't realize even at that point that he's going to suffer and die and this is part of the plan.
[9:10] And so Jesus has teach them that the Messiah is not what they expected. The Messiah is different than their expectations of what the Messiah should be.
[9:22] And really one of the distinctions is it's not simply earthly glory and victory. But there's a spiritual, there's a heavenly dynamic to this. And in fact rather than the physical glory that they had looked for, what Jesus says is that the Messiah is going to face opposition, hardship, suffering, and murder.
[9:42] He's going to be put to death. In fact, we could argue that in Matthew's gospel and in the gospels that Jesus would say the essence of being the Messiah is suffering.
[9:55] Suffering is the essence of being the Messiah. It's what the Messiah means for Jesus. We see this increasingly in the gospel. We're going to see it in chapter 17, verse 9 he talks about it.
[10:06] Verse 12 he talks about it. And then multiple times as we progress on, we see Jesus on and on talking about a suffering Messiah. He doesn't just say that he will suffer and die.
[10:20] He says he must go to Jerusalem. And I want to think for a second about this idea of he must go to Jerusalem. Why does Jesus say he must? Why this necessity that he speaks of?
[10:36] Well, obviously you see from that the necessity. It's necessary for him to suffer and die. You may remember Jesus says of Jerusalem in Matthew 23, 37.
[10:48] Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. So it's not as though Jesus doesn't know what it means to go to Jerusalem. He confesses before he enters into Jerusalem that they're the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.
[11:04] And what should be the expectation for the Son of God when he comes? If they killed his prophets, it's like the parable of the vineyard and the tenants. They're going to kill the Son when he comes to them.
[11:16] And so he says that there he will suffer many things and be killed. So the Messiah must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die.
[11:29] But again, why this necessity? Why does Jesus feel this compulsion to go? Well, I think this is part of what we're getting at in this passage, is that Jesus wants to communicate what it means to be Messiah.
[11:45] And his obligation, his necessity of going to Jerusalem to die is part of what it means to be Messiah. It's the very reason that Jesus became incarnate, why God took on human flesh was to die.
[11:59] That was the purpose. And that's always been the purpose of the Messiah. Messiah. This Messiah is the sacrificial lamb. You think of things like the Passover. You think of that Passover lamb being put to death.
[12:11] And so Jesus has come as our Passover lamb. The Messiah was the sacrificial Passover lamb that would die in the place of his people. We think also that the Messiah must fulfill the law's demands.
[12:23] And then pay the penalty for his people's sins. So Jesus is going to perfectly obey the law. He's never going to sin. He's always going to do the will of the Father. And then he's going to go and die.
[12:35] It's a perfect sacrifice for those who could not keep that law. Who have not done the will of the Father. Who have sinned against him. He's going to take upon himself that sin. And so his death is necessary to pay the price for our sins.
[12:47] And so this is really nothing to shrink back from. But to be embraced by Jesus as the purpose and goal for his coming. This is why he's here. And so again, he doesn't shrink back.
[13:00] It's a necessity. He realizes he must go. And we understand that this suffering and this death is the only means for salvation for anyone. Apart from Jesus' suffering and death, there is no salvation for anyone.
[13:15] And so we too must embrace this as our hope for salvation. I think even as we hear this, this revelation as we go throughout the Gospel of Matthew, and we get to this point and Jesus says, I'm going to Jerusalem to suffer and die.
[13:29] And you see Peter's response, and we're going to talk about that in a minute. He's appalled by that. But what should our response be? I think maybe you guys have experienced this.
[13:40] If you've ever read a book with a real plot twist or watched a movie with this real plot twist. You get to a point and you're thinking, the first time you watch it, you go, this is bad.
[13:50] Why did this just happen? And it's not until you get to the end of the movie, it makes sense. And so for us, it's almost like re-watching a movie or re-reading a book that we know already. And we get to that one point in the movie that looks so bad, and instead of being in tears, we're cheering, yes!
[14:06] And that's exactly what we ought to be doing as we get to this point. Yes! This is exactly what's needed. Yes! Go to Jerusalem. Suffer. Die.
[14:16] It's our only hope for salvation. Just briefly mention, he even says it's from the elders and chief priests and scribes that he will suffer and die. Why? This foretells at whose hands Jesus will suffer this.
[14:32] And really, this is the group that forms the Sanhedrin. He's basically named the group that's going to proclaim his condemnation. And I want you to see as well, maybe I could even ask, though there's no one here to answer, but I could ask you if you caught this when we read it through the first time.
[14:50] He says in verse 21 that he will go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And so, I won't focus a lot of time on it, but I don't want you to miss the fact that Jesus predicts to them, he tells them in advance, that part of the necessity of his going to Jerusalem to die is not that he'll stay in the grave, but that he will defeat death, that he will overcome death, that he will be raised from the dead.
[15:17] And so, again, as we understand, who is the Messiah? The Messiah is the one who will conquer death and deliver his people from death. He's the death killer, the death defeater. And he delivers us from death.
[15:31] And I point this out to us partly because we're going to see that it seems at least the disciples glossed over this. They're so focused on his death that they miss the point that he says he's going to come back alive from the dead.
[15:47] And so, as we see they're missing that point and they're focusing on the death, we see really Peter's rebuke of Jesus in verse 22. And Peter took him aside.
[16:00] You understand the phraseology of that even. We think of that as you take somebody to the side, you know what's coming when you say he took them to the side. So, Peter takes Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying, Far be it from you, Lord.
[16:15] This shall never happen to you. Now, again, we see Peter speaking for the disciples. I think he's representative of what all the disciples are probably thinking to some extent.
[16:27] We see Peter's a spokesperson. We also see how impetuous Peter is, how quick to speak he is. He's the first one to speak out loud and confess that Jesus is Messiah. He's also the first one to tell him he can't die.
[16:39] He won't die. That's not the plan. And so, from verse 22, we see that the disciples have understood what Jesus has said to them. At least they've understood that Jesus is going to die.
[16:51] They may not yet have understood the resurrection. But they have not accepted it. They haven't believed it to be true or don't want it to be true.
[17:02] Again, I think this is why Matthew says that Jesus began to teach them back in verse 21. So, Peter's rebuking of Jesus implies that he believes he knows better than Jesus.
[17:15] I don't think there's another way to say it. When someone rebukes someone else, it's because they know what's right and another person doesn't. A rebuke is a correction. Peter knows what's right. Jesus doesn't.
[17:28] And so, Peter's going to take Jesus to the side and educate him. Correct him. Put Jesus in his place. In fact, he even declares, this shall never happen to you.
[17:38] Not like, Jesus, you shouldn't do this. I encourage you not to. But this isn't going to happen to you. You're wrong. You've got it wrong. This is not what's going to happen. Now, again, Peter's speaking out of his understanding of the Messiah.
[17:53] From the Old Testament, the Messiah's going to be the king. He's going to reign forever. If a king's going to reign forever, can he die? I mean, how do we understand death if a man reigns forever? If he's going to be king, how is he going to be put to death?
[18:05] Especially if you're pitching a military battle where the king's fighting to conquer the kingdom. If he's killed in the process in Jerusalem, well, that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? And so, Peter, speaking out of his understanding of what the Messiah should be and is, tells him that this can never happen.
[18:21] And though Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Messiah and that he's the Son of God, and that may even, again, lend to why he struggles to understand how can the Son of God die?
[18:37] Apart from God's word and the spiritual revelation that's been given to Christians, how can any of us understand that God incarnate would come to earth and die? So, Peter's confessed that he's the Messiah, that he's the Son of God, but the idea of suffering and dying seems inconsistent with what Peter understands the Messiah to mean, what he's confessed.
[18:59] That the Messiah, God incarnate, would be rejected and killed seems completely impossible for him, incomprehensible. And as I said, it would likely seem the same for all of us, apart from the word of God and what we've been given in Revelation.
[19:18] How can we ever understand that concept, that Jesus, that God would come to earth, and that he would die, and that he would suffer? And how's that going to win anything?
[19:29] How's he going to conquer death? How's he going to be a king who reigns forever if he dies? But I want to encourage you as well that the suffering and death of Jesus is foretold in the Old Testament.
[19:40] But without the Lord giving us understanding, I think we would have been in the same place as the disciples. The Old Testament is there. In fact, now that we know what happened to Jesus, we look back at the Old Testament and we go, of course, that's obvious.
[19:53] Well, it wasn't obvious. We've had spiritual help to understand, but they did not have that understanding at that time. And so they're struggling. And as I said, Peter goes so far as to authoritatively proclaim that it will never happen.
[20:08] I want just for a moment to say, what if Peter would have gotten his way? What if Jesus would have said, Peter, you're right. We'll stay away from Jerusalem.
[20:20] I'm not going to suffer. I'm not going to die. What if Peter said that's never going to happen? What if that would have happened? What if Jesus never would have suffered and died? Well, we think of what we said earlier of the necessity of Jesus going to the cross and dying.
[20:37] Apart from Jesus is going to the cross. Apart from his death, his suffering. Apart from his resurrection. Where would we be? I find it amazing that Peter unknowingly, he's arguing for his own damnation and yours, all of ours.
[20:57] Peter, in a noble desire not to see Jesus die, argues that he himself and all of humanity would be eternally condemned to hell.
[21:12] Without Jesus' death, there is no atonement for anyone, ever. There's no atonement. And so Peter, as I said, unknowingly argues for his own damnation.
[21:26] And again, this helps us as we understand what is the Messiah. Peter's conception of the Messiah seems good, but it's all wrong. He's got it wrong. And in so desiring and so seeing it that way, if the Messiah would have been shaped in Peter's image or the desire of Peter, then there's no salvation for us.
[21:47] But we see Peter rebuked. So our last point was Peter's rebuke of Jesus. Now Peter rebuked by Jesus in verse 23. But he, that's Jesus, turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan.
[22:01] You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And so Jesus, I think I can clearly say, forcefully rebukes Peter.
[22:12] I mean, almost, it sounds almost harsh, that he, his rebuke of Peter. You may remember the last section, verse 17, he called Peter, blessed.
[22:23] Blessed are you. But now here he calls Peter, one of his followers, Satan. I think I can say that.
[22:34] I'll elaborate a little bit. It may be very well that he, that Jesus is speaking to Satan through Peter. But at least as Peter would have heard it, he goes from being called blessed to now being called Satan.
[22:47] And I won't get deep into this at this point, but we talked last week about Peter and what it means to be the foundation, the rock of the church upon which the church is built.
[23:00] And we talked about in this passage, look at the transition. Peter is not someone with absolute authority. He thinks he is in some sense, right? When he says, this will never happen.
[23:13] And Jesus is saying, yes, it will, Peter. It's going to happen. Peter doesn't have absolute authority. Neither is he infallible. He gets it completely wrong. In fact, the very thing he wants would damn him in us.
[23:26] It would condemn us eternally. And so, again, we see Peter was never infallible. He's human like all of us. He sins. He's not infallible.
[23:38] He doesn't have absolute authority. And he goes from being called the rock, this foundation of the church, as I said before, to a stumbling block in this very verse. He says, you are a hindrance to me. And really that's sometimes translated as stumbling block.
[23:51] So what's going on in this passage? What's being said? Well, first I want to say Peter's not Satan. Satan's not masking himself as Peter like Satan did with the serpent in the garden.
[24:02] He's not pretending to be Peter and Peter's somehow out of the picture. No, that's still Peter that Jesus is speaking to. So it's not Satan. I would go as far to say also that he's not possessed by Satan.
[24:16] I think even at this point we have to understand that he's a follower of Jesus, even if he gets some things wrong. He's not possessed by Satan. But I think we have to acknowledge that there may be a real sense in which he's been influenced by Satan.
[24:29] William Henderson says that Jesus is addressing whatever in Peter has been perversely influenced by the prince of evil.
[24:41] And so there's something in him that's been influenced in this way negatively that's caused him to think in these kind of ways. Maybe we could say it this way.
[24:51] It's not that Peter himself is Satan. Rather, it's that the argument that Peter is using is Satan's argument. I think that's a great way for us to understand it.
[25:02] What Peter's arguing is the very thing that Satan wants, what he desires. Jesus not going to the cross would accomplish Satan's purposes. And I think it's not expressly clear in the Bible how much does Satan understand of what's going to happen at the cross.
[25:17] It's obvious that Satan later will use those involved in Jesus' death to actually bring about Jesus' death, his crucifixion.
[25:31] But if Satan were to understand the plan, even if we understand Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, we see that what Peter's arguing for is exactly what Satan's arguing for. Really, it is Satan's argument in the wilderness.
[25:44] And so, likewise, Jesus' answer is almost identical. In Matthew 4.10, Jesus says, It says, Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan.
[25:54] And really, the wording, the phrasing here is almost identical. Some versions even render it exactly the same. Get behind me, Satan. Be gone, Satan. And so, he's saying the same thing. The cross was central to God's plan for Jesus and for his making atonement for sinful men.
[26:12] And so, to argue against the cross is really to argue for what would serve Satan. What would go against the purposes of the Messiah, against God's purpose, and really against our salvation.
[26:27] I think I would acknowledge as well the fact that Jesus is saying, Get behind me, Satan, is also acknowledging that this is a temptation for Jesus. Of course, it sounds good not to die and not to suffer and to take the easier road.
[26:42] And as I've said, that's what Satan tried to tempt Jesus with. Just bow your knee to me. I'll give you the kingdoms. You don't have to suffer. You don't have to die. And Peter's really making the same argument. And so, the forcefulness of Jesus' response demonstrates the importance of his death and the importance of the atonement.
[27:02] The Messiah was going to be the atoning sacrifice of his people. And so, when we think about what does it mean to be Messiah, this is what we're understanding and this is what we're saying. Jesus is arguing against this so forcefully because Peter has understood this is essential to what it means to be the Messiah.
[27:19] He must suffer and he must die. And so, he calls Peter a hindrance to him, a temptation not to die, a stumbling block. And then the last sentence, I think, is really the key.
[27:34] He says, For you are setting your mind on the things of God. Or not on the... I'm sorry. You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. So, in this last section, we saw that Peter was given spiritual understanding from God.
[27:49] He was able to understand who Jesus is. But already here in this passage, we see he's thinking in natural ways, in physical ways, in non-spiritual ways. And so, as he thinks about the Messiah and he looks at what Jesus is saying, I think what Jesus is saying here is that Peter is only looking at it through a human perspective.
[28:10] He's not seeing it, maybe we could say, through the lens of the Bible. He's not seeing it through the lens of the Holy Spirit. All he's seeing it through is the human lens of what this would mean.
[28:20] But again, without Jesus' suffering, without his death and atonement, there can be no salvation for man. That's really what it means to be Messiah.
[28:32] And I want to encourage you as well that what Peter opposes here, he later will glory in. Right? Peter doesn't stay here. He's given more and more spiritual revelation and even after Jesus' resurrection, he understands with greater understanding.
[28:44] But later, the Sanhedrin that we talked about, that Jesus says, are the ones who turned him over to be put to death. Later, Peter will say to the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 4, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ, again, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well.
[29:11] This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
[29:24] And so Peter now, in speaking to them, understands that salvation is through the death of Jesus Christ. There is no other name by which we can be saved. This is what it means to be the Messiah. He will die so that we can be saved.
[29:36] And Peter gets it now. And then in the very next chapter, Acts chapter 5, we read of the disciples, it says, in every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
[29:51] They're proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and all that that entails, which includes, now they understand, his death. And then later, in 1 Peter 2.24, Peter writes of Jesus, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
[30:11] By his wounds, you have been healed. Now here, Peter says, he bore our sins in his body on that tree.
[30:24] So Peter, on the other side of it, he understands what the cross is for. It's for our atonement. It's for our sins to be placed on Jesus. That we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
[30:35] And then, interestingly enough, he quotes Isaiah 53, and we'll look at that a little bit later. But he quotes Isaiah 53 here and says, by his wounds, you have been healed.
[30:48] And so, the means by which we're saved, the healing of us, our sins taken away is only through his wounds, his suffering, his death. And so now, Peter understands it not just from what he's seen, but he understands it from the Old Testament.
[31:02] That's what Isaiah 53 meant. He didn't get it at this point in Matthew 16. But later, he writes, and we understand he gets it now. And we need to understand as well what it means to be Messiah and what is the Messiah.
[31:17] And so, just a few points as we close an application. Let me ask you, what are some of the messianic misconceptions that you may have today?
[31:29] Now, that may be difficult to think through, but what are some wrong ways we have of thinking of what it means for Jesus to be the Christ? the Messiah. I hear sometimes, maybe this is more a misunderstanding of God, but I hear sometimes people say things like, well, God is a God of love.
[31:50] And so, the implication from that is, therefore, everyone's going to heaven or there is no hell. I think there's a gross messianic misconception.
[32:02] If because of love no one goes to hell, then why did the Son of Man have to come and die? Why is the Messiah suffering and dying? And so, it would be easy for us to think of some attributes of God disproportionately to other attributes of God and therefore misunderstand what it means to be Messiah.
[32:19] I think we could even say what you believe about Jesus matters. It determines your eternal destiny. In 1 John 2.22, in the contents of John speaking of the Antichrist, he says, who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
[32:35] And again, that word's just Messiah that we've been looking at. And so, he's saying the liar and really he goes beyond that, as I said, to speak of the Antichrist but really, what determines if you're a Christian or not?
[32:46] Do you accept, do you believe that Jesus is this Messiah? The one that Jesus described? Not the one the disciples misunderstood. Not the way we may misunderstand but do we understand that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ who came, who took on human flesh, who suffered, who died, who was resurrected for our sins, for our atonement, that we might be made right with God.
[33:10] It matters what we believe about Jesus. In the kingdom parables that we looked at back in chapter 13, Jesus was dealing with messianic misconceptions.
[33:22] For example, the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Jesus has not come this time as judge. And that was part of the misconception that he was going to come and he was going to conquer the world and judge the world in his first coming.
[33:37] But even that parable was dealing with that. It's teaching us about the kingdom but what it's teaching us is that in this age good and evil will coexist until the final judgment. And Jesus' coming at this time doesn't usher in the final judgment but he will return again.
[33:53] Or again, the mustard seed and the yeast. The idea that the kingdom will grow slowly and almost unnoticed. that's contrary to the messianic understanding of most of Israel and apparently disciples.
[34:04] Their understanding was when the Messiah comes, it will be instantaneous. He's going to conquer Rome. He'll take over the kingdom. He's going to reign on his throne. But what we realize now living in this age that we're living in and even what Jesus was revealing in the kingdom parables is that it's going to be slow.
[34:21] It's a gradual process. But the kingdom is going to grow and grow. It's going to fill the earth but it's not going to happen in an instant. I think as well how often do we question God about something in our life that doesn't seem right to us?
[34:37] Do we ever play the role of Peter? Do we take God aside and rebuke him? Far be it from you Lord to do this in my life.
[34:52] Or do we ever proclaim this shall never be. This can't happen. And I think go back to what Peter's arguing for. If Peter gets his way he's lost.
[35:06] You're lost. I'm lost. Everyone's lost. There is no salvation for anyone if Peter gets his way. But it sounds good when he prays it when he says it to Jesus.
[35:17] And I think the same thing is true for us. Or the times in which we pray things believing that this can never happen or that it shouldn't happen or that God's somehow in the wrong. And God graciously is doing what's best for us in that instance.
[35:32] And what brings him the most glory and we can't see it. And in truth most of us or maybe I could say most of the time we likely won't see it until we're in heaven.
[35:44] We may not see it in this life. Why was that good? It shouldn't seem like good. Suffering doesn't seem very pleasant or good. But we have to understand that God is working this together for good.
[35:59] And he has his purposes and we need to be careful not to go against that or question that. Again, I think if Peter gets his way we're condemned. And how often do we pray asking God to give us the very thing that would condemn us?
[36:12] The very thing that might lead us into greater temptation or to turning away. And how gracious God is to give us what may not seem pleasant in the instant or in the moment but it's for our good.
[36:24] I think this also teaches us that we must be humble. There's obviously an issue of pride here. James Montgomery Boyce points out that like Peter it is completely possible that we can be correct in one moment only to be terribly wrong in the next moment.
[36:41] How true is it that sometimes we're on a spiritual high we've understood something great from God's word only to get something else completely wrong in the very next instance. Our deepest spiritual moments can be followed by our lowliest physical moments.
[36:57] Right? We can be deep and just in love with God and his word only to fall into grievous sin in the very next instant. And so we need to be careful and we need to be humble before God.
[37:09] as I said already that we can pray for things that may be spiritually damning to us spiritually damaging to us or even condemning of us and we may think we're praying for what's right and good.
[37:29] And that's true again how humble must we be. We must be trusting of God as he answers our prayers whatever that may look like however he may do it whatever circumstances he may bring in our life we need to be trusting in him.
[37:42] If I were to extend a little further what does it mean for Jesus to be the Messiah? It also means that he is the king. He's reigning on the throne. He's seated at the right hand of the Father and God's word tells us from which he's interceding on our behalf.
[37:59] And God's speaking to the Father and saying look I know he's asking for this but what he really means is this. And we need that intercession but we also need humility before God. Finally what I want you to see is and what I think is the major message of this passage is what Jesus is saying of what it means to be the Messiah.
[38:19] The Messiah died to save us from our sins. I mentioned earlier Isaiah 53 and it's what Peter later quotes he's come to understand. I want to just read this passage to help us understand what does it mean for what does it mean to be Messiah.
[38:39] And I think the answer that's given to us is that the Messiah was always going to be a suffering dying Messiah. So this is Isaiah 53. Who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground he had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.
[39:04] He was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and is one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not.
[39:17] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.
[39:36] All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shears is silent so he opened not his mouth.
[39:56] By oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people and they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him he has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt he shall not see his offspring he shall prolong his days I'm sorry he shall see his offspring he shall prolong his days the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors and so there's the beauty of the Messiah and that's really what Jesus wants his disciples to see and what we need to see today is that Jesus came to suffer and die that he might take upon himself our sins that he might die in the place of the transgressor he was cut off from God he was accounted as stricken and smitten really as nothing but by his actions it says he caused many to be accounted righteous and he bore their iniquities we need to praise
[41:36] God as we hear what Peter heard and the disciples heard that Jesus is headed to the cross and as we see that coming in the days ahead as we go through the gospel of Matthew we ought to be rejoicing I know it's tragic it's horrible that God incarnate would ever be put to death but it was a will of the father to crush him to make atonement for our sins this also helps us understand how grievous are our sins and how great is our savior that it took the death of God that we might be made right with him and we need to understand that without the cross there is no salvation and so the cross really becomes our glory as Christians it was absolutely necessary that Jesus die if we were to be saved and so as we think upon Jesus' words here as we think upon the concept of the Messiah if you're a Christian today you need to rejoice that we have such a savior that he died for our sins and really what I presented here is the gospel if you've never trusted in Jesus Christ this is the Messiah that you need to believe in without trusting in Jesus there is no salvation apart from him there is salvation in no other name and so I encourage you to put your faith in that Messiah a suffering a dying Messiah one who comes and takes your place who dies in your place and gives to you his righteousness that you might be saved put your trust in him today let's pray together dear heavenly father we thank you for Christ we thank you that he did not stay in heaven in your presence but humbled himself and took on him in flesh that he may die for our sins we pray that all of us would put our trust in him today and that as we do so that we would rejoice in a stricken smitten suffering dying savior we thank you for such a Messiah we pray this in Christ's name amen amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a rest like me
[44:09] I was was lost but now was found was blind but now I see t'was grace that on my heart to give embrace my fears believe how precious tears that raised the fear the hour I first believed through many dangers toils and snares I have already come his grace has gone he saved us and grace will lead me home the Lord has promised good to me his word my hope said he owns he he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures and when his flesh and heart shall fail and mortal life shall cease
[45:54] I shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining at the sun we've known as it to save God's grace than when we first begun god get champion and take long Thank you.
[47:23] Thank you.
[47:53] Thank you.
[48:23] Thank you.