It was clearly not my finest moment. My brother, Tedd, was very lovingly sharing with me the Biblical truth of the sovereignty of God. I was so outraged by what he was saying to me, so mad at him, that I took off my shoe and threw it at him. Hear what I am about to say: If your eyes ever see the truth of the Gospel, if your heart is ever receptive to it, if your mind ever understands the mysteries of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if you ever have a desire to live by faith in Jesus, know that Grace has visited you!
A Very Striking Example
Because apart from that, your eyes would be closed, your heart would be shut up, your mind would be confused, and you would have no desire whatsoever to exercise faith. We have a very striking example of that grace in operation this evening. I would like you to turn again to Mark, chapter 8, beginning with verse 27, page 844 in your Church Bibles. There is no doubt that this is the epicenter of the Gospel of Mark, this confession of Peter. It divides the two sections of this Gospel. The first section is really focused on the identity of Jesus.
You see His power, you see His authority, you see His compassion, you see His grace in operation. This is the person that, in Mark 1:1, Mark declares is the Christ, the Son of God; Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. And in all those verses, you see Jesus demonstrating who He is in amazing works of miracle power: deliverances, resurrections, harnessing the forces of nature. Yet something is very striking from Mark 1 to Mark 8:29; there seems to be no recognition of the true identity of Jesus. The crowd doesn't recognize who He is.
The miracle recipients don't accurately recognize who He is. The scribes and Pharisees surely don't recognize who He is. The political leaders of the day don't recognize who He is. And this should not be a shock to us. Scripture says, "The natural man does not understand the things of God because they are spiritually discerned." You see, apart from grace, I will look at the supernatural power of God; I will look at the beautiful truths of the Gospel, and they will be utterly closed to me because my heart is dead spiritually, cannot respond to spiritual things.
My eyes are spiritually blind, and so I will need to give naturalistic explanations to the supernatural things that I'm exposed to. And that's why you and I should never take pride in our understanding of the Gospel. We should never take pride in the fact that there's faith inside of us and a desire to live God's way. We should never look proudly and condemningly at people who look at the Gospel and see nothing whatsoever; because apart from grace, that's exactly where we would be. We must not turn the Gospel of Jesus Christ into a reason for arrogance!
But we do; but we do. And apart from the operation of grace, I would've been in that crowd; I would've heard the words of Jesus; I would've seen His power, and I would've walked away unchanged. All of us who have a twit of faith in us, a twit of knowledge of the Gospel, a twit of a desire to follow Jesus, have that only because of the rescuing, transforming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Christ is on His way with His disciples to Caesarea Philippi--this is a bit of a commuter's passage. And as they are in transit, Christ asks what is a bit of a rhetorical question, "Who do people say that I am?"
This question really is a set up to the question that Christ is more intent on asking. And the response is quite predictable. Some say, "John the Baptist," others say, "Elijah," others say, "one of the prophets." Again, you see the dynamic there. Apart from that grace that gives life to your heart and sight to your eyes, you will look at the very Son of God and not see the Son of God. You will look at the Messiah and not see the Messiah. And so you must give some kind of more natural explanation, and so people reason that perhaps this was John the Baptist, or perhaps this was the prophet Elijah, perhaps this is one of the prophets.
Who Do You Say That I Am?
All of those answers relegate to Jesus something less than His true identity as the Anointed One, the Son of God. And then Jesus turns to His disciples, His intimate group of followers and says, "But who do you say I am?" And Peter answers, he's the spokesman at this point, and he says, "You are the Christ!" Now, I want to complain with you for a moment here if I could do that. I'm a bit irritated at most of the commentators that handle this passage because the commentators tend to be so intent on the content of Peter's confession that they miss the process that operated in Peter's life for him to be able to make it.
We should want to understand this confession. You could argue that in the four words of Peter, the entire story and history of redemption is summarized. But we must not miss the process that led this man to the point where he is able to make this expansive, incredible confession of the identity of Jesus. Think with me for a moment. Not too long ago, this man was just an unremarkable, working-class fisherman. He got up every day with the repetitive life of someone who was doing his work. Get up in the morning and you head down to the shores of Galilee; you check your nets once again to make sure all your equipment is in working order; you check the boat to make sure it's okay; you go out into the water; you fish once again; you bring your catch to the shore; you take it to the market; you sell what you can sell; you prepare your equipment for the next day; and you repeat it over and over again.
This man had no idea whatsoever where his life was going. He had no idea how that grace would utterly transform his life, utterly turn it upside down. And yet Peter had been chosen by God, and grace invaded this man's life. And you see that grace in operation, that this man, who had a few moments before as that fisherman before he met Christ, had no knowledge of the Gospel at all, no faith at all, no understanding at all, now makes this amazing confession. But there is something else we should say.
It's very clear from the passages that follow that Peter had little sense of the expansiveness of what he was actually confessing. In fact, you could argue that the rest of Peter's life would be a life of learning what the words he spoke at this moment actually meant. But God was not done with Peter; God would continue to work in this man's life; God would continue to mature him; God would rescue Peter from himself. We know his life was one of ups and downs and stumbles and trips. And yet, grace was there - irresistible, powerful, transforming grace would keep molding and molding and molding and molding this man, and someday he would be able to speak with great wisdom and great understanding and great application about these four words that he speaks at this moment with little understanding of the content he's actually speaking.
I would like you to do this with me. I don't ask you to do this much; I would like you to turn in your Bibles to Second Peter, Chapter 1, because I want you to be encouraged by what grace does, encouraged by God's zeal to grow you and teach you until you and I are fully formed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to now the depth of wisdom and the depth of understanding of this man Peter. Verse 3: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of the sinful desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (ESV) What an amazing, multifaceted understanding of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as it applies to your growth, your life, your everyday life in this fallen world. Incredible! That's what grace does. Maybe you're here this evening and you say, "Paul there are so many things that I don't understand about the Gospel; there are so many questions that I have; there are so many truths that confuse me; there are times I wonder what in the world God is doing in my life; there are times I do question His goodness; I wonder about His love.
Zealous, Unrelenting Grace
There are times I look at the lives of other people, and I wonder if God loves me as much as He does them." Well, be comforted. God is at work in your life if you are His child with zealous, unrelenting grace, and He will teach, and He will encourage, and He will guide. He will put you in situations where you're forced to trust Him and Him alone. He will demonstrate His love and His power and His compassion and His truth, and He will continue to do that until you are fully formed into the image of His Son.
Rest in His grace! It's amazing that that grace could lead this fisherman to make this confession and then lead him to become this seasoned pastor who could apply those truths with such specificity and such compassion to the lives of suffering people. Well, what of those four amazing words? "You are the Christ!" Peter was absolutely right that this Jesus of Nazareth was the Anointed One. That phrase, 'the anointed one.' means two specific things: First it means you are one with a special relationship to God.
God's power has been placed upon you. God's Spirit has been placed upon you because, secondly, you have been sent on a special mission by God. We know what that mission is. This is the Savior of the world. This is the Lamb. This is the One who came; His assignment was to live a righteous life and then to go to the Cross to bear our stripes so that, in Him, we receive forgiveness and righteousness and eternal life. That was His mission. There's a way in which, as I said before, that the whole story of redemption is summarized in these four words, "You are the Christ."
That means there is a God who rules the world according to His will, who has marched history to this moment where His Son would be born and would live and would teach and would demonstrate His power and would march His way to the Cross of our hope. "You are the Christ" - it means that sin is a reality; it can't be denied; it can't be avoided; it is the scourge of humanity. And my problem is not my situation; my problem is not my relationships; my problem is not other people; my problem is not education; my problem is not the government; my problem is me!
That in my heart is a rebel spirit against God; I want my own way; I want to set my own rules; I want to do what I want to do. I must be rescued from me! Sin is an unavoidable reality that every human being, from first breath, gives empirical evidence of. "You are the Christ" means God would not allow sin to reign; praise Him! And He would make a way in His Son for sin to be dealt with, sin to be conquered, for death to die, so that there would be eternal life. "You are the Christ" - forgiveness is possible; broken, rebel, lost sinners can stand before God unafraid because their sins have been forgiven by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!
There is forgiveness! "You are the Christ! You are the Christ!" Eternal life is a possibility. New life, not just in the world to come, but now! The Gospel is a message of glorious fresh starts and new beginnings. Thieves can become givers; rebellious people can be submissive to God's law; hateful people can become loving people; prideful people can be become humble; heretics can become believers; controllers can rest in the sovereignty of God. Fresh starts and new beginnings are the gift of this Christ.
"You are the Christ" - it means all that's broken by sin will someday be restored. "Behold, I come to make all things new." "You are the Christ!" - there's hope. You are not just the fulfillment of the law and prophets; You are not just the hope of Israel; You are the hope of every human being who has ever breathed. There is one hope: Jesus Christ! Again, I am going to say this to you a 1000 times: we proclaim something more than a system of redemption; we proclaim a Redeemer! Our hope is a Person, and His name is Christ Jesus, the Son of God.
Two Kinds of People
This is the watershed confession because there are only two kinds of people in the world. There are people who look at Jesus and say, "You are the Christ." And that's said with worship and with joy and with humility; and when you say that, your life will never be the same again. And there are people who look at Jesus in the face, and they mock the thought that He is the Son of God. They relegate Him to a nice guy, a good teacher, a great prophet, but they retain lordship over their own lives, and they walk away utterly unchanged.
I can't help but ask you this evening: where do you stand in regard to these four words? Please, I would plead with you this evening, right now in this moment, ask yourself that question. Do I stand before this Jesus and do I say, "You are my Christ," or is it all just somebody else's religion? I would ask you, if you are a believer, if you've said, "You are my Christ" - on Monday, Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, in your situations, in your relationships, do you live like you actually believe that you have come to know the Christ, that His grace now operates in your life, that you have hope, not because your situations are working easily, not because your relationships are okay, not because you're not suffering the harsh realities of life from the fallen world, but because you are now connected to the Savior who will keep you and guide you and protect you and provide for you; and you can rest in the most difficult of circumstances because Christ is in you; Christ is with you; Christ is for you; your life is shaped by a deep abiding belief in Jesus Christ.
Husbands, if I asked you why you respond the way you do your wife, you ought to say, "Because Jesus is the Christ." And that should mean something. Parents, if I would ask you why you respond to your children the way you do, you should say, "Because Jesus is the Christ." If I would ask you why your finances, why you handle your money and your resources the way you do, you should say, ''Because Jesus is the Christ," and it should mean something to you. This must be, for us, the single orienting guiding point of our lives: "You are the Christ!"
What happens next may be a bit confusing. Peter makes this expansive confession that he will, someday, come to understand, and then Jesus responds, "Please don't tell anybody." You would expect that Jesus would say, "You're exactly right. Get out there and spread the message." The reason is, Jesus understood that transforming grace is not an event; it's a process. And these guys were not ready to give an adequate explanation of these words. You'll see this in the passage that follows. Jesus immediately begins to unpack what His mission is as the Christ and what it means to follow Him because these men needed that instruction.
And there's a way in which the prohibition that Jesus gives them to tell others is His commitment to continue to teach them, and teach them, and teach them till they would be ready to take this message of the Gospel around the world. I want to pastor you again for a moment. Who is this Christ to you? Is He your hope? Is He your confidence? Is He your rest? Do you recognize if your eyes are open that your eyes are only open because of His grace? Have you given way to spiritual pride, spiritual elitism, a comfortability of looking down on others, a condemning and judgmental spirit toward people whose eyes are still blind?
Or do you wake up in the morning and say, "I can't believe that my eyes have been opened. I can't believe that I am His and He is mine. Who is a God like my God? Who is rich in mercy like my God? May I incarnate wherever I am the same grace that I have been given? You are the Christ!" Let's pray: Lord, thank you for this pivotal passage in this wonderful Gospel. Thank you that it puts before us both the process and the content of the Gospel. Lord, I pray that those would come together in our hearts in ways that will continue to grow us and mature us; teach us the rest that can only be found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His sweet and strong name, we pray, Amen.
