Matthew 16:15-17 , Matthew 16:21
Peter's Confession of Faith, and Christ's Prediction of His Passion.
I. At the end of the second year of His ministry, Christ wrought the astounding miracle of multiplying the loaves for the five thousand persons. That miracle led to the no less wonderful discourse which St. John relates in his sixth chapter, and to the withdrawal of many of our Lord's followers. The crisis had arrived, and naturally, while His enemies drew their bands of union more closely together against Him, He turned to test the fidelity of His friends, and to develop His views more explicitly to them. From the time of Peter's confession He began to prepare them for His cross and passion.
II. Consider what practical effect the faith in Christ's Divinity has upon us, and what is its connection in our own minds with His passion and with His death upon the cross for us. (1) It sets the seal on the deep foundation of God's immutable will; it gives us a rock of everlasting strength to rest on; it spreads those everlasting arms beneath us, which hold us up in deep assurance that His love is most patient and His endurance eternal. (2) There is another feeling set deep in your heart the desire to be known of those you love, without secrets, without dissimulation, without error or defect. Where will you look for this but in the presence of Him who is invisible and comprehendeth all things? No knowledge of the heart is so searching as His omniscience; no hatred of evil is so pure as His, who is perfect goodness; and while He knows, while He hates all, then His love is most consoling. We can fling ourselves at His feet, because He knows us thoroughly and already. (3) As our Lord's Divinity gives infinite worth to all His human sufferings which are past, so does it ensure the endurance of His human sympathy for all our needs in the present and in the future.
C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond,p. 22.
References: Matthew 16:15-18. W. Spensley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 268. Matthew 16:16. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xvi., p. 333.Matthew 16:17. G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount,p. 108. Matthew 16:17-23. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 344.