Whom say the people that I am?
One of Christ’s conferences with His disciples
I. OUR LORD’S PRAYER. Brethren, “He ever liveth to make intercession for us,” and if “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” what are we to think of that Intercessor whom the Father heareth always? It was the privilege of Jacob’s family to have a friend at court, and that friend was their own brother. It was the privilege of David to have a friend at court, and that friend was the king’s own son. Ah, Christians, both these are combined in your privilege; you have both in Him who now appears in the presence of God for us.
II. OUR LORD’S INQUIRY. “He asked them, Whom say the people that I am?” This is a frequent question, arising not only from curiosity, but vanity. It would be indeed well if we were anxious to know what God says of us, for “it is a light thing to be judged of men: He that judges us is the Lord,” and upon His decision depends our happiness or misery. But how frequent is the inquiry, “What do people say of me?” As to some, the answer would be, “Why, nothing at all; they do not even think of you; they do not know enough of you to make you the theme of their discourse.”
“But what do people say of me?” asks another. Why, they say, “Your tongue walketh through the earth; some call you ‘the Morning Herald,’ and others, ‘the Daily Advertiser.’” “But what do people say of me?” asks another. They say that you are very hard-hearted and closefisted; that you are a “busy-body in other men’s matters”; they say that you are such a Nabal that a man cannot speak to you; they say that you are wiser in your own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. It would be well in certain respects if we knew what people say of us--what friends say of us; yes, and what enemies say of us, too. I remember Archbishop Usher says in an address to God, “Lord, bless me with a faithful friend; or, if not, with a faithful enemy, that I may know my faults, for I desire to know them.” But Jesus was meek and lowly of heart; He, therefore, did not ask this question from pride or vanity. Nor did He ask it from ignorance. He knew all the numerous opinions afloat concerning Him. But this question seems designed to affect them, to bind them to Himself, and to furnish them with further instruction upon it.
III. Observe THE CHARGE here given. “And He straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing.” We should rather have supposed that He would have ordered His disciples to go and publish it, but His thoughts are not as ours; “There is a time for every purpose under the heaven.” It seems to be a general law of heaven, that knowledge of every kind should gradually spread. There are some things which must precede others, and make way for them. It is thus you deal with your children, keeping back for a time things from their knowledge. Thus a wise instructor will do with his pupils, he will teach them as they are able to bear it. And this was the method of our Saviour Himself in dealing with His disciples. Had our Lord then immediately proclaimed Himself as the Messiah, it is easy to suppose what insurrections might have taken place by those who would have endeavoured to make Him a king, and to keep Him from suffering. Besides this, the prohibition was only for a limited period. After His resurrection from the dead He appeared to His disciples, and said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem”; and Peter, to whom He here spake, filled Jerusalem with His doctrine, and said to the murderers of the Savour, “God hath made this same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ.”
IV. Observe HIS SUFFERINGS. “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be slain.” You see, first, that He foreknew them. Secondly, He foretold them, to prepare His disciples for their approach. Thirdly, He describes them.
V. Observe His GLORY. “And be raised the third day.” We have demonstrations in proof of this. See the witnesses as they come before their adversaries. Believers have other kinds of evidences. They have the witness in themselves; they know the power of His resurrection; they have felt it raising them from a death of sin to a life of righteousness; that “like as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so should they also walk in newness of life.” (W. Jay.)
The Lord’s question
Who say ye that I am?
1. A question of conscience.
2. A question of controversy.
3. A question of life.
4. A question of the times. (Van Oosterzee.)
Jesus will have His disciples
1. Independently recognize Him as the Christ;
2. Voluntarily confess Him as the Christ. (Van Oosterzee.)
Jesus the Christ
I. THE WORLD’S JUDGMENT “Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So, too, in our own time is there infinite divergence among the builders who reject the chief stone of the corner. To some He is the object of a hatred which, in its malignity, would construe His good as evil--others simply pass Him by as though His claims were unworthy of serious thought--others regard Him with respect and veneration, exhaust the resources of language in their attempts to picture His moral beauty, will do anything but trust in Him as a Saviour. To some He is a man full of imperfections, “in consistency of goodness far below vast numbers of His unhonoured disciples,” to others He is the perfect man, the noblest of all creatures, everything but God. These diversities may be considered under two aspects.
1. The disbelief of the intellect, including all those phases of opinion held by men who distinctly reject the claim of the Lord Jesus to the honours of the Godhead, who do not regard His life and death as the ground of the sinner’s acceptance with God, and who deny that faith in Him is the condition of salvation. There is a certain amount of respect which this theorist is willing to pay to our Lord. He tells us that Jesus has done for religion what Socrates did for philosophy, and Aristotle for science, that He fixed the idea of pure worship, and that He has thus exerted a wondrous power over the heart of humanity. Yet he would have us believe that He was Himself a self-deluded enthusiast, who yielded His mind up to the idea of His own Messiahship, until He was driven, though almost unconsciously, to act a part in order to sustain His own pretensions, and whose miracles, where they are not the pure inventions of His evangelists, were deceptions practised either by Himself or by some too-zealous followers to impose on popular credulity. The power which Christianity exerts cannot be ignored, and it is necessary to give some explanation of the way in which it has arisen. It is simply impossible to persuade the world that it owes some of its mightiest impulses, and has consecrated some of its noblest affections, to a being who, after all, was nothing more than the creation of the too luxuriant fancy and the too fond affection of a few Jewish disciples, who had contrived to throw around the humble life of an unlettered peasant of Galilee the unreal glory of legends and traditions. Rationalists, therefore, set before us a Jesus from whom they would have us believe this marvellous power has proceeded. Jesus of Nazareth would thus be removed from the page of history, but this other Jesus would not take His place.
2. We note a more frequent and formidable antagonism in the unbelief of the heart. Disbelief involves a certain exercise of mind as to the claims of Christianity. Unbelief may be nothing more than simple passive indifference. Disbelief says there is no Christ, no atonement, no redemption. Unbelief says if there be a Christ I will not worship Him; though there be an atonement I care not to seek its blessings; though there be a Redeemer, of His salvation I care not to partake. Disbelief take up an attitude of positive opposition, and would fain disprove the claims of the gospel. Unbelief may often use friendly words, and do some kindly deeds on behalf of the truth--may treat it with seeming reverence, and even make generous contributions for its support--will, in truth, do everything but receive its message and submit to its power. The practical issue is the same. How many different causes serve to create this secret distaste of the heart to the religion of Christ. In some it is the all-absorbing passion of worldliness which holds the spirit back from faith. In others the pride of self-reliance revolts against a scheme of salvation which ascribes nothing to human merit, and therefore leaves no place for human boasting.
II. THE CHRISTIAN’S CONFESSION. “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And in relation to it we observe--
1. That it is entirely independent of the world’s judgment. The unanimity of the entire world in an adverse opinion ought not to shake, could not shake the un-doubting confidence of a Christian heart in Jesus. What to Peter were the sneers of Sadducees, the scorn of priests and Pharisees, the various opinions that divided the multitude? Even were the intellect confounded, and the arguments of its logic all silenced, and did the reasoning against the authority of the gospel appear unanswerable, the heart, out of the depths of its own consciousness, would cry out, “Still there is a gospel, still there is a Christ, and He is my Saviour, my Lord and my God.”
2. It is the expression of a personal faith. The trust which Christ acknowledges, and over which He rejoices, is that which the soul itself reposes in Him, and which is infinitely more than the acceptance of any creed or the association with any Christian Church. It is nothing less than the man’s own sense of dependence on Christ as a Redeemer. What can be the value of any so-called belief which stops short of this? Orthodoxy, as fair as the marble statue and as cold, as symmetrical in its proportions and as lifeless in its nature, is a wretched substitute for the living trust of a true soul, which may fall into some errors, but has, at least, this one cardinal excellence, that it cleaves to the Lord with full purpose of heart. Such was the spirit that prompted the words of Peter. He was far from being a perfect man.
3. This faith is the fruit of Divine teaching. “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” Peter had not reached the conviction thus boldly uttered by means of greater intellectual vigour, or in virtue of any special opportunities of observation, but solely through the grace of God. There were others who knew the great facts in connection with the life and ministry of Christ, on whom they had made no such impression as they had produced on him. It was God alone who made him, as He makes all believers, to differ. The prejudices and passions of the heart, which opposed the acceptance of the gospel, will never yield except to a power Divine.
4. The confession is the necessary outward expression of the heart’s inward trust. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” There are various modes by which a man may confess Christ. But there is one act for which no other can be a substitute--unmeaning, nay, rather, self-condemning if it stand alone--but itself the proper supplement to every other deed of holy service. To confess Christ, we must seek to be like Him, but we must also obey Him by bearing His name, and uniting with His people to show forth His death until He come. My brother, are you one of those who shrink from this special confession of Christ? (J. G. Rogers, B. A.)
Alone praying
The bloom of the hawthorn or White May looks like snow in Richmond Park, but nearer London, or by the road side, its virgin whiteness is sadly stained. Too often contact with the world has just such an effect upon our piety; we must away to the far-off garden of paradise to see holiness in its unsullied purity, and meanwhile we must be much alone with God if we would maintain a gracious life below. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Alone with God
One Sabbath night (says a Scotch clergyman), after discoursing on a very solemn subject which had stirred my own soul, I took a walk before going home. It was clear starlight, without any moon, and the heavens looked down upon me with all their sublime impressiveness. I found myself unconsciously walking in the direction of the mill. I had not gone far when I met a friend pacing slowly up and down by the side of a stream near his house. As soon as I came up, he said: “Men, I couldna gang hame direct frae the chapel the nicht. After hearing your sermon, I wanted to be alane wi’ God; and I never feel His presence so much as when I am, too, in a nicht like this.”
Praying alone:--A minister, visiting the cottages of the poor, met a little boy who had been taught at school the duty, as well as the privilege of prayer. He said, “Do you love to pray, my little fellow?” “Oh yes, sir!” “But in so small a house, with so large a family, when and where do you pray?” The boy answered, “I go to bed with the others; and when they are asleep, I rise.” “But then you, yourself, must be sleepy; how do you keep awake?” asked the minister. “I wash my hands and face in the pitcher where the cold water is kept; then I do not feel sleepy.”
What men say of Christ
1. Christ did not ask this question for information.
2. He did not ask it because He desired the applause of men.
3. He did not ask it because He intended to form His course according to the reply.
4. But what He did ask it for was that He might ground His disciples in the deepest faith. The answer to His question suggests--
I. THAT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS CONCERNING CHRIST,
II. THE OPINIONS HELD OF HIM WERE HIGH AND HONOURABLE.
III. FOR ALL THAT THEY FELL FAR SHORT OF THE REALITY,
IV. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE SHOULD HAVE THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF HIM: that of Peter--“The Christ of God.” There is a great difference between believing Him to be the Son of God, and believing Him to be Jesus of Nazareth only.
1. You can never trust Him for your spiritual safety if you believe in Him merely as a man.
2. If you believe in Him only as a man, He can never satisfy the yearnings of your spirit. Who is He then? He is not only the greatest of men, but the Son of the Living God, the Saviour of the world. (Thomas Jones.)
Jesus--the Christ
Peter’s confession remains the central article of the creed of Christendom.
I. IT IS A FACT THAT JESUS OF NAZARETH ACTUALLY LIVED.
II. IT IS A FACT THAT JESUS OF NAZARETH LIVED SUBSTANTIALLY AS REPORTED IN THE FIRST THREE EVANGELISTS. I specify these three Evangelists because their testimony is sufficient for the traditional picture of Jesus, and because their testimony is admitted by those who regard the fourth Gospel as a book of later date, and of less strictly historic character. Any one who is suspicious of the substantial accuracy of our Gospels cannot better treat his haunting fear of legend and myth than by a study of the apocryphal Gospels. (R. H. Newton)
The Christ of God: Tokens of the true Saviour
I. WHAT DID PETER MEAN BY THIS PHRASEOLOGY? Undoubtedly he intended to express his belief that Jesus was the true Messiah.
II. HOW DID PETER AND THE OTHER APOSTLES DISCERN IN SO SATISFACTORY A MANNER THAT JESUS WAS NO IMPOSTOR, AS SOME PRETENDED, BUT WAS INDEED THE CHRIST OF GOD?
1. It may be answered that their common sense was sufficient to discover this.
2. Though common sense might convince them of the excellence of the Saviour’s character, they had more--there was a Divine impression on their minds giving clearer sight and more satisfactory conviction (See Matthew 16:17).
3. To this may be added, the discernment arising from their own faith, giving them experience of His faithfulness and goodness.
4. We may add, having more to judge upon than Peter had, we know this is the Christ of God by the effects of His death, the wondrous influence it has had, and still has.
III. LET US, THEN, TRY OUR PERSONAL HOPES BY THIS DESIGNATION OF THE ONLY SAVIOUR ABLE TO REALIZE THEM. It is only the real Christ of God that saves with a real pardon, a real sanctification, a real crown of glory.
1. Is the Christ of the Socinians the Christ of God?
2. Let us look at the Christ of the Antinomians.
3. There is another sort of Christ spoken of by the self-righteous, who regard the Saviour only as a help, in case they cannot sufficiently help themselves.
4. Are not even believers apt to form notions such as injure the character of the Christ of God? (Isaac Taylor of Ongar.)
Making known the obscured Christ
Not long ago there was a researcher of art in Italy, who, reading in some book that there was a per trait of Dante painted by Giotto, was led to suspect that he had found where it had been placed. There was an apartment used as an outhouse for the storage of wood, hay, and the like. He sought and obtained permission to examine it. Clearing out the rubbish, and experimenting upon the whitewashed wall, he soon detected the signs of the long-hidden portrait. Little by little, with loving skill, he opened up the sad, thoughtful, stern face of the old Tuscan poet. Sometimes it seems to me that thus the very sanctuary of God has been filled with wood, hay, and stubble, and the Divine lineaments of Christ have been swept over and covered by human plastering, and I am seized with an invincible desire to draw forth from its hiding-place, and reveal to men the glory of God as it shines in the face of Christ Jesus! It matters little to me what school of theology rises or what falls, so only that Christ may rise and appear in all His Father’s glory, full-orbed, upon the darkness of this world! (H. W. Beecher.)
Christ the true Messiah
At a solemn disputation which was held at Venice, in the last century, between a Jew and a Christian, the Christian strongly argued from Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks, that Jesus was the Messiah whom the Jews had long expected, from the predictions of their prophets. The learned rabbi who presided at this disputation was so forcibly struck by the argument that he put an end to the business by saying, “Let us shut up our Bibles, for if we proceed in the examination of this prophecy it will make us all become Christians.” (Bishop Watson.)