Instead of what's printed in your bulletin tonight, I actually invite you to turn to the Gospel of Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8. This will be a nice tie to what we considered this morning from John chapter 7 as we're continuing our study in what we believe and what we confess in the Heidelberg Catechism. And that's printed for you there. I'll be reading a passage out of Mark chapter 8, beginning at verse 27. And we'll read to the end of the chapter, and then we'll say together, Lord's Day 6, that's printed for you in your bulletins. So this is Mark chapter 8, beginning at verse 27. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? and they told him john the baptist and others say elijah and others one of the prophets and he asked them but who do you say that i am peter answered him you are the christ and he strictly charged them to tell no one about him and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again and he said this plainly and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him but turning and seeing his disciples he rebuked Peter and said get behind me Satan for you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man and calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can a man give in return for his soul for whoever is ashamed of me in my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. And there will end the reading of God's word. And in Lord's Day six, we have a few question answers there. You're welcome to respond if you'd like. And with me, I'll ask the question and please respond with the answers. There's four of them. At question 16, why must the mediator be a true and righteous man? Because God's justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin, but a sinner could never pay for others. Why must he also be true God? So that by the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God's wrath and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. Then who is this mediator, true God, and at the same time, a true and righteous man? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness. How do you come to know this? The Holy Gospel tells me God himself began to reveal the gospel already in paradise. Later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law. And finally, he fulfilled it through his own beloved son. What an important Lord's Day. Dr. Clark last time looked at Lord's Day 5. And that important Lord's Day that introduced us really to, you'll notice there, the deliverance section. And that we were unable to make this payment ourselves, this atonement, and there is only one who is worthy. But now we're wrestling with and thinking about a little bit why this has to be so. This is an important Lord's Day. It is amazing still to this day how much confusion there is regarding who is Jesus. It is really a shocking thing to think about still that people are confused about who Jesus really is. You know, they had councils and wrestled with this throughout church history as to who Jesus is. And we have certain creeds that were put down to help us with that. The Athanasian Creed we'll even briefly look at tonight with a few words. But it's a particular message here that is very important to understand Jesus and why this meant so much to him. It's really remarkable how much in the Gospels Jesus constantly pressed people with the question of who he is. If you had any question you could ask Jesus, it'd be interesting what you would ask Jesus. But I'm telling you, if Jesus asked you a question, you know what it'd be? Who do you think that I am? What do you think about me? That mattered a lot in the whole way that Jesus led his disciples and how he was training his disciples, how his disciples were to understand this. So much so that John was affected by this, that he would write in his little book, in 1 John, 2 John, and 3, if there's anyone who doesn't bring the correct doctrine of who Jesus is, you're not even to greet them. The point is, it's that serious of a matter, isn't it? And so that's why this is important tonight. And I thought that this particular passage here in Mark chapter 8 helps us to answer that and helps us to see how important it is to Jesus. And not just that we confess it, not just that we say it, but that we understand what we're saying, which is a really interesting thing we talk about true faith having three aspects of of knowledge in the mind and then we say that when we give a profession of faith we're saying it with the mouth that you have this understanding but there has to be a trust and a heart religion doesn't there that embraces this and understands it as we apply these things and understand the gospel of our salvation. And that's what we're seeing wrong in this particular passage tonight, is that as disciples, as far as their coming by grace, they're still a big work in progress. And Jesus is working with them, and Jesus is helping them. And you'll see that here on this emphasis that we have in this particular passage of the confessing of Jesus as the Christ, the receiving of Jesus as Christ crucified and then Jesus's emphasis on what it means when we confess him and receive him what it means to follow him and that helps us tonight as we look at Lord's Day 6 we read in verse 22 here that they that they had went out of the towns of Caesarea Philippi verse 27 and they were on the road and Jesus turns and now asks this all-important question to his disciples really to sort of test and I think showcase for us readers, but also for them to see what all of his teaching has really accomplished. You can teach things for a long time, right? And have the people appropriated and listened and have they taken in. And that's why, by the way, catechism can be helpful because they're questions. They're questions that have to be posed, sort of test moments, aren't they? What have you taken in and what have you learned and what have you been hearing? After all of this time, walking with me is really the emphasis here with Jesus. And so Jesus does this here. Where has his training gone with his disciples? And he looks at them and he asks this important question. Who do men say that I am? Who do people, what are they running around saying about me? Now he knows this. But he's using this to press them on it. He knows what people say about him. He is aiming for what they think about him. His disciples. What do they believe about Jesus? And the disciples, knowing what everyone is saying about Jesus, is just what people say today about Jesus. Well, he's a great prophet. He's maybe one of the great prophets, like John the Baptist. Some say Elijah. Others say one of the prophets. He's just a great man who's obviously doing great things and teaching great things. These are how some of the people are answering about Jesus. The multitudes, of course, said he was a prophet. You'll see in John, the different responses in John 7, you saw this morning, some said he's a madman and insane. You had all these different responses about Jesus and who Jesus is. Some said he was Elijah. Some were saying that he was a Beelzebub. I mean, you had all of these different designations for Jesus. And who is he? Boys and girls, who is Jesus? What would we say if that question were posed? Who's everyone? What is everyone saying about me? And that's the question that comes right to his disciples because really the reality is, what this all proved is, nobody was getting Jesus right. Isn't it shocking? Nobody was getting Jesus right. I said this morning that one of the things that has affected me deeply about the validity of Christianity is its assessment of our human nature. And somebody said to me that that really affected them and that helped them because if you think about it, it is the impossibility to accept what Jesus is saying about human nature, which proves its truthfulness because nobody else says that about human nature. Well, think of now what we're running up about with Jesus. God assesses us, and now God presents his son to us. It's not such an easy thing to believe. Who is being presented to us? And so they were running around in general saying, some were saying, well, the Messiah has come. The Messiah has come. They had recognized he was doing great works. He was doing things that, as Nicodemus said, nobody could do unless God was with him. But who knew him? So Jesus is drawing this out. And as soon as they gave all these answers as to who people thought Jesus is and what they all thought about Jesus, Jesus looks at them and went right where he wanted to go. But I'm really concerned about who you think I am. Who do you think I am? Who asked that question, by the way? Have I ever come up to you and said, who do you think Chris Gordon is? Wouldn't that be a strange question? It's really a question, isn't it? Well, he's a pastor. We know Pastor Gordon. Jesus is on a whole different level here, isn't he? We're not just a prophet. Who do you think I am? And it's important because now Jesus receives an answer that is probably the most important answer in the Gospels. It's such an amazing answer. Peter answered him, you are the Christ. You are the Messiah. Matthew will add the son of the living God. Mark doesn't add that, I think, for a purpose to show something here. That there was an acceptance on the part of the disciples that Jesus was the Messiah. He had just confirmed the messianic office of Jesus. But that's no little claim, by the way. That's no little claim to say we really believe that you are the Messiah. You are the anointed one. you are the one that was promised to come you are the sent one of God that's a remarkable confession where Jesus revealed that a few times along the way to the woman at the well but you'll notice here that the disciples have a good understanding of this for when they're saying this they're saying this is you are the one as they understood it that all the law and prophets had talked about. And Jesus, for us, makes a big moment of this in the Gospels. Jesus wants us to understand that this is a big moment with regard to him. Every time we have this recorded in the Gospels, all of a sudden comes this great approbation moment, this great praise moment, and then an explanation of grace. Something wonderful has happened for you. And Matthew says, as soon as Peter said this, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. But my Father who is in heaven, Peter, you never figured this out on your own. Something has been specially given to you to believe about me. By my Father in heaven. What a gift. It's the greatest gift you could be given. Well, when you stood up and professed faith, what did you believe about Jesus? Do you know God gave you a great gift? God blessed you with an understanding and opening up your mind and regenerating your heart to believe Jesus? Peter, you didn't figure this out. God gave you something. They're seeing Jesus. I find this to be a comforting moment in the Gospels because it displays the grace of Christ to believe in him as the Messiah, to know him and believe in him as the Messiah. This is no little thing. Think about what we confess in the Athanasian Creed. That we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah, God's Son, is both God and human equally. He is God from the essence of the Father begotten before time. When the apostles would celebrate a knowledge of Jesus and a knowledge of who he is and what he did, think of the apostle Paul. When God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me. Notice how that always came with a salvation. It was this blessing of a revealing of the son of God, of who he is. I don't think we realize the treasure it is to know Jesus. In a world that doesn't know him. Who has opened our eyes. Who has pulled us out of the darkness. It means so much to our Lord when we confess him with the mouth. I want you to know that. When we tell people who Jesus is. When we speak of who he is. That he is the Christ. That he is the Messiah. That he is the son of the living God. That is a wonderful blessing that is put on your lips and that we should speak. It's true that in Matthew, Jesus would go on to say, all things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and those whom the Son chooses to reveal him. This is the good work begun in you. If you have come to know him. But there's still a problem here in this particular passage that I thought helped us with Lord's Day 6. That's why I'm using it in conjunction with Lord's Day 6. There's still a problem in this passage with the disciples that we saw this morning. And it's the problem that comes out. Peter says, you are the Christ. And what does Jesus do right after this? Strictly, he warns them not to speak about it. We can go back to the divine timetable. We can go back to like we looked at this morning, the divine calendar. There's a time mapped when this will be freely talked about. but he hasn't gone to death yet. He hasn't gone to the cross yet. And so the problem was, in the midst of this, is that even though they confessed he was the Messiah, what did they understand the Messiah needed to do? Nobody in Israel looked for the Messiah to be anything other than a political redeemer. They wanted when the Messiah would come to solve the political problems of the day, to take, of course, as Isaiah promised, the government on his shoulder. What does that mean? What would that look like? And shouldn't that mean that Israel would be then freed from all oppression? This was a major struggle for the disciples, for it's the first question in Acts that they were interested in. Are you now finally going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus says, you go preach. So while the confession was right, understanding what the Messiah had to do, who he had to be for them, was really difficult. And why the mediator needed to come. What was the role? What was the priestly work? What would he come to do? Why would he need to be here? Why did Jesus really need to come down to this earth and be truly human and truly righteous the righteous son of God for them. Why that? So you see there that you have the confession. You have with the mouth, you are this. But they needed to know why he needed to be this for them. They needed to know the gospel. And that's why this passage is so important. As soon as Peter confesses who he is, What does Jesus do? Well, Jesus began to teach. Remember I said this morning, teaching always would challenge and teaching caused the problems. And sure enough, it caused a problem right here that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again. He spoke that word openly. Now, what does that tell you? On the heels of the confession, then comes Christ explaining the work he has to do. That Jesus could be confessed, which was important, and he had to help his disciples understand and fill out what that confession means. Who he is, what he came to do for them in relation to his mission, in relation to his death. And that any understanding of him being the Messiah that divorces the suffering and the death that would follow would be a misunderstanding, wouldn't it? And I think that's why it's so important tonight to consider Lord's Day 6. You think about what 16 says. Why must the mediator, our go-between, why must he be true and righteous man? Well, because God's justice requires that human nature, which is sin, must pay for its sin. But a sinner could never pay for others. God's justice requires this atonement. God's justice requires, God didn't, as we looked at last time, didn't just say, oh, it's okay, I'm just setting everything aside, and you know what, I'm a God of love, and I'm forgiving, and I'm overlooking all, he didn't overlook anything. You understand that? That his justice is so complete, and his justice is so perfect, that he had to satisfy that justice. And for that justice to be satisfied, he had to give us a mediator, Someone who could actually accomplish that in our place and satisfy that in our place. But he had to be one of us. See, the disciples are struggling with that. They're not accepting that. To which I think to myself, I feel like when you preach these sermons, I don't know. I don't know how many sort of catechism sermons you've heard over the years, but you feel like you're just saying things that everyone knows, right? I feel like you're saying things that you've heard all your life And this is just, yeah, you know, pastor, thanks, you know, thanks. But what I've learned about myself and what I've learned about my children and what I've learned about life in general is we don't take things in well at all. What about the most important truths of life with regard to our God and our salvation? Do you let it set in what's said to you, what had to be? Jesus is the eternal son, no beginning, forever, and came down from heaven and actually took on in the incarnation the very flesh and blood that we have. Who makes that up? That's a marvel to think about. And that he did this for the sole great purpose that Matthew would introduce in chapter 1. Jesus had one great mission, and it was to save his people from their sins. That's what drove him. That was the food that was given to him. That's what was on his mind. He would lay down his life. He would become the sacrifice. he would face unspeakable anguish in body and in soul that only God could endure, by the way, for you, in your place. So you better believe it means a lot you understand who he is. Because not just anyone could do that. Not just anyone could stand in our place. And you see why it's a world of offense to God. Why it matters so greatly when people take the doctrine of Jesus. And make him less than God. See the importance of this? And the disciples are really struggling. They're struggling with, I don't want you to undergo that. Again, it's glory now, isn't it? It's a glory issue. Question 17 is so important that he must be true God so that by the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God's wrath and earn for us and restore us to righteousness in life. The power of his divinity. Actually bearing in that humanity. When he is saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And that punishment is being meted out and given to him. He is actually bearing the weight of that wrath for us so that we'll never have to know it. Never have to experience it. Never have to know judgment. Never have to stand there on that day and have a book opened that says, you did this, this, this, this, and this. Now you pay for it. Only he could do this. And that's why he has to be God. This is what Thomas saw in the holes. This is what Thomas saw when Jesus showed him. He said, feel my Lord and my God. Only you could do this. And that's what the beauty of this is saying to us. And you see how strong Jesus is when Peter's trying to stop this mission. Get behind me, Satan. Of course it's an influence of the devil. Of course it's the very tactic of the devil to take us away from this message. to destroy who came to us, to marginalize the one who came to us, to marginalize the way, to try to take Jesus. The whole time, if you look at Jesus' ministry, what are they trying to do to him? Everyone, pull him off the path of work, of hard work, of focus, of determination to go and die. And everyone's saying, don't do it. You don't have to do it. Jesus, I rebuke you in the name. You see why he's so animated with this. This is the only way you're saved. This is the only way you're making it the glory. Is this kind of focus and determination to go and lay down his life for you, thinking of you and knowing you. And that's why Isaiah 53 and all the passages that we read, which says here in this last catechism question, where it says so beautifully, this was always, how did you come to know this? This has always been told to you. A Messiah would come, but the Messiah would be a suffering servant. All the law, all the prophets, everyone right in paradise, in the gospel, the patriarchs, the prophets, all of them announced it. And really the pinnacle passage is Isaiah 53, which it says he bore our afflictions and carried our sorrows and was carried away in judgment. He was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. The whole gospel told us about this. The whole Bible's been telling us about this. And here we get to study a marvelous fulfillment in our day where I get to tell you all, it's done. It's done. He did it. He paid for your sins. He died for you. Who did? Boys and girls? Who died for you? Yeah. Eternal son of God. Truly God. And yet one of us, so that you can be sure it was accepted. R.C. Sproul said the rabbis of Israel were diligent to examine in close every dimension and aspect of the Messiah who was to come. A king, a shepherd. However, there was one aspect the rabbis seemed to overlook, says Sproul. The Messiah would suffer and die. And that's what he did for you. The church has struggled for 2,000 years to try to make this message work in a world that just doesn't accept this. The church has tried to speak this and preach this in a world that thinks it's madness and to the world it is. But if you believe this today, you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and you understand what he had to go and do for you, lay down his life, die, pay for your sins, loving you all the way to the end to bring you to glory. Jesus says the same thing to you that he said to Peter. Blessed are you. Flesh and blood did not give that to you. The Father loved you. And the Father opened your minds. And the Father gave you to believe these wonderful truths that the world does not know or appreciate. As we go out into another week, as we start this week today, think all as we go out of the work and sacrifice that has been made for you in a world that is crumbling, in a world that has no answers, In a world that every day, tomorrow, will spend all their day talking, talking, talking, and coming to no conclusions, you've come to one. It's the resurrection. Jesus rose, and he's coming again, and he's going to make everything right. On the basis of his life, death, and resurrection, we have great joy going forward. So don't lose heart in the struggle, really. Don't lose heart in whatever comes your way. Your life has been bought with a price. You're owned. You're secure in Christ. Rest in these promises. That's what he wants you to do. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word tonight and thank you for encouraging us. How wonderful it is, God incarnate, to think that this precious gift has been given to us. When we didn't deserve it, while we were yet sinners, our Lord Jesus Christ came and died for us and answered what needed to be answered so that we could be reconciled and loved by you. Thank you for so rich a gift. Thanks doesn't even seem sufficient. But that's what we say. Thank you. And may our lives reflect it in the way that we live, in the way that we think, and as we go forward, especially as we look at a world with no answers. And in that regard, we pray that you would open the door again to your church, that people would come in and receive the same joy that we have. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen. Thank you.