I would invite you to turn in your Bible to Mark chapter 8. Now, if you're new here this morning, we've been going through Mark for a year. And we've come to this text, and the pastor is, preacher's then left with, do you preach a sermon that's directly oriented towards Christ's coming, or do you keep going where you're at? And in the providence of God, I think where we're at this morning is an incredible text to consider in light of where we're at at this time of year. It answers the most important question, who is Jesus? And as we gather this morning, that question is on the minds of many, and many answers are out there. There's no shortage of answers to that question, right? This text gives you the answer. And so I want us to look at this this morning in view of the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Mark 8, verses 27 through 30, this is what we read. Jesus went out along with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he questioned his disciples, saying to them, Who do people say that I am? They told him, saying, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, but others one of the prophets. And he continued by questioning them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said to him, You are the Christ. And He warned them to tell no one about Him. That's our text for this morning. To think about this, I want to think about maybe how you would look at that from a modern perspective almost. I seriously doubt that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II ever looks at the multitude of servants that she has around her and says, who do people say that I am? But suppose for just a moment that she actually did that, that she woke up one morning and she had the people all around her. I doubt that if she asked that question, people would look at her and say, you know, some think you're Margaret Thatcher. Some people in here are like, who's Margaret Thatcher? Some people say you're Queen Elizabeth. Some people say you might be one of the first ladies of the United States. She probably wouldn't like that very much. All of that is preposterous, right? And you think, well, why is that preposterous that she would ask such a question? In all honesty, any sort of royalty would probably be more or less asking the question, don't you know who I am? Instead of asking, who do people say that I am? Why would she not ask that question? Because people know exactly who she is. And how is it that they know exactly who she is? She was born to a king. She was born into royalty. She lives in a place called Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle. There are servants that surround her. She's the one who can sit on the throne anytime that she wants. She's the one with access to the crown jewels. There is no question about who she is. Everything about her appearance, everything about her world, everything that you see going on around her says that she's royalty. But as we come upon this time of year where our attention is really towards the first coming of our Lord and Savior, our King Jesus Christ. the King of Glory, we're reminded that He didn't come and reside in a palace. He didn't come and reside in a castle. He had no servants surrounding Him. He did not come wearing the garments of a king. In fact, I want to take you, and we'll be going to several texts, and you're more than welcome to follow along or just jot them down and listen. I do want you to think about these texts and go back to them. Isaiah 53, we've been looking at Isaiah 9, but remember Isaiah 53 verses 2 and 3, he had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. That was pointing to the Christ who would come. You'll remember Zechariah 9, 9 similarly, thinking about him coming in humility, told us, behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey. So it may seem ludicrous that royalty in our world today might ask, who do people say that I am, right? That seems obvious. But because that's not the way that the Son of God came, that He did come in the flesh of a man, that He was a child born to a virgin in Bethlehem and veiled glory in His first coming, the answer, even asking of this question is a bit more critical and a bit more necessary. This then becomes the most crucial question, having only one acceptable answer with all other answers to this question being completely deficient. And the answer to this question, friend, is the difference between life and death. The answer to this question is the difference between being a child of God and being a servant of Satan, as we'll see. The Bible shows us this. The answer to this question is the difference between being of the spiritually seeing and being of the spiritually blind. In everything that Mark has given us over these 30-some-odd sermons over the course of this year, everything that he has told us gives us all the information that we need to be able to answer this question correctly. And the answer to this question is going to proclaim the monumental truth that we've been celebrating and worshiping and praising God about this morning, that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the anointed of God. Then the most important question, who is Jesus? Look in verse 27 and 28. The first thing I want you to see is the deficient answers that are presented here. The deficient answers, verses 27 and 28. Verse 27, look at it, drops us back into the text here in an area that's 25 miles north of where we were last week in Bethsaida. where Jesus, you remember, healed the blind man, showing us that the one who is capable of restoring sight to the blind has come into a world of blind people. He physically healed a physically blind man, and that revealed to us, remember that everybody in the world is spiritually blind, you were born this way. It was this way of being able to announce to us that he has the capability of restoring spiritual sight. of causing you to be able to see spiritually. And look what takes place here in verse 27. Jesus went out along with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Now, in all of this, I want you to have a clear picture in your mind of where all of this is taking place. This is not the city of Caesarea Philippi, which was this regional capital filled with people. But he is here among the villages in the foothills of Mount Hermon to the north among people who were most likely not Jewish people. So consider all this, wrap your mind around it, this monumental truth that's about to be revealed here in Mark's gospel that carries such magnitude that every previous scene has been building towards this moment is not going to take place in Jerusalem. It's going to take place in a sense here far from Jerusalem, out here in the middle of nowhere. And look at what it says next, with his disciples. With His disciples, these men who have been following Him all along the way here, this is again this time of intimate teaching with these men. And if you're paying attention in Mark chapter 8, the crowds are not gathered here with them in this text. If you look in verse 34, that's where Jesus calls the crowds to come back, calls the crowds to gather around when He teaches. These here are the men that have been following Him. And I want you to remember how this fits in with the two bookends that we looked at last week, because that's critical to understanding this week. Remember how these men fit in between this. In chapter 7 and verse 31, you had this wonderful miracle where Jesus healed the man who was deaf. He restored the hearing of a deaf man. Then you came to chapter 8 verse 22 where we were at last week and he restored the sight of a blind man. And sandwiched in between these were chapter 8 verse 17 where he looked at these men who were following him here in this place amongst these villages and he asked this question, do you not yet see? Do you men not yet understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? He's asking that to His disciples. And they've come here and they're in this place and they've just witnessed Him restore the sight of the blind man. So this monumentous truth of life and death, eternity with God or being separated from Him is going to be revealed amongst this group of men who just a few verses earlier were questioned about, can you even see? Can you even hear? Can you even understand? Do you even have a hard heart? And you might just note, because I think this is important for every person here in this room, you might just note that these are the men who have been with him all throughout all these different events. They are informed by these events. They've been pouring into all of their sensory through their eyes, through their ears. They've been exposed to them in this way. So on one hand, they've been exposed to the information, but on the other hand, they still don't see. With that foundation laid, I want you to also see something else that we're gonna come back to. He is with them here, away from the crowds, on the way. We'll come back to this, but just see this. They are walking here along the way in this place, and Jesus asked this question, who do people say that I am? This whole scene takes place, it hangs on these two questions. It's essentially the same question, but the first one is directed towards this multitude of people here that the disciples had been mingling among. They had been here in all these different events, they had been listening, they had been exposed to the crowds, they knew what the crowds were saying about him. Surely they had heard the people's speculations about who they thought Jesus was. So the first question, I want you to see it this way, because I think we can relate to it in a certain sense. It really comes with less pressure, right? It's less daunting. Who does somebody else say that Jesus is? Well, we're all about asking that question, right? We like to tell people what we think that other people think because, well, if they're wrong, then they're wrong. We're not wrong, right? Not us. In a sense, he's just asking them here to relay this information along. Who do people say that I am? And so, verse 28, the answers start to come. They told him, saying, John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. others, one of the prophets. So if you listen to their answers, what they're giving you here, in this general sense, we get the idea that people really don't know who he is, right? All these answers are coming. There's not one answer coming here. The disciples, in this sort of a way, are giving the most popular answers. They're giving the most positive answers because by this point we already know who the Pharisees and the Sadducees think he is, right? They think he's a man possessed by Satan. It's interesting that they don't mention that in this. So look at the popular answers of the day. He's John the Baptist. This must be who he is, right? This is Herod's opinion, along with a multitude of people in the crowd. You see this in Mark 6, verse 14. And Herod, you'll remember, heard of it, heard of the miracles of Jesus, for his name had become well known. And people were saying, John the Baptist has risen from the dead. You look at Matthew 14, verse 2, where Herod is reported as saying there to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead. And that is why miraculous powers are at work in him. So to this most crucial question that has to do with life and death, some people are answering it by saying, this is John the Baptist. And when they answer that question in this way, it's really a non-malicious answer. They're not being mean by saying this. In a certain way, this is an affirming answer. This would be a good thing to be considered as John the Baptist, particularly if the other answer is that you're possessed by Satan. By the way, if you remember John chapter 1 verse 20, what was John the Baptist's response when the Jews sent him priest and Levites from Jerusalem? What was the first question that they asked him? Who are you? And they didn't start to peg things right away. He pegged something immediately in response to that question. He immediately responds, I am not the Christ. He knew that was their question. He knew this was on their mind. Think then what was their second question where they did ask if he was somebody. Who then are you? Are you Elijah? Isn't that interesting that the first thing that came to mind was, are you the Christ John the Baptist or are you Elijah John the Baptist? Who were they then looking for? They were looking for Elijah. You remember Elijah, the Old Testament prophet of first kings, Elijah the Tishbite who told Ahab that there would be years of no rain. who the Lord provided for while he was off in exile by ravens coming and bringing him food while he drank from the brook Cherith in 1 Kings 17. Elijah who raised the widow's son and Elijah who said that the flower pot that she had and the jar of oil that she had would never be exhausted until it did rain. Elijah who met the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and I love it that he mocked them. You remember what he said, is they were saying that, you know, this is their God that they wanted to see and show all the people that this was their God. And when they didn't hear from their God, it was wonderful Elijah who said, either he's occupied, or maybe your God has gone inside, or maybe he's on a journey, or maybe he's asleep, or maybe he needs to be awakened. A wonderful example of how... No, never mind. Elijah here, Elijah with fire falling and consuming his burn offering and licking up the water that remained in the trench, showing that the God of Israel was the God that Elijah followed. 1 Kings 18. Do you remember how Elijah's life on earth concluded? That's critical for why they're talking about this here. 2 Kings 2.11. chariots of fire and horses of fire, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven." That's the way I want to go. Scholars then say that there was no Old Testament personality holding such fascination for first century Judaism as Elijah. Why? They expected him to come back. This man didn't die. And to add fuel to their fire for Elijah, Your Old Testament canon concluded this way with Malachi 4, 5, and 6. Behold, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of his fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse. Oh, they were looking for Elijah. His coming would be this eschatological event that something was going to be taking place where all things would be wrapped up and they would no longer be suffering in the way that they were. So the rumblings here among the people was that Jesus was Elijah returning just as Malachi had foretold. Again, this was an affirming answer to who he is. It's much more positive than all the religious leaders were saying what they were saying about him. So some people were answering the who is Jesus question by saying he must be Elijah. And then you have, but others, one of the prophets, if you flipped over to Matthew's parallel account to this, they even name one of them. But others still say Jeremiah is what Matthew captures. There's an interesting reason they think Jeremiah will look at that at some point, but But put yourself in their shoes. There are people who are here who have experienced years and years of silence. There has been no Old Testament prophet, years of silence since the last prophet has spoken. And then you have this man who is traveling about the countryside, who is doing the things that only the Old Testament prophets were doing. A man who is speaking with such authority. Surely some of them were looking at him thinking a prophet has come from God. to help free this people from the oppression of Rome. And maybe even rooted in their thinking him as one of the prophets, was they're looking for the prophet that was promised through Moses, described in Deuteronomy 18, 15 and 18, that helpfully pointed them towards identifying what a true prophet was all throughout the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 18 says this, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. The Lord said, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you and I will put my word in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I have commanded. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I myself were required of him. So what we need to see whenever we see all of these answers coming back to this question, who do people say that I am? Is that there's many affirming answers. Many positive answers, many answers not tying Jesus to Satan or demons, but actually tying him to cherished figures of their past. These are nice people to be associated with. And every one of them is completely wrong. Jesus doesn't affirm any of these nice answers. God didn't say that he revealed these answers to any of them. Friends, wrap your mind around the reality that there are people who will forever be separated from God because they believe Jesus was John the Baptist. They believed he was John the Baptist resurrected. There are people who will stand in judgment with all of their sins remaining on them because they believe Jesus was Elijah. And there will be those who are thrown away as a branch cut off, gathered and cast into the fire the way Jesus describes in John 15 because they believed he was just some prophet. Those are all nice answers, those are all positive answers, affirming answers to the question, who is Jesus, that are simply not true, and they leave you in your sins. I think that's good for us to see. I think that's good for us to be exposed to and wrestle with and feel the weight of and to be reminded of today. Because friends, if Jesus came today, if he came as the suffering servant today and he asked this question, who do people say that I am? I think we would get an eerily similar answers that don't have as much of a Jewish context to them as what you see right here. You've heard these answers. There is no shortage of answers to this question amongst people today. Who do people say that he is? They say, Jesus, you are a wonderful, wonderful teacher. The Jehovah's Witness says, Jesus, that you're an angel sent from heaven. The Muslims say you're a most special prophet. Jesus, the consensus in America would be that your morals and your virtues, your love and your sacrifice were a wonderful example for us all. Jesus, you are a model citizen. Friends, all those are nice answers to the question of who is Jesus that fall short of the truth that have eternal consequences. Some of you may be familiar with this. Randy Alcorn said this. If we get it wrong about Jesus, it doesn't matter what else we get right. If we get it wrong about Jesus, it doesn't matter what else we get right. You have to know who this Jesus is. Your nice answers aren't helpful in this context. You have to know who this is. This was the early church. They lived this way. They functioned this way. They preached this way. If you look in Acts chapter 5, verse 42, it says, Every day in the temple courts, from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news, Jesus as the Christ. Not Jesus as a prophet, not Jesus as Elijah, not Jesus as just one of multiple ways to follow. But they were preaching, they were teaching here in the middle of Jerusalem that Jesus was the Christ unashamedly, boldly. In church, during these two seasons that we celebrate of Christmas and Easter, isn't that the question that's underlying everything in the secular world? Magazines are going to have on their covers a picture of the nativity, and who are they going to look for to help answer that question because they have to deal with it? Well, let's find a historian who can tell us something about him. And you know that the series is going to be on the Discovery Channel or something trying to figure out who Jesus is. And you're going to get a bunch of nice answers, a bunch of answers that are going to show the person who's telling them their tolerance of you. Church, if Jesus then is able to ask this question, who do people say that I am? And if secular media is able to ask this question, who do people say that I am? Might you also be able to ask that same question to people all around you? Everybody else is asking it. Church, you're the people who have the answer. In probably most cases, when you ask that question, you're gonna get a nice answer, a wrong answer, but a nice answer. Friends, we must be clear, John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, a good teacher, an angel, an enlightened man, these are the answers of those who have eyes but do not see, those who have ears but do not hear, those who have a hardened heart. And we need to grapple with this. If we're to see these people as the mission field, is we're to see them as Jesus sees them, reflecting the real condition of their soul that we desperately want to see come to know Him. In a world, friend, where everybody gets a trophy for participating, we can't be lulled into thinking non-aggressive answers to this question have any merit for salvation or that they're commendable in any way. A nice answer is a wrong answer. A nice answer is blasphemous if it's not true about who He is. They do not see, they do not hear or understand this momentous truth, all of these answers from these crowds that Mark's gospel has been building towards, that every miracle, every teaching, every moment that has revealed Jesus' authority and His power and His glory has been proclaiming this one truth, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Son of the living God. And these multiple answers that we have over here that we've just been given and that are coming from the crowd are what's going to distinguish them from the disciples who give one answer. Look in verses 29 through 30, the only acceptable answer. The question is reframed here, the question is modified, and a different answer is going to come back. Verse 29, now this becomes personal, okay? And he continued questioning them, but who do you say that I am? The word you there is a personal pronoun. And it's a very personal pronoun in this question. He's no longer looking for answers here beyond anybody but the eyes that are staring back at him on this road that's north of the Sea of Galilee. And he's sort of pulled the bow back here. It's drawn and the arrow is launched right at their hearts of these men. Who do you say that I am? The reality is that they've been wrestling with this question for a long, long time, even if you went back to Mark 4, verse 41. Remember, there he had just calmed the sea after the storm seemed like it was going to destroy them. And they're sitting there in blind wonder of all that has just taken place. And what do they say? Who then is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? They're asking this question, who is this? But to this point of Mark chapter 8 here, in Mark's gospel, do you know the only title that they have used to describe him, the only title that they have assigned to him is teacher? Mark 4.38, again, connecting to that same event. Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? He's been called Lord one time. Do you remember who? Chapter 7, 28. The Gentile woman. Only to this point in the gospel here. Does Mark, as the narrator of this, where he steps back from the text and he's helping us to enter what all that we're about to see, does he say, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Only to this point do we hear the voice of the Father from heaven at His baptism saying in chapter 1, verse 11, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And only to this point, not amongst men, but sadly amongst the spiritual realm, the demons, do we hear things like, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Only those have recognized Him to this point. These men are here. They've been following Him so many months. They're here on this road. The only thing that they've responded back to is that he's rebuked them, as we've said, for not seeing, not hearing, not being able to understand. This is why this is a monumental event. This is why there is great magnitude. When Peter says what he says here, you are the Christ. And for the first time, a spiritually blind man out of this group is able to see. For the first time, there's a man who has been groping around trying to figure out who this man is that's been standing in front of him month after month after month, who is able to look and see and say, this is the Christ. Friend, we have to understand what that means, the Christ. Because the world all around us would say, oh, he's Jesus, he's Jesus Christ. What did Peter mean when he said that? Peter identified Jesus as the Christ, and that is a title with incredibly heavy significance. The Christos, translated Hebrew, Messiah, meaning to anoint. Anointed by who? Here anointed by God. God anointed by God. In the Old Testament, there were three classes of people that you would see anointed, prophet, priest, and king. In really 1 Kings 19.16 gives us a good example where two of those are anointed. Where word comes from God to a prophet to anoint. To anoint another king, to anoint another prophet. So that a man is anointing a man. 1 Kings 19.16. Where Elijah the prophet was instructed by the Lord to anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint king over Israel. So a king's anointed. And Elijah the son of Shaphat, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. So a prophet's anointed, a king's anointed. This is coming from God, the word to the prophet to anoint men. So each time that this was taking place within the Old Testament, and you see it over and over again, priests anointed, kings anointed, prophets anointed, all of this was meant to shape their thinking about Messiah who would be anointed of God who was coming. And that really brings us this morning why I think this is such an Advent-oriented text, why this is such an Incarnation-oriented text. All of this is anticipating Messiah's arrival. In the Old Testament, over and over again, it's filled with previews. When the kids go to the movies, and I don't go with them, the first thing I ask is not how the movie was, but what did you see as a preview? What's coming? And it's giving you those little glimpses along the way, right? Then when you see those, and then you see the movie, you're like, oh, that's what that was about. You might not even know what the full story is in those previews. Well, all throughout your Old Testament, there's these previews that tell you something about what's coming. And one of the ones that, if you've been here, you know is my favorite, is Isaiah 61, verse 1. that Jesus says he fulfills in Luke 4 18. Listen to Isaiah's prophecy. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Jesus identifies as that one because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to the prisoners. He identifies as the one anointed by God. If you look in Daniel chapter nine, verse twenty five, how is this Messiah or how is he described here? He's described as Messiah is his title is his name. You are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and to until Messiah, until the one who's described here as the anointed one, the prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty two weeks. So he will be the anointed. So let's just think through this. If we saw prophet, priest, and king in the Old Testament, and we see this pointing towards Him as the anointed, the Christ would be the anointed prophet. The Old Testament, as we've already seen, lays the groundwork that there is a prophet who is coming, Deuteronomy 18, who will bring a revelation of God and the word of God he'll bring, unlike any prophet who is before him. The Old Testament spoke on behalf, had prophets that spoke on behalf of God. The prophet that is coming here would be God speaking. You see the difference? The Old Testament prophet brought the word of God. This prophet is the word became flesh, John 1. So the sense is that God would be the ultimate fulfillment of this office. The same thing with the priest. The Christ would be the anointed priest. Zechariah 6, 12 and 13. Thus says the Lord of hosts. Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for he will branch out from where he is and he will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the Lord and he who will bear the honor and set and rule on his throne. Thus he will be a priest on his throne and the council of peace will be between the two offices. Do you see him looking forward to a day where those two offices that were always separate in Israel would be found together in one person? One Christ who would be priest and king. Even King David wrote in Psalm 110 about Messiah. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, the priest to Abraham and Genesis, who pre-existed who pre-existed the Levitical priesthood. And then how has Jesus spoken of in Hebrews, you'll remember, Hebrews 7, 26, a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. Who would possibly be able to fulfill such a role? It has to be God. This priest must be God. The Christ who will be the priest will be God. The coming anointed Messiah, the coming Christ, would be a prophet-priest. He would be a king. He would be the anointed king. We've been pointing to that over and over this morning from Isaiah chapter 9. This is the third time you will have heard this, so hopefully it will stick this time. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, listen. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. Kings had been appointed or kings had been anointed over and over and over again in Israel's past. But there would be none like this king who was coming. It would be the fulfillment of Second Samuel seven, where David's throne would be established forever. Your house and your kingdom will endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. Who is who could possibly do that? What what man could possibly do that? There'd be none other than God in flesh. So all throughout the Old Testament, the real significance of each anointed was pointing towards Jesus. As you read your Old Testament and every time that you see the word anointed, you would rightly be thinking about Jesus. That the title Christ and Messiah and anointed designates him as the true fulfillment of the long succession of Israel's anointed prophets, priests, and kings. who dimly and unworthily though nonetheless genuinely foreshadowed him. He would then be greater than Elijah. He would then be greater than the prophet John the Baptist. He would then be greater than the priest Aaron and Samuel. This prophet, anointed with the Spirit of God, brings the Word and reveals God in such a greater way that Hebrews can say, Hebrews 1.3, He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature. This priest, holy, blameless and undefiled, Hebrews says, saves forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7. And this king. This king who reigns is righteous, it's a comprehensive reign, it's an eternal reign. And Hebrews says that there is nothing that will not be subjected to this king. All of that, and so much more, saturates the title, Christ, that Peter ties here to Jesus and says, this is who you are. Friends, this is the only appropriate, biblical, God-exalting, Christ-exalting, God-glorifying answer. Jesus is the Christ. Matthew's account, you'll remember, captures more of what Peter said, adding to that, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. It's a wonderfully informed answer amongst a group of men who had been exposed to event after event after event. I think I would fail to serve you this morning if we didn't consider how it was that Peter was able to figure this out. It wasn't because he was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It wasn't because his intellect had propelled him to the head of the class of this group of disciples or that he had finally prayed enough or that he had achieved a sinless enough life so that he would be able to understand these things. How was it that in this instant Peter could finally see the man who had been standing in front of him for well over a year at this point? Friend, it was because a sovereign God had removed the veil. And Jesus tells you this in Matthew 16, 17, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Only God can make blind men to see. That's what we saw last week. That's what we're looking at this week. And much like last week, it's going to be cloudy at times for Peter. Remember the man last week. I see men for I see them like trees walking around. That's not right. It's a bit blurry at that point. So this section we're looking at here is about who is Jesus. The next section that's going to come about here is what is it that Jesus came to do. And when Peter hears Jesus' answer to that question, we're going to find out that Peter is looking for a king coming in all of his glory that's going to reign supreme right now. And he really is bothered because there's a suffering servant standing in front of him. And we get to see in that instant just how blurred Peter's vision is. He was looking like most everybody else in Israel was looking for some sort of a superhuman leader who would overthrow Israel's enemies, establish God's kingdom immediately on the earth so that all the earth would recognize it. And that all of that would be taking place right now. He was not looking for a guy on a road with a bunch of former fishermen and tax collectors around the villages of Caesarea Philippi who says that he's going to suffer before he's put to death. So this is blurry in a sense to Peter. But praise God, we know that however cloudy it's going to be, Peter's eventually going to see it clearly. Because you have Acts, we know this is true. And because you have 1 and 2 Peter, we know that his Christology became profoundly clear. He is going to be the one that preaches the first Christ-centered sermon in Acts chapter 2, post-ascension, where he says, men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him, in your midst, just as you yourselves know. This man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held by its power." Friends, that's profound clarity about who Christ is. The Spirit has given that to him. But before clarity, there's this clouded sight that really expresses the sentiments of the day about who the Messiah would be and what people were looking for in Messiah. So you really get verse 30. And he warned them to tell no one about him. Why would he do that? Because so many people would be looking at the cloudy element only of what Peter has and they wouldn't even have the basis that he has about this is the Christ in any sort of a way. The time was not yet for this truth to spread among the people. It would only fuel their zeal for a political messiah, something he was not. And it would only provoke the hatred and opposition of Herod and all the religious leaders. So it is that on this day, on this road, in the foothills of Mount Hermon, the gospel of Mark is opened, and you get the very center of it, and you're given this precious pearl, Jesus is the Christ. This is the only acceptable answer to this question, who is Jesus? And this, my friend, is the answer that is the way to life. Friends, I think that question must be asked to every single one of us, and we will have some sort of an answer. You must answer that question. And a non-answer to this question is an answer. A non-answer to this question is an offensive answer that dishonors the person of Jesus Christ. You must know, you must personally confess who Jesus is, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. There is no more important question for you apart from, but related to, do you believe he is the Christ? And that doesn't mean affirming just certain facts that Jesus is the Christ. Even Satan and his demons affirm those facts. We've seen that already, right? But they don't respond in love and they don't respond in obedience. Their believing is not genuine. True saving faith always responds in obedience. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to take you back in closing. Where I said would take you back to the road. That you see them on here, because in a sense, I think we're all on a road much like these men were. You're left to wrestle with the same question they're left to wrestle with. I come back here because this picture of this road and just seeing this where they're at just stuck another picture in my mind that Jesus gives us in Matthew 7, 13 and 14. Many of you know this verse. Remember he said to them and to the crowds, enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small, the way is narrow, that leads to life, and there are few that find it." Friends, there are many positive takes on Jesus that are being discussed on the wide road that leads to destruction. But there's only one truth that's being proclaimed on the narrow road that leads to life. People on both roads have some sort of a take on that question, who do you say that I am? On the wide road, friend, you will find the majority opinion. That is the majority of people, the majority opinion, that they have the answer here. There's no shortage of answers. Some of them are going to be malicious answers. Yes, he's an imaginary figure of literature. He is a fraudster. He is even what the Pharisees say that he is possessed by Beelzebul. Some people will say those things. But the far greater answer that I think you would find are the non-malicious positive answers that we've sort of been exposed to here. He's an angel from heaven. He's a great teacher. He's an enlightened prophet. He's a good man. Or I'm just still trying to figure out who this Jesus is. I think all those things are being discussed on the wide road. The wide road, this is the chatter here of the majority, and the answers of the majority are deficient. And the answers of the majority on this wide road lead to destruction. Friends, the church holds the minority position, the unusual position, the peculiar answer to this question. And the minority position is heard from a man who was rebuked for his blindness just a few verses ago. And now he's in the middle of nowhere on a dusty road in the foothills of Mount Hermon in the Middle East saying, you are the Christ. That is the only answer that's being discussed on the narrow road. That's it. There is no other debate on the narrow road that leads to life. And friends, there are a few that find it. But by God's grace, you've seen one man who found it this morning. How is it that you may know the answer to that question? As you think about Jesus this holiday season, as you're surrounded with all these opinions and ideas, well, we've been saying it all the way throughout Mark, that saving faith isn't just a blind faith, but that it's an informed faith, a faith that's informed by the Word of God. And you're able to see this here in this man who shows us power and authority and a glory. And friend, how is it also revealed? It's revealed by the Spirit of God. And the Word of God all throughout Mark has been announcing this, that the incarnation, that Jesus coming is nothing short of God coming in flesh. That's what Jesus is the Christ means. And this is hope. And this is eternal life for the sinner who through faith finds their righteousness in him. And as we leave all of this, I want to leave you with the words of the Apostle John, because I think they're so critical. If you want to see the comprehensive nature of what your Bible is saying about Jesus is the Christ. John the Apostle, who in 1 John shows you the distinctives between those who confess Jesus is the Christ and those who deny it. I want to read them to you, 1 John 2.22. John writes this, who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. The one who confesses the Son has the Father also. In John, who just a few chapters later, 1 John 5 verse 1 says this, who ever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The only way that that confession will be able to come out of your mouth and that you'll be able to believe it in such a way that everything that undergirds what it means to be the Christ is contained within that is that God would be able to reveal that to you. and that you would be able to plead with Him this morning, that you would see and understand and know and have ears and eyes that see and hear that Jesus is the Christ. And the appropriate response that shows believing faith is connected there in 1 John 5, verse 1, where he says, By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and observe His commandments, that your life will be It's producing fruit after fruit, yielding fruit here that this truth that you believe is actually done something with inside you. Friends, I just want you to see this truth this morning. Jesus is the Christ. The child in the manger born to the Virgin is the Christ. The man on the dusty road that we've looked at this morning is the Christ. The man who is on the cross is the Christ. The one who ascended to glory after the tomb was found empty is the Christ. The anointed prophet, priest, and king that we've looked at this morning, who sits this morning at the right hand of the Father, exalted high in glory, is the Christ. And the one whose second advent that we eagerly await as we gather here this morning celebrating the first. I pray that that saving monumental truth would be our confession this Christmas. Father, we come before You and we are grateful that You have revealed something through Your Word that is staggering and it is saving. Father, we pray that this would be our confession this Christmas, that this would be this confession that saturates the entirety of our life. that Jesus is the Christ. Lord, we pray that you would allow some this morning who have never known that truth for it to be ever so clear in their mind that much like Peter, accused of blindness, accused of deafness, and rightly so, verses before, is radically changed so that he is able to see and make this confession. Lord, this is our hope for salvation. This is our hope for eternal life. This is our hope for a righteousness that is foreign to us, that is not our own righteousness, that is unworthy to stand before you, but the righteousness of your Son that you have given as a gift and that it would be attributed to us by grace through faith. Lord, that Christ would be seen by some this morning who've spent years with Him in Sunday school classes and hearing about Him from others but have never genuinely seen Him. Lord, show them Christ this morning as Peter saw Christ. Father, I pray that this informs our faith, this informs our worship, that this informs the way that we walk in faith throughout our life, particularly during this time of year. Make us a people bold to ask that same question that Jesus asked to those around us. Who do you say that Jesus is? And Father, we pray that you would equip us with the answer and that you would help us and that that would be a matter of faith on our part thinking about how we might bumble and stumble through such an answer, but trusting you to do your good work through that. Lord, help us to bring life to others through Christ this Christmas. To your glory we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.