Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Who was Jesus? An imposter? A great prophet? Or was he the Messiah? It's a great question, isn't it? And it's one that's been asked for generations. Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'm so glad that you've hopped aboard the Bible bus as Dr. J. Vernon McGee is going to take us to Matthew 16, where the question "Who is Jesus?" is posed for the very first time by none other than Jesus himself.

It's a great chapter and one that Dr. McGee says is very important. So grab your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 16, verse 1. And as you find your place, I got a couple of letters that I want to read from listeners who have recently learned who Jesus is and have written to share the good news with us.

Deme, who listens in French, tells us this: "After many questions about repentance and forgiveness and obedience, a huge weight was removed from my shoulders as I learned about Jesus' love. Through your explanations of God's grace, many souls are set free. I in particular always heard about Jesus, but I didn't understand his significance in my life. Through listening to you almost every day, I am now a believer, and for this I give immense thanks to God.

"Now I am fulfilled. I even smile at the smallest things because I know that it is no longer I who live, but Jesus Christ who lives in me. He has given me everything. What joy and gladness for my family and me. Thank you for the teachings, and may you remain in the grace of the Lord Jesus."

Isn't that an encouraging testimony? And then here's another one that I know you're going to love. It's Sang from Laos who writes this: "I would like to sincerely thank this ministry for its help. I listen in the Lumien language and am 65 years old. My relatives in the USA encouraged me to find you. After a month, they called me to ask how it was. I told them I was ready to receive Jesus Christ, and they prayed with me.

"After becoming a believer, I did not know what to do, how to pray, or how to read the Bible. My relatives encouraged me to keep listening. As I did, I learned to pray by following along with the teacher on the program. I also began to understand the Bible through the teachings. Our family used to be under the influence of spirits performing animal sacrifices for worship, but now we have been set free. I thank God and you for helping my family find true peace."

Well, if you'd like to thank God for his work in the lives of these two listeners and the many others just like them who are hearing of Jesus for the first time and for the faithful in-country producers and staff who answer their questions, then you need to join our world prayer team. It's super easy. Sign up today over at TTB.org.

Now as a partner of this ministry, nothing's more important than to pray with us. That's always the first priority we ask you to do. And it would be a great privilege to have you join this team as we intercede for God's work around the world. Again, sign up at TTB.org or in the Thru the Bible app.

Let's pray as we study God's word together. Father, thank you for your promise that those who seek you will find you. Please fill our hearts with faith as we believe your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now in the 16th chapter of the gospel of Matthew, and if you've found your place there, we see that this chapter continues the conflict that the Lord Jesus had with the Pharisees and Sadducees. And we've come now to the place where our Lord calls for a confession from his disciples, and Peter, I think, speaks for the group. And then the Lord Jesus confronts them for the first time with the church, his death, and resurrection. And that makes this chapter, as you can see, very important.

Now we open with the Pharisees and Sadducees again asking for a sign from heaven, and they are again referred to Jonah. I'm reading now: "The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

Now the scribes and Pharisees back in the 12th chapter, you will recall at verse 38, they came and asked the same question for a sign. At that very same time, our Lord gave them the sign of Jonah. He's going to do that here, but he calls their attention to the fact that they were very good at being weather prophets. They could predict the weather, but they didn't seem to be able to recognize the signs of the times.

The religious rulers actually are trying to trap him, and he is going to warn his own to beware of them. And now you notice again here, this is the second time he calls them, "O ye hypocrites." Then verse 4: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." They had many signs, but they would not accept them. "And there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed."

And there's a note of finality in his action here as he turns and walks away from them, but he gives them again Jonah. And his answer is very brief here, but it's very much to the point. And we know that he'd told them as Jonah was, so he would be in the heart of the earth. Now you find that these Pharisees and Sadducees, they were not even about to accept him at all.

There are revealed in this chapter three viewpoints that are presented concerning the Lord Jesus. And this is the first one: the Pharisees and Sadducees believe that the Lord Jesus was an imposter. To them he was not the Messiah at all. And then you have the viewpoint of the multitudes, and to them Jesus was John the Baptist or Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. They were complimentary, but they all missed the mark. And then his disciples, who recognized him as the Messiah or the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Peter was the spokesman at that time.

Now let's move on as we see him warning his disciples now of the leaven, the false doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And we're told: "And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread." Now verse 6: "Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."

Now at the 13th chapter, I made it very clear that leaven was a principle of evil. It was never a principle of good, and that it always was that. And here, I think we have a confirmation from the Lord. He says to beware of the leaven. Well, if you're to beware of something, it's certainly not something that you welcome or something that's good.

The leaven of the Pharisees and of the scribes was what? They reasoned among themselves saying, "It's because we've taken no bread." You see, they missed the understanding of the leaven at first. Now verse 8: "Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith." And you can call these men now little faith because again and again he's reminded them of their little faith.

"Why reason ye among yourselves, because ye brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."

Now friends, leaven therefore according to our Lord's interpretation of it is nothing in the world but false doctrine. It's that which is evil. It's never good. And when you talk about the leaven of the gospel, you're using a contradiction of terms. The leaven is never a picture of the gospel. Our Lord warns them of it here and says it's the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

That I think ought to clarify once and for all what leaven is. That is if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as an authority, which he is. Now in verse 13, we come to Caesarea Philippi and we have this marvelous confession of himself from his disciples. And he mentions the church for the first time. And again, we need to make some very sharp distinctions here, friends. And I'm convinced that all the way through this gospel, we certainly need to keep our thinking cap on because this is the gospel that is the key to the rest of the Scripture.

Now will you notice verse 13 of chapter 16 of Matthew: "When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Now he's way in the north, and he's in a position from which he's going to turn and begin a movement directly toward Jerusalem.

And before he begins that journey, there are two things that his disciples must be clear on: who he is and what he's going to do. And friends, those are the two things that you have to be clear on to be a Christian. You have to know who he is and you have to know what he did. And it's that that determines your salvation and my salvation.

These are the things that we're to know in order that we might exercise faith and be saved. The first question that he'll put to them here is this: "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" And that's a question that he's still asking. And that's a question that is still being answered today. He's still the most controversial person who's ever lived on top side of this earth. "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?"

Now you have the viewpoint of the multitude, of the crowd. What would they think? I believe if you took a microphone, went out on the street corner in your town, you'd probably get these same answers because men are still as much confused about him. "Some say that thou art John the Baptist." Well, John the Baptist was a great man. They recognized him as such. And there are those that say today Jesus is a great teacher.

"And others say that he's Elias," that is Elijah. "And Elijah was a great person." And there are those that say today, "Jesus, he's a great person." "And others, Jeremias." Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, and there a great many saw in him a weeping prophet. He wept over Jerusalem. He gave predictions. They gave him full credit for that, that he was a great prophet. Or others said he's just one of the prophets.

And I suppose each one had his own particular viewpoint. Now that's the viewpoint of the crowd. That's the viewpoint of the average person today. Again, may I say if you would go and ask, maybe some of you'd like to make the test. If you do, let me know what viewpoint you got. I know a man, he was one of these extrovert preachers, a young preacher, who's a friend of mine. He was always doing something unusual.

And he went out on the street corner and he asked this question because he heard me say this same thing I'm saying now, that you could get all sorts of viewpoints concerning who Jesus Christ is. And he got all sorts of interpretations. Many people said that they thought he was one of the greatest teachers the world has ever seen, one a founder of religion. Another felt that he was a good man. And another, well, he didn't think so much about him. He just would put him in a class with other men that were famous in history. Just one of the prophets, you see.

Now he turns, the Lord Jesus turns to the apostles, and he saith unto them, "But whom say ye that I am?" And of course, that's what he's asking you and me. And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ." Now that means the Messiah, the anointed one, the one who was predicted in the Old Testament and fulfills all of that. "The Son of the living God." Now up to this point, that was the highest testimony and the best confession that could be made of him. This is who he is.

Now Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Now no man today can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can take the things of Christ and show them unto us. So that our Lord could say to Simon Peter, "Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. You didn't get it by being with me."

A great many people say, "Well, if I could have been with him three years." And these men had been with him now two and a half years. "Then I would really know who he is." Would you? May I say that you can know him just as well today because the Spirit of God has to make him real to you.

Now will you notice verse 18: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Now let's look at this for just a moment. What rock did Christ build the church on? There are those that say it was Simon Peter. Well, that's obvious it's not, for there is a play upon words here. Thou art Petros, upon this Petra. Thou art Petros, a little piece of rock, and upon this bedrock I will build my church.

Now the others that say that that rock that he's building the church on is the confession that Simon Peter made. And friends, that's not it at all. Who is the rock? Well, the rock is Christ. On this rock, on Christ I'll build my church. Now if you went over to Simon Peter's own explanation of this, you'll find out that he made it very clear in his epistle that he was that precious stone. I'll not turn to that. We'll pick that up when we come to Simon Peter's two epistles, but you could turn there and you'll find out he called him a precious stone.

Now the church is built upon him. No other foundation can any man lay. Now he is the stone, and he says on this rock I will build my church. The church was future then. Don't tell me there's a church in the Old Testament. There wasn't even a church in existence until after the death, resurrection, ascension of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Couldn't be a church until all of those things took place. And the church here is still in the future: I will build my church.

Now again, "the gates of hell shall not prevail." What does he mean by the gates of hell? Well, the word here is the word Hades or Sheol in the Old Testament, unseen world, it's death. And the gates of death shall not prevail against it. And friends, it's much more important as far as I'm concerned that the gates of death not prevail against his church. In other words, one of these days the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and that shout will be like the voice of an archangel, and it will be like a trump because the dead in Christ are to be raised.

The gates of death shall not prevail against his church. "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Now what are the keys of the kingdom of heaven? Who'd he give them to? Simon Peter? No, he gave them to those that make this confession, that know him as Savior. In other words, if you're a child of God, you have the keys as much as any person has the keys. And it'll be up to you to unlock the door for someone.

"And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." This is something very serious, and that means that you and I today have a responsibility. We have a gospel, and it's the only gospel that can save men. "And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." They'll be loosed in heaven. This again is something that is tremendous. Who sufficient, friends, for these things? You and I have a responsibility that's awesome indeed.

"Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." Because to know who he is will not save you by itself. You've got to know what he did. Now listen to him, verse 21: "From that time forth," he hadn't revealed his cross to his disciples or apostles up to this point. He did to Nicodemus that night but not to them.

"From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." And this is what he did for you and me. This is the gospel. The gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, buried and raised again. You must know who he is and you must know what he did for you, that he died for you, and he was worthy to die for you.

Now this is the gospel. This is the first time he says this. On the way to Jerusalem, we'll see in this gospel that five different times he calls their attention to the fact he's going to die. And it's a good thing he schooled them in this because of the fact that they just couldn't see the cross at this time. They know who he is, but they just don't like what he's going to do.

Verse 22: "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. You see, you're the Messiah. You are the Son of God. You must not, you cannot go to the cross." The cross was not in their thinking at this time. He turned and said unto Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man."

You know, it's satanic for anyone who's in a position like Simon Peter to deny the facts of the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins upon the cross. This is satanic when especially a man in the pulpit will deny these things. This is the only thing in the world that can save us, friends. And it's a tragic, terrible thing. And Peter later on could say, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, and by whose stripes we are healed."

My, what a transformation took place in this man, and our Lord actually said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." This man who by the Spirit of God could say that he's the Son of God, now can even let Satan deceive him. My, how far can you go and still not be a Christian? I'm afraid a great many are, they're very close to the kingdom but don't seem to quite make it.

Verse 24: "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Now we always interpret this as let him deny himself ice cream or deny himself some luxury or deny himself something down here. Well, no, it doesn't say that at all. Let him deny himself. And you know, the hardest person in the world that I have to deny is to deny myself. Well, now to deny myself dessert, that's difficult. But to deny myself is indeed a difficult thing to do.

And he says, "And take up his cross, and follow me." And not Christ's cross, but his cross. There's a cross for you and a cross for me, that is if we're going to follow him. This is I think very important to see. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."

He'll come in the glory of his Father, and then he'll reward every man according to his works. Now will you notice: "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they shall see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." When will they see it? They're going to see it in the very next chapter.

Actually, this verse here belongs with the next chapter, with chapter 17. So I'm just going to actually stop with verse 27 and say that next time we begin with verse 28, chapter 16, because it is the explanation of what we see on the Mount of Transfiguration, and that's when they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom. But we're going to have to save that until next time. And so until then, may God bless you richly, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Well, that certainly leaves us with a lot to look forward to. If you haven't yet gotten our notes and outlines for the journey, they're available for free in our app or at TTB.org to download. Just look for the download of our digital book, "Briefing the Bible," or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we'll send you an abridged copy by mail. I'm Steve Schwetz, thanking God for the privilege of traveling through his word with you.

Our story on the Bible bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire word of God. Come along for the ride and you'll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God's great redemption story. Is this your story too?