Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

Today's scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 16 verses 1 to 20.

Matthew 16:1–20

Starting in verse 1, we read.

And the Pharisees and the Sadducees came, and to test him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

He answered them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.

And in the morning, it will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

An evil and undoubterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

So he left them and departed.

When the disciples reached to the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.

Jesus said to them, Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, We brought no bread.

Jesus, aware of this, said, O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive?

Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?

Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?

How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread?

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Then they understood that he did not tell them to be aware of the leaven of the bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Then he strictly charged his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

This is the word of God.

Amen.

Check, one, two.

Okay, thank you Dwight and Margot for reading the scriptures.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Amen.

Thank you for that.

That was great.

Welcome.

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Alan.

I oversee the youths here at Watermark, and it's such a joy and privilege to be ministering God's word to you this morning.

Can I pray for us before we start?

Father God, we come before you this morning, and our prayer is this, that God, you would come, and you would reveal your word to us this morning, that your word would penetrate our hearts, that your word would come and convict us, but at the same time draw us close to who you are, Jesus.

So come, for your name's sake, be glorified.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Okay, for those of you who do not know me, I studied in India for my whole high school, and then I came to Hong Kong around 2012.

Now, I studied in a boarding school, all boys boarding school, so it was great.

One of the things we had to do was, we had to wake up early in the morning and do our PT exercise.

So we all head to the ground, do some stretchings.

I know it's in black and white, but I'm not that old.

We had to do some exercise, jumping jacks early in the morning, and we had to wake up somewhere around 6 years and head up to the ground.

Now, we had a PT teacher.

I used to describe him as he was the man of men, you know, like this guy was solid.

And he used to come, make sure everyone was heading to the ground.

I mean, if you're not there, he would literally drag you to the ground, and it did not matter whether you were dressed or not, whether you had your shoes on or not.

So we boys, obviously, we did not like going down to the ground.

So there were three types of boys there.

So one of the boys were, they would hear this teacher coming, and he used to whistle all the way from the top of the mountain.

He used to come down to your dormitory.

And as soon as they would hear the whistle, they would be all ready.

They would get ready, and they would head down to the road.

So those were the good boys.

Now, there were a second type of boys.

Those who would listen to the whistle, wake up on their bed, and I don't know if you do this.

They sit on their bed, and they start contemplating their whole life.

And then for some reason, they just stay there for a while until the teacher comes in, and they're like, and then they head off.

Now, there were the third type of boys, like me, who would hear the whistle, hear the sign, and for some reason think that the teacher is not going to visit my dormitory this morning.

And so there I was, sleeping on my bed, just to realize the teacher was already in the hall.

So I came out of bed, went under my bed to hide, and then came out after a few minutes, only to see that he was waiting for me down the hall.

So for the first time in my life, once-in-a-lifetime experience, I got an amazing spanking on my butt with a cricket bat while wearing the thinnest pajamas in the world on the winter cold morning.

So that was once-in-a-lifetime experience.

So the point is, all humans react to signs in a similar way.

You know, there are some people who see the sign, some people who see this message, and they accept it, they align their life, they conform their life to what the sign is pointing towards.

And there's the other group of people who see the sign, but for some reason, for distractions or some other reasons, they don't really get it, and they need more effort.

They just don't understand it.

And there's the last group of people who do see the signs, who do see the message, but they totally ignore it.

They just reject the sign.

So, in today's scripture, we will be discovering these groups of people.

And we have been doing the book of Ecclesiastes for the last seven weeks.

Now we'll be going back to the Gospel of Matthew.

The last time we did the Gospel of Matthew was in November last year, so we'll be going back, which is exciting.

So in the last chapter, Jesus had been confronting the religious leaders of that time.

So he had been telling the religious leaders, hey, you guys got to get your act up.

He was telling them to focus on their heart.

There's a real need for the heart to change rather than just focusing on the external thing.

And just before today's scriptures, Jesus had just performed this amazing miracle where he had fed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and fishes.

So, now just having just done these amazing miracles, as we dive into today's passage, we encounter the first type of people which cries out, give us a sign.

Give me a sign.

So we'll be looking into verse 1 and 4.

If you do have your bulletin, if you have your Bible, please follow along.

We'll be following really closely.

If you do not have your bulletin, I'm sure we have some lying around here.

So do get one or two of those.

Okay, let's dive into today's passage.

Verses 1 to 4.

Okay, what we see here is that the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders, they come together and they ask Jesus to show them a sign.

They say, Jesus, show us a sign.

And Jesus says, you look at the weather, you see the signs, and you're able to predict the weather, but then you're not able to predict or interpret the signs of this time.

And finally, Jesus leaves them saying, I'm going to give you no signs except the sign of Jonah.

So what's happening here?

And if you remember, this similar event, this almost exact event actually happened in chapter 12, which we talked about around October last year.

And if you look at chapter 12, verses 38, there the Pharisees come and they also make a similar demand.

They say like, Jesus, can you give us a sign?

And similar to the same thing.

And almost identical, Jesus gives them a similar response saying, an evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign.

So this is not the first time this is happening.

But if you stop and think about it, wasn't this a rational request?

I mean, to come to Jesus and say, Jesus, can you show us that you are from God or not?

I mean, it's a pretty rational request, right?

I mean, if I'm buying a Gucci bag down the street from a man, I would love to see some signs that is authentic, right?

Who wouldn't want that?

Everyone wants a sign to see it's authentic.

But it seems that that's not really the problem.

What is it that's causing Jesus to give an answer in such a manner as this?

The problem here was not that the religious leaders were blind.

I mean, verses 2 and 3 tells us that they were able to look at the sky and predict.

So that means they are not blind.

I mean, Jesus had just performed a miracle right before this, and it was not that the Pharisees did not see the sign before this.

The real problem here was in the heart of the Pharisees and the religious leaders.

And look at verse 4.

It makes it abundantly clear.

When Jesus calls them an evil and an adulterous generation.

Now, think about this.

An evil, to call someone evil, okay, that's pretty understandable, right?

Okay, you're coming to me with an evil intent, and I'm calling you evil.

But what does adultery have to do with asking for a sign?

What does adulterous have to do with this problem right here?

And adultery in the Bible is almost always linked to idolatry.

Because, like adultery, idolatry is when one worshipped and loved something, something else, rather than the one they were supposed to love and supposed to give their life to.

It means that when they give their whole life, when they dedicate their life, when they surrender their life to something, rather than the God that actually created them.

So that's why in the Bible, we always see that adultery and idolatry is always linked.

Now, when you look at the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that time were not coming to Jesus so that they can believe in Jesus.

They were not coming to Jesus so that they can come to Jesus and say, oh, Jesus, you are from God.

No, no, no.

They were coming to Jesus so that they cannot believe in Him.

And because they were looking for something in Jesus that allowed them to say, okay, I do not believe in you.

Okay, I'm not going to believe in you because you cannot show me any signs.

If you think about it, it was adultery because they were coming to Jesus so at the end of it all, they can still keep their independence.

They can still go on living their own life so that they can still go on and be the king of their own world.

And if we go back to chapter 11, and there's a section in there where Jesus is denouncing the city.

So basically what Jesus is doing in chapter 11 is that He goes there and He looks at this one city and He says,

Woe to you, CDA.

If all the miracles I had done in your city was done in this city, they would have already repented and come back.

And if you think about it, the purpose of signs, of all the signs and miracles was to actually draw people to repentance and to bring people back to God.

And one commentator said this,

The trouble with the Pharisees was that they sought the gratification of signs without the obligation of obeying God who gave them.

Do you see what's happening here?

The Pharisees are coming so that they can just walk away from Jesus, so that they can not really see that,

Okay, just give me one more sign, just give me one more sign, but without any intention of actually committing their life to who Jesus is.

Now going back to our Gucci bag illustration, imagine you're trying to sell your Gucci bag.

This guy comes back to you.

By the way, Gucci bag is an expensive bag.

For those of you who do not know.

So imagine you're trying to sell your Gucci bag.

And this person comes,

Okay, I don't think this is authentic.

Give me a, I would love to see a receipt.

And you give them a receipt.

And they're like,

Ah, I'm still not sure.

Can you show me a credit card statement?

You show them a credit card statement.

And they're like,

Ah, no, I'm still not sure.

Can you show me the shop that you bought this?

And you show them the shop.

And this goes on and on and on.

And until you finally realize that this person has no intention of buying the bag from you at all.

Just as the Pharisees had no intention.

The Pharisees and Sadducees had no intention of actually committing to who Jesus is and coming back in repentance.

It's almost like saying to God,

God, I'm going to follow you all in if you just give me this one sign.

God, I'm going to truly follow you if you just give me this one promotion.

Or if you just give me this one career, this one job, or this one girlfriend.

Okay, we all get one girlfriend.

One girlfriend.

Okay, I don't know why I'm saying that.

If you just get a girlfriend, or if I just get this wife, or get a husband,

or if you just solve my problem, or if you just give me a job that has a better schedule.

It's like coming to God, just asking for one thing,

and God, then I'm ready to follow you this time.

You know, it can be a better paying job.

It can be a better scheduled job.

It can be a job that really fulfills your passion.

It can be anything.

But we are just keeping it as a condition and saying to God,

God, can you just give me this one thing?

And I'm willing to come and follow you.

Then I will be able to give you all in.

Church, are we coming to Jesus with a bunch of excuses

and asking for just one more sign rather than trusting and obeying him?

And you might still say,

Ah, I just need this one thing.

I just need this one job.

But the truth of the matter is that you won't.

The truth of the matter is that you'll say that I will follow you, God,

if I just get this relationship.

And the thing is, you won't.

And if you remember the book of Ecclesiastes,

it talks about that God has put eternity in our hearts.

There will always be something that you want

because our hearts are wired to worship something.

And if we are not worshiping God,

then we will be worshiping something else.

So for us to come before God and say,

God, just one more thing,

is to just put God aside and say,

God, just give me one more thing before I come to you.

Just give me one more thing before I finally give my life to you.

So church, think about that.

What is that one thing that you might be putting up before God

and say, God, just give me this one sign before I come and follow you.

So there we have a group that even in the midst of signs,

they're asking for a sign.

Not because they want to obey and believe,

but because they want an excuse not to trust and believe and follow Jesus.

A group that says, give us a sign.

And now, which leads us to this another group,

that though they have all the signs in front of them,

they still yet fail to really perceive what's going on.

To a group that just needs to be told,

look at the sign, which leads us to our second point.

Okay, are you with me?

Okay, I'm loving the notes.

Okay, we'll be looking at verses 5 to 12 now.

So do follow along in your Bibles and bulletin.

So what is happening here is,

so as they finish the first part,

as Jesus walks away from this group,

Jesus is traveling with his disciples,

and then Jesus looks over to his disciples and he says,

hey, watch and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Now, what is a leaven?

So in the Bible, leaven,

but I guess outside the Bible,

leaven is something that causes the dough to rise.

I'm no baker.

So those of you who know baking,

you should know,

you put a little bit of yeast and the bread rises.

That's what I've learned.

I've never seen it,

but that's what I've learned.

So in the Bible,

leaven is usually symbolical to mean sin and corruption.

Because, like leaven,

sin has the ability to actually,

even a little bit of sin has the ability to corrupt,

to spread throughout our lives,

to corrupt our mind,

to corrupt our hearts,

and to, at the end of it all,

to affect everything in our lives.

So like leaven,

sin and corruption is always related,

because that's what sin does.

A little bit of it has ability to corrupt everything.

I mean, I remember,

okay, I don't know who said it,

but I remember this person describing sin as a drilling machine.

Do you know those huge drilling machines?

Not the one that goes this way,

the one that goes this way.

And he talked about it.

Sin is like when your little bit of clothes get stuck on this,

and because it's just a little bit,

you cannot go like,

oh, it's okay,

it's just a little bit of cloth.

No, no, no.

It has the ability to suck you in.

It's not just a little bit of cloth.

It's your whole body that's going to be sucked in.

And that's what sin does.

A little bit of sin has the ability to corrupt everything.

So, what's happening here is,

the disciples, they hear the word leaven,

and they realize that,

oh, man, we don't have any bread.

And then they start to discuss,

and Jesus confronts them saying,

hey, I'm not talking about bread.

And then he tells them,

hey, I'm talking about the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Okay.

Now, if you look at verse 9 and 10 in your scripture,

it's quite interesting.

Because these two verses,

these two answers,

would have been a perfect answer to the ones,

to the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the previous section.

Think about it.

In the previous section,

the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to Jesus and say,

hey, Jesus, give us a sign.

And Jesus could have told them this, right?

Hey, do you not remember the five loaves and the five fish?

Do you not remember all the seven loaves and the 5,000?

I mean, this could have been a perfect response to the first group, isn't it?

But, he does not give them this response.

And we know that it was because they were already unwilling to believe whatever Jesus said anyway.

So, Jesus does not give this response to them.

But, in this section,

Jesus does give this response to this particular group.

And if you look at verse 8,

we see that he tells it to his disciples,

whom he calls them,

O you of little faith.

O you of little faith.

Now, that is an interesting phrase.

O you of little faith.

Because Jesus coins this word,

where he brings two words together in Greek,

and he comes up with this one whole word,

which in English is like a few more words.

So, basically, he brings little and faith together

and to come up with this word called,

O you of little faith.

Now, what does that mean?

Basically, it means those that are finding it hard to believe.

It's not those that are refusing to believe.

It's those that are finding it hard to believe.

Those are struggling to believe.

Those are somehow distracted

and can't really get it.

To them, he calls them,

O you of little faith.

So, let's look at this.

What is happening here with the disciples?

Let's look at our passage.

And Jesus tells them,

Watch and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Now, it seems that the disciples,

they hear Jesus saying it,

and they look at,

they hear Jesus saying it,

and they hear the word leaven,

and as soon as they hear the word leaven,

they seem to have connected that word straight to

them not having any bread.

It seems that they got so easily distracted

with one word, right?

It's like Jesus was in front of them saying like,

Hey guys, disciples,

watch and beware the leaven of the Pharisees.

And Peter goes like,

James, where's the bread?

Leaven, bread.

I don't know, James.

Peter should be having it.

Peter's like, I don't have the bread.

Andrew should be having it.

No, I don't have the bread.

Judah, you're in charge of the money.

You should have the bread.

No, no, no.

We are 12 guys.

No one has the bread.

And Jesus must have been like,

seriously, there's 12 bunch of guys.

And you see that they got so easily distracted

with just one word, leaven.

Now, how does one get distracted?

How does anyone get distracted?

One gets distracted when they focus on the wrong thing

or prioritize something over the other.

You know, it's like when one is supposed to be babysitting a kid

and suddenly there's a message on your Instagram

and then you see one post, you see another post,

your focus shifts,

and suddenly this becomes your priority

rather than taking care of a kid that you're babysitting.

Now, we see that they seem to get so easily distracted.

They hear one word, leaven,

and their minds are all over the places.

Now, what does this lead to?

What is the consequences of getting distracted?

Let's look at verse 9 and 11.

And Jesus tells them two things that happen

because they are focusing on the wrong word

and got distracted.

So the two things he talks about here is,

one, he says, do you not remember?

And the second thing is, he says,

how is it that you fail to understand?

So the disciples have not only failed to understand,

but also forgotten something.

You see, one, their focus went straight to the word leaven

and they completely missed what Jesus was really talking about.

They completely missed what Jesus was trying to tell them.

And two, though they still misunderstood

and they thought that he was talking about bread,

they had forgotten that Jesus was someone

who fed thousands of people with just few loaves of bread.

So they seem to have totally misunderstood

and totally forgotten who Jesus is.

But at the bottom of it all,

this distraction has caused them to totally miss

and totally forget the wonder of who Jesus is.

Friends, we live in a time and age

where it's so easy to get distracted.

In our pursuit of money,

we can easily spend all our energy and time

in our jobs and career hunting.

Maybe in our pursuit of relationship,

we can easily be consumed by that pursuit

and easily make it an idol

rather than worshiping God.

Or we can also be distracted

when we come home after a really tiring day

and we just jump on our bed

and spend hours and hours

going through our Instagram feeds,

our Facebook feeds.

It's so easy to get distracted.

I mean, or maybe even like the disciples,

we could get distracted

by something we do not have.

It could be a financial crisis,

it could be a relational crisis,

career crisis, health crisis.

It could be all sorts of crisis,

things that we are missing out,

things that are broken,

things that we are really struggling with.

But friends, are we forgetting that

this is a Jesus who fed 5,000 and 4,000

with just a few loaves of bread and a few fishes?

Friends, it's so easy to get distracted.

Our distractions can't even be our sinfulness.

You know, it could be something

that we have been entertaining in our lives.

A sin.

Maybe it could be an addiction with pornography.

It could be anything.

It could be all sorts of things,

sins that we have not really brought before God.

You know, those things are a distraction.

But are we forgetting that Jesus died on the cross?

He paid the price of our sin,

that He is a holy God.

But at the same time,

He's a gracious God,

that if we bring our sinfulness,

if we bring our brokenness before God,

that He's a God who with open arms welcomes us

and forgives us our sins

and renews us every day.

What is that distraction that is stopping us?

But friends, let's look at this passage closely

because it's not just the things that,

this kind of things that distract us,

but also the good things.

Look at verse 12,

where Jesus warns them against the teachings

of the religious leaders.

You see, even the religious things we do

can distract us from God.

I mean, we can be serving in all sorts of ministries,

all sorts of places.

I mean, we can be praying, fasting,

reading our Bible,

coming to church,

attending CGs,

doing all these religious things

which are important,

but miss out the most important thing

of all of them.

And if you remember,

we've been talking about this last week.

And above it all,

love your Lord with all your heart,

soul, mind, and strength,

and love your neighbors as yourself.

You see, we can be doing

all hundreds of things at church,

hundreds of good things,

but still miss out

that one thing that God calls us to do,

which is to love Him

with all that we are

and all that we have.

So friends,

let us take some time

to think about that right now.

Maybe let's take a minute or so

and think about in your life,

where is it,

what is it

that is distracting us

from coming to God,

distracting us from the wonder of God

right now.

Let's take a minute.

Let's take a minute.

Now, we have been talking about

science for quite some time now.

We've been talking about science,

science,

and if you think about it,

science usually point us,

point the viewer

to something else

or someone else

or gives us a message

or something, right?

So the miracles

and the amazing thing

that Jesus does

in this gospel

and throughout the gospel

was not in itself

the main

and the most important point,

but it was pointing

the viewers,

the readers,

and us

towards something

much more

than the miracles.

And if we go back

to verse 4

of today's scripture,

Jesus tells the

unbelieving religious leaders

that I'm going to give you

no sign

except the sign of

Jonah.

Now, what does Jonah

have to do here?

And if you remember,

it seems that Jonah

is almost like a shadow

of who Jesus

and what Jesus was doing

because like Jonah

and like Jesus,

Jonah was sent

to preach repentance

to this sinful nation

and to call them

back to God.

And in the same way,

Jesus came

preaching repentance

and faith

and calling people

back to his kingdom.

And like Jonah

who was in the belly

of a fish

for three days

and three nights,

so was Jesus

when he died

and went into

the heart of the earth

and after three days

came back alive.

So it seems

that the sign of Jonah

and who Jesus was

seemed to align.

Now, let me take

a pause here, friends,

because we have

come to one of

the most important parts

in the gospel

of Matthew today,

if not the most.

Because this is what

Matthew has been

trying to tell his readers

and trying to tell us

all the way

from chapter one

till now

by showing all the signs,

all the miracles,

all the parables,

the hierarchy

and all the stuff.

He's been trying

to show us

this one sign

from right

from the beginning.

And here,

in this section,

we come here finally

face to face

with that one thing

that Matthew

has been trying

to say all along.

Because all the signs

were pointing

to one thing

and that was

Jesus himself.

And with that,

Jesus looks at

his disciples

and he asks them

one question

that matters the most

and that is,

who do you say I am?

Here,

after encountering

a group

that were unwilling

to believe

and another group

that were distracted

and somehow missing

and forgetting

the signs,

Jesus finally

comes up to them

and asks them,

who do you say I am?

And to which,

Peter looks at him

and says,

you are the Christ,

the Son

of the living God.

Now,

what is the Christ?

What is Christ?

I mean,

it's not that

Mr. Christ

and Mrs. Christ

had a baby

called Jesus Christ.

No, no, no.

That's not Christ.

What is Christ?

Christ

basically means

the Anointed One

which is used

to translate

the Hebrew word

for Messiah.

Now,

what is the Messiah?

Let us pause

and think.

The Messiah

was the one

the nation of Israel

has been waiting

for over 400 years

at that time.

Who was promised

by God,

who was the hope

of this nation

that he's going

to come,

that God's going

to send this Messiah

and he's going

to come

and free this nation

from oppression

who's going to come

and give them salvation

and usher in this

amazing kingdom

and he's going to come

and be their king.

Now,

Peter looks at this

average looking guy,

average looking Jewish guy

who's in his 30s,

a carpenter by work

or career

and he,

a guy who's from

this town of Nazareth

and looks at him

and gives him

this title

that his ancestors

and has been waiting

for generation

and generation

and generation.

He looks at him

and says,

you are the guy

we have been waiting

for years

and years

and years.

You are the Christ,

the Messiah.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that incredible

what Peter is confessing

here right now?

And if that is not

incredible enough,

there's one more

significant thing

and it is the location

where this is happening.

And if you look at verse 13,

we see that Jesus arrives

at a place called

Caesarea Philippi.

Now,

why is that significant?

In a place called

Caesarea Philippi,

there is a mountain

under which there's a grotto

where,

that is believed to be

the birthplace

of a pagan called,

pagan god called Pan,

who is the god of,

who is a famous god

of fertility.

Now,

and this god

and the worship

of this god

was extremely important

in this town.

And not only that,

he was a god of nature

and he's one of the most

important god in the city.

But at the same time,

this town was filled

with lots of temples

dedicated to all

ancient pagan gods,

legendary gods

all over this town.

At the same time,

there's this one temple

towering over all of them,

made it a white marvel

dedicated to the emperor

of the time

from which this city

got their name,

Caesarea Philippi.

Now,

think about this.

In this backdrop,

in the backdrop

of religions,

of thousands of religions,

thousands of distractions

and idols,

Jesus stands

in the midst

of all this

in front of his disciples

and he asks them,

who do you say I am?

Who do you say I am?

Church,

in the backdrop

of all the distractions

in our lives,

when you are working

in your office,

when you're studying,

when you're interacting

with the people around you,

when you're pursuing

a relationship,

when you're pursuing

a career,

when you're going

through your financial

struggles,

health problems,

relational problems,

all sorts of problems,

crisis,

pandemic,

in the backdrop

of all of that,

this question

still stands firm.

who do you say

Jesus is?

And church,

this is not a question

that we answer

once in our lifetime.

This is not a question

we answer

when we become

a Christian

and that's it.

It's a question

we need to answer

every day,

every moment,

every decision.

And it was a question

that I had to answer

when my mom

was going through chemotherapy.

And every day,

I had to look up

and answer this question

where I was asked

who do you say

Jesus is?

And I had to say,

God,

you are a God

who's sovereign.

Jesus,

you are a sovereign God

who's in control.

Jesus,

you're good.

And even if these things

don't work out

and I lose my mom,

I know that there's eternity

because you're a God,

you're a Jesus

who is risen.

Friends,

it's a question

we need to answer

every day,

every moment

of our lives.

But then,

it's not only

in those moments

of hardships

and every day

that we need to answer.

If you are going

through a time of peace

and a time of a blessing

where nothing's happening

and it's a good time,

that is also a time

we need to answer.

Who do you say

Jesus is?

Is he a God

who you keep him

at the side,

in the corner,

or is he a God

who is the king

of your life right now,

even when things are good?

And church,

this is not a question

we answer

with our head only,

but it's a question

we need to answer

with our hearts

and with our life.

Yes,

we do need to study

the scripture.

Yes,

we do need to do theology

and all those sorts of things

and pursue God,

but ultimately,

we need to answer

this question

with our lives

and with our hearts

and our decisions

because it has to penetrate

deep into our hearts,

get rooted so deeply

in our hearts

that everything that we do

flows out of this question,

flows out of this

truth of who Jesus is.

And if you are new

this morning

and have not really

fully committed

to Christ,

this is one question

that changes everything.

This is one question

that changes everything

because,

and this is for all of us,

because who Jesus is

is much more

than what Peter confessed.

Let me say that again.

Who Jesus is

is much more

than what Peter

had just confessed

because they thought

the Messiah was coming

to just save them

from Roman rule

that was over them.

They thought that

this Messiah was coming

to just save their nation

of Israel

and free them

from all oppression

like the Roman rule.

But no,

no,

no,

but because we see here

that Jesus was much more

because Jesus came

not to deal

with this Roman rule,

but he came to deal

with this ancient enemy

of human,

which is sin.

You see,

sin that separated God

from men,

sin that,

that made everything

meaningless,

that made everything

vanity,

sin that brought death,

but not just physical death,

but death in our,

in our creation,

death in our relationship,

death in our decisions,

death in everything

that we do.

And in that hopelessness

and in that darkness,

Jesus came

being the light

of the world.

You see,

the wages of sin

was death,

a price that was

just way too high

for us to pay.

But God loved us

to the point

that Jesus took our sins

to the cross

and he gave us a price.

He paid the price

that we could not pay

so that now

we can stand before God

as if we have never sinned,

receiving a gift

that we never deserved.

And Jesus rose from the dead

and he defeated

the consequences of sin.

He defeated death itself

so that now

everything that was meaningless

is meaningful.

Everything that was vanity

is not vanity.

You see,

so that those that are in him,

yes,

we will die once,

but in him,

in Christ,

we shall rise again.

And be reunited,

be reconciled

to our Savior,

our God,

who created and loves us,

who welcomes us

in his arms

because of what Jesus did

on that cross.

And that is who Jesus is.

Who do you say Jesus is

in your everyday life?

And finally, church,

this is not a question,

just a question

for us to answer personally.

Look at verse 18 and 19.

Because as Peter confesses

who Jesus is,

Jesus at the same time

establishes the church.

For the first time,

Jesus calls it a church

and says,

I'm going to establish my church

on that confession

that Peter has just made.

And church,

if we want Watermark

to be flourishing

10 years,

20 years down the line,

we need to be a church

that is always proclaiming

who Jesus is.

We have to be a church

that proclaims

that Jesus is the Messiah,

the King,

the Christ.

I mean,

if we look at verse 18 also,

if we want Watermark

to stand against

the gates of hell

to be firm and rooted

in times of troubles

and tribulation,

we need to be a church

that proclaims

that Jesus is Messiah.

So therefore,

elders,

we need you

to be proclaiming

who Jesus is

and actually helping

the church

to proclaim

that Jesus is the Messiah.

CG leaders,

we need you

to be proclaiming

who Jesus is

and helping your CG

to proclaim

that Jesus is the Messiah.

Various church leaders,

we need you

to be doing the same.

Every member of Watermark,

we need you

to be proclaiming

that Jesus is the Messiah

and helping each other

proclaim that Jesus

is the Messiah,

the King,

the one who brings

salvation and hope

and the light

of this dark world.

Church,

as we stand

in this amazing city

of Hong Kong,

we need to be

the church

that is proclaiming

that Jesus is King,

that Jesus is Messiah.

Not just with our mouths,

not just with our programs,

not just with what we do,

but with our lives,

with our hearts,

with a heart

that really cries out

that Jesus is the Messiah,

that He is the grisened King.

It's a heart

that truly understands

that Jesus is King.

So church,

as you are coming

to Sunday every day,

as you are interacting

with people,

as you are leading

youth,

kid,

university,

CGs,

and every other thing

that we do here,

and as you go into

your work and school,

as you hang out

with your friends,

who do you say

Jesus is?

And lastly,

how do we do that?

Look at verse 17,

where Jesus says,

Jesus is saying that

we do this

not just by pursuing God,

not just coming to God

and surrender,

and literally

coming after Him,

but we need

God's revelation

to reveal

who Jesus is

in our everyday lives.

So that means

as we are diving

into God's Word,

we do that not just

so that we have to

read God's Word,

but we do that

so that we can

encounter who Jesus is

in His Word.

As we are praying

and spending time

with God,

we do that not just

so that we have

thousands of petitions

we want to offer up,

no, no,

we do that so that

we can encounter

who Jesus is.

We come to Sunday

not just so that

we can encourage

each other

and experience

God's Word,

no, no, no,

we come so that

we can encounter,

so that we can receive

the revelation

of who God is.

We need God's revelation

to come and show us

who God is.

So church,

on that note,

can I ask us to stand

as we petition,

as we come before God

and pray

and tell God that,

God,

we can't just do this

on our own.

We need you, God,

to come and reveal.

So let me pray

over us.

Father,

we come before you

and we thank you

for the amazing signs

that you have given

in your Word.

and Father,

all the signs

point towards

who you are

and how amazing

and how wonderful

your gospel is.

Father,

even as we come

before you,

Father,

we come and we pray

that your Spirit

would reveal

the distractions

in our life,

the things that

we are demanding,

we're requesting

for one more sign.

Father,

would you come

and convict us

of those things?

And Father,

we come confessing

that there are so many

things that distract us

and we want to come

back to you

and we want you

to come and reveal

who Jesus is.

Father,

as we go into our week,

we pray that you

would be our King,

that you would be our God,

that we would always

answer this question,

we would always be

thoughtful of this question

of who Jesus is

as we interact,

as we go into our work,

into our lives,

into our families,

that you would be our King.

So Father,

come,

Spirit,

come and minister

into our hearts

right now

and we wait upon you

this moment.

So come,

Jesus.