How Do You Know that You Know Jesus? (Matthew 16:13-20)

Matthew's Gospel, New Testament, Sermons

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

Questions: Who is Jesus to You? (Matthew 16:13-20)

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:15-16).

Who Jesus is; How Jesus is known; What Jesus does (Matthew 16:13-20).

I. Who Jesus is (Mt 16:13-16).

II. How Jesus is Known (Mt 16:17).

III. What Jesus Does (Mt 16:18-20).

  1. Public Opinion (Mt 16:13-14).
  2. Personal Conviction (Mt 16:15-16).
  3. Divine Revelation (Mt 16:17).
  4. Divine Intention (Mt 16:18).
  5. Divine Gift [and Authority] (Mt 16:19).
  6. Divine Timing (Mt 16:20).

Divine Revelation:

  • The revelation of who Jesus is is only given by the Holy Spirit. Oswald Chambers.
  • The Bible is the universe of revelation facts; the natural world is the universe of commonsense facts. The Bible deals with revelation facts, facts we cannot get at by our common sense, facts we may make light of by our common sense. For instance, Christ is a revelation fact, sin is another, the devil is another, the Holy Spirit is another. Christ is not a commonsense fact, i.e., we do not understand Him by means of our common sense. Christ is a revelation fact. When Peter confessed Christ (Mt 16:16), Jesus knew from Whom he had received the revelation, not from his common sense, but from God. Oswald Chambers.
  • “Neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe in him and take him as our Lord, unless these were first offered to us and bestowed on [granted to] our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. … But neither could we know anything of Christ, had it not been revealed by the Spirit.”  Martin Luther.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you…” (Jn 15:16)

  • “I am the vine; you are the branches. … apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).
  • “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Phil 2:12-13).

How do you explain how the Holy Spirit works? (1 Cor 2:12-14)

12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

 

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