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