Now he begins, as I said, in an interesting way, and the way he begins is by asking them what the various people that they had come in contact with were saying concerning himself. The actual question is what we find in verse 13: “He asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’” Now that was a very lively question in that day. Whenever anybody of any unusual stature came along, any leader-type emerging from the people, it was more or less a checklist that the people of the day would run off in order to determine who he was.

We come now in our series to the sixteenth chapter with this great story that involves the confession of Jesus Christ by the Apostle Peter. I think what we need to see as we begin to look at this section is that it stresses from beginning to end that this faith to which we are called is a personal thing, not something that we can push off on someone else, or an experience of someone else by which we are able to live the Christian life. It involves ourselves and personal discipleship.

The seventh is rejoice. At the very end of verse ten we read, “Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” How does that differ from glorying? Well, glory has to do with God’s attributes. When you glorify God you magnify his name. You remember who he is, and you praise him for those attributes. You praise him for his wisdom and his holiness and his omniscience and his sovereignty and all of those things. The word rejoice is more concerned with our attitudes, the way we feel and the way we respond.