The sermon expounds Matthew 16:13-23, the pivotal scene at Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asks his disciples who people say the Son of Man is, and then presses them for their own answer. The sermon argues that this single exchange contains the most concentrated cluster of titles for Jesus found anywhere in the Gospels — Son of Man, Christ, and Son of God — and that rightly understanding these titles is the very foundation of Christian faith, since to become a Christian is to understand who Jesus is and why he had to die.

The sermon first unpacks the title Son of Man, tracing it back to Daniel's vision in Daniel 7:13-14, where one like a son of man comes on the clouds to the Ancient of Days and receives an everlasting dominion that all peoples, nations, and languages will serve. Because riding the clouds is elsewhere reserved for God alone, as in Psalm 104, the sermon shows that this Son of Man figure was already understood by first-century Jews, living under Roman oppression, as a coming divine-human deliverer who would destroy the old evil world order and establish God's everlasting kingdom. The sermon notes that Jesus had already provoked controversy by using this title of himself, healing a paralytic and declaring his sins forgiven, which the Jewish leaders rightly recognized as a claim to divine authority.

Moving to the popular guesses — John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah — the sermon explains why each was plausible yet insufficient, noting especially that Jesus had already identified John the Baptist as the promised Elijah of Malachi 4:5, so Jesus himself could not be a second Elijah. Peter's answer supersedes all of these: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The sermon clarifies that Christ and Messiah both mean "the anointed one," the one who fulfills the three anointed offices of prophet, priest, and king, greater than Moses, Aaron, and David respectively. It then turns to Son of God, showing from Psalm 2:7-9 that this title, in its singular form, points to a unique king greater than David who will inherit the nations — but the sermon insists the title carries more than kingship, since a son shares his father's nature, making the claim implicitly a claim to deity, exactly the charge the high priest presses at Jesus' trial when he answers, "You have said so," and then quotes Daniel's vision back to him.

The sermon argues that this two-natured Messiah, both God and man, is not a Christian invention but is woven throughout the Old Testament: Isaiah calls the coming child "Mighty God," Jeremiah names the son of David "the LORD our righteousness," and Micah locates the ruler from Bethlehem as one "from ancient days." Drawing on Heidelberg Catechism questions 16 and 17, the sermon explains why the Messiah must be both true man and true God: as man, because the human nature that sinned must be the nature that pays for sin, and because only a sinless man can pay for others; as God, because only infinite divinity can bear the infinite weight of God's wrath against sin, which no mere man could bear on behalf of many.

The sermon then turns to Jesus' response to Peter's confession — the promise to build his church on this rock, a church against which the gates of hell, meaning death itself, will not prevail. Quoting 1 Corinthians 15, the sermon stresses that if Christ is not raised, believers are of all people most to be pitied, since Jesus promised not comfort but suffering; resurrection alone secures the hope of the church. The keys of the kingdom given to Peter are read not as a personal, transferable papal office but as the authority, held by the whole church built on Peter's confession, to proclaim the gospel that binds and looses, opening or closing the kingdom to those who receive or reject the good news.

Finally, the sermon contrasts the disciples' expectation of ascending glory with Jesus' revelation that he, the divine Son of Man, must first descend into suffering: going to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise on the third day. Peter's rebuke, "Far be it from you, Lord," is exposed as an echo of Satan's temptation to seize kingship without the cross, earning Jesus' sharp reply, "Get behind me, Satan." The sermon closes by holding up glory-through-suffering as the pattern Jesus walks and the pattern he calls every disciple to walk after him, urging the hearers not only to confess who Jesus is but to embrace suffering as the very shape of following him.

Bible Verses Used

• Matthew 16:13-23: the sermon's central text — Peter's confession of Jesus as Christ and Son of God, followed by Jesus' prediction of his suffering and Peter's rebuke.

• Numbers 23:19: shows the Old Testament contrast between God and "son of man," establishing why Daniel's title is unusual.

• Daniel 7:13-14: the vision of one like a son of man receiving an everlasting dominion, the background for Jesus' self-designation as Son of Man.

• Psalm 104: cited to show that riding on the clouds is elsewhere a description reserved for God, reinforcing the divine overtones of "Son of Man."

• Malachi 4:5: the prophecy of Elijah's return, which the sermon uses to explain why Jesus could not himself be the expected Elijah.

• Psalm 2:7-9: grounds the singular title "Son of God" as a promise of a king greater than David who inherits the nations.

• 1 Corinthians 15: Paul's argument that without the resurrection believers are most to be pitied, used to show resurrection as the basis of the church's hope.

• Matthew 26:63-64 (the high priest's interrogation): shows the Jewish leaders understanding Jesus' claim to be Son of Man and Son of God as a claim to divinity.