I. Understanding the Word:
A. The Word Christ comes from the Greek word Christos.
1. It is a translation of the Hebrew word Masiah, which is transliterated in the KJV as “Messiah”.
2. The literal English meaning of both the Greek and Hebrew words is “the Anointed One”.
3. In various forms the Greek word Christos occurs 529 times in the New Testament.
4. By contrast, the Hebrew word “Messiah” appears only twice in the New Testament, and both times (John 1:41; 4:25) it is immediately translated and interpreted by the word Christ.
He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ). (John 1:41)
The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." (John 4:25)
B. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the term Christos is applied to the priests who are anointed with holy oil, especially the High Priest (Leviticus 4:3; 5, 16).
1. The prophets are called hoi christos Theou, “the Anointed of God” in Psalm 105:15.
Saying, "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm." (Psalms 105:15)
a. mine anointed — as specially consecrated to Me (Psa 2:2). The patriarch was the prophet, priest, and king of his family.
b. my prophets — in a similar sense, compare Gen 20:7. The “anointed” are those vessels of God, consecrated to His service, “in whom the Spirit of God is”.
2. The kings of Israel are sometimes termed christos tou Kuriou “the anointed of the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:10, 35: 2 Samuel 1:14; Psalm 2:2; 18:50)
3. On one occasion the term is even used of the Persian king Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1) to indicate that he has been chosen by God to be His instrument of judgment.
C. While there were thus many “christs” or “anointed ones” in a general sense, Jews in the first century understand that there was only one “the Christ”—the long-promised Messiah (Luke 7:19).
1. For example, when the Magi (trans-dictionally “Wise Men”) arrived from the east and ask Herod, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?”, the king calls all the chief priests and teachers of the law together and ask the where the Christos is to be born (Matthew 2:4).
2. The chief priests are able to immediately provide Herod with the answer, because one of the Messianic prophecies (Micah 5:2) identifies Bethlehem as the hone of the coming Messiah.
D. The sense of Messianic expectancy in the first century extends even to the Samaritans.
1. The woman at the well says, “I know that Messiah’ (called Christos) ‘is coming.
2. When He comes, He will explain everything to us” (John 4:25; 29)
3. In the volatile political climate of first-century Palestine there were rebel leaders who took advantage of this expectancy to put themselves forward as the Promised One (Acts 5:36-37)
4. Jesus Himself warns against imposters claiming to be the Christos (Matthew 24:4-5; 23-26).
5. Jesus is the Messiah, the “anointed One”, in every Old Testament sense of the word, because He is Prophet, Priest, and King!

II. Reading the Word:
A. To understand the significance of the title Christ we can look at many Scriptures. (Matthew 16:13-20; Luke 24:13-27; Acts 2:22-36; 1 Corinthians 1:18-30; Isaiah 53)
1. The term Christ is often misunderstood by modern readers as Jesus’ last name, which it is not.
2. If He had possessed an American Express credit card, it would have read “Jesus of Nazareth”. (Matthew 26:71; Mark 1:24; 10:47; Luke 18:37; 24:19; John 18:7; Acts 2:22), which is what Pilate had posted above Jesus’ head on the cross (John 19:19).
B. In reality Christ was originally a title: Jesus the Christ/the Messiah.
1. Outside of Judaism, however, the word Messiah was unintelligible as a title.
2. But, when the gospel spread into the Roman world, Christos quickly became understood by Gentiles as a name for Jesus.
3. It is significant that the word Christian (Christianos) is initially applied to the followers of Jesus at Antioch (Acts 11:26), the first predominantly Gentile Church.

III. Preaching the Word:
A. Sermon Idea:
1. We often hear news reports of national surveys, but how many of us have actually received a phone call asking us to participate in a survey?
2. It is important to remember that surveys report opinions, but they do not always establish facts.
3. For example, take the question of Jesus in Matthew 16:13: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
4. This informal survey generated several opinions: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets.
5. All of these answers share three characteristics:
a. All are notable prophets
b. All the individuals so named are dead
c. All the answers are wrong!
6. Jesus is not satisfied with receiving a report of opinions of the crowds.
7. Instead, He presses His disciples for their personal response (as He still does today).
8. It is Simon Peter who recognizes the correct answer and makes a leap of faith, saying, “You are the Christos, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).
9. Jesus endorses Peter’s confession of faith with three observations that remain true today:
a. Recognizing the identity of Jesus as the Chirstos brings a blessing.
b. It is the appropriate response to the revelation of God.
c. The confession of Jesus as the Christ forms the foundation for the church (1 Timothy 6:12)
B. Illustration:
1. We live in a society that is increasingly unaware of basic Biblical doctrine.
2. One sign of this Biblical illiteracy is confusion about the nature of Jesus Christ Himself.
3. When the Barna group surveyed unchurched Americans, just half of them had a strong opinion about Jesus one way or the other.
4. Three out of ten strongly agreed with the statement, “When He lived on earth, Jesus Christ was human and committed sins, like other people do.”
5. The clear statement of Scripture is that Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrew 4:15; John 8:46).
C. Illustration:
1. Just as there were mistaken concepts of the Christ in the first century, there is abundant confusion in the twenty-first century about His identity.
2. A man named Phillip Yancy notes, “If you peruse the academic books available at a seminary bookstore, you may encounter Jesus as a political revolutionary, as a magician who married Mary Magdalene, as a Galilean charismatic, a rabbi, a peasant Jewish cynic, a Pharisee Essene, an eschatological prophet, a “hippie” in a world of Augustan yuppies,” and as the hallucinogenic leader of a sacred mushroom cult.
D. Sermon Idea:
1. The central importance of this word may be seen in the post-resurrection messages of Jesus in Luke 24.
a. He meets two downcast disciples on the road to Emmaus, but they are somehow kept from recognizing Jesus (vs. 13-16).
b. When the Lord ask them why they are so sad, they express their disappointment over the death of Jesus, explaining,
“We had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (vs. 21).
c. The two disciples relate the initial reports of Jesus resurrection, news they clearly do not believe (vs. 22-24).
d Jesus responds to their gloomy state with an emphatic rebuke:
“How foolish are you, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”
“Did not the Christos have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?”
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself” (vs 25-26).
2. In a subsequent appearance to the disciples in the same chapter, Jesus has a similar message:
“This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
a. Then He opens their minds, so they could understand the Scriptures.
b. He tells them,
“This is what is written: The Christos will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:44-47).
3. These episodes suggest three essential facts about Jesus:
a. Their conceptions of the Christ are fundamentally wrong, and they are slow to recognize the nature of the Messiahship.
b. They could have, and should have understood the nature of the Messiah, from the many prophecies throughout the Old Testament that speak of the coming Christ.
c. What they fail to understand is that the Promised One would be a suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53).
d. The cross of the Christ continues to be a stumbling block to many today (1 Corinthians 1:18-23) because it convicts people of the sinfulness of their sins and reminds them of their spiritual helplessness.
E. Quote:
1. “If it had been widely spread around that Jesus was the Messiah, quite certainly the populace would have read their own meaning into that term: and quite certainly that would have been a nationalistic meaning….
2. There was no more explosive and inflammable country in the world than Palestine.
3. If Jesus had publicly claimed to be the Messiah, nothing could have stopped a useless flood tide of slaughter.
4. Before Jesus could openly make any claim to Messiahship it was absolutely necessary that he should lead men to see what Messiahship meant.
5. He must teach them a Messiahship whose only power was sacrificial love: He must show them a picture of a Messiah whose reign was in the hearts of men, a Messiah who reigned from the cross.”

IV. Messianic Expectation Isaiah 61:1
A. Have you ever expected something to turnout a certain way and to your surprise it came out completely different?
1. This often happens when I try to cook.
2. Maybe you expect a job to be a particular way, but once you started it is totally different when finished.
3. Perhaps you anticipated a relationship with someone to move in a certain direction, but it ends up somewhere else.
4. The Jews expect that when God sends the Messiah, He would be a certain way, but Jesus defies their Messianic expectations.
B. Jesus Christ came with a mission.
1. In typical Judaism, the expectation is of a Messiah who rules in a kingly fashion;
2. However the kind of Messiah described by Isaiah is a suffering servant (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
3. The Anointed One will bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom, and release the enslaved.
4. This is a surprising assignment, one the Jews don’t expect.
5. After all, there’s no mention of Him ruling from a grand throne in Jerusalem.
C. Just as the Jews want their Messiah to look a certain way, we too demand God answer our requests in just the way we want.
1. Indeed God answers prayer, but always in a way of His choosing and not ours.
2. So while the Jews looked primarily for an earthly king on a literal throne, God’s Anointed One will chiefly be a servant to the needy and marginalized.
D. It’s interesting that when Jesus offers a significant clue to His divine identity during a particular synagogue visit, He reads from this passage in Isaiah 61:1-2.
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, (Isaiah 61:1-2)
1. After He reads and has sat down, He says,
And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:21).
2. Jesus takes up the assigned task of being God’s Anointed, the Christ, to minister to a burdened and enslaved humanity.
3. He is the Messiah who came to heal - not dominate.
4. He comes on a mission of mercy - not might.
5. Jesus is qualified to do the job, and He stays focused on His God given mission even when it defies human expectations.
E. Take time to reflect on yourself and the fact that you cannot save yourself and be grateful to God, for sending Christ, to heal you of your sins.
1. We always want to submit our expectations to God’s sovereign will.
2. I believe that even though I may want things to work out in my life a certain way, I nevertheless receive God’s blessings in the way He sees fit to give them.

V. Are You The Christ Matthew 16:16
A. Christ is not Jesus’ last name.
1. There is no mailbox in front of a quaint Nazareth home announcing this is where the Christ family lives.
2. The meaning of Christ is drawn from the Old Testament theme of a God-sent Messiah who would come to enact ultimate deliverance.
3. So, when Peter states his conviction that Jesus is indeed the Christ, he is confessing his belief that Jesus is God’s Anointed One.
4. Peter has come to the dramatic conclusion that Jesus is none other than God’s Messiah who is on a mission of massive importance.
B. The term Christ means “anointed one”.
1. In the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible, the word Christ is used to translate into Greek the Hebrew messiah, meaning anointed or chosen.
2. The Old Testament air is heavy with anticipation of a coming Messiah who would bring triumphant deliverance to God’s people.
3. This Savior will have special favor bestowed upon Him from God and divine empowerment.
4. Just as God-chosen prophets and kings, like Isaiah and David, were anointed for special service, God will similarly raise up an Anointed One who will have a unique portion of God’s Spirit.
C. Peter recognizes this about Jesus.
1. He understands that Jesus is indeed God’s chosen means to enact salvation.
2. When Jesus asks what “the word on the street” is about Him and if people have an accurate glimpse of His true identity, He receives a garbled response (Matthew 16:13-15).
3. Others may have been confused about who Jesus is:
So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." (Matthew 16:14)
4. But Peter confidently declares, “You are the Christ!”.
D. How’s our understanding of who Jesus is”
1. Christ is a title not a name.
2. It is a title earned and worn by Jesus based upon His status, position, and identity.
3. He is God’s Anointed One and He came with a mission to save.
4. Everyday, we need to confess anew and declare that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God!
5. May God help us to understand more accurately who Jesus is and what He means to me in my life.

VI. Find Out Where The Road Takes You Romans 3:21-26
A. On the day Jesus is resurrected from the grave, two disciples are traveling down a road on their way home to Emmaus.
1. As they walk a stranger joins them on the journey.
2. The three began to talk together about the recent news, and the two travelers express their discouragement to the stranger over what has just happened in Jerusalem regarding the death of Christ.
3. They tell the stranger they’d hoped Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel.
4. The stranger interrupts them and said:
Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" (Luke 24:25-26)
5. He then goes on to interpret Old Testament Scriptures beginning with Moses and all the Prophets concerning the Christ.
6. They are amazed at His teachings and eventually recognize the stranger as the resurrected Jesus.
B. I would have loved to have been on that road walking and talking with the Lord.
1. Wouldn’t you?
2. It would be amazing to have Jesus carefully explain to us that the main character in God’s story is the Christ.
3. Thankfully we do have God’s word, the Bible, which powerfully depicts the work and identity of the Messiah and unfolds in written word the grand narrative of God’s workings in the world.
C. The Bible is a book about Jesus.
1. As Jesus explains that the center piece of divine revelation is the Christ, their heart burns within them.
2. They are undoubtedly hanging on His every word.
3. Today, we can walk with the Lord on the road of faith and along the journey of God’s Word.
4. After all, it’s only when we walk with the Lord along the road of life that we get to where we really want to go.
D. The disciples walking along that ancient path expect to simply arrive at their home in Emmaus.
1. But sometimes the road leads to unexpected places.
2. The road actually took them to a new level of faith in Jesus.
3. What happens on the path makes all the difference.
4. You see, whenever we encounter Jesus along the way our journey is affected.
5. We want to allow the Lord to set the course and walk with us as we travel home.
6. Where are the roads taking you?
7. Wherever you are walk with Jesus.

VII. Messiah With A Mission 1 Timothy 1:15
A. Have you ever been chosen for a special task?
1. Perhaps you were picked to coach a Little League team.
2. Maybe the Bible class leader asked you to teach in his absence on an upcoming Sunday.
3. The right person needs to be picked for the job and with being chosen comes responsibility.
4. Jesus Christ accepted the assignment to be our Savior.
B. A significant part of Jesus wearing the title Christ means He was tasked with completing a job.
1. He is the Messiah with a mission!
2. The purpose of Jesus coming to the world is to save sinners.
3. In fact, Jesus explicitly states this as His mission:
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)
4. Another way to express this is to say that the chief mission of Jesus Christ is atonement.
5. Atonement may be defined as the work Christ did in His life and death to earn our salvation.
6. Christ atones for our sins by paying the penalty of sin in His sacrifice, removing God’s wrath as our propitiation, overcoming our separation from God through reconciliation, and freeing us from bondage to sin and Satan in redemption.
C. Not only is Jesus tasked with a mission, but He is also equipped to get the job done.
1. This is another critical aspect to understanding what is meant by God’s Anointed One.
2. Whenever God anoints people for a special role, He empowers them to accomplish the job.
3. For example, David is anointed by Samuel and has success after success, both militarily and politically, because God’s Spirit is upon him.
D. With Jesus, it is a unique anointing.
1. You see Jesus himself is divine — the only human ever able to claim that and be truthful.
2. The Old Testament predicted a coming divine Messiah.
3. In Jesus’ testimony through words and deeds He validates His divine nature.
4. Jesus is “in the very form of God” (Philippians 2:6) and the exact imprint of [God’s] nature (Hebrews 1:3).
5. Jesus is God!
6. And because of His divine nature, He is uniquely qualified to be the Messiah.
7. Jesus Christ was chosen to save, and He alone as God in the flesh is able to accomplish that mission.
8. Today, give thanks to God for Jesus’s coming to seek and save the lost.
9. And because I am the foremost sinner I know, I am so grateful for the mission of the Messiah to save me and atone for my sins at the cross.

VIII. Called Christians Acts 11:26
A. We must not just wear His name: we must live His name.
1. Perhaps critics out of derisive intent, first label the believers in ancient Antioch “Christians”.
2. Maybe like Pilate who had “King of the Jews” written on a sign pinned to the cross, they speak inadvertent truth.
3. It is to our advantage, not our shame, that we get to wear the name of Christ.
B. Isn’t it remarkable that as we understand more fully how powerful the name of Christ is that we are now invited to wear that glorious name?
1. The apostle Paul elegantly describes this union in the book of Romans:
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (Romans 6:3-5)
2. You see, to identify with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection is to put on His name and join in a new life.
C. And really, being a Christian, wearing the name of Jesus, is less about us and much, much more about Him.
1. To be called a Christian is not so much like wearing a badge as it is having a fresh new identity.
2. Just putting on a ball cap does not make me a professional baseball player, but actually signing with a pro team does.
3. Likewise, wearing the name Christian only counts when it is coupled to the union with Christ.
4. The Anointed One of God invites us to join with Him and take on a portion of His anointing, being identified with Christ in His life and death.
5. However, with that blessing comes a duty.
6. We must not just wear His name; we must live His name.
7. We should seek to honor Jesus by living out our faith as we eagerly anticipate His imminent return.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (Romans 6:5)
D. Everyday we should proudly wear the name of Christ, not as a point of personal or professional arrogance, but to honor the one who died and rose for us.
1. I am happy to be a Christian and eagerly anticipate the return of the Messiah.
2. Just as Jesus rose form the grave, I too have the hope of life everlasting.
3. If you need to obtain that hope, now is the time to start living for Christ.