Who is Jesus?

Matthew 16:13–17 CSB

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.

INTRO—

With all due respect to Roger Daltry, Pete Townsend, and The Who— “Whoooo are you? Who? Who? Who? Who?”, few questions (actually NO question) are (/is) as important as the one we begin considering today…

WHO IS JESUS?

WHO IS JESUS?

Matthew 16.13 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?'”

Matthew 16.15 “'But you,' he asked them, 'who do you say that I am?'”

WHO IS JESUS?

…is one of the longest standing questions which deserves our full attention [for ourselves…& for opportunities to be an Andrew to our friends and family when it comes to Jesus…

John 1.40-42a “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, 'We have found the Messiah' (which is translated 'the Christ'), and he brought Simon to Jesus.”

When it comes to the answer to this question, we are basically left with what apologists and theologians call a “Quadrilemma” [four possible answers, each of which present a challenge to the one seeking to answer the question] (CS Lewis formulated a “trilemma” (three possible answers…).)

JESUS IS…

LEGEND = a myth; a made up person in a made up story. [Many…too many to be ignored…have validated that a man named Jesus from Nazareth lived during the time-frame of the NT history…so the question does essentially boil-down to the three possibilities Mr. Lewis set forth.]

LUNATIC = an unstable person with self-aggrandizing delusions

LIAR = a charlatan out to dupe the stupid for his own celebrity and gain

LORD = the one and only begotten Son of the one true and living God, Himself the very God of creation!

CS LEWIS summed it up in the following way in his book, Mere Christianity, [MC; Bk 2; Ch 3 — “The Shocking Alternative”]:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.

…AND ONE OF THE BEST PLACES IN ALL OF THE BIBLE TO FIND THE ANSWER TO OUR QUESTION IS…(ARE—THE FOUR GOSPELS in the NT)!

WHAT ARE THE FOUR GOSPELS?

“They are witnesses of Jesus’ life.”

WAIT! Not so fast…in the sense that we take that sentence in a legal sense = ‘eyewitnesses.’ [Only two actually qualify for that description—Matthew & John.

So…what about the other two? OR, what would be a better description to fit all four Gospels?

“They are theological biographies of the life of Jesus.”

Which helps to answer another question: WHY? Why are there four Gospels??

Think of it like trying to get a friend to ‘see’ the grandeur of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City (Rome)…so from the ground level you take pictures from all four sides of this magnificent building and text them to him…

SOO...they are four biographies of Jesus’ life written with a specific (unique) focus in mind from a specific (unique) person under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit...

Which means that they ALL have the same ‘bottom line’ in mind—Matthew 16.16 “Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.'”

Here’s what we see from each of these biographers describing their intent...

MATTHEW - Matthew 1.1 “An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:”

MARK - Mark 1.1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

LUKE - Luke 1.1-3 “Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. So it also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus,”

JOHN - John 20.30-31 “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

CONCL—

In the next four weeks, we’ll take one of the Four Gospels and see what Matthew is trying to show us…what Mark…what Luke…& what John is trying to show us about the life and importance of Jesus Christ (of Nazareth).

…because how we answer (and attempt to share that answer with others) the question of “Who is Jesus?” is just THAT important—eternally important, like the writer of Hebrews reminds us:

Hebrews 13.8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Hebrews 13:8 CSB

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.