Who Do You Say I Am?

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Introduction

Guess Who? King of Country Music, Tons of Number 1 hits, First Name starts with G?

Today we are starting a new series. We’ve spent the past few months focused on Identity. Who are we? How did God make us? Why is it important to understand. Today, I want to refocus us on the most important question and that is Who is Jesus?

If Jesus is God in the flesh, the perfect example of who God is in life and action, then our goal should be to know him deeply. It should be to know him intimately and my goal in this series is going to be to push you closer to him as the God of the universe and the lover of our souls. Because here’s the truth, there’s a lot of people who claim to know Jesus, but the more they describe Him, the more you realize they don’t know the Jesus of scripture, but a different Jesus.

This new series is called “I Am” and we are going to focus first on the seven “I Am” statements of Jesus in the gospel of John. These statements tell us about His identity, who He really is and why He is important and worthy of all of our worship.

But to setup this series, I wanted to connect the dots. I wanted to connect the importance of our identity to the magnitude of his identity. It’s found in the Gospel of Matthew, so let’s turn to Matthew 16, we will read verses 13-20.

This message is the hinge between our two series. Today we are going to transition from focusing on our reflective identity found in Christ, to start looking at the person of Jesus and who He is. This is important because...

Who Jesus Is Impacts Who We Are

In other words, what we believe about Jesus matters. If you think he is just a prophet, then you will live your life in one particular way. If you believe him to be a cool guy with some neat sayings, you will live your life another way. But if you believe him to be the Son of God, the Lion of Judah, God wrapped in flesh, then your life will be radically different. What we believe about him, doesn’t change who he is, but it does change who we are. Which is why we are going to focus on this passage today and really delve into this idea in the coming weeks.

Matthew 16:13–20 ESV

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 loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Let me first start on this passage by getting some items out of the way. First off, this is not a passage anointing Peter as the first pope of the church, like our catholic friends may believe. Peter is not the point of the passage. Jesus identifies Peter as blessed, but not because of what he did in this passage, but because of what the Father did for him. The Father gave him the revelation. And that revelation is the rock on which all of the the church is built from. The revelation that Jesus is the Son of God. Peter and the rest of the apostles grabbed ahold of this revelation and their work became the foundation of the church. It wasn’t as much about Peter as it was the revelation.

Secondly, this isn’t a passage instructing you to name-it-and-claim-it or blab-it-and-grab-it. Binding and loosing must be understood in the context of relationship. Peter’s revelation of who Jesus is, is the foundation for understanding the keys to the kingdom. Peter and the apostles were given the ability to prohibit (bind) or permit (loose) things in conjunction with God’s will. In other words, when they prayed to permit certain types of activities they were permitted in heaven by God. (for instance Paul permitting Satan to destroy the man’s flesh who was proud of his incestous relationship in 1 Cor 5).

Now the final misunderstanding I want to mention in this passage, before digging into the meat of it, has to do with the gates of hell not prevailing against the church. I’ve met a lot of people who believe that hell is attacking the church, and this passage is giving us comfort because Jesus promises hell will not prevail. This is a misunderstanding. Gates are not offensive weapons but defensive ones. Jesus is not saying hell is coming against the church, but rather the church is coming against hell. And it does so by holding onto the revelation that Jesus is the messiah. So we are on the offensive, not the defensive. We are to be storming the gates of hell helping Jesus rescue lost sinners, not cowering in fear because the devil is after us.

Keep those things in mind and let’s dig into the important parts of this passage.

Opinion Versus Revelation

The crux of this passage is found in the two questions that Jesus asks. He asks first, who do people say that I am? And he follows up with the more pressing question, who do you say that I am?

Now, Jesus is not asking these questions because he is unsure of who he is. Nor is he asking these questions because he wants them to reassure him of his identity. Jesus is asking these questions with a purpose.

When he first asks, who do people say that I am, his question is not because he cares about what other people are saying about him. And just so you know, you shouldn’t care about that either. What others think or believe about you is irrelevant. What matters is what God thinks of you. That is what the whole purpose of our series on Identity was, it was to find ourselves in what God says, not what others may say.

Here’s why I think Jesus asks this question. He asks this because as humans we put stock into what other people say and believe. They influence us with their beliefs. Jesus knows that what we hear about him impacts us, whether we want it to or not. We value what other people think, for better or for worse. In the passage, we can see that some people were saying he was John the Baptist and others Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So all of these people had positive thoughts about who Jesus was, but they were all incorrect! Just because you think positively about someone doesn’t mean that you know the truth. And the truth is what is needed.

Many in history have said similar things about Jesus. Muhammed said he was a great prophet. Gandhi said he was a great teacher. Many others have said he was a godly man, or a healer. But none of these are true in and of themselves. Listen to how CS Lewis puts it.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he’d 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.

C. S. Lewis

And this is the issue with listening to others opinions about Jesus. If you listen to what the world says about him, you might have a positive picture of Jesus, but you are missing the boat! And this is why Jesus starts his disciples with this question. Who are you believing? Are you believing what others say about me or are you believing what God has revealed to you. Here’s why this matters…I think over the next several years/decades even, there will come scores of “evidence” that the Bible is untrue and Jesus is not God. I think with the prevalence of AI and deepfakes we are entering into a time of major deceptions on all levels. So don’t be surprised with the experts start to produce this supposedly irrefutable evidence. It will shake you. Don’t build your faith on the opinion of others, but on the revelation of who He is.

One of the Main Tools of the Enemy is Doubt

He loves to instill doubt in you. Doubt in your identity, doubt in God’s identity. Doubt that you are loved. Doubt that you are safe. Doubt that you are cared for. Doubt doubt doubt. He loves to sow seeds of doubt in relationships and loves to reap divisions. Marriages don’t end overnight, they have typically been cultivating seeds of doubt for many years.

The enemy is trying to deceive you and if you believe what others say about Jesus, then you are deceived. And we all start our life in this category. We all start our life listening to others opinion of Jesus. But that’s not where we end our lives. Eventually, we have to make up our mind. We have to come to Jesus’ second question:

Who Do YOU Say I Am?

This is the most important question you will ever answer. It doesn't really matter what others have to say in the end, what it comes down to is what you believe about God.

Let’s get honest. Many of us have been in church for a long time. Maybe you are like me and grew up in church. But at some point, you are faced with this question. It’s not about what your parents believed about Jesus or what your Sunday School teacher or Youth Leader believes about God, it’s not about what your spouse believes about Jesus. It comes down to this…what do YOU believe?

Jesus asks a direct question because it cuts to the heart of the issue. The question, I think illustrates a principle that we find in scripture.

True Identity Comes From Revelation, Not Education

To truly understand anything about Jesus or even our own identity, it takes a Revelation. It has to be revealed to you, it can’t be told to you by others. Now, this isn’t meant to downgrade education, in fact, we receive many revelations because we have been educated by others, but my point here is there is a difference between the two. Let me give you an example.

There is a school that will teach you how to sky dive. SkyDive Carolina offers a 6 hour course that will teach you everything you need to know to jump out of a plane for $349. That’s an education. But it’s a revelation once you jump out of that plane, am I right? At first it’s just head knowledge, but the moment you jump out that door, it becomes something more. You have put all of your trust in the knowledge that you learned. You are living it. It’s real. It makes sense.

Revelation simply means unveiling. It’s like your eyes are covered with a cloth and that cloth is slowly being taken away. When we receive a revelation, it changes everything. Peter in our passage today, had received a revelation of who Jesus was. He wasn’t influenced by others opinions. He didn’t just parrot what he heard others say, he’s a great prophet or something like that. He had a revelation of who Jesus really is and that changed Peter. In fact, it changes his name. His name was Simon Bar-jonah, now Jesus has given him a new name Peter. Truly knowing God changed his identity.

You see, up until this point, the disciples and others were asking the question, who is this Jesus? How is he really? What kind of man is this?

Matthew 8:27 ESV

And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

Peter has now crossed a line. Jesus didn’t ask the disciples who they “thought” he was, he asked them, who do you SAY that I am? That’s a big difference. What you think and what you confess is often different. Peter puts his money where his mouth is and confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the king of kings and lord of lords. This isn’t just a thought, this is a confession. It’s something you can stand on.

Jesus responds with some wordplay in the original language. He says to Simon, You are Peter (Petros), which is interpreted as one rock and upon this rock (petra), which is interpreted bedrock or rock quarry or lots of rocks, will I build my church. Again, this passage isn’t about naming Peter as pope, it’s about the revelation that Peter receives. The church builds upon the revelation of Jesus Christ and that is the rock that advances on the gates of hell. Peter builds upon this rock idea in his letter.

1 Peter 2:5 ESV

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The church is the steward of God’s revelation or as Paul calls it the mysteries of the gospel. And it’s our job to proclaim that gospel to the entire world so that God can reveal himself to the hearts and minds of all people.

So who you confess that Jesus is matters. What you believe about him will not only change your life, it will change other people’s lives as well. So who do you say that he is? Is he just a great prophet or is he the son of God?

To end today, I want to look at why this is important. Why do we need a revelation versus just an education in who God is? I think its found in the power of a revelation. Let’s take this apart.

The Impact of a Revelation

Revelations, I believe have three necessary components.

A revelation changes our heart.

A revelation changes our mind.

A revelation changes our actions.

If you don’t have those three components, you might have just a good idea, but you don’t have a revelation. Until it changes these three things in your life, you might just have a concept or a good thought, but it’s not a revelation. Let’s look at them individually.

A revelation changes your heart - When we talk about something changing your heart, this is God’s work. This is something that only He can do. You can’t change your own heart. Jeremiah says the human heart is exceedingly wicked. It’s God’s job to change your heart. He promises us under the new covenant that we will get a new heart. A true revelation from God, I believe always starts with a change of heart. It affects your core.

A revelation changes your mind - Paul says that our minds need to be renewed. A revelation of who God is will necessarily change our minds. We will think differently if we truly understand who He is. Why is this? Because prior to accepting Christ the enemy has blinded our mind so that we cannot see Him as He is. Once we have been converted, our minds are no longer blind, but they need to be renewed in knowledge after the creator.

Colossians 3:10 ESV

and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

A revelation changes our actions - One of the most important aspects of a revelation is how it changes what we do and how we act. When you truly understand who Jesus is, it affects you outwardly, meaning others can see a difference. How do they see a difference? Not in your appearance necessarily, but in your actions. How you treat others will change, how you talk to others will be different.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV)

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Closing

So here’s my point. WE all need a revelation of Jesus. We need Him to reveal himself to us. This is of utmost importance because it will change our lives.

Now some of you may be saying, that’s what happened when I got saved. This sermon doesn’t apply to me. Well, hold on a minute. This is more than just a salvation message, this is a life message. None of us in this room have dove down to the deepest depths of understanding who God is and what he is like.

We all see him with clouded vision, like looking for fish in muddy water, we can’t see but little bits and pieces. And God is willing to give us deeper revelation of who He is, we just need to ask. And this is my prayer throughout this sermon series, is that God would reveal himself to you in a greater way. So whether you don’t know him at all or you have been following him for many years, I’m praying that you will see Him in a new light and it will change your life. So today, I want to end with a time of prayer and I’m going to put a few prayer points on the screen.

Prayer Points:

Lord, what are you trying to reveal to me today about yourself?

Lord, is there anything in my heart keeping me from seeing you in a new light?

Lord, help me to see as you really are, not as others have described you.