Questions of Jesus

Who Do You Say That I Am?

Peter was moments away from being a pawn in the tug-of-war between good and evil and he never saw it coming.

We all start life with that inquisitive tendency.  Kids are filled with constant lines of inquiry.  Some of them are obvious (for adults, at least): Why is grass green? Why do I have to take a bath every day? Where do babies come from?  And some are a little more profound: Why is my skin a different color than yours?  If I have two eyes, why do I only see one thing? In the old days, was everything black and white?

There are questions like, If animals could talk, which would be the rudest? Is cereal soup? Who would win in a fight, batman or superman? If you could be a fly on the wall who would you most like to listen in on?

Visit https://Brightful.me for the best conversation questions. Children ask questions to seek understanding – to learn more about their world and how things work.

There is great power in inquiry – in asking the right questions to seek understanding, create breakthrough change, or improve performance.  In fact, I’d argue that finding the best answers – in business and in life – largely is the result of asking the right questions.  Business leaders and psychologists alike would seem to agree:

Albert Einstein: “If I had an hour to solve a problem…I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper questions to ask, for once I know the proper question, I can solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

I guess the consensus running through those insightful quotes is: if you don’t ask the right questions, you can’t get the right answers.  I believe that that applies to people, leaders, and organizations.

We have many questions in life, we have many questions asked of us as well and there are times when we are asked a question that is so deeply thought provoking it makes us pause and reflect on the right answer or sometimes we may miss the question altogether and we miss the revelation the proper answer could reveal in us. We could be asked the question,

The New King James Version Chapter 16

“But who do you say that I am?”

This question appears to be an easy one, we could give an answer to that one with no problem right? The Greek doubles the use of “you,” locating it first, to create great emphasis. Jesus asks in effect, “What about you? What do you say?”

Daniel M. Doriani, “Matthew,” in Matthew–Luke, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. VIII, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 252. I mean, Peter gave the right answer,

The New King James Version Chapter 16

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And what I mean by that is, that he picked the right words, his thought process placed the words in the right order so they made sense and was able to speak them to Jesus. But that was about all he got right because even though he used the right words and it sounds good, he placed himself in a position that he couldn’t defend. What I mean is that, while he knew the words to describe Jesus, Peter didn’t know and was unaware of the power that existed within those words. So therefore, his answer was void of any power and empty of any knowledge of Jesus and opened himself up to be attacked, first by Satan, then rebuked by Jesus. By giving an answer empty of any meaning, no love of thought or relation in spirit, the tug-of-war between Jesus and Satan has begun and both sides were fighting for his soul.

Jesus asks you today, “who do you say that I am?” He’s asked you this question before, He has asked this question to you many times actually but today it’s different because now you will know the difference between an answer that sounds good and the answer that is good. An answer that is barren and hollow of the nature of Jesus and an answer that is full and overflowing in faith of his very nature in life of God himself.

Revelation of the Person of the King

This conversation at Cæsarea Philippi is universally regarded as marking a new era in the life of Christ. His rejection by “His own” is now complete.… With the very small band He has gathered around Him He withdraws to the neighbourhood of the Gentile town of Cæsarea Philippi; not for seclusion only, but, as the event shows, to found an Ecclesia—His church (Gibson).

Who Peter is depends on what Peter says. When he confesses Christ, he is a rock on which the church stands. When he rebukes Christ, he sides with Satan and becomes a stumbling stone.

It was the confession of Peter that allowed Jesus the opportunity to proclaim the foundation of His church and the power that it has to all who confess him as Lord and directly after this confession, Jesus warns the disciples of the coming crisis and his death in Jerusalem. When Peter approaches Him about his somber prediction, Jesu rebukes him with the stern words in verses 21-23:

The New King James Version Chapter 16

21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”

23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

The New King James Version (Chapter 16)

23. Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

Matthew–Luke Comment

Jesus blesses Peter’s confession, “for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (16:17). God’s revelation gives Peter “holy joy.” Jesus continues, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (16:18). Jesus will build his church on Peter’s confession.

Notice what Jesus says, “I WILL build my church”, it’s future tense because at this time Peter isn’t ready, the other disciples aren’t ready. He is still learning who Jesus is and became arrogant in his faith, he trusted too much in himself and not enough in Jesus.

It is because of this that the old temptation from Satan, which Jesus had conquered in the wilderness, is coming again through the mouth of the first disciple to confess Jesus as Messiah! Think about that. Peter just confessed, if even not wholeheartedly, who Jesus is and with Jesus standing right there in front of him, Satan attacked Peter while Peter was in the literal presence of the Messiah, in the presence of God.

Get Behind Me Satan

What happens here is why it is so important to read the Bible for understanding because you’ll miss this, when Jesus turned to face Peter he says, “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus turns, faces Peter but doesn’t address Peter, he is addressing Satan who has taken control of him in that moment.

Peter took Jesus aside to tell him there must be another way, that He should not have to go to the cross to accomplish his mission. But Jesus after hearing that turned to Peter and reprimanded him publicly. This would have been deeply wounding to him.

The choice of words here suggests rather that behind the “human thoughts” of Peter, Jesus discerns an attempt to divert him from his course similar to Jesus telling Satan, “away with you” during the temptation. The same Peter that had just spoken the words given to him by God, is now speaking for Satan. The confession that was going to become the “rock” on which the church would be built has now become a stumbling block.

The same words as He had addressed to the Tempter (Lu 4:8); for He felt in it a satanic lure, a whisper from hell, if you will, to move Jesus from His purpose to suffer. So He shook off the Serpent, then coiling around Peter. How quickly has the “rock” turned to a devil! Peter, after receiving the fruit of divine teaching the Lord delighted to honor; became the mouthpiece of hell, which he had in a moment of forgetfulness become.

Who do you say Jesus is?

If it can happen to Peter then it can happen to us. Satan, evil, doesn’t need a lot, and when he sees a gap in your armour he will attack. We can’t be arrogant enough to believe that it can’t happen to us. And the truth is, it already has and we just didn’t see it at the time.

Peter expressed what naturally comes to the human mind when presented with the idea of power and authority which the title “Messiah” suggests. But human thoughts are not God’s thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9), and if they are not questioned they can stand in the way of God’s purpose and derail it. We must be vigilant in our faith.

We must answer that question because our very souls depend on it. Are we merely regurgitating words we memorized because it sounds good or do we know who Jesus is. Jesus came to sacrifice himself so that all that believed would have everlasting life but in this world today many of us don’t want all the restrictions placed on us.

Peter was thinking in a wordly way, trying to get Jesus to just sidestep the cross, to have all the gain without the pain that he must suffer. We want a Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and would never ask us to give away anything we have, I mean, we earned that. We want a nice middle class American Jesus, one that is fine with a nominal devotion, that only requires the bare minimum from us that we can make excuses for. A Jesus that does not infringe on our comforts and in fact brings comfort and prosperity to us as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream. (Platt, “My Take”)

Satan loves that way of thinking and he’s all in but regardless of what many many think, Jesus didn’t come into this world, face the dangers he faced, be beaten and tortured and nailed to a tree to make you happy! He didn’t come to make the disciples or anyone else happy, He came to make us holy.

The New King James Version (Chapter 16)

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ

Peter and the others had not sufficiently learned who Jesus was at this time which is why Jesus told them to tell no one that he was the Christ because he didn’t want others misled by them. Later in His ministry, Jesus would lift this ban.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible (Chapter 16)

We do not read of any thing said or done by any of his disciples, at any time, that Christ resented so much as this. And those that decline suffering for Christ, savour more of the things of man than the things of God.

Peter wanted his version of Jesus and his own way, Jesus says, “no, you can’t go your way, I have to go to the cross.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible Chapter 16

Whatever is the object for which men forsake Christ, that is the price at which Satan buys their souls. Yet one soul is worth more than all the world. This is Christ’s judgment upon the matter; he knew the price of souls, for he redeemed them; nor would he underrate the world, for he made it. The dying transgressor cannot purchase one hour’s respite to seek mercy for his perishing soul. Let us then learn rightly to value our souls, and Christ as the only Saviour of them