Who is Jesus?

Introduction:

Most people do not object to the idea of a Messiah, that is, a deliverer, savior, provider, and protecter. Most want a leader who is going to bring about a perfect society that will provide justice and plenty for everyone. What people want is a Messiah who fits into the wants and passions and power structures of their world.

Everyone wants their bellies full, their bodies clothed and housed, and their urges satisfied. They want the good things of the world. If a Messiah figure can give these, then people are ready and willing to accept the Messiah. Jesus deliberately sets out to make sure the disciples saw Him as God’s Messiah… Not man’s Messiah.

He had to make sure they understood God’s ways are greater than man’s. God was going to provide a way for mankind to be saved, and God was going to be victorious over death providing eternal life for all who would believe in His Messiah.

While opinions of Jesus were rampant and varied, He desired to know whom His disciples believed Him to be.

What we are going to see in our passage this morning, one of thee most important declarations made in all Scripture.

Yet, Peter’s initial response and subsequent reaction reveals our own desire to edit God when He doesn’t meet our expectations.

We live in a culture of collaborative editing. A website like Wikipedia allows that collaborative editing of its written content.

We also live in a current era that has adopted that same approach to theology [what we believe about God].

[Family] It doesn’t matter what you think about God. It matters what God thinks about God.

vv. 27–30) Peter’s Confession:

Jesus is facing the end of His ministry very soon and there was still much to teach His disciples. It will finally be the time for them to learn He was building a church—an assembly of people who would be confessing Him as their Lord and Savior.

This passage of Scripture truly is one of the most dramatic revelations ever made. It is also one of the most demanding questions every asked.

Because the answer given determines one’s eternal destiny and requires a single answer: Jesus you are the Christ!”

[27] Jesus left Bethsaida, the house of fish, and travels to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

Bethsaida is on the nothern most point of the Sea of Galilee. Caesarea Philippi was about 30 miles straight north.

Caesarea Philippi was a city that had a rich religious history. It had once been the center of Baal worship with at least fourteen temples in and around the city. It was believed to have within its borders the cavern in which the Greek god of nature, Pan, was born. In the beginning of its history, the city was so identified with this god that it was named after the god, being called Panias.

One of the most beautiful structures was the gleaming white marble temple built for the worship of Caesar. Herod the Great had built the temple in honor of Caesar when Caesar bestowed on him another country. But it was Herod’s son Philip who adorned the temple with the magnificence for which it was known worldwide. It was also Philip who changed the name of the city from Panias to Caesarea, meaning Caesar’s town. He added his own name also calling the city Caesarea Philippi.

The city proclaimed far and wide the worship of Caesar and of the gods of one’s choice, that is, the worship of all except the One true and living God. It was against this dramatic yet terrible background that Jesus asked the pointed question in our passage this morning:

“Who do men say that I am?”

Jesus asked the disciples what people were saying about Him. And Jesus didn’t ask this questions because He didn’t know who He was or because He had a twisted dependence on the opinion of others. He asked this question as an introduction to a more important follow-up question. Often Jesus uses questions as springboards for new teaching.

Up till this point Jesus was physically healing blindness. Now He is going to prove His power by healing His disciples spiritual blindness.

[28] The confession of men shortchanged Jesus. Most people saw Jesus as a great man, a man who was highly esteemed and respected.

He was considered one of the greatest men, but note a crucial point: These professions were not only untrue, they were dangerous. They contained lies and half-truths, and people were deceived and misled by them.

Some believed Jesus was John the Baptist. These are the people who didn’t know much about Him, and they didn’t know that Jesus and John had ministered at the same time.

Some said Jesus was Elijah. They professed Jesus to be the arguably the GOAT of the prophets and teachers. Elijah was predicted to be the forerunner of the coming Messiah:

Malachi 4:5–6 NKJV

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Even today the Jews expect Elijah to return before the Messiah. In the passover celebration they alway leave a chair vacant for him to occupy. Also Elijah was used by God to feed a widow and her son (1 Kings 17:14); and people were connected Elijah’s miracle and Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes.

Lastly some believed Jesus to be one of the prophets. Professing Jesus to be a great prophet sent for their day and time.

The same false confessions about Jesus exist today:

He was only a great man of righteousness who was martyred for His faith. Leaving us a great example of how to live and stand up for what we believe.

He was one of the greatest teachers and prophets of all time.

He was only a great man who revealed some very important things to us about God and religion. And because of that He can only make a contribution to your search for God.

Mark 6:3 NKJV

3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.

John 1:10–11 NKJV

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

1 John 2:22–23 NKJV

22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

1 John 4:3 NKJV

3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

Family [27–28]Regardless of what others believe about Jesus, each of you has to decide for yourself.

Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.

One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did.

He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.

Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is “humble and meek” and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.

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 a 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 patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.–C.S. Lewis

[29] It was okay for the disciples to know what others thought about Jesus. But Jesus had to ask them as individuals, what they believed about Jesus.

We are being asked the same thing.

Peter got it! He realized the opinion of the crowd wasn’t accurate. Jesus was so much greater than John the Baptist, Elijah, or a prophet. He was greater than some national reformer, miracle worker, and prophet. Jesus is the Christ!

We need to side track for a bit!

[29]If one belief is true for you but not for me, it simply isn’t the truth.

Truth is eternal, truth is unchanging, truth is something absolute, something above you and I… truth is something we must submit too.

Because at the end of the day truth is truth, whether you believe it or not.

[Example of jumping off the stage]

When we look at what Jesus is asking with these questions, it is very important to know that He cannot be all of these suggestions at the same time.

One of these identity is correct or none of them are.

[Examples:]

Hindus universe always was vs. Judaism universe has a beginning.

Christians believe Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected three days later vs. Islam believes Jesus was on the way to the cross and a substitute died in His place, a lookalike. And Jesus ascended into heaven.

Can both opinions of Jesus be right at the same time? Possible both are wrong, but they cannot both be right.

For some professing Christians to say all paths lead to God and heaven…is incredibly deceitful.

[29] “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered and said to Him, ‘You are the Christ.’”

The word Christ is not Jesus’ last name. Christ means Messiah, which means anointed one.

It means the one that all of history has been longing for, to set things right.

What was started in the Garden and was wrong, the fall of all mankind… the Messiah was the promise of making all things right again!

Peter opens up his mouth. uh-oh!

“Jesus you are the Christ! You are the Messiah! You are the Anointed One! You are the one we have been waiting for! You are the One that all of the Scriptures has been pointing to! You are here to make all things right again!”

Peter is the first of the disciples to finally get it!

Peter didn’t succeed because of a subjective confession but due to an objective revelation.

So what do we mean by that?

We need to head on over to Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew 16:16–17. Mark’s gospel is very concise and Matthew’s gospel like to give a little bit more information:

Matthew 16:16–17 NKJV

16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

Bar-Jonah: bar is the Hebrew word for son of or descendent of. So Jesus says, “blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

Your earthly father didn’t reveal that to you, your heavenly Father did. Why? Because you don’t come to truth, truth comes to you!

We don’t create truth. It comes to us. And it is with that we see:

Matthew 16:18 NKJV

18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

It is upon this rock Jesus will build His church. Upon this foundational faith statement.

I incorrectly taught this, “It doesn’t matter what other people think Jesus is, the only thing that matters is who Jesus is to you…”

To some extent this is true, but so long as it is correct.

Is Jesus a liar, lunatic, or Lord? or to put it another way: is Jesus mad, bad, or God?

vv. 31–33) Peter’s Confrontation:

[31] Jesus just confirmed with them in verse 30 that He is in fact the Messiah! However verse 31 rocked the disciples to their core!

Teaching the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priest and scribes, and be killed…

This was the necessary work of the Messiah and it was predicted in passages like Isaiah 53:3-12.

Isaiah 53:3–4 NKJV

3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

The suffering and death of Jesus was a must because for two primary reasons: man’s sin and God’s love. While His death was the ultimate example of our wickedness and iniquity against God, it was also the supreme expression of God’s love for mankind.

This was an unbelievable shock to anyone expecting or hoping that Jesus was the national and political messiah. You see, a suffering Messiah was unthinkable! The messiah was a symbol of strength, not weakness.

The picture of the Messiah Peter had in his mind was of the victor and not the victim.

[32–33] Peter’s intent was love for Jesus, but he was unwittingly used by Satan. You don’t have to be demon possessed for Satan to use you, and we need to be on guard lest we are unwittingly used.

As we have already seen in Matthew 16:17–19, we see Peter follow these steps:

Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah.

Jesus complimented Peter, telling him that God revealed this to him.

Jesus told of His impending suffering, death, and resurrection.

Peter felt that wasn’t right, and he believe that he heard from God.

Peter rebuked Jesus.

I believe we can infer that Peter was bold enough to rebuke Jesus, he was confident that God told him what was right and that Jesus was wrong. Where it all broke down was that Peter was far too confident in his ability to hear from God.

What Peter said didn’t line up with the Scriptures.

What Peter said was in contradiction to the spiritual authority over him.

If we are dissatisfied with who Jesus is, Satan will tempt us to redefine His identity and alter His activity.

Jesus’ rebuke is intense. “Get behind me, Satan!” what a strong rebuke from Jesus, yet entirely appropriate. Though a moment before Peter spoke as a messenger of God, he then spoke as a messenger of Satan. Jesus knew there was a satanic purpose in discouraging Him from His ministry on the cross, and Jesus would not allow that purpose to succeed.

We can be sure that Peter wasn’t aware that he spoke for Satan, just as the moment earlier he was not aware he spoke for God. It is often much easier to be a tool of God or the devil than we want to believe.

It isn’t as if Jesus is being unloving, at this moment in time, this is the most loving thing Jesus could do for Peter. Jesus exposed how Peter came into this satanic way of thinking. He didn’t make a deliberate choice to reject God and embrace Satan; he simply let his mind settle on the things of men instead of the things of God, and Satan took advantage of it.

Peter is the perfect example of how a sincere person coupled with secular thinking can often lead to disaster.

Family, this applies to you too!

Colossians 3:1–3 NKJV

1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Peter’s rebuke of Jesus was evidence of the leaven mentioned in last week’s text, that Kurt taught through:

Mark 8:15 NKJV

15 Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

With his mind on the things of men, Peter saw the Messiah only as the embodiment of power and strength, instead of as a suffering servant. Because Peter couldn’t handle a suffering Messiah, he rebuked Jesus.

If God made you in His image, don’t attempt to repay the favor by remaking Him in yours.

[Example: some of you have been used, i know I have too]

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NKJV

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I have been corrected and you will need to be corrected also:

Hebrews 10:24–25 NKJV

24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 12:12–16 NKJV

12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

Gospel:

Accountable

Bad News

Good News

Death burial resurrection

Respond, don’t sleep on Jesus Christ He is the only means for salvation.

John 14:6 NKJV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Conclusion:

We do not need our version of Jesus—we just need Jesus.