03-04-07-Who Do You Say I Am
We have entered that part of the year when we begin to turn our eyes toward the Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Last week, the season of Lent began, where we are taught to deny ourselves the pleasures of this world for 40 days. As we get closer to holy week, certain movies are guaranteed to be playing on TV (e.g. The Robe, Ben Hur, etc) all trying to tell the story of Jesus. Yes, even the world at this time begins to talk about the cross and Easter.
Yet in the middle of this time of the year that seems to focus so much on Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, there is also an underlying current against Christ. Last year, we saw the unholy movie The DaVinci Code released. This year we are hearing of a movie by James Cameron (who is the famous producer of the movie Titanic) saying that he has discovered the burial site of Jesus and His family. Tonight on the Discovery channel his documentary is supposed to be shown. Let me clearly state that this is not something new—it was discovered in 1996 and scholars and archeologists said at that time that his information is false. Yet, it is the time of the year when the devil tries to fool people by giving false stories to counter the truth about Jesus Christ.
So, for the next few weeks, I want to look at the life of Christ and the journey to the cross. For today, we are going to look at a passage in Matthew 16:13-19 where Jesus asked the question of His disciples, “Who do you say I am?”
¨ Matthew 16:13-19 (NIV) 13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
It is significant that this took place at Caesarea Philippi. This is a place that is north of the Sea of Galilee and east of the Jordan River—sort of off the beaten path. “Caesarea Philippi” means the Caesarea of Philip. Philip the governor rebuilt the ancient city of Panias, calling it Caesarea in honor of Caesar Augustus. It had been called Panias before because it was honoring the Greek god Pan. Many pagan gods were worshipped at this place besides Pan. So in the middle of this pagan place of worship, Jesus asks two questions that are related to who He is. “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?”
We have to understand that Jesus has been constantly ministering to the people. Everywhere He went the crowds pressed Him for healing, deliverance, and His teachings. He also had constantly been harassed and ridiculed by the religious leaders. Jesus was human and sometimes as humans we just need some time off from the pressures of life. So Jesus took His disciples on a retreat to Caesarea Philippi to get away from everything and prepare for the last phase of His life. During this last phase He started to prepare His disciples for His coming death.
Since Jesus knew that the end of His life would come soon, He took the last part of His life to pour Himself into His disciples. Before He could leave this earth He had to have peace that His disciples knew who He was so that He would be assured that His ministry would continue. So He asked them questions about who everybody thought He was.
First, He asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” Their answers reveal a lot about what people then as well as people now think about who Jesus is. If we were to go on the street today and ask people this same question, “Who do you think Jesus Christ was?” we probably would get responses like He was a great teacher, a miracle worker, a prophet, and the founder of a religion. These answers are not much different than what the disciples told Jesus the people in that day thought about Him. You see, there is still a lot of confusion and misunderstanding in the world about who Jesus really is. He is no doubt the most controversial person who has ever lived on the earth. So let’s look at the viewpoint of the multitudes, the crowds that followed Him, and see what they thought about Jesus.
¨ Matthew 16:14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“Some say John the Baptist.” John the Baptist was a great man and a great preacher who called many to repentance for their sin. King Herod had beheaded John the Baptist and believed that John the Baptist had come back from the dead as Jesus, so He said that was why Jesus did the great miracles that He did (Matthew 14:1-2). Note, that Herod, as well as any others who believed this, were giving John the Baptist the power of resurrection, but denying it to Jesus. The truth is that John the Baptist did not raise from the dead. But after the crucifixion, Jesus will be raised from the dead because of the power of God.
In our day there are many people who say that Jesus was a great preacher and a miracle worker but they deny the resurrection; just like what I mentioned earlier about the latest documentary about Jesus’ bones supposedly being found. If Jesus rose from the dead, which He did, then there cannot be any bones left to be found.
Some say “Elijah”. Elijah was certainly a great person and a great prophet who did tremendous miracles. Elijah was also the one who was believed to be the forerunner of the Messiah. In the very last words of the Old Testament it says,
¨ Malachi 4:5-6 (NIV) 5 “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
So in saying that Jesus was Elijah, the people were saying that Jesus was not the Messiah, but the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah. Once again they were denying His deity and making Him just a great man.
There are those in our day who say that Jesus was a great person and a great prophet. They will not deny that He did great miracles, although there have also been many attempts to explain away many of Jesus’ miracles as just natural phenomenon. However, they are saying that He was just a great man and denying His deity.
“still others, Jeremiah.” Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet, and the people saw Jesus weep at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35 Jesus wept). So the crowds gave Jesus the credit for being a great prophet with a great amount of compassion, but once again they made Him out to be no more than just a great man who cared about people.
“or one of the prophets.” Not only was Jesus thought of as the highly esteemed Elijah or Jeremiah, but some saw Him as just “one of the prophets.” A good man, but not the Best. Great but not the Greatest. A prophet, but not the Prophet. He was just a common ordinary man who made an impact on history.
Many today do not deny that Jesus lived, but they believe that He was just a common man with great wisdom. In other words, they believe He is no different than Buddha, Mohamed, the Dali Lama, or any other great religious leader. They do not deny that He has had a great influence on history, but they will not accept Him as the Son of God.
So, after hearing what the crowds thought about Jesus, He turned to His beloved disciples and asked them “Who do you say I am?” Imagine what Jesus must have been thinking as He asked the question of His disciples. Would they say the same things as the crowd? Did they truly know who He was? Could He go to the cross knowing that His own trusted men did not truly know who He was? Would His work on earth have been in vain, if even these men did not know who He was? He had to know what they thought—it was vitally important to Him!
Imagine the relief He must have felt, when Peter said “You are the Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), the Son of the living God.” Now He knew that although His disciples did not understand everything about Him, they did know that He truly was who He said He was—The Messiah, the Son of God.
To say that Jesus, the Messiah, was the Son of God—deity in human flesh—was a tremendous revelation to Peter. Jesus knew that there was only one place that such wisdom could come from—the Father in heaven. This was more than just a mental understanding, but rather something that came from the heart of Peter—that is through his faith.
You see, God speaks to the heart of a man to show Him the truth about Jesus, so that he can believe that Jesus is the Son of God. It is in that belief of who Jesus is, that salvation is found.
¨ Romans 10:9 (NIV) That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
So, I believe with a sigh of relief, Jesus says to Peter,
¨ Matthew 16:17 (NIV) “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven.
Maybe the other disciples heard the Father speaking to their hearts, but Peter was the one who spoke out what he heard. So Jesus blessed Peter for being the one that listened to the Father in heaven.
Now I know much controversy has resulted from vs. 18 about Peter and his confession being the foundation of the church, but that is not what I want to focus on today. Instead, I’d like to look at what Jesus said in the last part of vs. 18 and in vs.19.
¨ . . . I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
“I will build My church.” Here we have the first mention of the church in the Bible. The church did not exist in the Old Testament, the church was formed on the Day of Pentecost. It consists of all true believers in Christ, both Jew and Gentile. Matthew’s Gospel has as the prominent themes Israel and the kingdom, so we would not expect the church to be introduced here. However, Jesus is speaking prophetically and following Israel’s rejection of Christ, there is a parenthetical period—the church age (which has gone on for about 2000 years and is where we are now)—and it will continue until the Rapture. Then God will resume His dealings with the nation of Israel. So it is fitting that God should introduce the church here as the next step in His plan after Israel’s rejection of Christ as their Messiah.
Jesus is the one who builds the church. We do not build the church, but Jesus is the master builder of the church. When we let Him build the church, then the gates of hell will not be able to overcome it. Regardless of how much technology, archeology, or any other “olgy” this world comes up with to try to discredit Christ, satan will not win.
How do I know this? Because I have read the end of the book, and it says that the final resting place of satan is the lake of fire where he will be tormented for all of eternity (Rev 20:10)! satan thought he had won when Jesus was crucified on the cross, but 3 days later God raised Jesus up from the dead and He lives forever more! Hallelujah!!!!
Not only did Jesus say that He would build the church and satan would not be able to overcome it, but He also said that he would give His disciples the keys to the kingdom. Keys are used for 2 purposes: to lock doors to keep people out, and to lock doors to keep things in (e.g. keeping your dog from running away).
As His disciples, Jesus gave us the keys to His kingdom. That means that we have been given the authority to unlock or lock up things in God’s kingdom. He said that we can bind and loose things here on this earth and they will be bound or loosed in heaven. I know that there has much abuse in this area by well meaning Christians, but it still does not deny what Jesus said. We have been given His authority—we just have to learn how to use that authority responsibly!
We also must remember that He is talking to His disciples about the things that will remain after He was gone. He wanted them to know that because they believed in Him—by their confession of faith that He was the Son of God—that after He was gone, they would be in charge of His kingdom on earth. Therefore, He was telling them that they would have the authority they needed to overcome satan.
The same is true for us today, that as representatives of Christ wherever we go we have His authority to use wisely to further His kingdom on earth and defeat the enemy of our soul. We cannot defeat satan in our own power, but God has given us His authority and by it we are over comers!
So don’t let all the news about how the church is declining everywhere or that the church is no longer needed, disturb you. God has not given up on the church. The church is the bride and body of Christ and Jesus is coming back, someday soon, for a church without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:27). The church is very much alive and well around the world. So in the end the church will overcome satan! Praise the Lord!!
The question that is before us today is the same one Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” If you have been born-again then your answer must be the same as that of Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But if you have not been born again, then maybe you think like those in the crowds of Jesus’ day that Jesus was just a great man, or a great prophet, or a great teacher.
The Lord asked this question “Who do you say I am?” because the revelation of the truth of who Jesus is must come from the heavenly Father to our hearts. To find salvation you must know who He is and what He did but you also must accept Him by faith.
¨ Rom 10:9-10 (NIV) 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Who do you say Jesus is? Is He your Lord? If not, He can be today!