Jesus, Son Of God Series

Jesus, the Son of God

April 10, 2011

The Story - 25

Today, we’re going to focus on the most important question you will ever answer in your life. How’s that for an opening sentence? The question . . . WHO IS JESUS? That’s a huge question. And in reality it is the most important question you will ever answer. It’s more important than who you are going to marry, or what you will do for a career, or how you will serve others, or even what you will eat for lunch after worship.

The reason it is so important, is that it has to do with your identity, who are you? To whom are you connected? What are you grounded in? What’s the rock you can hold onto? It also has to do with your direction in life . . . What are your goals? What are your dreams? The answer to the question also determines your purpose in life. What on earth am I supposed to do with my life? And finally, it answers the question about our eternity . . . where will I go when I die?

So, there are lots of things wrapped up in this very question and our answer to WHO IS JESUS?

If we Google, WHO IS JESUS? We end up with 190 million results. Can you imagine that! That’s doing lots of research about that question. The top sight is called Who is Jesus. And it asks, “Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Is Jesus Christ Lord, Liar or Lunatic? Is Jesus God? Is Jesus the Savior?” It’s actually a quote from C.S. Lewis.

The 2nd sight says, “Who Is Jesus? - The Bible states Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. It teaches that there is only one way to Heaven.” Okay, only have 189,999,998 more to go.

We find this question at the beginning of today’s study in Chapter 25. If you have your Bible, you can find it in Mark 8. As Jesus and His disciples are traveling, He approaches them with this very same question.

27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

29 Jesus asked, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

Peter gave the right answer, but there’s more to the answer than we might want to deal with. Along with that answer comes what it would mean for Jesus to be the Messiah. Right after this great proclamation by Peter, Jesus kills the moment. Jesus began to teach them —

31 the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Oh, how we don’t want to go down that road. We don’t want to deal with suffering. We don’t believe we should have to suffer. We’ll do most anything not to have to suffer. Let alone, the thought of Christ suffering for us. But Jesus was very clear in saying this is what it will mean for me to be your Savior.

Now the Bible is very clear that Jesus was going to suffer. He told us, and there are many passages in scripture which also tell us, the Messiah was going to suffer. Why? Why would the Messiah, this man named Jesus, have to suffer? We need to be clear on this point, especially with Easter just a couple of weeks away. Because we’re going to see how suffering relates to forgiveness and reconciliation, which is the very purpose and act of God.

Let’s say you want to borrow my watch. So, I tell you how precious my watch is, but I still let you borrow it. You go outside with it, and you forget your wearing it. You work on some machinery and it breaks. We’ve got a major problem now. So, here are some of our options . . .

You come to me and apologize, you feel terrible. Well, I’m furious, you broke my favorite $10 watch, it’s irreplaceable. But you tell me you will buy me a $15 watch, and I’m all happy.

Or a 2nd option is, I can be kinda sorta angry, but I can tell you it’s okay, mistakes happen. Don’t worry about it, I’ve got 5 other $10 watches.