Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
The Big Question
Matthew 16:13-20
Introduction: Did you hear the one about the chauffer whose job it had been to drive a famous scientist to a series of presentations about a new discovery. After several days, the two began to become pretty good friends. This despite the fact that the scientist taught bio-chemistry at a major university and the chauffer hadn’t even finished high school. One day after about the twentieth presentation, the chauffer jokingly turned to the scientist and said, "Professor, I believe I’ve heard your speech so many times, I could give it myself.” “The professor smiled and said, "I’ll bet you $50 you can’t." "You’re on," said the chauffeur.
They stopped the car. The two exchanged suits. They arrived at the banquet. The chauffeur dressed in a tuxedo, sat at the head table. The professor, with chauffer’s cap in hand, sat quietly at the rear of the room. When it came time for the program, the emcee introduced the chauffer as the famous professor. He stood up and gave the speech flawlessly. There was a standing ovation when he was finished.
Afterwards the emcee walked to the lectern and said, "You know, we are so fortunate to have such a fine resource with us tonight, and since we have a little extra time, let’s have some questions and answers. The chauffeur stood there dumbfounded. He pondered the first question. He didn’t have a clue about the question much less the answer. He cleared his throat in nervousness. He thought and thought. He considered pretending he was sick. Then he had a better idea. He took a deep breath, stood as tall and straight as he could, stepped to the mic and said, "That’s just about the dumbest question I ever heard. In fact it is so dumb I bet even my chauffeur could answer it."
I have a question for you today. You are the only one who can answer it. You can’t hand it off to your chauffer or anyone else for that matter!
This question is an important one. Not all questions are. Some are trivial. How are you doing? What’s up? Both greetings don’t really expect an answer. Other questions are hard to answer. Every kid can tell you answering the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question is not always easy. I know a few adults who are still trying to figure that one out.
Other questions are more than hard. They are life changing. Everything turns on the answer. Even no answer speaks volumes. For example, the question “Will you marry me?” expects an answer. Yet even hesitating can be answer enough. The answer matters.
If you are working through the One Year Bible, you came across our question on Thursday. I hope you sensed the significance of the question. This passage is the continental divide of Matthew. Anyone who has driven in the Rockies has seen the signs marking the Continental Divide. The Divide is the geographical point separating the watersheds of the West. Theoretically, at least, if you could place a knife blade on the right spot in the mountains, a drop of water falling on the edge would split in two. One half will fall east. Eventually it would flow to the Missouri, Mississippi, and finally in the Gulf of Mexico. The other half would fall west. It might flow into the Snake River and then the Columbia and finally the Pacific.
Matthew’s Gospel divides here. This event happens six months before the end of Jesus’ life. But it takes place roughly in the middle of Matthew’s book. The first half builds toward this. All the teachings, every miracle, all the parables, the encounters with his disciples—each lead up to this. After this, every event, every conversation flows directly to the cross. This question is the turning point, the watershed. “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Jesus asked.
If the Lord were standing right here today and were to ask you the question, what would you say? This is the watershed question. What you think of Jesus is also a watershed in our lives. The Bible says which side of this question we land on determines our values, our way of life, and our eternal destinies. Few questions matter as much.
A Perennial Question. This wasn’t the first time the question was asked. For thousands of years, the people of Israel had looked for a promised Messiah. The Old Testament contained hundreds of prophetic statements about someone who would come from heaven to deliver God’s people. The first statement came in the Garden of Eden shortly after Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit. God promised that one born of a woman would crush Satan (Gen 3:15). The Old Testament ends with the last promise. Malachi spoke of the Sun of Righteousness who would bring freedom to God’s people and a prophet who would prepare the way for him (Malachi 4:2-6).
From beginning to end, the Old Testament spoke of a son, a redeemer, a savior, a messiah, a servant of God, a prophet like Moses, a king like David, a servant who would suffer for the sins of the people. The prophet Daniel called this deliverer from heaven “a son of man” meaning he would come as a human (Dan 7:13-14). That’s the origin of Jesus’ term. “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
For hundreds of years, people had been reading the promises about the Messiah and asking, “When will he come? What will he be like? Who is he?” Historians tell us that many were asking those questions in Jesus’ day. The more Israel suffered at the hands of her enemies, the more people yearned for God’s deliverer. Many thought their big problems were political or economic, so they held out hopes for a great warrior king who would restore the kingdom of Israel. It didn’t occur to most that the real problem was internal not external.
Times haven’t changed that much. Most people know that something’s missing. Things aren’t quite right. Something is messed up in our world. And getting worse! We yearn for a deliverer. And many still think the problem is political or economic, not spiritual.
This is an age-old question—who is the Son of Man? This was also a Popular Question. Many had asked it before. They offered varying responses. When Jesus appeared on the scene, few could deny that there was something special about him. They didn’t know at first what to make of him. He taught with authority. He healed the sick. He calmed storms. But he also claimed the power to forgive sin. He didn’t hesitate to break cherished traditions and associate with the wrong kind of people. Some of his most ardent critics called him a worker of the devil. The more charitable dismissed him as a passing fad.
When asked what people think, the disciples ran through the list of opinions. Some thought he might be John the Baptist back from the dead. John had created quite a stir with his fearless call to repentance. King Herod had him killed and then worried that he would come back to haunt him. When Jesus began to preach and teach much the same message as John, many apparently thought that’s exactly what had happened.
Others thought Christ was the prophet Elijah. That last Old Testament prophecy had predicted the coming of an Elijah-prophet. Still others thought Christ was the prophet Jeremiah. A popular Jewish legend (not in the Bible) claimed that Jeremiah had rescued the Ark of the Covenant just before the Jewish Temple was captured and would someday return to restore the Temple. Others had other favorite Old Testament heroes to which they compared Jesus.
Again times haven’t changed that much. The fact is something happened two thousand years ago that forever altered the course of history. You have heard me say it before, I will say it again—every time a person writes the date on a check or turns the page of a calendar, he acknowledges the effect of Jesus Christ on history. Something happened—something very important. Both biblical and secular history testifies to the fact and importance of the life of Jesus. The question still demands an answer: who is he? Who do people say the Son of Man is?
You have heard some of the opinions. The best-selling book and movie The DaVinci Code popularized the notion that the Jesus of the Bible is a fake. I didn’t see the movie, but I did read the book. It was actually a pretty good, suspense-filled, who-done-it story. Unfortunately, some forget that the DaVinci Code is fiction.
Perhaps you have heard enough about it to know the story. It is a murder mystery built around a super-secret conspiracy by the Catholic Church to cover up the real story of Jesus. The hidden secret was that Jesus married Mary Magdalene. They had children. His real teachings and his offspring carried forward the message of a secret spirituality. The religious authorities didn’t want this message spread so they made up the message of the gospels and tried to keep the real Jesus secret hidden. Sadly, in world where fewer and fewer people know much about the Bible or history, some take such ideas seriously.
The Big Question would prompt some today to say, “Jesus was a revolutionary who came to lead a political uprising. One doesn’t have to look very far to find partisan politicians and pundits who cite Jesus for this or that cause. Such folk answer the question as if it were “what would we like Jesus to have been” rather who was he.
Perhaps the most popular opinion makes Jesus out to be a great teacher and nothing more. C. S. Lewis challenged this notion in his book Mere Christianity. Most of you have heard of Lewis. He authored the Chronicles of Narnia which came out as a movie a year or two ago. He wrote dozens of books on a number of religious and secular themes. Many consider him one of the greatest Christian thinkers of the 20th Century. In Mere Christianity (an explanation of the core principles of the faith), Lewis wrote this famous response to the suggestion that Jesus was just a great teacher and nothing more: (pp. 52-53)
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: "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 the 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 patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
This is a popular question. Folk have offered lots of varied opinions. Some seem somewhat reasonable on the surface; others are just make believe. But that’s ultimately not the issue. What other people think, what opinion polls reveal, don’t really count. When all else is said and done, this is a Personal Question. Did you note the flow of the conversation in our text? Jesus begins by asking, “What do people say/” But that’s not where he leaves the issue. He gets up close and personal. Who do you say I am? Every disciple of Jesus then or now must answer that question. That’s the question I’m asking you today.
That’s the ultimate question of the Christian faith. The Big Question is not about what some creed says or what one denomination or another teaches. The Big Question is not about rituals, church programs, or organizational structure. Some of that has its place. The Big Question is: who do you say Jesus is?
Here are the facts: 1) Jesus actually lived. We have a reliable historical record about his life and teachings. 2) He said he was the Son of God who came to lay down his life for the forgiveness of human sin. 3) Those who knew him best said that he was the Son of God and the only Savior. Millions have examined the evidence and have come to the same conclusion. However, the question remains: who do you say he is?
Those of you who have been around this church for a while recognize this as the question we ask every person who becomes a part of this church family—whether they are transferring from another church or accepting Christ into their lives for the first time. We don’t ask anyone to recite a set of doctrines or demonstrate their Bible knowledge. “Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?” The answer unites us as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our baptism testifies to our acknowledgement of Jesus as our Savior. The Lord’s Supper renews that commitment. Our lives and our words evidence the reality of our conviction.
Peter spoke for all of the disciples when he made that declaration. Jesus said that was heaven’s answer to that question. Jesus said that conviction was the foundation and bedrock of his church. That faith would enable his church to stand against the worst Satan could throw their way. That is the faith we want our friends and neighbors to know about.
Conclusion. A Hindu man once asked the famous missionary E. Stanley Jones, “What has Christianity to offer that our religion does not?” Jones replied, “Jesus Christ!”
That’s still true! That’s why I ask you the big question: who do you say that Jesus is?
Your answer matters! It matters more than anything else in this world. It matters that you answer it. No one can answer it for you.
The Bible says someday everyone will have to answer that question. Someday “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:10-11) On that day, the answer will not matter. Every individual’s fate will have already been determined.
Today the question makes all the difference in the world. Jesus said, “If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven. 33But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33). The Bible says, “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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
