Title: Jesus Is . . .Who?
Series: Who Is Jesus? (Sermon # 1)
Text: Matt 16:13-17
Date: February 24, 2008
COPYRIGHT © Joe La Rue, 2008
INTRODUCTION
A. Almost two thousand years ago, on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, a Jewish peasant named Yeshua was executed by crucifixion. In English, we call His name “Jesus.” After His death, He was taken down from the cross and buried. His followers subsequently claimed that He had been raised from the dead, and that they had seen Him alive. They proclaimed Him “the Christ,” which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew term, “the Messiah.” Both terms mean “the one anointed by God.” And they affirmed that this resurrected Jesus was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords—in other words, the Absolute Ruler. And many of these followers ultimately died for refusing to recant that belief.
1. We know that much to be true. There is simply too much evidence to doubt it. In fact, the evidence for the existence of Jesus is as great or greater than the evidence for the existence of any other person from the ancient world. Consider the example of Julius Caesar. We know of Caesar’s life from four sources. Four ancient authors wrote about him, and it is only from these four sources that we know anything about Julius Caesar. And yet, no one doubts whether he existed, or the general circumstances of his life and reign.
2. With Jesus, though, the situation is vastly different. In addition to the four Gospels in the Bible that tell of his life and death, we have additional, non-biblical historians and authors from the period who confirm various aspects of Jesus’ life and death, and the early beliefs of Christians with regard to Jesus.
a. There was Josephus and Tacitus, who both wrote massive histories near the year A.D. 100 and included comments about Jesus, as well as the beliefs of His followers. There was Pliny the Younger, who was a Roman governor in the region of what today we call Turkey and who wrote about his interaction with the early Christians. And, there are the references to Jesus in the Jewish Talmud which confirm the Gospel claims. For instance, they state that Jesus was condemned to death for blasphemy, and they repeat the rumor that his father was unknown. These authors were not Christians; they were not sympathetic to Christianity; in other words, they had no reason to make up facts to support the Church’s claims.
b. There are also the early Christian writings, such as those by Ignatius, an early Christian leader, who wrote within the first 80 or so years of Jesus’s time and corroborated the basic outline of His life.
c. If all we had were these accounts, and we didn’t have any of the books found in the Bible, we would still have a considerable sketch of Jesus’s life. Professor Edwin Yamauchi, who up until he retired in 2005 was a professor of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio summarized it as follows:
“We would know that first, Jesus was a Jewish teacher; second, many people believed that he performed healings and exorcisms; third, some people believed he was the Messiah; fourth, he was rejected by the Jewish leaders; fifth, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius; sixth, despite this shameful death, his followers, who believed that he was still alive, spread beyond Palestine so that there were multitudes of them in Rome by a.d. 64; and seventh, all kinds of people from the cities and countryside—men and women, slave and free—worshiped him as God.”
(Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ 87 (1998)).
3. But we have more than the secular histories and references. We have the biographies written about Jesus as well: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These were written near enough to the time of Christ’s life that they are reliable records of the events of His life. In fact, we have better documentary evidence with more reliable records for His life than for any other person from the ancient world. To take just a few examples from the religious realm:
a. The man who is known as “The Buddha” lived in the sixth century B.C., yet the first biography of Buddha was not written until the first century A.D., some 600 years after Buddha died. (Strobel at 87).
b. The biography of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was not written until 145 years after his death. (Strobel at 87).
c. With Jesus, though, the situation is different. His biographies were written very near in time to his life. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all written sometime between a.d. 50 and 70, only 20 to 40 years after Jesus died, and John was written just a little bit later. There were witnesses to Jesus’s life, still alive, who could have contradicted any fabrications or errors.
B. In fact, the evidence for the life and death of Jesus is so great, and the reliability of that evidence is so sure, that the question of Jesus’s existence is not in doubt. Virtually no one who has considered the evidence questions whether Jesus really lived, or was really considered by His contemporaries to be a great teacher, or was really crucified, or that His followers immediately claimed to have seen Him alive again. Those facts are not in doubt, nor are they in dispute. Almost all scholars who have studied the issue acknowledge these things, regardless of their own personal religious beliefs.
C. The question is not whether Jesus lived. Rather, the real question is: Who Is Jesus? Who is this man who lived and died 2000 years ago? And, why do people choose to worship one who was executed by the Roman government?
D. For the next two months we will consider that question. We’ll look at such topics as fulfilled prophecies, and miracles, and the resurrection, and we’ll examine the evidence for these things and ask, “Can a rational person believe in these things?” We’ll talk about the cross and why it was necessary, and the future return of Christ, and what that means. We’ll talk about the claim that Jesus and his followers made, that Jesus was God, and we’ll ask whether that is possible. And then on April 13 we will close out this series by returning to our question that we start the series with today: Who is Jesus.
E. This morning to help us begin this quest we are going to look at a passage in the Bible in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 16, verses 13 through 17. Read it with me:
“13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ 14They 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?’ 16Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ 17Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.’” (Matthew 16:13–17, New International Version).
F. Trans: Jesus asked two foundational questions in this passage, and we shall consider them each in turn. First,
I. JESUS’S FIRST QUESTION: WHO DO PEOPLE SAY THAT I AM?
A. You’ll notice that the apostles indicated that Jesus’ identity was in substantial dispute: “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
1. The first thing that we should observe about these descriptions is that they were all intended to be complimentary.
a. John the Baptist was regarded by the Jewish people as a great prophet who had come from God. He had just recently been killed by King Herod for opposing Herod’s incestuous marriage that violated God’s Old Testament law. Mark’s Gospel tells us that when King Herod heard of Jesus’s ministry, he freaked out. He thought that John had risen from the dead (Mark 6:14). To call most people “John the Baptist” would have been a compliment.
b. Elijah was considered by the Jews as the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. His ministry had been the most like Jesus’s in that there were many miraculous signs that took place in conjunction with it. He had even raised the dead, just as Jesus had. And there was a passage in the Old Testament which some people understood to indicate that Elijah would return to earth in the future to perform vital ministry-service for God. Some people evidently looked at the ministry of Jesus, noticed the similarities to the ministry of Elijah, and thought that Jesus might be the in-the-flesh return of their greatest prophet. They intended this to be a compliment.
c. Jeremiah was also a great Old Testament prophet. Apparently some Jewish people thought that Jesus somehow possessed the spirit of him, or one of the other Old Testament prophets. They intended this to be a compliment.
2. The first thing, then, to notice about these descriptions is that the people who gave them intended them to be complimentary. The second thing to notice is that these designations were far, far less than the designations that Jesus claimed for Himself.
a. Jesus identified Himself as the Messiah, the special Anointed One that God had promised long ago to send into our world to reign over an eternal kingdom. For instance, when the woman at the Samaritan well said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming; when He comes, He will declare all things to us,” Jesus responded, “I who speak to you am He.” (John 4:25-26). There had been many kings in Israel’s history. But there would only be one Messiah, specially sent by God to reign forever. And Jesus said, “I am he.” No prophet had ever done that.
b. And Jesus claimed to have eternally existed. One time Jesus was in a debate with the religious leaders and he said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day.” (John 8:56). Now, Abraham was the father of the Jewish race, and he had lived some 1400 years before the time of Jesus. So the Jewish leaders started making fun of Jesus. Jeering, they asked, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” (John 8:57). They thought He was nuts! But Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:58). No prophet had ever spoken this way.
c. Jesus also identified Himself as being the possessor of life. He said such things as, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and, “the Son gives life to whom He wishes” (John 5:21), and, “If anyone keeps My word, he shall never taste of death” (John 8:52). No prophet had ever claimed such things.
d. And Jesus claimed to be perfect. He said, “I always do the things that are pleasing to God” (John 8:29). And He challenged the teachers of religion who were opposing Him, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46). No prophet had ever made that claim.
e. And Jesus spoke like He thought He was God. All the prophets always used to say, “Thus saith the Lord” before they spoke God’s words. But Jesus would go around saying, “I say to you,” like He was speaking on His own authority and didn’t have to appeal to God’s authority. For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount He would say, “You have heard that the ancients were told,” and then He would quote their Old Testament law. Then He would say, “But I say to you,” and then He would tell them what the law really meant. No prophet had ever done that.
f. And Jesus acted like He thought He was God. He claimed that He could do things that only God has the right and ability to do. Like the time that the paralyzed man was brought to Him for Jesus to heal him, and Jesus said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Matt 9:2). The people who heard Jesus say that did a collective gasp. The Bible says that they were thinking, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7). And they were right! Only God can sins. Yet, Jesus said that He could, too. No prophet had ever acted that way!
g. And, most startling of all, Jesus identified Himself as being God in human flesh. He said such things as, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), and “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Jesus claimed to be God, no prophet—no prophet!—had ever done that.
3. Make no mistake about this one, friends. The people who said that Jesus was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets meant these things as compliments, but they were designations that were far, far less than the designations that Jesus claimed for Himself.
B. And the same is true today. There are many people in our world who say complimentary things about Jesus, and think that they are giving Him the honor and respect He is due, yet they fall far short of ascribing to Him the designations which He claimed for Himself.
1. Just this past week (Feb 17-23, 2008), a new book was published by self-styled spiritual guru Deepok Chopra called “The Third Jesus.” In this book, Chopra wrote, “I want to offer the possibility that Jesus was truly, as he proclaimed, a saviour. Not the saviour, not the one and only Son of God. Rather Jesus embodied the highest level of enlightenment.” Chopra means that as a compliment to Jesus. But I want you to notice that it is far, far less than the designations that Jesus claimed for Himself.
2. You can go onto any university campus today, or almost any high school campus for that matter, and you will hear people talk in glowing terms about Jesus. He is depicted as a good man and great religious teacher. He is not, though, described as God in the flesh and the Savior of the world. Rather, He is presented as merely one option in the smorgasbord of religions, not better or worse than the others. Those who describe Him in this way mean these things as compliments. But I want you to notice that they are far, far less than the designations that Jesus claimed for Himself.
C. Trans: The designations that people gave Jesus back in His day, and many of the designations that people give Jesus these days, fall far short of the titles and designations that Jesus claimed for Himself. And so Jesus asked His apostles a second question in verse 15 of the sixteenth chapter of Matthew: Who do you say that I am?
II. JESUS SECOND QUESTION: WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
A. And Peter jumped right in and answered the question, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt 16:15). And Jesus said to Peter, ‘You get it. You get it! You understand!’ “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”
B. At this point in time Peter had been with Jesus for about 2 and a half years. Peter had heard the words Jesus had spoken. He had seen the miracles Jesus had performed. He had witnessed evidence for who Jesus was. And God had used that evidence to lead Peter to make the leap of faith and say, “Jesus, you are the Messiah! You are the Son of God!”
C. I hone in on the fact Peter had witnessed the evidence of Jesus before arriving at faith in Jesus in order to make one very important point to you this morning: As a general rule, people do not make come to believe in Christ and accept Him as their Savior, without some reason for doing so. And a lot of people want to know, Are the claims of Christianity true, before they commit their lives to it.
CONCLUSION
A. And so I am preaching this sermon series for two reasons: FIRST, I want to share the evidence for our faith with those of you who are already committed Christians, so that you can share it with others who you know, who may be struggling with the question regarding whether the claims of Christianity are true. But SECOND, I am also preaching this series to answer the questions of those who really want to know, Are the claims of Christianity true? Are there any reasons for me to believe this? That’s why it’s so important that we invite people to come hear this series, and especially be present for Easter Sunday. Pray about that one more week, please. Next week we’ll talk about how to invite people to come on Easter.
B. And two months from now we’ll return to this very same text, Matt 16:13-17, and we will again ask the question that Jesus asked the apostles, “Who is Jesus?” We will have considered the evidence, we will have thought through the implications, and we will be ready to answer that question: who is Jesus.
C. Let’s be standing and have a closing prayer.
