Jesus, Son of God
(Who Do YOU Say that I Am?)
Matthew 16:13-17
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever talked to someone who thinks Jesus was a great teacher and a good man, but nothing more? I’ve even heard people claim that Jesus never said he was anything more than a normal human being. I have to wonder where they got that idea … it certainly didn’t come out of any of the gospels!
The Gospel of John alone is enough to establish Jesus’ claims about his own identity. In fact, every chapter in John resonates with the bold assertion by Jesus himself that he is God in the flesh. We could spend HOURS reading just the claims of deity in John, but I’ll try to sum it up with a few brief examples.
In John 8, Jesus made this announcement: “Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I AM!” I AM is the Old Testament name for God, and the Religious Leaders had no doubt about what Jesus meant. In fact, they picked up rocks to stone him because he had declared Himself to be God.
In John 10 Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”
Just before His death: John 14: 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
These examples are just a miniscule sampling of the things Jesus said about himself over and over. But the REAL question that I must ask today is the same question Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16: Who do YOU say that I am?
1. Peter - Who do you say Jesus is when He tells you “no”?
During the second year of Jesus’ three-year ministry, he and the 12 apostles stopped in one of the villages around Caesarea Philippi. (This was an area named after Caesar – who was honored as deity under Roman rule.) It was in this setting that Jesus asked his men, “Who do the people say that I am?” Matthew 16:13
The disciples had heard plenty of talk about Jesus. They answered, “Some say John the Baptist, or Elijah or Jeremiah or another resurrected prophet.”
Then Jesus asked the key question: “But who do YOU say that I am?” For once, Peter hit a grand slam; he confidently answered “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Matthew 16:16 And Jesus praised him for that answer … “Great job, Peter! This was revealed to you by My Father in Heaven!”
Peter must have felt great in that idyllic moment … but it didn’t last long. Jesus began to talk about how he would be arrested, and put to death. Peter, feeling very sure of himself, said, “Oh, no Lord. I won’t let anything like that happen to you!”
He probably expected more praise, “Thanks, Peter, I knew I could count on you!” But instead, Jesus gave him a stinging rebuke … about as harsh as you can get: “Get behind me, Satan. You are a snare to me, because you do not seek the things of God but of men.”
How do you think Peter felt? Probably, Peter felt the same way we feel when God tells us “NO”. He felt angry, confused, embarrassed … and probably full of doubt.
You see, Peter THOUGHT he knew what God had in mind. He probably expected Jesus would soon defeat Rome and become the King of Israel … and when that happened, Peter would be his right-hand man!
But Peter’s plans were NOT God’s plans. And that’s the situation every one of us faces sooner or later. None of us are capable of fully understanding God’s ways. So the question is not just, Who do you say that Jesus is? The real question is, “Who do you say Jesus is when He tells you “NO.”?
We quote Peter’s confession of faith in our church when people come forward. We say, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and my Lord and Savior.” But the time will come for every Christian when that faith will be challenged. Is Jesus still your Lord and Savior even when you just can’t figure out what God is up to?
Will you stay true to Christ when you feel you have been rebuked? Maybe you were doing what you THOUGHT God wanted you to do, but then He threw a big roadblock in your way … and you don’t understand why. The question is, will you still trust God when His answer to your prayers is “NO”?
When Jesus first asked “Who do men say that I am?” the first name that came up was John the Baptist. John was on people’s minds because he had been beheaded by Herod only a few months earlier. Like Peter, John the Baptist gives us another example of someone whose faith in Jesus was tested. His life brings up the question, “Who do you say Jesus is when He is silent?”
2. John the Baptist Who do you say Jesus is when He is silent?
During the “hey-day” of John’s ministry --- while he was preaching in the wilderness around the Jordan River --- he had a strong answer to the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” On two occasions he shouted out, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” At that time, John had no doubt as to who Jesus was.
So why was it that about a year later, he sent a group of his own disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one, or should we expect someone else?” John 11:3 What changed John’s bold belief into doubt?
John understood that his Prophetic work had been accomplished. When his disciples complained that Jesus was becoming more popular than John, he answered with confidence: “He must increase; I must decrease.” John 3:30 What John didn’t realize at that moment was to what extent he would decrease.
Soon after that statement, Herod threw John in prison. For months John sat in a dungeon, waiting to hear from Jesus … he waited and waited … and then he wondered. “Why isn’t my cousin, Jesus, the MESSIAH, coming to my rescue? Why have I been completely side-lined?” When doubts crept in, John did the right thing. He went to Jesus for answers to his doubts.”
Jesus told John’s disciples, Go and tell John what you see and hear: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” Matthew11:5
Then Jesus said something unusual, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” Matthew 11:6
People who “fall away” on account of Jesus are often in a situation similar to John’s. Life has not turned out like they hoped. Other people are getting answered prayers and even miracles, but they are stuck in a sort of prison of suffering and disappointment.
I’ve seen people fall away from faith in Jesus because of the death of someone they loved. I think about situations in our church where one person receives an amazing healing while another continues to suffer. We rejoice because someone is healed, but we don’t understand why another person gets worse or even dies.
Why is it that God performs a miracle for one person but not for another?
This is the question John faced – and it’s a question all of us will face at one time or another.
Every Christian will go through seasons --- beautiful seasons of life when everything’s going just the way we want it to, and God is answering prayers in amazing ways --- and dark seasons when everything falls apart and it seems our prayers are being answered with SILENCE. When those times come (and they will for all of us) we need to remember Jesus’ words to John: “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
John did not fall away. But he was not rescued as he surely hoped he would be. His life ended abruptly when Herod’s wife demanded his execution. Listen to what Jesus said about this man who kept the faith even in the tough times. Jesus said this about John: Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Matthew 11:11
The last event we’re going to talk about today happened in a village called Bethany which is near Jerusalem, just a few months before Jesus would be crucified. In this story, it’s a woman named Martha, who answers the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?”
And once again there is a challenge to her faith because --- in this case --- it seemed that Jesus had shown up too late.
3. Martha - Who do you say Jesus is when He shows up late?
Jesus was close friends with a man named Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. They sent a messenger to Jesus to tell him that Lazarus was seriously ill. I think they expected Jesus would hit the highway and hightail it to Bethany ASAP. But Jesus purposefully delayed his journey by two days. In fact, by the time Jesus started out for Bethany, he explained to his men that Lazarus was already dead.
Now, this really didn’t make sense! And when they finally arrived in Bethany, they heard about it from both Mary and Martha. Mary cried, and her sorrow broke Jesus’ heart. But when Martha saw Jesus she had plenty to say. “Lord!” she cried, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” John 11:21
In the conversation that ensued, Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me, even if he may die, he will live.” Then he asked Martha if she believed this. Her answer is another testimony of who Jesus is. “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God who comes to the world.”
Even though Jesus had come too late, Martha still believed. Have you faced that challenge to your faith? Have you noticed that OUR timing and GOD’S timing are hardly ever the same? I have a feeling these “late” answers are God’s way of stretching our faith. In fact, Jesus told his men that the death of Lazarus would turn out for the glory of God.
That’s how it is when we think it’s “too late” and then, just when we’ve given up, God comes through with a miracle that’s bigger than anything we could have imagined. That’s surely how it turned out in this case! Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus, had them roll the stone away, prayed a brief prayer, and then called out, “Lazarus, come forth!” (I remember someone saying, “It’s a good thing Jesus called out the name of Lazarus. Otherwise all the graves in the area would have given up their dead.”)
Now, this was not the first time Jesus resurrected someone. The gospels record three times that Jesus raised someone from the dead --- but the other two had just been dead for a few hours. This was different because this time, he resurrected a man who had been in the grave for four days!
There was a common belief in those times that when a person died, the soul hovered around their body for up to three days.) The idea was kind of like my favorite line in the movie, The Princess Bride. Do you remember it? The hero had been tortured in a dungeon and had died, but the wizard examined him and declared, “He’s only mostly dead.”
Well, after 4 days, there was no way Lazarus was “only mostly dead.” Everyone knew it was far too late for Lazarus. But Jesus proved that in GOD’s timing, it’s NEVER too late!
CONCLUSION:
So let me ask this question, Who do YOU say Jesus is?
It’s one thing to answer that question when everything is going great – when God is answering your prayers with a big YES --- and doors are opening for you --- and everything is right on schedule.
But the real question is, “Who is Jesus to you” during the DARK seasons of your life: when it seems like God is showing up too late --- when it feels like God is silent --- or even answering your prayers with a big, final NO.
There will be times for ALL of us when we can’t understand what God is doing. There will be times when we pray and pray, but we don’t get what we asked for. When I face those tough times, I often think about what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9.
Paul had prayed three times for God to heal him from what he described as a “thorn in the flesh” that tormented him. Paul FINALLY received an answer --- and it wasn’t the answer he wanted: But God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Now, Paul could have fallen away from God at this point. He could have resented God for refusing to heal him. Instead, Paul responded with even stronger faith: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
You know, Jesus never promised to do everything the way we want him to. I remember something Ronnie said in a sermon a while back: Faith is not believing God will do what you want Him to do. Faith is believing God will keep His promises. God will NEVER FAIL to keep his promises.
I'm reading Dr. James Dobson's book When God doesn't make sense, and his main points in chapter 3 seem directly connected to this sermon. Chapter three has this title. "God makes sense even when he doesn't make sense" Here are the 4 points he makes:
1. God is present and involved in our lives even when he seems deaf or on an extended leave of absence. (Never assume God's silence or apparent inactivity is evidence of His disinterest. With God, even when nothing is happening - something is happening.)
2. God's timing is perfect, even when He appears to be catastrophically late.
3. For reasons that are impossible to explain, we human beings are incredibly precious to God.
4. Your arms are too short to box with God. Don't try it.
So let me ask you one more time, “Who do you say that Jesus is?”
