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Who do You Say Jesus Is?
I Introduction
Read Philippians 3:4b-12
Paul wanted to know Jesus. Above everything else – his possessions, trophies, accolades, heritage as a Jew and a Pharisee, even his righteousness under the law – were as nothing at all compared to knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and – amazingly - to share in his suffering and be like him in his death!
…in order that Paul might by any means possible attain the resurrection.
To Paul, “gain” began with and stemmed from knowing Christ.
Peter closed his second letter by encouraging the readers with these words:
…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Peter wanted the readers of his letter to not merely know about Christ, but to grow in knowledge of him.
II In the latter part of his ministry, Jesus came to a place called Magdala, a tiny village situated in north Galilee. It may have been at that time he met Mary Magdalene since it was her hometown. But we can’t say that for certain.
From there, Jesus took the disciples further north to Caesarea Philippi, a place well known at the time for its worship of many gods, represented by a single name, Pan.
He asked Peter, “who do people say I am?”
Peter answered, “John the Baptist, or Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
Jesus asked,
Who do you say I am?
Peter’s answer reverberates across the centuries:
You are the Christ, the son of the living God
Not “I think,” but “you are.”
Jesus said:
Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
The truth is the most fundamental of all truths, that Jesus is God’s son came from heaven to earth, and the reason for it.
Jesus continued:
Upon this rock (the truth Peter had just confessed) I will build my church.
That’s in Matthew 16:13-18
III Who Do You Say Jesus Is?
Let us imagine that Jesus looked directly into your eyes and said:
Who do you say I am?
What is your answer? Would it be the same as Peter’s, or some other descriptive term?
There are many titles and descriptions depicting who Jesus was and what he did in his earthly ministry - and in some cases still does.
We can understand multiple descriptions and titles – I am a son, a husband, a father, and a grandfather, and to 11 children, their “Great Pa.” I’m also an uncle and a nephew.
When I worked at the Bureau of Mines, I was that bureau’s Information Resource Management Coordinator, and also the Chief of the Division of Automatic Data Processing.
All of those capacities are harmonious. I can be an uncle at the same time I am a husband, a “Great Pa,” or a Division Chief.
In a much larger way, Jesus – in his short life, wore many titles and was descriptions.
Each description is a door that opens into some fresh aspect of who Jesus is, his key connections to everything that has happened from the fall in the garden until now.
Jesus stands at the center of history.
Nothing that happens, or ever has, escapes his notice.
There is no sin that does not participate in inflicting the stripes on his back and the nails in his hands.
IV Closer Examination of Four Titles
We cannot examine all of these in detail now, but I would like to dig deeper into four of them.
A. Man of Sorrows
Do you see Jesus as a man of sorrows? If so, how so?
Was Jesus like Al Capp’s cartoon character Joe Btfsplk, who appeared in the comic strip “Li’l Abner” about 75 years ago, always under a drippy cloud that stayed right above him.
Everyone ran from him because it was known that bad things happened wherever he went, to him and to anyone near him.
Did Jesus go around under a cloud?
Was he depressed like Elijah when he fled from Jezebel, queen of Israel?
Like Jonah when Nineveh repented and so avoided destruction?
Like David when his dear friend and closest advisor, Ahithophel, turned against him?
Was Jesus sorrowful about the horrible way of dying he knew awaited him at the end of his short life?
No, no, no, no, and no.
Why then does the prophet Isaiah call Jesus a “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief?”
Sorrow was not the only emotion Jesus felt, but like every aspect of human life, Jesus did feel it.
It is part of what enabled him to be our High Priest, and as our advocate, take our case before God.
When Jesus felt sorrow, it was most often for others.
He met sorrow in the hardness of men’s hearts and lamented their unbelief.
1. The death of Lazarus was a sad occasion. Let’s read about it:
John 11:32-36 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
Jesus was visibly a man who knew grief, and experienced it along with others.
He could hardly have been sad because Lazarus was dead, because he knew that in a moment Lazarus would be alive and well in the presence of them all.
He was saddened by what Lazarus’ sisters and others were feeling.
Jesus was the way he wants us to be.
Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome:
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)
2. Jerusalem
Jesus grieved for the fate of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem on the whole rejected Jesus. There were some who took an interest and responded well to Jesus’ teaching and may have later obeyed the gospel – Nicodemas, Gamaliel, Joanna (wife of Herod’s treasurer), and others.
But the ruling class of the Jews in Jerusalem – Pharisees, Saducees, High Priest, most members of the Sanhedrin, and many other Jews set themselves fiercely against Jesus and it was on their demand that Pilate somewhat reluctantly relented and sent Jesus to the cross.
Jerusalem demanded Jesus’ death and succeeded in getting it.
The last time Jesus came to Jerusalem, knowing what was coming, he gave a blistering condemnation to the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy in pretending a religion they did not practice from their hearts.
But he closed on a tender and sad note:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. (Matthew 23:37-38)
If only they had known what Jesus meant, and how desolate the house (the temple they so adored) would be when the Roman general Titus came against it about 40 years later.
Jesus grieved over what he knew was in store for Jerusalem.
We see Jesus grieving over the city that would soon demand his death, saying he would have protected them, if they had been willing. Sadly, they were not.
3. Gethsemane
After washing the disciples’ feet and eating the last supper, they went across the Kidron Brook and came to the garden of Gethsemane. He took Peter, James and John some distance away from the others.
The 26th chapter of Matthew describes it.
In his last minutes of freedom, Jesus described his own grief this way:
My soul is very sorrowful, even to death
Going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying,
My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter,
So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed,
My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.
And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them,
Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.
Jesus was experiencing sadness we can barely understand.
Others have gone bravely into the hour of death. Some martyrs have openly embraced it, rejoicing in the privilege of glorifying God by dying for their faith.
Jesus, however, was dying as a sinner, a criminal. He was being mocked as a usurper by people who did not know that he was what they thought he pretended.
God was being made sport of by ruffians.
Worse still, he knew that what was coming was his beloved Father’s wrath toward sin being poured out on him. That sin would separate him from the Father, with whom he had an open channel of communication as far back as he could remember.
Psalm 22 describes the way Jesus felt. In part it says:
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest. Psalms 22:2
That, I suggest, is what Jesus dreaded most in Gethsemane.
Why did God not answer him.
Sin stood between him and the Father – not his own, but sin all the same.
Perhaps an even greater sorrow was for those millions for whom he died in vain.
Once the terrible price was paid, that was over, and now Jesus stands at God’s right hand in heaven.
B. The Last Adam
1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
Why did Paul refer to Jesus as “Adam” in a chapter about the resurrection?
Because Adam and Jesus had something in common with each other and no one else.
Both changed the status of the human race with regard to sin.
Adam brought sin and its results into the human race.
Jesus provided a way out – a means of escaping sin’s result.
What was that result?
In the day you eat of the tree, you shall surely die.
Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do you see the stark contrast? Death with no way out of it versus eternal life as a gift from God – with Jesus being the one – the only one – in whom eternal life is available.
Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians:
Ephesians 2:1-6 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Again on his last night with the disciples, Jesus said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)
This passage describes a resurrection.
The first Adam brought death to the human race. Jesus brought the way to new life.
Adam and Jesus are not alike in that both submitted to temptation and sin. Jesus did not.
They are alike, and Jesus is called the “Last Adam” in that through the action of one man, the entire landscape of life on earth was universally changed.
Though eternal life is not given to everyone, it is available to all.
The Spirit invites
Whoever will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely.
C. Shiloh
The first verse of Genesis 49 tells us,
Genesis 49:1 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.
When he came to his fourth son, Jacob said,
Genesis 49:8-10 NASB Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father's sons shall bow down to you. "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. he couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up? "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
A “whelp” is a lion’s cub. It’s likely that this passage is in view when one of the elders in Revelation spoke to John, who was weeping, thinking no one was worthy to open the scrolls and reveal their mysteries:
And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:5)
What is Shiloh in this prophecy?
1. There was a town in the tribal territory of Ephraim named Shiloh. Following the conquest of Canaan the tabernacle resided at Shiloh for hundreds of years. It was there that Hannah brought her son Samuel to serve under the priest Eli.
But the town was hardly what Jacob had in view The town of Shiloh was not going to come from Ephraim to Judah or anywhere else. After the ark of the covenant was moved to the house of Obed-Edom and then to Jerusalem, Shiloh no longer had any special distinction.
What did Jacob mean by saying the “sceptre” would not pass from Judah until “Shiloh” came?
The word “Shiloh” means “peace and prosperity.”
comes from the same root that is translated “peace” or “peace to you” in other places, some of them worth mentioning.
For a reason I don’t understand, the ESV translates the word “Shiloh” as “tribute.”
No lexicon or bible dictionary I have checked makes such a connection, although a couple of other versions do the same.
The NIV and some of the other newer versions render it “He to whom it belongs.”
That preserves the meaning, although it is more like an interpretation than a literal translation.
However the translators render the meaning, this is a prophecy that the right of rulership shall pertain to the tribe of Judah; but this did not happen all at once.
Moses was from Levi, Joshua from Ephraim, Gideon from Manasseh, Samson from Dan, Samuel from Ephraim, and Saul from Benjamin.
However, in the long sweep through history the prophecy was completely fulfilled only in Judah and the house of David, one of his descendants whose reign prefigured the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah.
The mention of "your father's sons" indicates that not merely the children of Judah's natural brothers (the other sons of Leah) would be subject to him, but that all of Israel would likewise be.
…that a person is implied here is proved by the last clause in the verse: "Unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be," which has the meaning that all nations shall obey that person, a reference which no one would dare apply to Judah! (Except the Good News Bible!). That the Lord Jesus Christ is the person here spoken of is not subject to doubt or question. The passage is simply incapable of being referred to any other.
D. Lord
We often sing the beautiful song “Jesus Is Lord.”
How he loves me, how I love him.
He is risen, he is coming, Lord come quickly
Hallelujah!
There are many debatable questions in our faith and certain passages and teachings in the bible.
But the Lordship of Christ is not a debatable point.
If you come to Jesus at all, he must be the Lord of your life – or we have not come to Jesus at all.
It is the sticking point for many who find other excuses to delay getting right with God and accepting the free gift of salvation…
…for accepting the free gift involves making Christ the Lord of your life.
The popular slogan we see almost every day on signs, jewelry, and in print reminds us to ask,
“What would Jesus do,” before we speak or act.
Making Jesus Lord in our lives means we say what we believe he would say, and do what we believe he would do.
It means we enthrone him in our hearts and are in subjection to our King.
Probably all of us know some person (or more than one) who is overbearing and controlling, maybe a relative, co-worker, neighbor, or friend, demanding to get his or her way at every junction, demanding that you think as he/she thinks, and do as he or she says.
Jesus came up against people who were just like that.
An overbearing, demanding person is not your Lord!
If you are employed, you have a supervisor or boss.
Even if you have your own business, you work for someone.
That supervisor or someone you work for is not your Lord!
When you are at work, play, or rest - Jesus is your Lord, or he is not your Lord at all.
The Lordship of Christ is a Christian principle that cannot be compromised.
Once compromised, it vanishes.
V Some of the titles imply our acceptance of Jesus in those depictions.
Lord (as just discussed), Savior, Mediator, Redeemer, Teacher
Maybe someone needs to accept Jesus today, placing yourself under the Lordship of Christ, or renewing that commitment.
