Questions Jesus Asked: Part 1
Who do you say I am?
Today we begin our new 4 part teaching series “Questions Jesus Asked”
Often, we are quite content to ask questions of Jesus. Who are you? Where are you? Do you hear me? How could you let that happen? What do you want me to do?
We often ask questions of Jesus, but do we pause to hear the questions he asks of us?
Throughout this series we will explore Jesus’ tendency to ask questions at pivotal times – one question from each of the four Gospels – and seek to understand what He meant by asking them and how the answers can help us live lives of faith today.
Matthew 16:13-20
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
C.S. Lewis once said
“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.
We begin our series here with this simple question of Jesus identity.
A true understanding of who Jesus is lies at the very heart of our relationship with Him and our eternal destiny.
What do people in your circles say about Jesus? At school or at work?
Maybe Jesus is just a swear word, a name brought into the damning or swearing of everyday conversation.
Perhaps a nice person, or good teacher, a moral example even. Maybe they would say Jesus is a hoax, a ancient manipulation tool for the weak at heart. (A growing number of people hold this view today). Jesus is dangerous, a tool of oppression of free thinking and expression.
What about you today- Imagine Jesus looking right into your eyes and asking you-“Who do you say I am?”
The apostle John said things like
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
But, who do you say that I am?
What would it look like for you today, no matter how you answered that question, what would it look like for you to know him more? To know him intimately, with a sure conviction like Peter?
If the question of who Jesus is not only affects our life now, but our eternal life forever, we MUST know him more.