Who Do You Say That I Am?

Sermon for August 21, 2005

 

1.  Good Morning.  Let’s Pray . . . O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

 

2.   Opening Comments:  Just imagine that Jesus Christ walked into the sanctuary right now and was standing here before you and after you had stopped hyperventilating and had picked yourself up off the floor and collected yourself a bit He asked you this question, “Who do you say that I am?”  What would be your answer?

 

Who is Jesus Christ to you right now?  Please think about that will you?

 

We’re going to delve into that a bit this morning.  You see your honest answer to that question tells us how happy you are right now.  What I mean by the word “happy” is the classical meaning of that word – “a complete and absolute sense of unshakable well-being – a rightness with God and others.”   And so to the extent that Jesus is at the very center of your life that is the extent to which you are happy or perhaps the most widely accepted word is “blessed.”  If Jesus Christ is the one central passion of your entire life then you are most blessed.  But then it follows that to the extent that He is not at the front and center in your life you are probably sensing a feeling of being unblessed – unworthy, unloved, unsafe, insecure and so on.

 

What I’m getting at here is that our answer to our Lord’s question “Who do you say that I am?” is a very very critical issue in our lives.  The presumption here then is that if you could come to the place where Jesus Christ really is the very center of your life then you would be gloriously happy – truly blessed!

 

I believe that that is precisely what our Lord wants to accomplish in the lives of some of us this morning.  Could it be you . . . or you . . . or how about you?

 

3.                  Let’s zero in on our Gospel reading for today and dig a bit deeper into this wonderfully pivotal question shall we?

 

Please turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 beginning at verse 13:

 

 

Matt. 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”  Now it’s interesting isn’t it that Jesus wanted to know who the people thought He was?  Jesus has been known to know things in advance and even to read the very thoughts of those around Him so why do you suppose He was asking this question of His disciples?

 

I strongly suspect that He wasn’t primarily interested in the answer to this specific question but rather He was much more interested in their answer to the question that followed this one - but their answer to this one set them up for the next question.

 

They responded with what they were hearing in the multitude of people around Jesus – stabs in the dark – attempts to understand who He was.

 

Listen to their answer to His question:

 

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”   But listen now – their answer provides the perfect segue to the real question He wanted to ask and that was – look at verse 15 with me: 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”  Now who answers immediately?  I could imagine Thomas and James and John and the rest of them becoming suddenly very silent and very reflective.  But not good old predictably and impetuous Peter – Listen to what he has to say – verse 16:

 

 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”   Wow!  What a confession!  “You are the Christ - The word Christ, Christos, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messias, means "anointed."  So what Peter was saying “You are the anointed one!”  But then he went on to say what the anointed one means – you are the Son of the living God!

 

Now this designation “Son of God” wasn’t a new thought to all of them.  Listen to just a few verses in this Gospel mentioning this designation:

 

 

Matt. 4:3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

 

Matt. 4:6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”   So certainly Satan knew who Jesus was!

 

In Matthew chapter 8 we read:  Matt. 8:29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”  Even the demons knew who He was!

 

Further on in chapter 14 we read:

 

Matt. 14:33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”   The other disciples knew who He was!

 

Who else I wonder?  Matt. 26:63 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”  Even the high priest suspicioned who He was:

 

And certainly Jesus knew who He was: 30 I and the Father are one.”

 

They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?  "He replied, "You are right in saying I am."  Luke 22:70 (NIV)

 

John 14:9 Jesus answered: “. . . Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

 

So Peter’s confession, “You are the Son of the living God was spot on wasn’t it?

 

Now what was Peter actually saying about Jesus?  That He was God enfleshed – the offspring of the invisible God – the invisible made visible!

 

How strange this must have sounded to his ears – “You are the Son of the living God!”  What does this mean?

 

Doesn’t it mean that God the Father had sent Jesus Christ the Son into this world and Peter of all of them was confessing this to Jesus Himself!

 

Now when Peter said this – how did Jesus respond to this statement:

 

Let’s read on to find out – verse 17:

 

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.   

 

Now what did Jesus just say here?  “Peter you are truly a blessed or happy man to know this and be willing to confess it!”  Happy in the sense of “a complete and absolute sense of unshakable well-being.”

 

 

Let’s remember here that Jesus began by asking the apostles who He was but now He’s telling Peter who Peter is – He’s a blessed – a truly happy man – why?  Because He truly knows who Jesus is and knows that He is known by Jesus!

 

Ah!  Can you see it coming?  To know who Jesus is - is to be blessed – is to know oneself – for Jesus will tell us who we are - and thereby to be in a state of sublime happiness or blessedness.  To know who Jesus really is is to be most blessed!

 

Now the rest of our reading for today is more about who Peter was to become.   It’s this passage and its interpretation that largely separates the Easter and Western churches.  The Eastern Orthodox interpret this quite differently from the Roman Catholic church. 

 

Examination of these verses would take more time than we have but if anyone is interested I’d be more than willing to share my insights with them.

 

This morning though, I’m sensing our Lord wanting to encourage us to recommit ourselves to Him –

 

 

You see what we’re examining here is the wonder of knowing Jesus and being known by Jesus.  This really leads into a reflection on what it means to be close to our Lord.  In His Presence is pure happiness and absolute peace – for to know and be known by Him is to be His beloved disciple!

 

 

Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?' But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' " (John 6:67-69)