Hey my friends, sometimes I wish my socks were made of candy because I have a bad habit of sticking my foot in my mouth. Several years ago, back before I was in ministry and some of you know I was in the finance world, and when I first got my start back in the late 80s or early 90s, I was an up-and-coming commercial loan cred officer, which sounds perhaps a little more impressive than it really was. And if I ever wanted to truly understand what wrong it was that I was on the corporate ladder, all I had to do was remember where my car was parked. You see, our corporate headquarters, well it was in, let's put it this way, it was in a less-than-safe neighborhood, and my sign parking spot was, well, let's put it this way, it wasn't exactly next door to the building.
You see, my lot where my car was was down the street, across a four-lane highway, behind a restaurant, down a hill, and next to a river. Some of my best times of prayer and reliance on God were me talking to God while walking to my car at a late night at work. Now, for the bank executives of course, there a lot, well, there a lot, it was, well, it was fenced in, it was patrolled, it was guarded, and of course it was right next to the building. You see, it was clear by where you parked, who had arrived and who hadn't.
Which makes what I said and what I did, well, all the more mortifying one night. After work, as I saw my friend and my fellow co-labor in low-wrong anonymity, his name was Bob, he was going to his car and I was walking behind him going to mine. And as Bob was walking into the executive vice president and up parking lot, I couldn't help but notice. So of course, you know, I was, I was on my way to the river, I was beside myself, so I began to yell to him, and I mean, I yelled to him loud enough for everyone on the street to hear my voice full of righteous indignation.
Hey, Bob, how does a loser like you rate a spot in a parking lot like that? Well, I knew something was wrong when my friend Bob didn't turn around and laugh. Instead, he just kind of looked at me angrily. And then as I got a little closer, I realized that this was not my low-level friend Bob, but it was an actual executive vice president at the bank.
And the worst part was that his name actually was Bob. I still can't believe I didn't lose that job. I mean, it was a simple case of mistaken identity. I have a friend who one time at an event went up to her husband from behind and began to massage his shoulders and rub his back.
And he was really appreciating and joining her public display of affection until suddenly her husband called from beside her saying, hey, I'm over here. Turns out that was her brother-in-law. You see, cases of mistaken identity, they can be funny and they can be dangerous. Guys, today as we wrap up our series, Questions Jesus Asked that we want to answer, we're going to look at two final questions.
And they have to do with this issue, mistaken identities, his and ours. And this final question, well, this is, I believe, the most important question Jesus ever asks, and it's the most important one for us to answer because mistaken identities are dangerous. So let's dive in. Jesus is, he's walking with his guys.
They're way up north in Israel, about 150 miles from Jerusalem in a town called Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi was a Grecian Roman city located near the ancient city of Dan by Mount Herman and the Jordan River. Even today, you can go and view this as you approach the city. You can tell immediately you're in a very unique place.
There's a giant rocky face that rises about 100 feet above you. It's 500 feet wide and it's centered kind of by this foreboding cave with a temple that now has just its ruins kind of strewn about it. He was here right in the spot that Herod the Great built the temple of Augustus in around 19 BC around the time Jesus would have been a teenager. And he built it to honor Caesar Augustus who by war and by might had brought peace to the Roman Empire and because of that and all of the violence, believe it or not, he was called ironically the Prince of Peace.
Well that temple, that temple, sat in front of a cave and that cave was believed to be the gateway to the underworld and it's where the Greek god Pan lived. It was a common belief in town that the cave at Caesarea Philippi, it created a gate to the underworld where Pan and various fertility gods lived. So as Jesus and his disciples are making their way and drawing near the city, they find themselves likely in the shadow of Mount Huron with insight of this big foreboding rock upon which this temple to Caesar stood, right where the gates to the underworld protruded. Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples who is likely there, tells us that when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is?
Guys, if you gathered around, who do people say that I am? Which is a question that only the Son of God would have the self-confidence to ask. Nobody who's ever lived was more secure in their identity than Jesus. This was a question that was easy for him to ask.
Me? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question because way too often more times than I want to admit, people's opinions of me have impacted how I view myself. They've impacted my own identity by, it's been impacted. Sometimes it's been shipwrecked by what others say about me, about who I am.
See, if I believe that I'm smart and successful, I tend to believe that I'm, or people tell me that or I hear that they think that about me, I tend to believe I am smart and successful. If people think I'm dull and failing, well I begin to believe I'm not that bright and a failure. I mean, all of us struggle with this dynamic to one degree or another. We begin oftentimes to believe we are who people say we are and we begin to live that way.
But that dynamic was not a play for Jesus and the disciples seem quite happy to answer the question. Honestly, I think it's perhaps they've been wrestling with it themselves. Who is Jesus? And so they're quick to answer what the word on the street is.
They replied, well, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and still others Jeremiah are one of the prophets. Jesus, that's what the rumors on the street are according to the disciples, right? They tell them, and I can't help but wonder if when they say some say, if they're not including some of their own. They say some say that you're essentially someone reincarnated.
Some people think that you're John the Baptist who had recently been killed. And well, maybe you're like John come back to life. Others Jesus think you're the second coming of Elijah, the prophet. Still others say you're like Jeremiah or one of the old prophets that's come back to life, which if you think about it, it's actually pretty interesting.
That event, this discussion took place about 2,000 years ago. And guys, the reality is not much has changed. Truth is that at least according to a recent Barna survey, Americans answer this question today. The same way it was answered by the disciples then.
Well, more than nine out of ten adults say Jesus was a real person who actually lived, 92% to be exact. Only 56% of adults believe that Jesus was divine, with the other 44%, much more likely to believe he was merely a spiritual leader in the vein of Muhammad or of Buddha, which sounds an awful lot like the disciples naming Elijah and Jeremiah. In fact, amongst millennials, fewer than half now believe that Jesus was God. So make no mistake about this.
When it comes to the identity of Jesus, the debate, it continues to rage. Confusion continues to rain. It did then, and it does now. He remains today the same metaphoric stone that his disciple Peter wrote about.
He said to you who believe this stone is precious, but to those who do not believe? Well, he's a stone that causes people to stumble in a rock that makes him fall. Who do people think you are, Jesus? Well, then and now, most aren't sure.
But incrementally, incrementally, they think you're a wise man, a good man, a religious man, a moral man. Almost everyone, including historians now, believe you existed. The veracity of your teachings, given the first hand reports and contemporaneous writings, give credence to that. It's just that, well, as Jesus said to himself, as Peter said himself, it's that teaching on your identity, on who you are.
It's a stumbling block for a lot of us. In fact, I think it might be the stumbling block, especially for those of us who want to lump you in the category of religious man or moral teacher. And here's why. Because Jesus has verified in these multiple contemporaneous biblical and extra biblical accounts, Jesus makes who he thought he was, super clear.
Jesus made me more than any other human being who ever lived, fully human and fully God. Jesus knew who he was. He knew his identity. And this is the stumbling block.
This is what makes Jesus so different. Muhammad, Muhammad, Buddha, the other venerated prophets and priests, they've popped up over the millennia. They have one thing in common. They never claim to be God.
But Jesus is very different. Jesus did. You guys might remember the context of the first question in our series, which was, do you want to be healed? Jesus asked it to a parallit man who would go on to be miraculously healed.
And you might remember that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, which in Israel was a big, big, no. So here's what John tells us about the scene. So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him and his defense, Jesus sent to them. My father is always at his work to this very day, and I to him working.
For this reason, John writes, they tried all the more to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. Another time one day during a religious festival in the temple, a festival called the Feast of Dedication, there were lots of people around. And John tells us again that the Jews who were there gathered around him were saying, how long will you keep us in suspense?
If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered, I did tell you. But you don't believe. The works I do in my father's name testify about me.
I and the Father are one. You see, Jesus continually spoke of himself as one in essence in nature with God. He boldly asserts, if you knew me, you would know my father also. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.
Whoever hates me hates my father as well. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. But it wasn't just John who heard these things. Mark who wrote his gospel very early, like within 30 years of Jesus' life and death.
Mark who likely got these things from Peter, because he was a disciple of Peter's. Mark writes that, quote, when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, he's writing about when several friends lowered a paralyzed man through a roof for Jesus to heal. Son, your sins are forgiven. Now, some teachers of law were sitting there thinking themselves, why does this fellow talk like that?
He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? That's a rhetorical question, right? No one can forgive sins but God.
Well, immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say that this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven or to say, get up and take your mat. I want you to know that the son of man speaking himself has authority on earth to forgive sins.
I want you to know that the son of man is God. This is how important his identity was to Jesus. This is how important it was that they know that he was not simply a prophet or a teacher or a moral leader. Jesus says, you're right.
No one but God alone could forgive sins and I'm going to prove to you that I am God and I have that authority. So he said to them, he said to the man, I tell you get up and take your mat and go home. And he got up. He took his mat and he walked out in full view of them all.
Jesus amazed everyone and they praised God saying, we have never seen anything like this. No, I bet they hadn't. And of course, perhaps Jesus is the most stunning claim regarding his diddy regarding his eternality when he was confronted regarding these claims. Quote, are you greater than our father Abraham?
He died and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are? There is the question. Jesus replied, if I glorify myself, my glory means nothing.
My father whom you claim as your God is the one who glorifies me. Very truly I tell you Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am. My claim. Now with that in mind, let's jump back into the story because you see the disciples, they've seen all of these things.
They've seen by now the lame walker and the blind see. They've seen the deaf ear, the dead brought back the life. They've heard all of these claims by Jesus regarding his identity, yet they're human beings. They also know what everyone else around town was saying about Jesus, which is what makes Jesus' follow up question so penetrating, so personal and ultimately so eternal because make no mistake.
Mistaken identities matter. Let's just follow us, then answer the question about others. He lets Barna studies and people like you and I answer and judge today, others for their answers. Oh, those darn millennials.
But see, that's the easy question to answer. It's a question in regards to what others say, but that's not really what he's interested in. The truth is that Jesus knows what the other people think. He knows who they think he is.
Jesus now is a question. The question. Perhaps the only question that has ever been asked in the history of the world that matters. He has a question for you.
But what about you? What do you say I am? Guys, you've heard me say this over and over these last weeks. Jesus asked 307 questions while he was on earth.
This was the most important, the most eternal and the most personal. I would tell you that this is in the history of time and space. This is the most important question ever asked, but let me make it more personal. This is the most important question you will ever answer.
And I'll tell you why. Because mistaken identities matter. So let me answer your question. Who do you say he is?
Now, just like last week, I told you that we don't believe in God and believe that we'll keep his promises because we have faith. We have faith because we have evidence of God and that he has kept his promises. Now in that same vein, God does not want you to answer this question without really wrestling with it deep down, without settling the matter in your soul. Because otherwise your faith is going to lack maturity, it's going to lack depth and it'll be easily shaken.
Now, how do you do that? How do you wrestle with it? Well, over the years there's been lots of famous philosophical arguments over time made regarding the existence of God. If you want to have some fun and convince yourself of the existence of God, check out Anselam's famous ontological argument, which was picked up and championed by a Renee to Karts.
Another really famous argument for God's existence is made by Blaze Pascal under the title of Pascal's Wager. If any of these guys and their arguments will help you understand these guys and their arguments will help you understand what our current culture seems to discount, which is that you can be really smart and believe in God. But that wasn't the question. Jesus' question was different.
Jesus did not ask, do you believe in God? Jesus asked, who do you say that I am? This is a much more personal question with a profoundly more impactful answer. Some of you know it, but perhaps the most famous apologetic argument in regards to Jesus' question comes from C.S.
Lewis, the University of Oxford literary scholar and writer Lewis himself, once in a vow atheist who came to deep faith in Christ, he puts forth for your consideration what has become known as Lewis' trilemma. His own words, here's why. He said, with this I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him, Jesus. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.
Lewis says that is the one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic on a level of a man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice.
Either this man was and is the son of God or else a mad man or something worse. And then Lewis adds, he goes, you can shut him up for a fool and 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 up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us and he did not intend to.
Thus the trilemma, right? Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or well he is who he said he is. He's the Lord. He's either mad, bad, or God.
Look, it's quite clear Jesus claimed to be God. So if that claim is false, well, and it's got to be false for one of those two reasons, right? One is, one is that he could have been lying and deliberately deceiving his followers. Heck, he'd be deliberately deceiving you and I.
If he was lying, you could add hypocrites to the charge too because he taught others to be honest and not to lie no matter what. A famed apologist, Josh McDowell writes, quote, if he was lying, he was a demon because he told others to trust him for their eternal destiny. He couldn't back up his claims and knew it. Then he was unspeakable evil for deceiving his followers with such a false hope.
He'd also be a fool because his claims to be God led to his crucifixion claims he could have backed away from the save himself even at the last minute. It amazes me to hear so many people say that Jesus was simply a good moral teacher. Let's be realistic. How could he be a great moral teacher and knowingly mislead people at the most important point of his teaching, his own identity?
And of course, would it be possible to be a liar in regard to your identity and yet so be above reproach in every other area of your life? Historian Philip Shaf argues, how in the name of logic, common sense, and experience could an imposter that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved man have invented and consistently maintained from the beginning to the end the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? How could he have conceived and carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude and sublimity and sacrificed his own life for it in the face of the strongest prejudices of his people and age? That's true, right?
It's kind of hard to believe that someone who lived the way Jesus did as holy and well as Jesus did, who taught as Jesus did, who died as Jesus died, could have just been lying. Well maybe he wasn't lying. Maybe he really thought he was God but he was wrong. Maybe he was crazy.
Maybe he thought he was the son of God but he was off his rocker. We certainly think people like this come and go over the centuries. And what I love about the scripture, the biblical record, is that they don't shy away from saying that some people did think he was insane. Heck it.
At one point, the gospel writers tell us that even his family thought he was mad. Yet, we have to wrestle with the fact that James, his own brother, changed his mind and wound up leading the church in Jerusalem. I mean think about that one, right? What would it take for you to believe your brother's claims about being God incarnate and then be willing to follow him even if it meant following to his death?
Because whatever it is that it would take, apparently James saw enough of it. And truly could have lunatic. The kind of lunatic you'd have to be to claim to be God, speak the way Jesus did? I mean his teachings have resonated with billions of people over 2,000 years.
They're ubiquitous around the world. They are singularly responsible for having changed Western and modern cultures. Does a lunatic come up with the beatitudes? Does a crazy man claim to be God but then followed up with but I came to serve and not be served?
I mean is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? I don't think so.
Psychologist Gary R. Collins explains that Jesus was loving but he didn't let his compassion immobilize him. He didn't have a bloated ego even though he was often surrounded by adoring crowds. He maintained balance despite him off and demanding lifestyle.
He always knew what he was doing and where he was going. He cared deeply about people, including women and children who weren't seen as important back then. He was able to accept people while not merely winking at their sin. He responded to individuals based on where they were and what they uniquely needed.
All in all I just don't see signs that Jesus was suffering from any mental illness. He was much healthier than anyone else I know, including me. Josh McDowell concluded his argument this way. He said the issue with these three alternatives is not which is possible.
For obviously liar, lunatic, there are possible. Rather the question is which is most probable? You cannot put him on the shelf merely as a great moral teacher or a prophet. That is not a valid option.
He is either a liar, a lunatic or a Lord and God. You and I have to make that choice. Thus the question. And your decision about Jesus, it's got to be more than an idle intellectual exercise.
As the apostle John wrote, these things are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and more important that by believing him you will have life by the power of his name. You know why John wrote that? Because mistaken, identities matter. They matter eternally in the life to come.
Jesus and his father was what claimed that apart from faith in his life death and resurrection, there was no other path to the kingdom of God. Jesus not believe that all roads lead to heaven. Jesus does not equate himself with other religious leaders. Jesus made claims which seems super exclusive, no doubt.
That is, unless he is who he said he is and what he is claiming is actually true. That no one else is coming for you. But him. I am the way, he said, the truth and the life.
See, it's a super important question. That's why I ended this series with it because mistaken identities matter. And it was just at this point in answer to this eternal question that Jesus is disciples. Simon speaks up.
Simon answers the question. You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Simon takes a stand. He does what the Apostle Paul would prescribe for us later.
Paul would write to the Romans if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead. You'll be saved. But it's not just his eternity that changed at that moment. There, and I remember where they are.
There in front of a temple built to celebrate the gods of the day, in front of a giant rock representing the power of the authorities of the day. There in front of the gates of the gods of the underworld in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus not only changes Simon's eternal destiny, but his eternal identity. Jesus replies, bless are you Simon, Son of Jonah. Where this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter in the Greek petros, which meant rock. You are now Peter and on this rock, not that one that we're looking at, on this rock I'll build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Mistaken identities matter. And here's the deal.
It's true of Jesus and it's true of us. Simon, you're no longer Simon, you're Peter. You're the rock that I'm going to build my church on. Bigger, stronger than that giant rock you see right over there and those gates that you see there to the underworld.
Even my church, that I'm building on you, they won't be able to stand against it. Mistaken identities matter. Jesus's does and so does yours. Because if you'll answer this question correctly, he wants to change your identity.
Right there in front of the gods of that day, just like today in front of the gods of this day, of our day, your life. I don't know what those gods are. They can be good things like your spouse, your kids, your country, your job, your accomplishments. They can be bad things like anger and jealousy and addictions, but right in front of those things be they good or bad.
Jesus looks at you. And he looks over at them and he says, now who do you say I am? You know why? Because the God you choose will give you your identity.
And what I want you to understand is that you're being offered a place in the kingdom to come and adoptions as sons and daughters of the most high God. Jesus taught that you would reign as co-heirs with him over creation eternally, but that today you could partner with him with your new identity comes new purpose, a place within his church, this movement of his that even the gates of hell that surround us cannot overcome. He'll take you from a fisher to a fisher of men, from an accountant to one who accounts for souls and it all, all of it, your identity, your eternity hinges on one question. It's this one regarding Jesus.
Who do you say he is? Guys, as we conclude this series, this is the most important question. Now, if you've answered that question in the past and the answer has been like Peter, as I believe you are who you said you are, the Savior, my Savior, the Son of God. Well, then guys, as we wrap up this series today, I want you to recommit yourself to your answer, to his identity and to your new one.
Examine how your answer to Jesus' question. How does it hold up in regards to the gods of our day? Your gods, your time, your money, your relationships, your body, your hopes, dreams and aspirations. Who do those things in your life say Jesus is?
Live with new purpose and confidence and assurance as you lift Jesus' Lord above these things in your life. You have a new name, you know? A new identity. Do you know what it is?
Have you sought it out? Because I think this is a valid question to ask back to Jesus. Who do you say I am? And when he tells you, go and live like it.
Now, maybe in hearing that you realize that you've been guilty of what Lewis warned against, you've limited Jesus to being a good moral teacher. Heck, maybe you've confessed to him as Lord, but you even live with your eyes, or actually you have lived with your eyes, set on the gods of this world. Let this series and this question force you to make a decision. Confess with your lips and believe with your heart that Jesus is Lord.
You will be saved and you'll gain a new identity. His and friends. And you have taken identities matter. Jesus' and yours.
And finally, maybe you're uncertain of where you stand. How you've answered the question with your life. For everybody that finds himself somewhere in the middle, I'll close with this. It's a story from Tony Campolo on the topic.
He writes that when I was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to lead several of my students into a personal relationship with Christ. One young man who had served as my graduate assistant had grown up in a completely secular home. He had a wonderful born-again experience and was radically transformed by Christ. Well, one day as the two of us were walking across campus, a young man from Intervarsity Christian fellowship, a dynamic Christian student group, saw me and said, Doctor, we're looking forward to having you speak at our meeting tonight.
The meeting starts at seven. Don't be late. Well, my graduate student immediately asked, Can I come? The un-Christian leader who had confronted us asked him, Well, are you a Christian too?
To this my assistant responded. Only you can answer that. What a fascinating answer Campolo wrote. I'd never heard that one before.
I always assumed that the only one that could answer that was the individual. He's the only one that could know the truth of whether or not one was a Christian. But in reality, my graduate assistant was right. If I really am a Christian, those around me should be able to see that in my life.
Friends, identities matter, mistaken identities. They can be funny and they can be dangerous. His and ours. Go now and answer that question with your lips, with your heart, and with your life.