The JESUS
Question
Luke 9:18=
-20
What
an exciting morning—having the privilege of celebrating with these
families with their new little ones.
Jesus gave us a powerful example of how important children are when =
He
took them in His arms and blessed them and told us that we need to become m=
ore
like them in order to be part of His Kingdom.
18Once when Jesus was praying in priv= ate and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say= I am?" 19They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago h= as come back to life." 20"But what about you?"= he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Chr= ist of God."
A few years ago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the Templeton Award – religion’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize. In accepting the award, Solzhenits= yn warned that people have forgotten God.&nbs= p;
“In the Soviet bloc,” he said, “hatr=
ed of
religion is the driving force of communism, and the West is in decline beca=
use
the meaning of life is reduced to ‘the pursuit of happiness.’
“Who do the crowds say I am?” When Jesus asked this question, his= time was short. Was there anyone w= ho recognized Him for who He was? Would there be anyone to carry on His work after He was gone? The survival of the Christian fait= h was at stake.
Jesus was beginning his journey to
So Jesus decides to ask His disciples. First, “Who do the crowds sa= y I am?” Other people ̵= 1; what are they saying? The dis= ciples told Him: ‘some say you’re John the Baptist, others say Elijah,= and others, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.’
John the Baptist was a noteworthy figure. There were some who thought he mig= ht be the Messiah. We learn in the New Testament that King Herod, who was always worried about something, was concerned that John might somehow be able to r= eturn from the dead (with or without his head???).
Elijah and Jeremiah were among the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Notice that the answers that people were giving were putting Jesus in choice company. The Jewish people believed that the voice of prophecy had been silenced for 400 years. They were saying that = in Jesus, people were hearing once again an authentic word from God.
These were high tributes, but not high enough. Their h= uman categories, even the very highest of them, were inadequate to describe Jesus – the absolute uniqueness of Jesus.&= nbsp; John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah – these answers implied that there were equivalents and parallels. But in John’s Gospel, Jesus is called “the only begotten= Son of God.” One and only—no parallels!
A Roman emperor had a statue of Jesus and a statue of = Plato side by side in his pantheon of gods. He thought he was paying Jesus a noble tribute. He was…but tha= t stops short of the Gospel.
Who do the crowds say I am? This question was followed by anot= her: “Who do you say I am?” The impersonal discussion of what others were saying became a personal challeng= e: what about you, what do you think? What do you believe / say?
The same question confronts each of us. History forces it upon us. Jesus has affected people in a far greater way than Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great ever did. Who can He be?
The Bible forces the question upon us: His life was fo= retold by the Old Testament prophets, hundreds of years before he was born. They told the place of his birth a= nd pointed to the nature of his life and death. Jesus did miracles and transformed= lives. He made absolute claims like “I am the way, the truth, and the life: = no one comes to the Father but by Me.”
Conscience forces upon us the question of who Jesus is= . This Jesus of Nazareth, whose words still pierce our hearts and whose ways are so appealing, who can He be?
This question is for everyone. It won’t go away. It demands an answer. Who is Jesus Christ? Friends, this is the most important question that any of us will ever answer.&= nbsp; And it is a question we must answer over and over again.
It confronts us today, as it will again the next time we’re encountered by the Gospel.&nbs= p; It needs to be answered by children, and youth, and many times during adulthood. It must be answered often in order for our faith to be dynamic and our relationship with Christ= to be a present reality and not just a memory. So who is Jesus Christ to you, rig= ht now?
Perhaps you’ve heard the expression that God has= no grandchildren–only children. <= /span>Now, to those of you who ARE grandparents, and have found this to be a delightful experience –many of you have, I know; seen the pictures–it may = seem a sad thought that God has no grandchildren…so let me explain.
You may say that your parents were people of faith. That’s good, but how about you? Their relationship with God does no= t get you off the hook. That doesn’t count for you. This question still demands an answer: who is Jesus Christ to you? We each = become a CHILD of God in Jesus Christ…but no grandchildren!
Of course, we do need to concern ourselves with who Ch= rist is becoming for our children and grandchildren. Christianity, as often note= d, is always just one generation away from extinction.
Are we nurturing our children in faith? What are they learning from us as p= arents or grandparents about who Jesus Christ is? What are we saying to them by our words? And what are we saying= about Jesus through our actions?
Last Sunday, at Pete Thomason’s funeral, several= of us heard powerful testimonies concerning Pete’s life--the way she taught= her children about Jesus, and the way she consistently demonstrated the Christi= an life before them. Many of us = have been blessed with parents like that–and we have so much for which to = be thankful.
So what about us? Are we communicating to our childre= n that Jesus Christ is supremely important in our lives? Or are our children getting the mes= sage that He is someone to ignore? No one automatically becomes a follower of Ch= rist because his parents claimed to be Christians.
God calls each generation to say yes to Jesus. But the answers our children give w= ill be greatly influenced by what they have seen in our lives and what they have observed about our own relationships with the Lord.
So who is Jesus Christ to you and me today? Is He a person of the past, or is H= e a present reality in our lives? On Easter Sunday, we proclaimed “the Lord is risen. He is risen indeed.&= #8221; But is He alive to us--in our live= s--in our everyday experiences?
Jesus asked His disciples long ago, “Who do you = say I am?” He asks us the same question. He is not so much interested in whether we know all the facts about Him: when and where He li= ved or even everything that He said. We may know all these things and still not be followers of Christ.
What Jesus really wants to know is, “Who am I to= you?” Of course, He knows the answe= r. It’s written all over our liv= es. It’s pretty obvious whether C= hrist is our Savior and Lord—or, in reality, He’s something much less.
Listen: there are so many answers to “the Jesus question,” and most of them won’t do. Jesus is not looking for admirers.= He wants followers, disciples. The answers the crowd was giving w= ere not sufficient, so Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do YOU say I am?&#= 8221;
Jesus had never asked them that before. Through all the months of training= and leading these men, Jesus had been steadily moving toward this moment, and this question. Everything depended on their answer. It all boiled down to this.
There was silence. Then Peter could stand it no longer= . He blurted out what they all had be= en pondering for some time:
‘You are the Christ…You are the Son of the living God!’
What did this mean? It meant that Jesus was that long-a= waited Messiah. He was the Suffering= Servant described by the prophet Isaiah, the one whom God had promised to send when= the time was right.
Christ is a Greek word. Messiah is Hebrew. They mean the sa= me thing: “anointed of God.” But does the idea of “Christ,= ” the Messiah, have any relevance today?
If we answer “yes,” let me tell you what t= hat means. The disciples understo= od that God’s “Anointed One” would be the hope the world, the fulfillment of God’s promises, the answer to their prayers.
He would be the One who would straighten out all human
troubles, right all earthly wrongs, and bring to this world the
We desperately need someone who can clean up the messe= s of this world and the messes we often make of our lives. We need a Savior who will set us fr= ee from sin and guilt and a loving, shepherding Lord to show us the way to liv= e.
“You are the Christ”—why did Peter s= ay that? Something had already h= appened to Peter that he hadn’t been able to put into words until now. When Jesus asked Peter to follow H= im, Peter didn’t realize exactly who he was following. He just knew he wanted to follow J= esus. And Jesus accepted him on those terms.
It was a start. Jesus accepts people where they are, not demanding full belief all at once, but allowing faith to grow and mature. Peter watched as Jesus spoke with = such authority. He saw how Jesus t= ouched people’s lives and changed them. Peter also knew how Jesus was affec= ting him. Jesus was doing for him what only God could do.
So when the moment of decision came, Peter confessed &= #8220;You are the Christ!” You’re the One we’ve been waiting for= 212;the One we’ve needed for so long.
The question won’t go away--it must be answered.= Refusing to answer is your answer. = The Lord listens for our reply today, “Who do you say I am?”
Are you ready to say with the Apostle Peter, along wit= h a multitude of others who over the centuries have confessed this faith: ̶= 0;You are the Christ. You are the S= on of the Living God. You are my Sa= vior and my Lord”—what do you say?
Now is the time to take your stand, either for Christ = or against Him. There is no middle groun= d. Today, this moment, “Who is J= esus Christ to you?”