Who Do Men Say I Am?

During Jesus' earthly ministry, the Jews had a very specific idea of who their Messiah would be. The Messiah is to be one who comes in triumph, not one who comes in the clothing of a servant, who is sacrificed and despised and rejected of men. And so Jesus knew as soon as the people taught Messiah, they had a totally different understanding from what it meant to be the Messiah than His own understanding. And so often we fall into that same delusion, don't we?

We imagine what God should do for us, and then we're disappointed when His real purposes are revealed. Welcome to the Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb, and this week you are going to hear a series of messages we've never aired before in honor of Ligonier Ministries' 50th anniversary.

This month we've gone back into the archives and uncovered this gem from 1986. It's a series titled, Your Christ is Too Small. Most everybody's heard of C.S. Lewis, and he's famous for writing children's stories as well as some serious works in literature and theology. And perhaps his most famous series is what's called the Chronicles of Narnia. And the name of the chief character of the Chronicles of Narnia is Aslan, and Aslan is a magnificent lion.

But Aslan in the story is the symbol of Jesus. If you're not familiar with the story, let me take a quick reconnaissance of what happens in these Chronicles. These little children go to England and they do what little children do. They explore the back rooms of their relative's mansion, and they find this neat old wardrobe, and they begin to explore the back edges of it. And lo and behold, the back of the wardrobe enters into a strange and marvelous land, the land of Narnia. And the whole seven volumes of this goes through several segments of these children's experience in this fantasy land of Narnia, which is filled with all kinds of symbolism. What I want to look at real briefly is this, that after the first experience of the kids in the land of Narnia, they come back, and then they resume their normal lives in England until the next summer when they return to their relatives, and they go through the wardrobe again, and they enter again into the wonderful land of Narnia. But this time, everything has changed. They can't find their bearings.

The buildings that they had remembered from the year before are in ruins. And what the children don't understand is that though only one year of time had passed in England, thousands of years had passed in Narnia. So they can't find their bearings, and they're lost, and all kinds of terrible things happen to them. And then one night as they're beaten and bloody and ready to succumb to despair, and they're seated around a campfire, suddenly this shadow emerges on the edge of a clearing, and little Lucy, the heroine of the story, looks up and she sees Aslan. And she's so excited. She runs up and she grabs this lion around the neck and hugs him and tells him how much she loves him, and she pets his mane and everything, and he lets her ride on his back. And she says, oh, Aslan, you're so much bigger than you were last year. And Aslan smiles at the little girl, and he said, well, Lucy, actually it hasn't been just a year, you know.

It's been thousands of years. And the truth of the matter is, honey, I haven't changed a bit. I'm the same size right now as I was a thousand years ago. I look the same. I act the same. For you see, honey, I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever.

But I've noticed something strange, and that is that the more people get to know me, the bigger I look to them. What an insight that C.S. Lewis gave us in that little children's story, because that's part of the message of the New Testament, isn't it? That the more we examine the person of Jesus, the more we probe the work of Christ, the larger and the deeper our understanding of Jesus of Nazareth becomes. And so let me take a minute and look at a passage in the New Testament that's the record of a meeting that Jesus had with His closest group of friends, His disciples, at Caesarea Philippi. And you know, Jesus' ministry had been very active. He was involved in the countryside teaching and preaching and doing miracles and so on. But it was also part of the style of Jesus' ministry from time to time to pull back, get away from the crowds, and spend some time alone or just with His intimate friends. And here we find Him just with His closest friends in Caesarea Philippi, and we read the text in Matthew's version of it in the 16th chapter of Matthew in verse 13, where it says, When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am? Jesus pulls them aside, and He said, OK, guys, what's the scuttlebutt? What's the conversation in the villages? How are the people responding to Me?

How am I being perceived? If we would say it in Madison Avenue terms of today's culture, Jesus is asking His disciples, what's My image in the marketplace? And so the disciples begin to give Jesus feedback to this question, and they say, Well, Jesus, some say that you're John the Baptist. Some say that you're Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. The word that we're getting on the grape vine, Jesus, is that there are people out there that think you're John the Baptist.

Come back from the dead. Well, if you remember your New Testament history, John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin. John the Baptist is the one who introduced Jesus to His public ministry when He baptized Him in the Jordan River. Now, when His fame reaches its peak, Jesus is just starting, and so there are very few people who have heard yet about Jesus. And then John is suddenly killed, and rumblings are coming out of Galilee and Capernaum and Canaan of this other man who's coming, preaching pretty much the same thing that John the Baptist was preaching. Only now, not just preaching to people like John the Baptist, but now the rumors are flying that He turned water into wine and that He raised somebody from the dead, and He's doing all of these miracles. And Herod himself, who was the one who ordered the execution of John the Baptist, when he heard these rumors, he said, Oh, no, that can only mean John the Baptist has come back to life. And so that rumor was running all over Palestine that John the Baptist had come back to life, that even the sword of Herod couldn't shut him up. But their people were confusing Jesus with John the Baptist, and so the disciples say, Some people think you're John the Baptist. Other people, Jesus, say that you're Elijah. Have you ever been to a Jewish friend's home when they're celebrating the Passover, and they have all of the special foods prepared to celebrate Passover, and you might come into the table, and you see everyone seated around a table, and then at one end of the table there's an empty chair, and maybe you started to walk over and sit in that chair, and somebody grabbed you and said, No, no, no, no, you can't sit there. That place is reserved.

Have you ever had that experience? Who's that chair for in the Jewish family? The chair is there for Elijah because the last prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, in the very last page of the Old Testament, in the very last paragraph of the Old Testament, in the very last sentence of the Old Testament, the absolute last prophecy of the Old Testament from Malachi was this, that someday the Messiah is going to come, but before He comes, God is going to bring back the prophet Elijah. And so you can imagine if prophecy has ceased for 400 years, and then all of a sudden John the Baptist comes on the scene, and now Jesus, the people are all whipped up, and they're all excited, and then they're thinking, Maybe it's time for the Messiah to come, and maybe this is Elijah. And so there were people in Jesus' day who thought Jesus was Elijah. And so they run this by Jeremiah, one of the other prophets, and what are they saying? They're saying, Jesus, they think you're pretty significant.

They don't know who you are. But the rumors include John the Baptist from the dead, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other great prophet. Jesus says, That's interesting. Now here's the big question. Who do you say that I am?

Now we've heard how the public is reacting, but you men are with me. You hear me. You watch me. You watch me. You're on the inside of my ministry. My life is an open book to you.

What's your judgment? Who do you say that I am? Well, it's Peter who answers for the group. And Peter says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Do you realize what Peter is saying here when he makes that statement? You are the Christ. Let's go to the board here for a minute and just write the name, Christ. So often in our day when we talk about Jesus, we don't just say Jesus. We say Jesus, what's His whole name? Jesus Christ. And we sort of think that Jesus is Jesus' first name, and Christ is His second name.

But that's not the way it worked. In the ancient world, Jesus' full name would have been Jesus bar Joseph, Jesus, Son of Joseph, or Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was His name. Christ was not His name. But the two words, Jesus and Christ, have been so closely linked together through two thousand years of Christian history that nowadays we treat those two words as if they were a proper name. But now we're trying to go back in the time to get the virgin response to Jesus and see that there was something radical here when Peter looks at Him and says, you're the Christ. Now the name Christ comes from the Greek word Christos.

That's easy, huh? You just learned a Greek word. It comes right across from Christos to Christ. But what's significant about that is that the word Christos in Greek is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, which comes into English as Messiah. And the word Christos in Greek means anointed one, because the Jews had a dream, a dream that was based upon certain promises that God would give them from time to time, that someday, it's almost Alice in Wonderland, almost fairy tale type of future hope.

You remember, who was it, Snow White or Cinderella that sang, someday my prince will come? Well, Israel wasn't so much looking for a prince as they were looking for a king. Their national history was the history of one tragedy after another. We talk about World War II and the Holocaust as the most obscene chapter in human history and sometimes forget that the Holocaust that took place with the systematic extermination of two-thirds of the world's population of Jewish people was by no means the first Holocaust. The history of Israel is the history of one Holocaust after another.

There they were, situated in that tiny band of real estate that connected Africa and Asia. And it was, their little nation was like a ping-pong table where the major powers were playing back and forth and running back through their cities and conquering it left and right. I mean, the total peace of Israel, the pox of Israel for 3,000 years total of about 20 years in all of their history. And the golden age of Israel was when God gave them a king who made them for a very short time a major world power.

This tiny little country became the leading power in the ancient world. This king came in and he extended the boundaries of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and his name was David. And David was Israel's greatest musician, Israel's greatest poet, Israel's greatest warrior, Israel's greatest administrator, and Israel's greatest king. And things were good while David was king. But as soon as David died, it was back to things as usual, warfare, internecine, politics, all kinds of violence and atrocities taking place. And once again, Israel becomes a ping-pong ball for the world powers. And the people longed for the day when their king would come to remove oppression from them, to get rid of the Babylonians or the Assyrians or later on the Romans, and they saw in the person of this king the anointed one, not just an earthly warrior, but one who would be gifted from the power of God that God would anoint, just as He had anointed David, that this Messiah would come and deliver them and throw out the Romans.

So there are little promises throughout Jewish history about this. Now what happens when Jesus comes on the scene? Does He come on the scene like David?

Does He come riding into Jerusalem on a white horse or with a chariot or with a sword and say, okay, Romans, leave. I'm taking over. I'm the new king. I'm the Messiah.

No. Jesus did not take to Himself the expected identity of the Messiah. Remember when He fed the five thousand? Takes a couple of fish and a couple of loaves of bread and feeds five thousand people.

You talk about a welfare program that won't quit, huh? And what was the mob reaction? They came to Jesus and tried to take hold of Him in order to do what? To make Him king. That's the kind of king we want.

They can produce food like that and gives it away free. Everybody wants a king like that. And Jesus walked away. And every time somebody tried to talk to Jesus in terms of being a Messiah, He rejected Him and walked away. And if you read very carefully in the New Testament, you will see that Jesus studiously avoids that title Messiah or the title Christ.

Isn't that strange? Here we talk, that's how we call it, Jesus Christ. But Jesus was very reluctant to assume that title, how the disciples had seen that and what the scholars call the so-called messianic secret where Jesus was veiling Himself from these popular expectations.

There was a reason for that which we'll look at in a moment. But when He looks at Peter and Peter says, hey, we know who you are. We think you're the Christ. If I can read between the lines, it's almost like Peter was saying, hey, you may be telling these other people to call it and you won't pay any attention to when they call you the Christ, but we know who you are.

You're really the Christ, aren't you, G? He looks at Peter and He said, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. Jesus pronounces His benediction on Peter. And if you are familiar with the history of Jesus' relationship with Peter, Jesus doesn't pass out a whole lot of benedictions to Peter during His ministry.

And Peter gave him fits all the time. But this time He said, Peter, blessed are you. And the reason why you're blessed is it because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Do you hear what Jesus is saying? The first thing that is implied is He's saying, Peter, you're blessed because you're right.

You got the right answer. But you didn't get it because you're all that astute. You didn't get it because you're all that well-versed in Old Testament prophecy.

You didn't figure this out on your own through the application of your native intelligence. You are blessed, Peter, because you are one who has received a revelation from My Father. My Father has let you see this, where the eyes of other people are closed.

Other people don't see what you see, and so you are blessed. And then, of course, this is the occasion where Jesus then says to Peter, and thou art Petros. Remember, Peter's name was really Simon. But now Jesus says, no longer Simon, but Petros, the rock.

For on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And so you can see Peter, gee whiz, this is two compliments in a row from Jesus. Jesus first said, you're blessed, blessed are you, Simon. Can you see Peter swelling up and saying, did you hear that, guys?

I got the right answer. And He's just given me His benediction and none of that. He renames them, and He says, you're a rock. And then after this glorious moment of affirmation, Jesus blows them all away. He said, but men, I have to tell you something. The Son of Man, referring to Himself, must suffer many things. And He shocks them. He communicates them. And in the midst of this glorious affirmation, He said, men, don't you realize what I'm about, what my mission is, what my purpose is, what my agenda is? I'm headed for Jerusalem. I've got my face set like a flint, and I'm going there, gentlemen, to die. Now what's Peter's reaction? Impossible.

Don't tell me that stuff. The Jewish people had no room in their thinking for a Messiah who would die. Their Messiah is to be a victorious king, not a humiliated king. The Messiah is to be one who comes in triumph, not one who comes in the clothing of a servant who is sacrificed and despised and rejected of men.

And so that's one of the reasons, you see, why Jesus played down that concept of the Messiah, because He knew as soon as the people taught Messiah, they had a totally different understanding for what it meant to be the Messiah than His own understanding. He said, Peter, I have to die. Peter gets mad. God forbid, forbid, we won't let you go to Jerusalem. And now, after saying, blessed art thou, son of Marjona, and then saying, thou art Petros, the next statement Jesus says to Peter is, get thee behind me, Satan. Jesus looks at His friend, and now He hears the same temptation that He faced in the wilderness when Satan confronted Him directly. Because what Satan was teaching Jesus in the wilderness was, you don't have to die to be the Messiah. You don't have to suffer to be the Redeemer of Israel. You stick with me, and I'll lay all the kingdoms of the world at your feet. Jump off the temple, God will catch you.

Turn these stones into bread. All of those temptations were designed to convince Jesus to go the military political route, to escape suffering. And Peter didn't understand that.

And the church has not always understood that. But the church did understand a suffering Messiah when it came to pass. Because all of a sudden, when Jesus enters triumphantly into Jerusalem and lets it be known, not just to His inner circle of friends, but to the whole Jewish community, I am the Messiah. Palm Sunday He rides in as the Messiah, and they're screaming, Hosanna.

They're loving it. They're ready for any minute for legions of angels to come over the hill to drive the Romans out of there and to restore the kingdom of David. And then the Messiah allows Himself to be arrested, to be humiliated, and to be killed.

Just as He said, I have to suffer many things. And so what we have in the title Messiah is a king who is a slave, royalty who becomes a servant, a Jesus who understands his own mission as one of obedience unto death. The Jews' understanding of who their Messiah would be was misguided.

It was simply too small. They thought He would be a conquering national hero to free them from the Romans. In reality, Jesus was a suffering servant sent to save the world from sin and the wrath to come. This is the message of the gospel and the subject of our series this week, Your Christ is Too Small. This classic series was taught by Dr. R.C.

Sproul in 1986, and it's never aired before here on Renewing Your Mind. It's part of a large library of exclusive messages reserved for Ligonier's ministry partners. And it's a good example of the extra discipleship resources that are made available to those who commit to support Ligonier's gospel outreach on a monthly basis. Their steady, dependable giving means that this teaching continues to expand and reach more people year after year. And as a way of saying thank you, we provide extra resources to our partners each month, including the teaching series you're hearing this week. In this, our 50th year of ministry, would you consider committing to a monthly gift of $25 or more? When you do, Dr. Sproul's series Your Christ is Too Small will be available immediately in your learning library online, along with the entire ministry partner library. That includes exclusive monthly messages. You'll also receive Table Talk magazine every month, discounts to attend Ligonier conferences and events, exclusive resource offers, and a copy of the Reformation Study Bible.

So sign up to become a partner now when you go to renewingyourmind.org slash partner, or you can call us here at Ligonier to begin your partnership at 800-435-4343. Well, tomorrow we'll continue our C-series Your Christ is Too Small. Today we learned how other people thought of Jesus. Tomorrow's message is titled, Who Does Jesus Say He Is? So make plans to join us Tuesday for Renewing Your Mind.