Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/kingdomlife/sermons/77571/who-is-jesus/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Good morning. Shall we pray? Lord, we look to you in this moment, Father. Lord, we confess our inadequacies both to speak and to listen.

[0:20] ! We confess, O Lord, our shortcomings. We confess that our preparation was inadequate. Our understanding is insufficient. Lord, we ask that you would do what only you can do. That you would cause this moment to take on a sense of sobriety, that it deserves solemnity that is required.

[0:58] Lord, we pray, O Lord, that you would do a work in the hearts of all those who would hear your word today that only you can do.

[1:12] We pray, O Lord, that this would not be wasted time for any who would hear.

[1:22] O Lord, be with us as we worship you. In this moment, speak to our hearts, we pray. Have mercy on us is our request.

[1:44] In the name of Jesus, we pray, and all God's people say, Amen. Amen. Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16.

[2:02] Yes, God's people say, Amen. I'm going to read a few verses, starting in verse 13.

[2:18] Matthew chapter 16, beginning in verse 13, and we will read through verse 20. It says, He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

[3:07] Simon Peter replied, And Jesus answered him, And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

[3:56] Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. Many years ago, a man who was described as licentious, a man whose behavior was by no means one that should be emulated.

[4:34] He was a man who had taken up what was called at the time the slave trade.

[4:46] He had been on voyages that, where African men and women were taken from their homes across the Atlantic and sold.

[5:06] This man was later influenced by Christians, including Vilberforce, who led the charge to abolish slavery.

[5:26] This man's name was John Newton. John Newton became a well-known preacher.

[5:40] And among the many things he did, he penned a song called, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Songs.

[5:54] Here are some of the words of that song that he wrote. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer's air It soothes our sorrows It heals our wounds It soothes our fears It makes the wounded spirit whole And calms the troubled breast It satisfies the hungry soul And it gives the weary rest How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

[6:54] In a believer's ear Brothers and sisters, today we're here Because of that name We're family because of that name That's why we're here As Pastor said earlier We're here because of that name That's the only reason we're here Because of Jesus How many of you know that today?

[7:26] Were it not for Jesus We wouldn't be here today How sweet the name of Jesus Sounds We are saved because of That name We pursue righteousness Because of that name How many of you know that?

[7:46] We pursue righteousness Because of that name And when we gather We celebrate That name You've listened to the text I gotta tell you There will be no Exegetical Awards Handed out At the end of this sermon I'm not gonna go through this Word by word And Verse by verse That's not gonna happen And perhaps Some might even characterize This message As more Emotional Than Substantive Maybe there's Truth to that But I would beg To differ If you listened

[8:50] To the text Carefully You heard Jesus Ask Two Basic Questions Jesus Asked His Disciples Two Questions And those Questions May be summarized This way Who do people Say That I Am That was the First question Who do people Say that I Am And the Second one Is Who do you Say That I Am In truth Every time We Gather Every time Without At this church In this church Every time We gather We answer Those questions And it never Gets tiring Never gets tiring

[9:52] Like Catherine Hankey Writes In her song I love To tell The story She writes I love To tell The story Just pleasant To repeat What seems Each time I tell it More wonderfully Sweet I love To tell The story For some Have never Heard The message Of salvation From God's Own holy Word I love To tell The story For those Who know It best Listen to this I love To tell The story For those Who know It best Seem hungering And thirsting

[10:52] To hear it Like the rest And when In scenes Of glory I sing The new New song Till be The old Old story That I have Loved So long But let's Consider this Very first Question That Jesus Asked His disciples Who do People say That I am Jesus sits With them And Jesus Asks What are They saying About me What Are The people Saying About me Who Do they say That I am I've been With them For All these Years They've Watched me They've

[11:53] Heard me What are They saying About me If Jesus Were To ask Me the Question Today Who do Men say That I am I'd ask Him I'd say Jesus How much Time do I have And I'll Assume I'm going To assume Today That he's Answer Some 20 To 30 Minutes To answer That question Can I Say Right off The bat That I'm Not going To tell You What Some People Who Have Weird Views Of Jesus How They're Going To answer That question You know That there Are some People Out there Who are Going To say Well You know Jesus He never Existed But we Aren't Interested In that That's Not what We're Here for Today We're

[12:53] Not going To talk About them At all There's Some People Who are Going To say Yeah He Existed But he Was Just a A good Man We're Not going To talk About them Either That's Not what We have In view Jesus Asked The question Who do People Say That I Am If I Were tasked With Writing Jesus's Resume And I Am told To keep It to A certain Length I would Prepare Under A few Headings Perhaps I'd Begin With His Family Background And here I thought To borrow The words From Sovereign Grace's Website And this

[13:55] Is what It says About Jesus The man And Jesus Our God He Was conceived By the Holy Spirit And born Of the Virgin Mary Taking On Himself A fully Human Nature With all Its attributes And frailties Yet Without Sin In this Union Two Whole Perfect And distinct Natures Were Inseparably Inseparably Joined Together In the One Person Of the Divine Son Without Confusion Mixture Or Change His

[14:57] Human And divine Natures Are united And find Expression In the One Person Of the Eternal Son Thus Our Lord Jesus Christ God The Son Incarnate Is Fully God And Fully Man Who Is Jesus Fully God And Fully Man Conceived By the Holy Spirit And Born Of the Virgin Mary And Then Perhaps I would Consider Writing This Resume I Consider His Skill Set And Experience But

[15:58] We All Know That He Was A Carpenter Nothing Extraordinary About That But Then Read The Gospels And We Find That He Was A Miracle Worker Turned Water Into Wine And He Walked On The Water And He Calmed The Seas A Miracle Worker Who Is Jesus Miracle Worker But That's Not All Perhaps I'll Go On And Write That He Was A Healer He He He Healed People With Leprosy And Demons In fact He Even Raised Three People Who Were

[16:58] Dead Then We Know That's Not It He He Was A Teacher Extraordinaire He Was The World's Greatest Teacher His Words Are Still Quoted Today They Still Have Meaning And Significance Today He Was A Prophet Not Only Did He Predict His Own Death But He Predicted What Would Happen In Jerusalem He Was A Leader Like None Other He Called Men And They Immediately Left What They Were Doing To Follow Him Left Houses And Family

[17:59] To Follow Him I Know By The Way He Was I Don't Know How The Perhaps How The Young People Would Say This Maybe They Would Say He Was A Resurrector They Crucified And Buried Him But Three Days Later He Rose Again Who Do Men Say That I Am Miracle Worker A Healer Teacher A Prophet A Leader I Know By The Way He Was Resurrected And Then Perhaps I Go On In This Resume Of Jesus And Talk A Little Bit About His Character

[19:00] And Maybe Talk About His Condescension But How It Is That This Man This God Man Fully God And Fully Man How He Existed Even Before Time Began And He Chose To Condescend To Humanity Now You And I I Don't Care How Smart You Are I Don't Care How Deep You Are In The Scripture You Will Never Understand That You Can't Grasp That You Can't And Listen Forgive Me I Know I Can't Grasp It Let Let Me Personalize It I Can't Grasp That

[20:00] I Mean Imagine For A Moment Let Me Tell You Imagine For A Moment You Have Some Pet Ants And You Needed To Save Them And To Be To Save Them You Have To Become An Aunt Yourself Well Guess What That's A joke Compared To The Kind Of Condescension That Jesus Had To Make Or Better Yet Imagine You Had Some Cockroaches And You Needed To Become A Cockroach Well That's A Joke Compared!

[20:33] To The Kind Of Condescension We're Talking About With Jesus You Can't Even Imagine It But He Condescended What Humility He Displayed Talking About His Character He Was A Man Of Compassion Scriptures Tell us That He Rept Over Jerusalem He Looked To The City And He Remarked How It Is That Jerusalem Had Not Accepted Him And He Rept Over Her And He Said Oh I Can See That Your Enemies Will Be Encamped All Around You And That You Will Be Destroyed He Had

[21:33] Compassion On The Crowd Remember Those Who Came To Hear Him Preach And They Didn't Have Anything To Eat The Bible Said That He Had Compassion On The Crowd Talking About His Character!

[21:50] Now He Was A Brave Man Unafraid Of The Religious Leaders Unafraid Of The Political Leaders He Didn't Fear Them Though He Knew That They Wanted To Kill Him He Was Unafraid Of Them About His Grace One Hymn Writer Said It Was And Is Amazing Another Said It Is Greater Than All Our Sins Yet Another Hymn Writer Said It Is Enough Grace Is Enough To Bring The Sinner Home About His Love John

[22:53] Writes That He Is Love He Said Of His Love For His Disciples That It Is Equivalent To His Father's Love For Him Then Perhaps Writing This Resume How Can I Ignore Writing About What He Says About Himself And Here We Turn To The Gospel Of John When We Find The I Am Jesus Says Of Himself In John Chapter 14 I Am The Way The Truth!

[23:51] And The Life No One Comes To The Father Except Through Me I Am The Way He Who Is Jesus John Chapter 10 He Says I And The Father We Are One John Chapter 6 He Says I Am The Bread Of Life Whoever Comes To Me Shall Never Hunger And Whoever Believes In Me Shall Never Thirst I'm Preaching To The People Who Come To Church All The Time And I Know You Know These Verses I Would Just Tell You How Delightful It Is For Us To Serve

[24:52] And To Know Jesus I Would Have Put You In Remembrance Of These Things John Chapter 8 He Says Of Himself I Am The Light Of The World In John Chapter 11 He Says I Am The Resurrection And The Life Whoever Believes In Me Though He Dies Yet Shall I Live Who Is Jesus I Am The Good Shepherd John Records In John 10 The Good Shepherd Lays Down His Life For His Sheep John 8 I Am The Light Of The World Whoever Follows Me Will Not Walk In Darkness But Will Have The Light Of Life That's What He Says

[25:52] About Himself But What About What Do Others Say About Him What Do Others Say About Jesus You Know That Thousands Of Books Have Been Written About Him Including Every Book In This Bible Is About Him Moses Writes About Him Moses Says That He Is The Seed Of The Woman That Would Crush The Serpent's Head Moses Prophecy He Says He's The Lamb Of God Who Takes Away The Sin Of The World Moses Writes About Him That He Is The Redeemer

[26:52] And The Bread Of Life The Psalmists They Write That He Is The Stone That The Builders Rejected That He's A Shield He's Our Shield And The Lifter Up Of Our Head Is What We Find In Psalm 3 The Prophets Declare That He Is The Prince Of Peace And Our Everlasting Savior A Husband To A Wavered Wife What Else Do They Write About Him In The Books In The Gospels He's The Son Of God The Son

[27:53] Of Man The Crucified Savior He Was In The Beginning With God And Nothing Was Made That Was Made Without Him In Acts He's The Comforter In Paul's Letters He Is Our Hope And Our Salvation In Hebrews He Is The Radiance Of The Glory Of God And The Exact Imprint Of His Nature And He Upholds The Universe By The Word Of His Power In James His Letter He's

[28:54] The One Through Whose Sacrifice Our Sins Are Forgiven In Peter's Letter Jesus Is The One Through Whom We Gain An Inheritance That Is Imperishable Undefiled And Unfading Kept In Heaven In John's Letters He Is Love And In Revelations He Is Our Soon Coming King That's What They Write About Him Who Is Jesus What Do They Say About Jesus But You Know If You've Ever Written A Resume You've Ever Written A Resume You Know That It's Never Complete Unless You Give Some References They

[29:54] Always Ask You Tell Me Who Can Recall And Ask About Your Character Ask About Who You Really Are And If Jesus Had Asked Me To Write This Resume For Him Perhaps I Would Ask The Apostle Paul For A Reference And I Suspect The Apostle Paul Would Say I Was Chief Among Sinners Terrorizing Christians But One Day This Jesus He Saved Me And He Anointed Me For Ministry He Turned My Life Around And If He Can Do That For Me Paul Would Perhaps Say He

[30:54] Can Do It For Everyone Else And I Believe It Would Be A Good Idea To Get A Reference From This Woman At The Well She Would Probably Say That He Was Not Condemnatory Or Stand Office He Knew Things About Me That He Could Not Have Known If He Were Not The Son Of God And He Offered Me Eternal Life Despite My Sinfulness He Is Compassionate And All Knowing And I Got To Ask Brother Lazarus To Give Me A Reference For Him But The Lazarus Would Probably Say I Died And They Buried Me He

[31:54] Went To My Graves Site And Shouted Lazarus Come For Yes He Has Resurrection Power And Then I Would End This Resume Of Jesus And I Would Consider Some Of The Names That They Call Him I Think That Is Important Because We Want To Get It Right Because Sometimes We Want To Make Sure That When We Hear These Names We Are Referring To The Same Person Some Called Him Teacher Others Physician Prince Of Peace Some Called Him Bread Of Life Son Of

[32:54] Man Son Of God Living Water True Wine Shepherd Door Rock Shield And Buckler John Newton Who We Spoke About Earlier Sums It Up Nicely Jesus My Shepherd Brother Friend My Prophet Priest King My Lord My Life My Way My End Accept The Praise I Bring!

[33:36] But in Response To This Question Who Do Men Say That I Am I Hear You Peter I Hear The Contents Of This Resume I Hear You Say What Others Have Said About Him I Hear You Say What Pastor Moss Has Said About Him I Hear You Say What Brother Tim Has Said About Him Sounds Good But That's Not The

[34:37] Question That's Not The Fundamental Question The Fundamental Question Is Not What People Say About Him The Fundamental Question Is What Do You Say About Me That's The Question Jesus Asked Peter Jesus Said What Do Men Say About Me Peter Went Through All These Names These Wonderful Characters Nothing Wrong With John The Baptist Nothing Is Wrong With Elijah Nothing Is Wrong With The Prophets But Jesus Said I Hear You I

[35:37] Hear You I Hear You I Hear The Resume I Hear You You Said These Good Things About Me But What Do You Say About Me And Peter Could Have Gone Through A Similar List That I Just Went Through Peter Could Have Said You Were A Miracle Worker He Was There When Jesus Turned Water Into Wine And When He He He He He He He He He He He You Know Who You Are You Are The Son Of Mary And Joseph That's Not What Peter Said Peter Moved By The Holy Spirit Gave The Answer That Truly Matters

[36:39] It Was A Profound Response It Was An Answer That No No One Could Truly Give Unless He Was Led By The Spirit Sure One Could Intellectualize Sure One Could Say What Others Have Said One Could Say It By Wrote But Peter Gave An Answer Jesus Responded To His Answer In Ways That Help Shape Our Understanding Of The Gift Of Salvation Peter Said You Are The Christ The Son Of The Living God The Pages Of The Bible Are Not About Moses They're Not

[37:39] About David Not About Jeremiah Peter Or Paul The Bible Is About God's Redemption Of Mankind And The Redeemer Is Jesus All Of The Scripture Points To Him The Ultimate Question You And I Must Answer Is Not Who Others Would Others Say About Jesus Rather It Is What Do We Say About Jesus That's The Question When Peter Answered When Peter Gave The Answer That He Did Jesus Said Let Me Tell You Something Peter You're Right He Said But Guess What Peter Now You Need To Hear This This Is A Big Deal

[38:39] Peter Jesus Response To Peter Jesus Says Peter You Are Right You Are Right Peter But Flesh And Blood Did Not Reveal That To You You Know What Jesus Was Saying To Peter Jesus Was Saying To Peter Listen Peter Flesh And Blood That Mean If Jesus Said It Ain't Flesh And Blood That Means It It It It's Not A Human Being That Revealed That To You That's The Point Jesus Was Making Here Jesus That Flesh And Blood Did Not Reveal That To You And To Make The Point Even Clearer Jesus Said But My Father Who Is In Heaven Revealed It To You What's

[39:44] Going On Here What's Really Going On Here Let's Not Get Confused Jesus Was Saying To Peter Peter You Are Just Saying What You Heard You Are Saying Something That In Your Heart You Are Saying Something Not What You Have Heard Not Something That Somebody Has Taught You You Are Saying Something That You Truly Believe How Easy Is It For Us When We Ask This

[40:44] Question To Quote Others To Say What Others Have Said About Jesus But Not Be Able To Personalize This Our Sells These Verses Help Us To See That In The Walk Of Salvation God Is Very Much Active In The Walk Of Salvation Jesus Said It Was His Father Who Revealed To Peter Who He Is Just As The Father Revealed To Peter Who Jesus Says He Does The

[41:44] Same To Us Today He Is The One Who Opened Peter's Eyes To The Truth And He Is The One Who Opens Our Eyes To The Truth And So Aren't You Glad Today That If You Know Jesus If You Know Him Today If You Truly Know Him Today That It Is His Father Not Flesh And Blood Who Caused You To Know Him It Is His Father Who Saved You He Is The One Who Opened Your Eyes He Is The One Who Shows You If You Know Jesus As Messiah Today As The One Who Died

[42:44] For Your Sins If You Know Him As The One Who Payed The Penalty For Your Sins Not Only Do you Really Know Him You Belong To Him Your His Flesh And Blood Did Not Reveal It To You His Heavenly Father Did So Can I Encourage You Today Can I Give You A Little Bit Of Encouragement Sometimes You And I Go Through Periods When We Doubt We Doubt Our Salvation We Doubt Whether We Truly Believe What Can I Tell You Those

[43:45] Moments Let's Remember What Jesus Says To Peter Peter The Heavy Lifting Here Was Not Done By A Man Was Not Done By A Pastor Was Not Done By The Person Who You Say Quote Unquote Brought You Led You To Christ It Was Not Done By Your Goodness Your Church Attendance Rather It Was Done By Your Heavenly Father He Is The One Who Caused You To Know Jesus To Really Know Him Know Him For Yourself So Brothers

[44:45] And Sisters Who do You Say He Is He's Jesus The Christ I Love To Tell The Story It Will Be My Fame In Glory To Tell The Old Story Of Jesus And His Love Let Us Pray Oh Father Lord How Grateful We Are That Our Salvation Is Not Gone

[45:46] Because Of Our Merit Our Salvation Is Not Anchored To Our Behavior Or To The Behavior Of Others Lord We Thank You That Flesh And Blood Did Not Reveal Jesus Christ To Us To Those Who Are Your Children Father We Pray That This Truth Would Be A Comfort To Those Who Sometimes Doubt We Pray Oh Lord That This Would Be A Comfort Lord To Those Oh Lord Who Wander Sometimes About Your Love And About Your Care Father

[46:49] And In This Moment We Pray Lord Not Only For Ourselves But We Pray For Others We Pray Lord For Those Who Do Not Know Jesus Personally We Pray For Those Lord Who Only Know About Him Who Can Only Intellectualize Lord Who Have Heard About Him But Who Perhaps Can Quote Scripture Lord But Don't Know Him Father We Pray In The Name Of Jesus That You Would Be Pleased Oh Lord To Do To Do For Them What You Did For Peter And Which You Have Done For So Many Of Us Open Their Eyes Oh Lord To The Truth Of Who Jesus Is In

[47:49]  The Name Of Jesus We Pray And All God's People Say Amen Amen Amen