Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

6 · The pastor transitions to the second section, turning attention to Jesus' question about public opinion and the religiously respectable answers the crowds gave

Second, what the religious say about Jesus. What the religious say about Jesus. Now, Jesus is interested in what the crowds and townspeople have to say about him, not because he's uninformed, but because he wants the disciples to contrast this, right? On the way, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they said, "John the Baptist," and others, "Elijah," and others, "One of the prophets." Now, all of these responses are complimentary, right?

7 · The pastor unpacks the first inadequate category: viewing Jesus as a great man

They're all like, "Well, that's really nice of people to say that," right, at first? And let me say upfront, you can believe all of those things the crowd said about Jesus. You can believe nice things about Jesus, complimentary things about Jesus, and yet, not be a Christian at all, not be a Christ follower at all. Let's break down what these things have in common. First, the religious people thought that Jesus was a great man, right?

Some people thought he was the second coming of John the desert prophet. Others thought, well, even higher of him, maybe he's the second coming of Elijah, right? The guy who took down the prophets of Baal, the fire thing that, you know, brought somebody's kid back from the dead, rode off on a chariot. Maybe it's him, maybe it's Elijah. I mean, that seems even higher.

Or one of the prophets, maybe an Isaiah or somebody like that. But none of the crowd saw anything higher for Jesus than being a great man. He was a great man, but ultimately just a man. And many who are religious think the same thing about Jesus today, that he is a great man, that he's worthy of emulation, right? That he He goes on the shelf in the hall of the greats with Gandhi and Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. and everybody who has won Nobel Prizes over the years.

And there's also Jesus, one of the greats, right? Maybe your favorite of the greats, your personal great of the greats. But the question is this: Is Jesus somebody you admire as a great man? Or is he somebody you owe allegiance to as somebody greater than that? You can admire Jesus without it threatening to change your life a whole lot, right?

You can admire him and yet, essentially, live your life the way you want to. Maybe you have a picture of him on the wall. Maybe you have a few books by him.

8 · The pastor critiques the second inadequate category: viewing Jesus as a truth-telling prophet

Second, a truth-telling prophet. They thought that Jesus was a truth-telling prophet.

Prophet in the mold of Elijah, in the mold of the Old Testament prophets, in the mold of John. Jesus' teaching was undeniably powerful. He was prophetic. But the people here just believed that maybe like these other prophets, he saw the truth a bit better than others. Maybe God helped him see the truth a bit better than others.

And maybe some today think the same thing about Jesus, that he is a source of truth. He is somebody who sees certain things better than others, that we admire Jesus for his views on the poor or his views on this or that. But maybe not, you know, maybe Jesus' views on gender or sexuality or whatever are outdated a bit, but the poor stuff is still great, right? A source of truth. The question is, is somebody, is Jesus somebody you owe deference to in an area or two?

Or is he somebody you owe devotion to as the source of truth? If Jesus only has kind of unique, special truth in a couple areas of your life or a couple areas of the world, then you only owe him sort of allegiance in those couple areas that he sees better than other people, but gives you freedom to find other sources of truth, right? You can even sit in church and believe that year after year. You can come and hear the Bible and think, "Yeah, there is some good stuff in that book," and yet, not be a true follower of Jesus? Is he just a truth teller?

9 · The pastor critiques the third inadequate category: viewing Jesus as a miracle worker

Third, a miracle worker. Now, they acknowledge that Jesus did all kinds of miracles, like Elijah bringing somebody's child back from the grave. Jesus could do some amazing things, and many came to Jesus because they wanted physical healing or some sort of restoration. Many today still come to Jesus, right? Still tune in, still So pray desperately in certain ways because they want a particular area of their life to find restoration.

Or they want— maybe they don't want something bad to happen. They want something good. They want health. They want wealth. They want influence.

They're praying certain prayers. They're like, come on, genie Jesus, give us what we want, right? This is the, like, I'm at the end of my rope, take the wheel, Jesus, take the wheel, right? Jesus— we sing "Jesus, take the wheel," not when things are going well, right? Not when we like the way our life is going, because we're like, "I like the way life is going." We sing "Take the wheel, Jesus" when we have no other options.

The car's about to crash. We're like, "Take the wheel, Jesus." He's like, "Well, if you'd given it to me earlier, maybe, you know." But this is what we do, right? We think of him as a miracle worker. We're at the end of our rope. We reach out to him.

"Help me. Help me." That's what the crowds thought about Jesus. That's what people today turn. To Jesus for, but the question is this, is Jesus somebody you turn to only when you're desperate, or is he somebody you turn to daily? That you wake up and are like, hey Jesus, take the wheel.

Or is it just, well, things are going real bad, I have no other options, let's hit that button.

10 · The pastor critiques the fourth inadequate category: viewing Jesus as a king in limited areas of life

Last, a king, question mark? I have a question mark here. A king? Maybe they thought he was a king, maybe some hoped he would, be a kind of king for Israel in the mold of the Maccabees, who would get Rome out of Jerusalem, who would set up a government, maybe set up a small Jewish government that would push out some of the extra influences and then maybe take back that corner of the world from the Roman government. A king that would fulfill a great longing that they'd had for many years to see a politically free religiously free country.

And many today still think that same way about Jesus. They have something in mind. They have something that needs ruling or saving or restoring, but it's not usually their whole life. It's usually this area, this area of politics, this area of culture, this area of my life, this area of business, right? I want Jesus to come and be a king stronger than I can be and help me in this area, right?

It's almost as though You know, not to demean this in any way, but we all have a really strong friend who has a pickup truck. And when time comes to move something heavy, we remember our strong friend. And you remember, for me, that's Bobby Wilkins, right? Bobby Wilkins, God bless him, has had to move my wife and I's stuff like 5, 6, 7 times in his life. And he's gonna get a medal for this in heaven.

But you call Bobby, right? When things are heavy, you, "I can't lift this, I need help, I need a strong friend." strong friend, you bring him in and he gets that couch down from the third floor of your apartment complex into his truck, right? And in some ways, Jesus is the same way. It's like, okay, I don't have enough strength, I need somebody strong. So Jesus, you come and be the king in this area.

I need a stronger person than me in this area to do what I want done. Here's the question though. Is Jesus somebody you offer tribute to? You say, okay, come help me in this area and I'll offer 2 hours on Sunday, you know, how does that sound? Is he somebody you offer tribute to, say, "Well, I'll do this, I'll do that," or is he somebody that you offer the totality of your life to?

11 · The pastor uses the story of Benedict Arnold to illustrate that outward religious performance—wearing the uniform, speaking the language—does not necessarily reveal true allegiance

Here's the point, you can believe that Jesus is a great man, you can believe that Jesus is a truth teller, you can believe that Jesus is a miracle worker, you can even believe Jesus is a sort of king and not be a Christian at all. And entirely miss the point of who Jesus is. And here's what I think ultimately reveals what we think about Jesus. What we offer to Jesus, what we place under his rulership reveals what we truly think about him. Where we truly owe our allegiance reveals everything about what we really think about Jesus.

I was listening to a story recently about a Revolutionary War hero. In the American Revolution, right? There was a critical battle in the American Revolution and it could go either way. This could kind of be a defining battle in the American Revolution. And this one young officer decides, you know what, I'm gonna turn the tide.

I'm gonna get out there. I'm gonna lead a charge. And he kind of rallies the troops. He leads a charge into enemy fire. He's wearing, you know, an American uniform, holding, not holding literally, but kind of, symbolically holding an American flag, taking on the enemy.

He's wounded, he falls, but they win the day. They overcome the enemy. The revolution is saved. And you think, man, this guy seems all in on this cause. But he has no monuments built to him in America.

Do you know why? Because his name is Benedict Arnold. Right? This guy who wore the American uniform, who led an American charge, in his heart of hearts, deep down, was like, "I don't know if I'm all in here. Like, in the heat of battle, sure, we got to win this thing, but at the end of the day, I don't know if I owe my allegiance to this place." And in the same way, we as Christians can do the same thing.

I don't want to say as Christians. We as religious people can do the same thing. We can wear the Christian uniform. We can speak the right phrases. We can salute the right people.

People and yet not have Jesus truly as King in our lives.

12 · The pastor transitions to the third and climactic section: Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ, contrasting it with all that has come before

It's the third question then, what— third section then, what the disciples say about Jesus. And Jesus asked them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered him, you are the Christ.

13 · The pastor explains the weight of Peter's confession: Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one

That's what Peter says, and speaking for the disciples. He confesses Jesus as the Christ. This title, the Christ, means the anointed one, the promised king, the supernatural king of the Old Testament. Here is the main difference between what Peter is saying about Jesus and what the crowds or the religious people are saying about Jesus. Jesus is not a anything.

Jesus is not a king, a ruler, a truth teller. He is the everything. He is the King, the Prophet, the Truth Teller, the everything. He is in a different category altogether. It does not do Jesus a compliment to say, "Out of this category, you're clearly the best." He is in another category altogether.

14 · The pastor uses a personal story about discovering Eric Clapton's guitar playing to illustrate the categorical difference between Jesus and all others

I was trying to figure out how to explain this today, and it is tough, but here's an illustration. I need you to go with me on this because It's gonna take a second or two, okay? So here's the illustration. I grew up wanting to play the electric guitar because I grew up playing classical music. We didn't really listen to pop music.

I didn't know any electric guitar music. But somewhere around 10, 11, I began to hear the electric guitar on the worship team and on some of the music albums we had that were worship albums. And so I basically listened to classical music and worship guitar. And I was like, there is something there. I like this.

Instrument. I don't know what's going on there, but I like it. So I convinced my parents, let me take electric guitar lessons. And so I go to White's Music Box, still on Mesa, I think, and they had these little tiny, like, absolutely, like, you know, 4 by whatever rooms. And my electric guitar teacher was there.

And so I brought him some of the electric guitar parts I wanted to play. And he was like, okay, sure. And he showed me how to play them. And then he said, I remember him saying, listen to this. And so he Clicks play, right, on his CD player, his little boombox, and out of the boombox comes Eric Clapton playing Sunshine of Your Love with the band Cream, and I was like, what is that?

What is that, what is that? And then, here's the thing, so they're playing the song, and then, like, they get like 2 minutes into the song, and then they just cut loose, and Eric Clapton is just soloing, And I'm like, what is he playing? What is that? What is happening? And the guy's like, oh, he's just jamming.

And I'm like, what is jamming? Like, what is hap— like, you don't understand. I was like a classical kid that's like, where? And my brain is going, where are the notes? What are the notes that he is playing?

He's playing new notes, new things that I'd like. And I realized that if somebody had asked me, okay, what's the best electric guitar you've ever heard? I would've been like, this one, you know, 5-second clip on a worship album. And then sitting there, I realized there is a whole category of electric guitar stuff that I never imagined. And it does not do, right, Eric Clapton any compliment to be like, well, he's the best electric guitar player out of all the worship 5-second solos that I know.

Now Eric Clapton is in another category, right? This is what Jesus is saying. This is what Peter is confessing, that Jesus is not the greatest of all. Of a category of great men. He is a new category altogether.

He is the defining reality of the universe come incarnate and walking in flesh among us. This is what Peter is confessing.

15 · The pastor unpacks the first implication of Peter's confession: Jesus is the perfect God-man, not merely a great human being

First, he confesses that he is the perfect God-man, not a great person out of other great men. Kent Hughes says this, "Jesus is the name of God's Son and Christ is his title." So the words Jesus Christ are not like his first and last name. That confession, Jesus is the Christ, is essentially saying God's Son is the anointed one and Messiah. And if you believe that, it changes everything. You do not owe Jesus admiration any longer, You owe him allegiance as your maker and sustainer. Do you see the difference? You feel the difference there? One is somebody that you put on your shelf and say, one is somebody you bow to.

16 · The pastor unpacks the second implication of Peter's confession: Jesus is the truth-teller who sees all reality clearly

Second, he is not just a truth-telling prophet, he is the truth-telling prophet, the truth-teller. Jesus, the maker of all things, is the only one who sees every aspect of reality as it actually is. He's the only one who sees without diminished vision, who can see through everything and sees the goal of everything, sees what's wrong with everything, see the solution for everything. And here's the thing, if you believe this about Jesus, it messes up your life. Because here's the thing, you don't just say, okay, well, Jesus can see these areas better.

Well, how do you know that? Well, I think he does. Instead, you say, "I don't know if I see anything clearly. I think he does," and you use that to reinterpret all of life. It means that there is no area in your life that Jesus cannot tell you what to do.

And you know whether you believe this about Jesus by this question: Does Jesus ever confront you?

Do you ever read the Bible or hear the Bible taught and you think, That's true, what I'm doing isn't, I need to change. Because if Jesus never confronts you, then you're still the source of truth and you think he's a source of truth. But if Jesus is the source of truth, you put your life on the table and say, okay, tell me.

17 · The pastor unpacks the third implication of Peter's confession: Jesus is not merely a miracle worker but the restoring remaker advancing his kingdom into the world

Next, the restoring remaker. Jesus is not just a miracle worker. Listen, a miracle worker sort of does sporadic things to make them a bit better than they are. But what we've seen in the Gospel of Mark is that Jesus is on a mission to restore the world, right? Jesus, through his healing people, restoring sight, restoring wholeness, casting out demons, is in a sense restoring the world back to the garden in this piece and that piece and this piece and that piece, giving glimpses of a remade world that he is bringing through his kingdom into the world again, right? This is a king that's not just doing a bit of good here, a bit of good there, doing what he can. This is a king advancing his rule and his kingdom into a place of darkness and brokenness, bringing light and wholeness.

And if that's the case, you don't turn to him when you're desperate, like, "Oh, I need a miracle, Jesus." It means you turn to him daily. It means you turn to him all the time, saying, "You're doing something. I want to be part of that."

18 · The pastor unpacks the fourth and climactic implication of Peter's confession: Jesus is the King—not a king among others, but the King who fulfills Israel's messianic hope and advances his reign over every corner of creation

And last, he is the King, not just a king, the King. Here's what this would have meant, as summarized by Kent Hughes. He says this: Peter's identifying Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, meant the disciples believed that Jesus was the one Israel had been waiting for since the time of David. David, a superhuman leader who would overthrow Israel's enemies, regather God's earthly people from the four corners of the world, make Jerusalem and Palestine the center of the world, and establish the perfect reign of God. Right? This is not just like, "Okay, I hope you can kind of get us some lower tax situations. Romans are taxing a lot. Could you do something about that?

I'm voting for him." them. That's not Jesus. Jesus is advancing his rule and reign throughout every corner of the world. That's who Jesus is. That's who Peter is confessing that Jesus is.

If you believe that about Jesus, there is no area where you do not bow the knee to Jesus. There is no area of your life that is cut off from Jesus. There is no area in which the one who is preeminent in all all creation will not be preeminent in your life. You owe him, we owe him the totality of who we are, not a tribute, not a, well, here's an area, here's 2 hours on Sunday, here's a, you know what, I'm gonna do something nice for you, Jesus, I'm gonna read my Bible for like 10 minutes a day. Well, that's a big, you know, I could be watching Netflix there, but 10 minutes, here we go.

I'm gonna give up the early NFL games for you, Jesus, you know?

No, we owe the totality of who we are.

19 · The pastor uses the story of watching Hulk Hogan body slam Andre the Giant to illustrate the categorical difference between Jesus and all others

Look, one more illustration here. I'm struggling with illustrations here because this is, the categorical difference between Jesus and everyone else is incalculable, but in light of me being unable to articulate that, I'm gonna use Hulk Hogan, okay? So growing up, I had this one family from the church that they watched a lot of wrestling, and we would play wrestling, you know, sometimes in their backyard. I think they had like a trampoline or something, and so they would do these wrestling moves, and I didn't know anything about wrestling. I wasn't allowed to watch wrestling. Again, I was listening to classical music, so you think I was gonna watch wrestling? My parents are not down for that. And so if somebody had asked me, age 10, who is the best wrestler you know? I would have said Mikey.

Like, he's a little bit younger than some of the other kids, but he flies like nobody else. He is athletic like nobody else. He can take anybody else down, even a big kid, even like a 4th grader, 5th grader, boom, going to the mat with Mikey, Mikey wins, right? I'm picking Mikey, right? And my category for what a good wrestler was, was that. And so if I told Mikey, hey, if I told somebody, you're the best wrestler I know, it would have been sort of a compliment, right? You're better than Mikey is my reference point here? Well, yesterday, flipping through stuff on streaming, I happened across something called, and again, you guys gotta forgive me if you know wrestling, something called WrestleMania 3, in which, this was the concept, Hulk Hogan fights Andre the Giant on live national television, from what I understand. And so I'm watching this match while I'm folding clothes yesterday, and I'm thinking, this'll be fun, I'll just put it on, silly, and so I'm watching it, and as it goes, I'm like, that guy's huge. I mean, so Andre the Giant, like 500-something pounds, 520 pounds, what is he, 7'4"?

Something like that, 7'4", 520 pounds, and I'm like, no way, no way, he's gonna slap people, he just slaps you and you're dead. And so Hulk's coming, and I realize Hulk Hogan is a big guy, he's like, what, 6'6"? '87, something like that. But they're still, their heads are like this, and I'm like, yeah, no way, man, no way, this guy's gonna get slapped around. And again, I'm folding clothes, and I stop folding clothes, and I just become more and more enraptured.

And some of it, you know, this wrestling is kinda cheesy, and I'm like, aha, you know. But at one point, here's the deal, one point in the match, like, I'm not kidding, I physically yelled because, spoiler alert, this is like 30 years old, so I'm not spoiling anything. Hulk Hogan, I don't even know how he did this, Hulk Hogan picks up Andre the Giant, like grabs him under his leg, under his arm, he picks him up and body slams him into the ground, and I yell, "Whoa!" Like, "Oh my goodness!" And in that moment, I realized that at age 10, thinking that Mikey was the best wrestler in the world, could not have been more wrong, right? Like in a world in which this guy exists and like body slams 500-pound men, the best I've got is Mikey, right? No, right?

It's a different category altogether. That is what the Gospel of Mark is saying about Jesus. We do not compare him Compliment Jesus saying, "Well, he's the best of the great men we know. He is a prophet. He is a king.

He's doing a great job." No, he is in a different category altogether. He takes on the combined forces of sin and death and Satan and utterly wrecks them. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the firstborn from the dead who will return to the earth with his eyes flames of fire and a sword coming out of his mouth with a tattoo, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords on his thigh. There is no one like him. He is not like anyone else.

He is not a anything. He is the everything, and he defines reality.

20 · The pastor shifts from exposition to direct challenge, pressing the congregation with the personal question of whether their lives reflect belief in Jesus' preeminence

And the question, brothers and sisters, is do we live like it? Do we live like it?

21 · The pastor reads Colossians 1:15-18 as the definitive biblical description of Jesus' supremacy—the 'tale of the tape' declaring Jesus as the image of God, creator and sustainer of all things, head of the church, and preeminent in everything

Listen to this, Colossians chapter 1.

This is what it says. I loved on before the wrestlers come out, they go, the tale of the tape, and then they start listing off like Hulk Hogan's 24-inch biceps and his thighs are this big and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I'm just like, that guy's a beast, right? Listen to the tale of the tape from Colossians chapter 1. This is what our King is.

He is the image of the invisible God. Visible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things. 'And in him all things hold together.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in,' listen, 'everything he might be preeminent.'

22 · The pastor directly addresses both seekers and Christians, explaining what it means to be a Christian: confessing 'Jesus is Lord' and surrendering every area of life to his rule

Who do you say Jesus is? If it is anything less than that, You don't see Jesus. And let me just tell you, friend, man, if you're not a Christian and you're exploring who Jesus is, this is what it means to be a Christian. One of the early confessions of what it meant to be a Christian was to say, "Jesus is Lord." What that means is that you believe that he's greater than Caesar, he's greater than Herod, he's greater than everything else, greater than any of the ancient gods.

He is the one worthy of your allegiance and you will follow him absolutely. That's what it means to be a Christian. But here's the thing, here's what I hope you've seen. He's worth following. He really is a better king than any other king out there.

And in fact, what it means to be a Christian is to say he's a better king than me of my life. It means to say, man, I'm a sinner, I've turned away from God, I've seen that now. I'm gonna bow the knee, I'm gonna declare him as Lord and Savior of my life, and I'm gonna turn to follow him. That's what it means. And for us as Christians, maybe you've heard Palm Sunday year after year after year, you've heard Jesus, Hosanna, yay, we clap our hands, right?

But here's the question: do we live the reality of Jesus as Lord? Are there areas of our life that we're like, "Not that area, Jesus," right? Look, man, even I do this. I'm hearing a sermon sometimes or reading the Bible sometimes and I can kind of feel like him beginning to put his finger on an area of my life and I'm like, "Whoop, whoop, whoop," you know, like, "Not that one." That's what we tell my son who's like a year and a half. He like reaches for things, we're like, "Not that one." He's like, "Not that one." Right, that's what sometimes I'm telling Jesus.

Like, don't you touch that, don't you touch my money, Jesus. You know, don't you touch my relationships. Don't you tell me to reconcile with somebody I don't like, Jesus, right? But like, I'm happy to go to community group, that's cool for me. Does that work for you?

I think we're good. No. Do we live the reality?

23 · The pastor concludes with the good news of Palm Sunday: the King who deserves to judge sinners instead comes to them in humility, riding on a donkey, to die on a cross and restore his people

Here's the epilogue to the passage today. It's in John 12, we've already read it, but I wanna read it again.

Because here's the good news. Here's the insane news: that the king we most desperately need and the king that we never should have had is the king who has come to us. Look, when you read the reality and realize we as sinners have rejected the rule of King Jesus, we've seen the goodness of his rule and said, "Nah, I'd rather take my rule. I'd rather take sin. I'd rather take my small kingdom than your good kingdom." get that reality, you think Jesus, he should come in utter judgment and justice toward every single one of us as the king, and we should be the guy body slammed into eternity, right?

But Jesus comes like this. John chapter 12. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, and they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, Hosanna. 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.' See, Jesus comes to his people. He doesn't cut his people off.

He comes to us. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as is written, 'Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.' He doesn't come even exalted as he could. He comes in humility. He comes and rides among us. To us.

And his disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The good news of Palm Sunday is the king that we so desperately need, the king that we do not deserve, is the king that comes to us. The greatest of all as the servant of all. The Alpha and the Omega, come to die on a cross to restore his people. That is our King.

Amen.

24 · The pastor closes in prayer, asking God to expand the congregation's view of Jesus beyond small thoughts, that seekers would see Jesus clearly and respond, and that long-time Christians would renew their allegiance to him

Would you stand? Let's pray.

Lord, I pray that this morning you would expand our view of who Jesus the Christ is. Lord, may we not have any small thoughts of Jesus. May we not do him the lip service of thinking he is a great man among many. Lord, may Jesus grow in our eyes this Palm Sunday to the point that he is unignorable, that he defines our reality. He's not just a piece of it.

And I pray that those who are seeking Jesus, exploring Jesus today, would see a clear picture of him and would turn to respond. And I pray that those of us who have followed Jesus for many years would leave today with with a renewed allegiance, that when Jesus rides into our lives, we cry Hosanna, we fall down, we bow the knee, and we owe him our allegiance. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. Well, church, let's close by singing the