From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, he shares the answer to the big Question.

Speaker 2

Today we want to talk about the big question, the most important question of all. It's a question that the answer to this question is a determining factor in whether you go to heaven or to hell. And the question is, who is Jesus?

Speaker 1

Jesus of Nazareth. He's the most famous and controversial person of all time. Sadly, many people don't know who he really is and what he really came to do. Multitudes who say they follow him have created a Jesus in their own image to satisfy their own desires. But Jesus is not who many have likened him to be. Have you encountered the real Jesus?

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today as we begin a powerful seven-message series called Encountering the Real Jesus, where Pastor Jeff shares biblical insights to shine the light on the true identity, character, mission, and message of this one called Jesus. He is much maligned and distorted today, as has always been the case, actually. So you need to know the truth and how to share it with others.

This lesson is designed to wake up the church and those who have never experienced the fire that burns inside those who have surrendered their all to him. So let me invite you to now open your Bible to the book of Matthew 16 as Pastor Jeff Shreve begins the lesson that will ask and answer the big question.

Speaker 2

It has rightly been said that life is full of questions. Some questions are difficult to answer. Some questions are more rhetorical in nature, and some questions are just kind of funny. I ran across some questions as I was preparing for this message. Question number one: Why is the word abbreviation so long? Just kind of an interesting little question. Is there another word for synonymous? I don't think there is. How come you never read the headline "psychic wins lottery," something you don't do? Why do we press harder on the remote control buttons when we know the battery is dead? You know you do that. I do that, too. It's like this: If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends? If a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose? Question to ponder.

Well, those are just some funny, silly little questions. But today we want to talk about the big question, the most important question of all. It's a question that the answer to this question is a determining factor in whether you go to heaven or to hell. And the question is this: Who is Jesus? We're starting a new series today titled "Encountering the Real Jesus." You say, well, Jeff, why is the emphasis on the Real Jesus? I mean, isn't there just one Jesus? Well, there is one Jesus. There's one true Jesus. But there are many people who preach a Jesus. As Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 11:4, he told the Corinthians, "Hey, the false teachers came to you and preached another Jesus whom we have not preached." Just because a preacher gets up and opens the Bible and begins to talk to you about Jesus doesn't mean he's talking to you about the real Jesus. There is a real Jesus, and we find out about him when we rightly study and divide the scripture in the word of truth.

John MacArthur shares about a time in his life when he was on a talk show, and he, being the conservative Bible believer, was on there for his point of view. And then they had a liberal theologian on there for the opposite point of view. John said that the liberal theologian kept saying, "Well, you know, my Jesus doesn't do this and my Jesus doesn't do that, and my Jesus would never judge anyone, and my Jesus this and that and the other." And John finally said, "Hey, wait a minute, time out. You don't have a Jesus." He said, "There's just Jesus. There's not my Jesus and your Jesus and his Jesus and her Jesus. There's just Jesus, the real Jesus." And Jesus is who he is. It is so critical that we understand his true identity.

Matthew, chapter 16, Jesus is with the disciples. He's taken them away for a little R and R. They've gone up north, past the Sea of Galilee. Their headquarters was in Capernaum, and they're north, about 25 miles from headquarters, from Capernaum at a place called Caesarea Philippi. It was a place of idols. And in verse 13 of chapter 16, it says, "Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?'" And they said, "Well, some say John the Baptist, and others Elijah, but still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, Simon son of Jonah. Because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."

I want you to notice with me three discoveries, key discoveries in this passage concerning the question, "Who is Jesus? What is the true identity of Jesus?"

Discovery number one: So many people are so woefully mistaken concerning Jesus, so woefully mistaken concerning Jesus and who he is. Now, Jesus asked the question in verse 13, "Who do people say the Son of Man is? Hey, what's the talk on the street? What are you hearing, guys? What's going on in the circles?" Because anywhere Jesus went, there were just a huge crowd of people who... What are you hearing? What are they saying about me? And they said, "Well, you know, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, some say one of the prophets." And those things were... John the Baptist? Well, John the Baptist was dead. Herod had his head cut off. But Herod was the one who said Jesus must be John the Baptist risen from the dead. He believed that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead.

Elijah is talked about in Malachi, chapter four. Elijah is the forerunner of the Messiah. And they say, "Well, some say that you're Elijah because the Lord's going to send Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Messiah of the Lord." And so some say you're Elijah and some say you're Jeremiah, and some say you're one of the prophets. And here's the thing: With all that was said about him, those were all nice things. Far different from the Pharisees who said he's Beelzebul, the prince of demons. That's what they said. But what did the people say? The people said, "Well, there's something about him. We can't put our finger on it. And he's got power. And so maybe he's one of the prophets that has risen from the dead."

Here's the thing: Many people see Jesus as a special man. There's something special about him. I mean, he's got something about him. They don't know what it is. And so they have their ideas. And you hear people today, they're not saying what they said in Jesus' day, that some say Jeremiah and some say Elijah, and some say John the Baptist. People don't say that today. When you ask them the question, "Who is Jesus?" That's what they said in Jesus' day. You ask people today, "Who is Jesus?" Well, he's a good teacher. He's a good moral example. He's somebody really, really special, as some have said, the guide of humanity. He is the highest model of religion. He is the highest pattern of virtue. He is the greatest man. People see him as special, but they miss it by a mile. If you just see Jesus as a good man, you miss who he is. If you just see him as a good teacher, you miss who he is. If you just see him as a good prophet, you have missed who he is. And so many people miss it. They try and just throw some platitudes at Jesus and some praise at Jesus and say, "Oh, yes, yes, he's a very, very good man. He's a very, very good moral teacher. He's a very good example." So they see Jesus.

One group of people, lots in that camp, see Jesus as a special man. The second group of people see Jesus as a crazy man. This guy is off his rocker. He is a nut job. You say, "Well, who thought that?" John 10:20. "And many of them were saying, 'He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to him?'" Well, the things Jesus said would blow them away. And they're like, "This guy, these are hard sayings." You know, he said in John chapter six, told the people when he was wanting to thin out the crowd because they were gathering around him and flocking to him because he fed them. And he was like, "Hey, I didn't come to do that. I didn't come to be your meal ticket and meet your physical needs and you hide your spiritual needs." And so he said to them, speaking spiritual words, he said, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you'll not have life in you." And they said, "These are difficult statements and sayings. And who can accept that? Was he asking us to be cannibals?" And they ceased to follow him. So Jesus would say things and people would just be, "Ah, no way. I mean, you must be a raving maniac." So some people said he was a crazy man.

And then many people, not in the first century, but in our day, they say that Jesus is a make-believe man. He doesn't even exist. He's a myth. Who is Jesus? Jesus is a myth. He's just something someone made up. He didn't even exist. Obviously, that's not what they thought in Jesus' day, because Jesus was there. You're like, "Well, let's go to his house and see the myth." I mean, he's there, you can see him, and Jesus... There are lots of people that saw Jesus, heard Jesus, touched Jesus, were there with Jesus, saw how he interacted with people. Thousands and thousands and thousands. When Jesus came into the city on Palm Sunday, an estimate of 100,000, 200,000 people were there to see him come in that day. But in our day, we say, "Well, no, he didn't really exist, you know, because you can't trust the Gospel accounts. That's not history that you can put any stock in. I mean, you gotta throw out Matthew and throw out Mark and throw out Luke and throw out John. And if you throw out all the Gospels and throw out all the New Testament, then there is no Jesus." And the quote-unquote scholars, that's what they do. They just throw everything out and say, "Well, you can't take what they say because they are his colleagues. And so, of course, they're going to make these statements because they're just trying to propagate this lie."

But what if you had testimony from outside sources? What if you heard from the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus? Cornelius Tacitus lived. He was born in 56 AD and died in 120 AD. He said this: "Christus, the founder of the name," the name he was referring to is Christian, "was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius." Hmm, that sounds a lot like what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John said. And this guy, this is just a Roman historian, Tacitus. How about the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus? He was born in 37 A.D. and died in 100 A.D. He said this: "Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles," outside sources outside of the New Testament, talking about this one named Jesus.

Now you have to crucify your intellect to say that Jesus didn't exist. No honest person coming to the Scripture, coming to the subject of Jesus, can honestly say, "Well, I don't think he existed." You know, the C.S. Lewis challenge was, "Who is Jesus?" And C.S. Lewis, the great professor, said, "Well, Jesus is one of three persons. He's either a liar. He said he was the Son of God and wasn't. He knew he wasn't, but he said he was. He's a liar, in which case then he can't be a good man or a great moral example, because liars aren't good men and liars aren't great moral examples. He said, 'Well, he's either a liar who said he was the Son of God and knew he wasn't, or he was a lunatic.' That's what they said. He's crazy who thought he was the Son of God and wasn't; he should have been in a padded cell, or he was the Lord. Liar, Lord, or lunatic." And some have said, "No, no, no, no, no. You add a fourth choice, and that's legend, because he didn't really live, but he did live. And outside sources confirm that Jesus of Nazareth really did live."

So many people are so woefully mistaken concerning Jesus.

Second discovery: The Bible is so crystal clear concerning Jesus, so crystal clear about Jesus. Now, in verse 13, Jesus asks the question, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" The Son of Man? Jesus is the Son of Man. That was his favorite designation of himself. That's what he called himself most of the time. When he would refer to himself, he'd say, "The Son of Man." The Son of Man emphasizes his humanity. I did a little search this morning for the term Son of Man. That's what God calls Ezekiel 95 times in the book of Ezekiel: "Son of man, go do this. Son of man, go do that." He's talking to Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a priest. He's a man. He's a man. So when Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man, he's very much identifying with our humanity and testifying that he himself is human.

Now you say, "Why was that a big deal?" Well, because Jesus is not just the Son of Man; he is the Son of God. Son of man and Son of God. And that was Peter's declaration. "Who do you say that I am?" "You are the Christ. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Now, the Son of God, that's a totally different thing than saying the Son of Man. They didn't really get mad at him, by and large, the people. Although Daniel has a reference to the Son of Man that is Messianic, about the Son of Man coming in great power. Jesus quoted that before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin: "You're going to see the Son of Man coming in great power," because that's how he referred to himself. And there's a Messianic connection in there.

But the key statement and designation for Messiah is Son of God. You know, they asked Jesus at his trial, "Tell us plainly, are you the Son of God?" "Are you the Son of God?" And Jesus is the Son of God. Now, to understand the Jewish mindset, when he said he was the Son of God, that is saying, "I am God." John, chapter 5, verses 17 and 18: "But he answered them, 'My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.' For this cause, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." When he said, "I am the Son of God," that was calling God his own Father. And it made him equal with God. No Jew would ever call himself the Son of God. The Son of man. Probably not call himself the Son of man as much as a son of man. But son of man, like I said, it was used in Ezekiel over and over and over. Just means that I was born a man. I'm the son of my Father, who is a man.

Son of God: totally different thing. And that's why Caiaphas said to Jesus, "Tell us plainly, are you the Son of God?" And Jesus said, "I am." And the high priest tore his robes and said, "Blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard it yourself." And he said, "What is the verdict?" And they said, "He is guilty of death." Why was Jesus guilty of death in the minds of the religious leaders? Because he blasphemed. Because he said he was the Son of God.

Who is Jesus? The Bible is crystal clear. He is the Son of man. He is a human being and being found, second Philippians, chapter two. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the cross, by becoming obedient to death, even in the form of a cross. He... He's a man. He's the Son of man. But he's also the Son of God. And he is the God-man. He's as much man as though he were not God at all. He's as much God as though he were not man at all, as it says in the Nicene Creed. Very God, a very God. Very man, a very man. Begotten, not made. One in being with the Father, through whom all things were made. He is the Son of man. He is the Son of God. He is the one and only Messiah. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the Christ. You are Messiah. You are the anointed one." I mean, you're not Elijah who is setting the way for Messiah. You are the Messiah. And you're the son of the living God, which means we understand you as being God, as being worthy of worship, because you yourself are God. That was a big statement that Peter made. The Lord commends him. "Blessed are you, Simon barjone." He commends him on that because, "Hey, Peter, you got that right." Peter got a lot of things wrong, but he got that one right. And the Lord said, "Way to go. Way to go."

But here's the thing for the Jews in Jesus' day to understand about Messiah being God. That was a hard concept for them because they saw the Messiah as being the son of David. He is David's son, but he is David's God and creator. He is the God-man, not 50% God and 50% man because that would make him some kind of a monstrosity. He was 100% man and 100% God put together. There'll never be another. Like there is only one Son of God, the Son of God. You and I can become sons of God, children and daughters of God, but we're not going to become the Son of God. That is the Lord Jesus Christ, him and him alone. So the Bible is crystal clear. So crystal clear concerning Jesus.

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve today, and it's a message called the Big Question. We heard part one today, and we'll have part two next time. It's from his series Encountering the Real Jesus. You can find out how to get this inspiring series or just this message by going to promisheart.org and clicking the Listen link.

Now, when we think about Jesus, what comes to mind? Is it the real McCoy, or is it a toned-down idea of Jesus that may sound good but misses the mark? Many Christians have fallen into that trap. They need a revival in their hearts and to get excited about who Jesus is and what He has called us to be and do. When we surrendered our lives to Jesus, we were inducted into the Lord's army and should strive to be good soldiers of the cross. Are you living your life to be a good soldier for Christ?

This month, we're offering a dynamic seven-lesson series to help you do just that. It's called Soldiers of the Cross, and it's our special thank-you gift for your support this month of any amount. With that gift, we'll also send you Pastor Jeff's companion booklet, the Lord's Army, both for your support today. Again, these are our special resources this month to say thank you for your support. The series is available in multiple formats.

Pastor Jeff is a volunteer for From His Heart Ministries and takes no income from the ministry. Everything you give goes to getting these messages on the air on now over 850 radio stations across America and around the world each and every day. To get yours, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE), or you can make your gift online at fromhisheart.org. Request the Soldiers of the Cross series and the Lord's Army booklet.

I'm Larry Nobles, and we trust that you'll be here on Monday as Pastor Jeff Shreve continues with part two of this first message in the Encountering the Real Jesus series. The lesson is called the Big Question. That's on Monday when we'll open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

Speaker 2

There is tremendous truth. There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

From his heart. Is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more@fromisheart.org.