From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, you'll discover the answer to the biggest question of all. Big Questions.

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It has rightly been said that life is full of questions. Some questions are difficult to answer. Some questions are more rhetorical in nature.

But today we want to talk about the big question. And the question is, who is Jesus? Is he a liar? Is he a lunatic? Or is he the Lord?

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He can heal every scar from his heart.

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In life, we all seek answers to many questions. What kind of career should I seek, whom should I marry, where should I live, etc. These are all important questions. But in light of eternity, there's one question that outdoes them all. And that question is, who is the man called Jesus? Why is that such a big question? Because eternity is a long time.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Welcome to the broadcast today, where we continue the rest of this month in Pastor Jeff's seven lesson series, Encountering the Real Jesus. Now, today, he's exploring key truths about the genuine identity of Jesus Christ and dispelling the misleading myths about the one and only known as Jesus.

This lesson is entitled the Big Question. And everyone, including you, will answer this question in your life, one way or another. Now, if you've been a skeptic about Jesus and his deity and so much more, let me implore you to listen to this message and listen with an open mind and an open heart, and he'll speak to you.

Let's find out the consequences you can expect from the answer you select. Open your Bible to Matthew, chapter 16, as Pastor Jeff asks and answers the big question.

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Matthew, chapter 16. 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 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 was just a huge crowd of people. 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. 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 is 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. 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.

The second group of people see Jesus as a crazy man. This guy is off his rock or 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? 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 now. You have to crucify your intellect to say that Jesus didn't exist. 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. The Son of Man. The Son of Man. The Son of man emphasizes his humanity. 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. 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 Barjon. 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's David's greater son. He's kind of in line with Moses. And so they still see him as just a man. Jesus asked them in Matthew 22. You know, they're always trying to talk to trap Jesus, ask him trick questions, you know, stupid questions like, can God make a rock so big that he himself can't lift it? They didn't ask that one per se, but they would ask questions.

The Sadducees came at him in Matthew chapter 22. They don't even believe in the Resurrection. And they ask him this dumb question about a man. He has a wife, and then the man dies. They don't have any children. Then he has all these brothers that end up marrying her, and none of them have children. And he said, in the Resurrection, whose wife will she be? Because they all had her as a wife.

Now, I love Jesus' answer. He said, you are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures or the power of God. I mean, just cut them to the quick. And so they're always trying to do that stuff. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, trying to trap him? And you can't trap the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So he would always turn that around on them. And they'd be like, oh, well.

He asked them a question in Matthew 22. He said, I have a question for you guys. He said, the Christ, whose son is he? I said, well, that's simple. I mean, what kind of a question is that? Everybody knows that. We learned that when we were four years old. The Christ is the son of David. He said, ah, son of David. He said, well then, how does David in the spirit call him Lord when it says in Psalm 110, the Lord, David speaking. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet.

And Jesus said, if David calls him Lord, how then is he his son? And they got deathly quiet. And the Bible said nobody was able to answer him. And nobody dared from that day forward to ask him another question. What a great question. How can Messiah be the son of David and yet the Lord of David? The only way that's true is that Messiah is the God man. 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.

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He.

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He was 100% man and 100% God put together. There'll never be another like Jesus. 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 and discovery number three. Your answer to the question, who is Jesus? Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Your answer is so extremely critical concerning Jesus.

You know, there are lots of people, lots of churches in our community and in other cities, and they'll say, oh yeah, we believe in Jesus. There are people that will go out on their bikes and knock on your door. Do you believe in Jesus? Oh yes, we believe in Jesus. Of course we believe in Jesus. He is our Lord. He is our Savior. And they tell you all these things, and you think, hey, that sounds good. But they don't tell you what they believe about the true identity of Jesus. And they don't think it really matters all that much.

There’s historical Christianity, orthodox Christianity, and the belief that Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son, co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. God exists, one God who exists in Trinity. And the mark of every false cult is they will deny the Trinity. They deny that and they deny the full deity of Jesus Christ. They'll call him Lord, they'll call him Savior, but he is God with a little gift. He's an exalted man. He's a created being, as in Mormonism, he is the spirit brother of Lucifer. Well, that's not who Jesus is. That's another Jesus whom we have not preached, as Paul would say.

And the question can be asked, well, does it matter if you just get it a little wrong? I mean, is that just a little wrong? That's not a little wrong to say that Jesus is God with a little gift? Jesus is God, and it's hugely important. Jesus said in John chapter 8, "You belong to this world here below, but I come from above. You are from this world, but I am not from this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins, and you will die in your sins if you do not believe that I am who I am." It says that's in the Good News Bible. In the New American Standard Bible, the one that I use most of the time, Jesus said, "Unless you believe I am," says "I am he," but the "he's" in italics, which means it wasn't really there. He says, "Unless you believe I am, you will all die in your sins."

Now, what does that mean, unless you believe I am? Hey, I am is the most sacred, special, holy name for God. That was the name given at the burning bush to Moses. God, what is your name? I am who I am. You tell the children of Israel I am has sent you. Well, when the Lord in John chapter eight used that, and he said, "Before Abraham was born, I am." Well, they picked up stones to stone him. Why? Because he's claiming to be God, the Great I Am. And he's saying in John 8, "Unless you believe that I am who I am, you will all die in your sins." It's not a minor thing. It's not a little thing to say, well, I just got it a little bit wrong concerning Jesus.

That'd be like being on an airplane that's going down and there's one backpack that has a parachute in it, another backpack that has an algebra book and a social studies book in it. And you say, well, both backpacks look pretty good to me. They look similar. I guess it doesn't matter which one you take. Well, it doesn't matter if you want to live, I guess. But if you want to land safely, the algebra book and the social studies book aren't going to help you. I don't care how much they look the same on the outside. What's inside is what matters.

Some years ago, during the 2012 election, Mitt Romney was the candidate for the GOP. And people were asking questions because Mitt Romney is a Mormon. And people were asking questions about Mitt Romney's Mormonism. And the question came up to the largest pastor in America. And this was the question, is a Mormon a true Christian? Here was the answer. In my mind, they are. Mitt Romney has said he believes in Christ as his savior. And that's what I believe. I'm not the one to judge the little details of it. I believe they are.

I about fell out of my chair when I saw that. You're the pastor of the largest church in America, and you think the difference between Mormonism and Christianity, between another Jesus versus the Jesus that we preach versus the Jesus in the Bible is a little different detail? That's an important issue. Who Jesus is really, really important. Because unless you believe that I am he, you will all die in your sins and go to hell. And you haven't studied that. You haven't taken the time to investigate that. It's just not on your radar screen. I don't understand that at all.

Hey, the answer to that question, who is Jesus? Is extremely critical. And notice this, only God can reveal the true identity of Jesus to you. Blessed are you, Jesus said to Simon when he said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. You know what that says? That says that you can't by your own human understanding and reasoning ingenuity figure out the true identity of Jesus. God has to reveal that to you.

That's a spiritual truth, that the spirit of the living God has to open up your eyes and open up your heart to where you see that. You know, if you are left to your own devices and you do a thorough study of the scripture, without the Holy Spirit of God illuminating your eyes and opening your eyes, you'll believe what the cults believe. You'll believe what the Pharisees believed, who were the guys who were supposed to be Jesus. They said, "You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life, and it's the scriptures that speak of me, but you refuse to believe."

You know, John said in John chapter 12, though he had done so many miracles in their midst, yet they were still refusing to believe in him. I mean, what else could he do? They wouldn't believe. You know, they said when Jesus was on the cross, "Come down from the cross if you're the Christ, and we'll believe on you." And you know, if Jesus had come down from the cross, number one, they wouldn't have anything to believe in because he couldn't be the Savior. But number two, they wouldn't believe no matter what he did.

When it was reported to the chief priest that Jesus had risen from the dead, when the soldier said, "Hey, we saw the angel and he was sitting on the stone and there was an earthquake and he wasn't there and we became like dead men," they said, "Ah, just say the disciples stole the body. That's what we'll say. That's the story we'll go with." They refused to believe. And these guys who are supposed to be so smart and know the scripture, they looked at Jesus, they saw his miracles, and they said, "He is Beelzebul, the prince of demons." Who is Jesus to them? Beelzebul, the prince of demons, the Lord of the flies. That's what Beelzebub means, and that's what they came up with.

Listen, God has to open a person's eyes. That's why if you have a friend, a neighbor, a loved one who is lost, doesn't know Christ, maybe hard-hearted, is mad at God and the concept of God, you have to pray for most of all that God would soften that person's heart and open that person's eyes to the truth. Because Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 that the God of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The devil blinds eyes. He'd say, "Oh God, open those blind eyes so that people would see who Jesus really is."

Peter Jennings, about 10 or 15 years ago, had a program called the Search for Jesus, and he talked to every liberal theologian that he could find trying to find who Jesus is. You'll never find who Jesus is when you reject the Bible accounts of who Jesus is, when you won't believe, when you're like the Pharisees and no matter what kind of evidence you find, you just refuse to believe. You're never gonna find Jesus, and God won't help you. Because once God presents his Son to you and shows you he is the way, the truth, and the life, he's not a good man. He's the God. He is the only savior of the world. And you say, "No thanks, I don't like that revelation. I'm going to go find another one." There is no other one.

You're going to believe all sorts of stuff because the Lord showed you, and you said no. Only God can reveal the true identity of Jesus, and only you can respond for you concerning Jesus. Only you can respond for you; I can't respond for you. Your wife, your husband, your mom, your dad, your kids, they can't respond for you. No priest can respond for you. Only you can respond for you. Sin is personal, and so is salvation. And if you don't respond to Jesus for who he really is, no one can do it for you.

C.S. Lewis said Jesus Christ is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. You have to decide: is he a liar, is he a lunatic, or is he the Lord? And when you see him as Lord, you bow your knee with Thomas and say, "My Lord and my God."

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve and the lesson today, the Big Question. So what about you? Have you answered that question in your own heart? Have you bowed your knee and your heart to the one and only Lord Jesus Christ? If Jesus is the Lord and Savior of your life, when God looks upon you, he sees only the righteousness of His Son. He doesn't see your sin. If you don't know Jesus in a personal way, he is calling you out to that right now to come to him and sincerely and repentantly cry out from your heart. Through your repentance and faith, your sin will not only be erased, but forgotten by God.

If you want to know more about what this decision really means, we invite you to go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link. It's on our homepage, and there we'll have lots of information from Dr. Shreve and resources for you to help you understand and surrender it all to him. Today's message was called the Big Question from Pastor Jeff's series Encountering the Real Jesus, which will be airing for the rest of this month.

From His Heart is the broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, who's been the pastor of a dynamic and rapidly growing church in Texarkana, Texas, and has been the senior pastor there since 2005. He began the broadcast ministry of From His Heart, a separate nonprofit ministry now reaching into 182 countries around the world on TV and heard around this nation and around the world on 850 stations across America and online all the time everywhere.

For your gift today to From His Heart, we'd like to say thank you by sending you his seven-message series that we aired earlier this month called Soldiers of the Cross and the companion booklet The Lord's Army, both for your gift of any amount. Call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org to make that gift and request this month's special thank you gifts.

God bless you for joining with us to share the good news to a world that is desperate for real truth. And thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll be able to be with us next time when Pastor Jeff continues this important series with another message about encountering the real Jesus. That is when he'll open up God's Word and share real truth, love, and hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

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

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at fromhisheart.org.