Matthew 16:13“Who do people say that

the Son of Man is?”

Matthew 16:13-1413 Now when Jesus came into the

district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others

say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Matthew 16:15-1715 He said to them, “But who do you

say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son

of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you,

Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my

Father who is in heaven.

Three Views

1. Jesus is a myth.2. Jesus is just a man.3. Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is a myth?• Josephus (37-100 AD) Jewish

Historian • Tacitus (56-117 AD) Roman

Historian• Babylonian Talmud (compiled 190-

500 AD)

“Some writers may toy with the fancy of a ‘Christ-myth’, but they do not do so on the ground of historical evidence. The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.”

- FF Bruce

“The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the longest incentive in its practice, and has exerted so deep an influence, that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.”

- W. E. H. Lecky

Things Jesus SaidI am the Good Shepherd – John 10:10I am the judge of man – John 5:27I am the light of the world – John 8:12Requests glory from Father – John 17:5Refers to himself as “I AM” – John 8:58

Jesus Accepted Worship

From the disciples - Matthew 14:33From a blind man - John 9:38From Thomas - John 20:28

Jesus Authority Claims

• Claims all authority Matthew 28:18-19

• Gives new commands John 13:34 • Says his word is eternal Matthew

24:35 • Says HE answers prayer John

14:13-14• Says he can forgive sins – Mark 2 • Says he can raise the dead – John 5

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” ― C.S. Lewis 

What’s your confession?

Matthew 16:24–25 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.