It’s a question we’ll all have to answer!
Maybe you’ve already answered it and it was years ago; maybe you have yet to answer it; but rest assured
we will ALL answer it at some point!
Whether you grew up in church in a Christian family, or maybe you came to be exposed to Jesus much
later in life... we’re all asked that same basic question in life as the disciples, “Who do YOU say that I am?”
The story in the text read a moment ago is a remarkable one. Turn to Matthew 16:13-ff if you’re not
already there. I picture myself there among the disciples. I had grown being told the stories of the Bible;
how God had created the Heavens & the Earth; how he had sent a great flood to destroy the wickedness,
but delivered Noah & his family; how God had done mighty deeds through Moses and prophets who would
follow him... I had been told about Jesus. I could still see the flannel-graph pictures of the baby Jesus lying
in the manger; or him teaching in the synagogue. I had been brought to tears with images of a dying
Jesus hanging on the cross; laboring for just another breath! My parents had made sure that I was in Bible
class; that I behaved in worship; that I participated in youth activities... I knew the answer to most of the
Bible-bowl questions... “Who do others say that I am?” “Well, Jesus, some think you’re really John the
Baptist. Others think you’re Elijah come back.” And there were those who thought him to be Jeremiah or
another one of the prophets. I could tell you what everybody else SAID about Jesus. But then, Jesus
himself, looks me in the eye and says, “But who do YOU say that I am?” What would you say?
Can’t you just imagine the tension in the room at that point? I wonder if there was an awkward silence? I
imagine that there was as the question hung in the air. Nathanael cautiously clears his throat. Andrew
embarrassingly ducks his eyes. John nervously chews on a fingernail. Judas continues picking his teeth.
Who will be the one to answer? Of course, Peter will! And what’s remarkable- this time he gets it right!
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was a bold confession; filled with more meaning than
Peter perhaps realized or intended. But a powerful statement.
We are continuing our series: Jesus, Name Above All Names this morning... We’ve been taking a look at
various names given to Jesus throughout Scripture and seeing our each one gives us a richer and more
full picture of who Jesus is! The very name “Jesus” means “God is salvation.” His name is a promise to
save us! He is “Messiah” or “Christ”; our King & we are his subjects. He is “Immanuel” or “God with us”;
God in the flesh! He is our “Righteous Advocate” who intercedes to the Father on our behalf, pleading our
case before him. And this morning I want us to look at the two titles mentioned of Jesus in this text: “Son
of God” and “Son of Man.”
They seem almost contradictory, don’t they? How can Jesus be BOTH “Son of God” & “Son of Man”?
What do those terms imply? It is obvious from this text in Matthew that BOTH terms are used to describe
Jesus. It is Jesus who asks, “Who do others say the Son of Man is?” referring to himself. The other
gospels make this abundantly clear as they record him saying, “Who do others say that I am?” Then you
have Peter’s dynamic confession that he is the “Son of God!” So what does it mean then to say of Jesus
that he is not only the Son of God, but also the Son of Man? I would say to you this morning: THAT is THE
most profound mystery of the gospel! But it is also the essence of the gospel!
Let’s begin by taking a look at the “Son-ship” of Jesus
In our culture we typically use the term “son of...” to talk about somebody’s origin... where they came from.
“Who’s your daddy?” Its used that way in Scripture to be sure... ex. vs. 17 Jesus blesses Peter for his
great confession and says to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man,
but by my Father in Heaven.” Simon Peter’s daddy was named Jonah. But its also common in Eastern &
Semitic cultures to use the expression to describe a person’s nature. That is why we also get expression
like “sons of light” or “Son of Encouragement” in our Bibles. It is a way to describe what a person is like.
Why do I bring that up? Because I don’t think the primary emphasis in these titles has to do so much with
the biology as it does with the nature of who Jesus is. In other words, Jesus is the Son of God in the
sense that Jesus shares his very essence with God. Now, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit-- not by
man, so in that sense he is also a “son” of God, but I don’t think that’s the primary way we are to
understand the title “Son of God”... not in the same sense that Andy & David are my sons. Let me say it
this way. In biological terms a ‘son’ is an offspring of a father and therefore has a beginning. Jesus isn’t
“Son” in the sense that he was an offspring or had a beginning. We know Jesus is co-eternal with the
Father! He always has been and he always will be! That’s my understanding of John 1:1-3 anyway.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God
in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
(NIV)
In other words- there was never a time when the Word (Jesus) didn’t exist. The Word didn’t have a
beginning in that stable in Bethlehem! It already existed in the very beginning. It just became flesh at that
point in human time! If that’s not confusing enough... try this:
“Why did the Word become flesh?” We know, don’t we?
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)
The word translated “one and only” by the NIV is translated “only begotten” in the old KJV and lends itself
toward misunderstanding. Its not simply saying that Jesus was God’s “only child”, like some of you are
“only childs.” But rather that he was a unique, one-of-a-kind, special “son.” Jesus stands in a relationship
to God that no one else shares! There is a special intimacy with God because they share their very nature;
their very essence. That’s how Jesus can say in John 17 that he and the Father are “one.”
So, by using both the terms “Son of God” and “Son of Man”, Jesus is claiming to share his very nature/
essence with both God and humanity! How? I have no idea! But somehow, Jesus is both fully God
and fully man!
What does it mean that Jesus is fully God?
He doesn’t just claim to be “like God” or some sort of “underling” to God... NO! He claims to BE GOD! I
think we make a mistake when we think of Jesus as half God & half Man. The Bible says, “The Word was
God.” He was fully God! This claim is what got him into so much trouble! When he told the paralytic that
his sins were forgiven and then healed him in Mark 2, the religious leaders were outraged, because only
God can forgive sins and THIS man was claiming to be God!
Jesus is not a created being. WE were created and God is our creator. Jesus was not. He doesn’t owe
his origin or existence to God. He has been with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit from eternity
past! He is fully equal to them in all the attributes of deity! Not very many people in our day deny that
Jesus existed. There’s too much evidence to the contrary. But, the claim to be the divine Son of God has
been a stumbling block to many. Ancient & modern Jews believe he was just a rebellious rabbi. Moslems
believe he was just one of God’s many prophets. But Christians believe that he was the Son of the Living
God!
Do you remember what you confessed when you were baptized? Did somebody ask you what you believe
about Jesus and did you say, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God”? To confess that Jesus is the Son of
God is to acknowledge that he bears the divine nature; that he is the fullness of God in the flesh. That’s
what Peter said, whether he knew it or not in that great confession! Paul would put it this way, “For in Christ
all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col 2:9 NIV) Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?
What does it mean that Jesus is fully Man?
I don’t know about you, but its almost easier for me to accept Jesus as being fully God than it is that he
was fully man! You mean he had the normal aches & pains associated with getting older? Yep. You
mean his feet got dirty and tired and his back ached? Yep. You mean he woke up in the morning with bad
breath and pillow-hair? Probably. When he was a baby, did his mother have to change his diapers; those
swaddling clothes? I’m sure. Does all of that seem somewhat irreligious, or even blasphemous to us? If it
does, perhaps we should think again. What would be blasphemous would be for us to deny that Jesus
was fully human, because that’s what the term Son of Man implies. Jesus shared our very essence/
nature!
It’s telling that Son of Man seems to be Jesus’ preferred term when speaking of himself. Notice here in
Matt. Jesus didn’t ask his disciples, “Who do others say the Son of God is?”, but rather he uses the term
“Son of Man.” Eighty times in the gospels alone the term “Son of Man” is used, and always out of Jesus’
own mouth. Why? Jesus’ mission wasn’t about conquering with power, it was about identifying with
humanity. The miracle of “Immanuel” is that Christ left Heaven to come to Earth to be one of us!
What does it mean to be one of us? To be human is to be subject to time & death. Was Jesus? You bet!
While he only lived to be only 33 or 35, he undoubtedly experienced what it was like to get older. He
certainly experienced one of the cruelest of deaths man has ever devised. To be human is to be weak
and limited. Even though God is all-powerful and all-mighty, he chose to limit himself by becoming man.
To be human is to experience temptation! You mean Jesus was tempted? You bet he was! The Hebrew
writer wrote, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet was without sin.” (Heb 4:15 NIV) Why would God do this?
Hebrews tells us more..
Heb 2:17-18
17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and
faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because
he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (NIV) Simple- to help us;
to save us.
What do we make out of all of this? I hope this has helped us get a better picture of who Jesus really is.
There have been those thru the ages who have had a difficult time seeing Jesus as fully God. In the 2nd
century, some concocted a theory that Jesus was a good man who was “adopted” by the Spirit of God at
the Transfiguration for his great ministry, but then the Spirit of God somehow left him as he died on the
cross, because surely GOD couldn’t experience suffering like that! God would never let himself be hung
on a cross, so surely Jesus couldn’t have been fully God!
There have been others who had just as hard of a time accepting Jesus as fully Man. They saw Jesus as
indeed God, but his humanity was only an apparent or make-believe humanity. He only “appeared” to
come in the flesh. Certainly God couldn’t take fleshly form, could not feel pain, could not experience death,
really! Flesh and the material world were bad. THIS is the heresy that John confronts in 1 Jn 4 and he
calls people who preach this message, ‘anti-christs.”
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,(I
Jn 4:2-3 NIV) That’s the false teaching that John talks about!
What does it have to do with us? Think about it for a moment with me... If Jesus had just been God, he
could create us, but never really understand us. If he had just been Man, he could understand and love
us, but have no power to do anything about it. He could never save us. That’s why God had to become
flesh. That’s why Jesus is God-Man. He at once stands in solidarity with man in all of our brokenness,
and yet has all the power of God to save us from that brokenness! One modern writer put it this way: “He
is strong enough to trust and near enough to touch.” (Lucado, Next Door Savior) That is; when God
wanted to communicate to man, he didn’t shout his Word down to us “from a distance,” but he came to
deliver it to us in person, by becoming “one of us.”
Our God is not a god who created and then sat back to watch his creation spin.
What difference would that kind of god make to me and you? Would it change the way we live? Would it
offer hope to the downtrodden? To the lonely? To the sick and to the dying?
No, we proclaim a God who knows you... who loves you... who understand you... and who became like you
so that you would understand the fullness of that love for you!
So, “Who do YOU say that I am?” The question still hangs...
Have you acknowledged him as the Almighty Son of the living God that he is? Have you made that
confession? Have you praised is majesty and power? Have you put your trust in him as the Son of Man?
Your big brother who understands everything you’re going through because he’s been there himself...
Have yo committed your life to him in baptism?
There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved! That’s because
only a figure who is both Son of God & Son of Man can accomplish it! Only a Son of God & Son of Man is
strong enough to trust, yet near enough to touch.
(Resource: Shelly, Rubel "The Names of Jesus" West Monroe, LA: Howard Publishing, 1999.)
