“Who Do You Say I Am?” | Matthew 16:13–20

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. My

name is Chris, this is Jeff, and we are pleased

to be here with you.

We are so happy and.

We're excited that you tuned in. And we're starting a

brand new series this week. And the idea is, what

if Jesus had.

A podcast, had his own podcast, Yeah, and he'd say

all kinds of good stuff, wouldn't it be fun? Well?

You know what, turns out he did say all kinds

of good stuff. He did, and it still works today.

And so we're doing famous quotes of Jesus, not all

of them, but maybe fifty or sixty of them, and

we're going to dive into I don't even know what

today's is. What's today's quote?

Today's quote is who do you say I am?

Oh, that's a good one. One. Do you say that

I am?

You say I am?

Yep?

Yep. But before we jump into that one, you know,

we are committed to bringing the most important news and.

Advice, always dedicated to.

Our listeners, and we scour the internet looking for the

very best advice and the very best news, and we

think that the most authoritative and least biased news.

Did you realize that all of our faithful listeners know

exactly what you're gonna say.

It's the Babylon B that's on the whole internet. The

Babylon B is the most reliable source. And this one

today is it's ade for some of the listeners, the

single ladies, all the single ladies that listen that one

Ore podcast.

You know that song?

What's that?

You said you didn't know a single Beyonce song, but

that one?

You know what's that?

If you like it, then you should have put a

ring on it?

Oh yeah, I know that? Okay, So I do. I

guess I don't know the song, but I'm familiar with it.

Okay.

I couldn't sing it, but yeah, okay. And that came

up from a conversation we had where I said I

don't know a thing.

Yeah, sorry, that was sort of offline. Yeah, it was

an offline conversation.

I brought in Beyonce song, but I'm familiar with that one. Okay.

So this one is ten dating red flags women should

look out for, right and so ladies, this is helpful

for you're writing it.

I'm actually caring. We care, We do care.

We care about our lady listeners, especially our single lady listeners.

We want to make sure that they find good, godly men.

And this here it is. Here's what it says. The

dating scene is tough these days, with everyone using dating

apps to meet and hook up. It's important for women

to be careful about the guys they choose. Protect yourself

by keeping a close eye out for those very concerning

warning signs in the guy you're dating. So look out

for these ten dating red flags. Number one, Yep, he

doesn't open the door for you. So much for chivalry.

Oh these are serious?

Yeah, yeah, okay. Number two he does open the door

for you. He's too nice, sick right, Okay, these are

not serious. Number three he doesn't text back. He clearly

hates you and is being unspeakably cruel.

He should die, he should die, Oh my goodness.

Number four he texts back right away. What a weirdo.

He's so needy. So look out for these, ladies.

Hey, you know what, these are the thoughts that men

rush a should I wait? Maybe I'll text your but

I'll wait a day.

Yeah, so even our male single mail listeners. Care learning

from you? Oh, complete take as a cue, open the

door and don't open the door. That's right, reply, but

not too soon. Here's number five. He makes less than

five hundred k a year.

Oh my goodness.

Right, you need a man who can give you the

lifestyle you deserve, ladies, that's funny. Number six he makes

more than five hundred k year. Sounds like a workaholic.

Stay away, ladies, that's great. Number seven he works out

at the gym. Right, this is something look for. He

works out the gym. This might indicate an unhealthy obsession

with his appearance. Gross he doesn't work out at the gym.

Who wants a flabby dude who doesn't take care of himself?

It's gross, it's true.

So medium, So medium yourself.

He won't share his feelings. Number nine he's closed off.

He's hiding something from you. And he's probably a serial killer.

Wow wow, Well you know he should die if he texts.

Yeah, and he's probably a serious killer. And number ten,

here's the number ten thing to look out for. He

shares his feelings. Great, now you have the itch again,

so they go Yike's ladies, If you see any of

these red flags run. Do you know any other dating

red flags? Then you should let us know in the comment.

Wow, there you go.

Wow, I hope that was helpful.

Clearly dating is a very simple formula.

That's right. Oh it's super easy. Yeah, super easy. That's right.

He doesn't open the door, he does open the door.

He makes too much money, doesn't make enough money, It

works out too much, doesn't work out enough.

Have you seen you know? That five hundred k comment

reminded me. Have you seen these guys who go viral?

They just walk up to crowds of people and they

have these recordings and they say, hey, let me ask

you a question. So they were interviewing women, women who

are like sort of I don't know if it's in

La or something, but these women look like they're like

sort of on on the town. You know, they're they're

on the town. They're all dressed up with you know,

like dresses and things, and these these men walk up

to them and they just ask them random questions. And

so the famous thing that that's so funny. He goes,

so let me ask you a question. How tall? If

you have you have a preference the guy you're looking for,

how tall should he be? And everybody says over six

foot okay. And then they say, okay, how much does

he need to make in order for him to, you know,

for you to consider being your husband? And all of

them say two hundred and fifty or more two d

and fifty thousand or more, right, And and then they

ask a third question. I don't know what it is,

something generic like that, and and and then they look

it up and they go, okay, do you know what

percentage of men in the world are your descriptors? Three percent?

And they're like, like, if you need a man, who's who?

Say who's over six foot? And it makes over two

hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That's three percent of the world.

They said, So good.

Luck, good like good luck. Well there you go.

It's so hilarious.

Well, so this this article is all about trying to,

you know, really understand who it is that you're dating

and who you're marrying. Did Liz work really hard to

figure out who you were?

I would yeah, I would say so sure, Yeah.

That's good. You know, Jesus wanted people to figure out

who he was. Who do you say, I am wow?

That what he said?

What a clever, and yet you reached for it. Yeah.

Yeah, I had to reach. I had to reach a

little too far or was it far?

Yeah?

Yes, if you're a new listener, we try really hard

to have the worst possible transitions. Yes, out of these things.

But we are looking at when Jesus asks Peter, who

do you say I am? Yes, And that's a huge question.

I think that is relevant to all of us. So

it's in Matthew chapter sixteen, and we're going to start

in verse thirteen and read through. Verse twenty says when

Jesus came to the region of Cessareah Philippi, he asked

his disciples, who do people say that the son of

Man is well? They replied, some say John the Baptist,

and some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one

of the other prophets. And then he asked them, but

who do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered,

you are the Messiah, the son of the Living God.

And Jesus supplied you are blessed Simon of John, because

my Father in Heaven has revealed this to you. You

did not learn this from any human being. And now

I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock.

And upon this rock I will build my church, and

all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And

I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven.

Whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

And then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell

anyone that he was the Messiah.

So there's a lot of discussion around this passage, Yeah,

there is, Yeah, there's discussion.

Well. So, Cesarea Philippi is located several miles north of

Sea Galilee, in an area that was ruled by King

Herod's son Philip. So Cesarea Philippi. Right, So Philip built

this this city, and it was a wicked, wicked city,

and it had been even before he built the city.

There there had been a lot of ritual worship from

the Canaanites and from the Greeks and then finally the Romans.

And this is the place, if any of our listeners

have heard us talk about it before, this is where

a part of the Jordan River flows out of this

this this cave. But the cave had a bottomless pit

in it and in Greek and Roman beliefs, bottomless pits

often would reference the gates to Hell, and they believed

that people or that spirits could come from the afterlife

back into this realm through water coming up from deep places.

And so they this cave that this river flowed out

of that had this bottomless pit in it. Uh that

had this river. There was also a square giant rock

out in the middle of it, and they would do

sacrifices there and they called that whole place the gates

of Hell. Right.

I referenced this with Kyle. Yeah, I got him confused.

I said something about Gehenna. I was oftentimes, you know,

Hell was referred to as something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And

I was like, and I got confused for a minute,

but I was thinking of this, I was, I said,

I said, isn't there a town somewhere? I just felt

like I couldn't think of the town.

So that was this. So Jesus literally takes these And

by the way, the worship there was incredibly perverted. H

There was a lot of temple prostitution, and a lot

of animals and all kinds of stuff. It was. It

was really really a wicked place. So do you remember,

for anybody who's read through the Gospels a few times,

there's this references of like Jesus doing his ministry mostly

on the western and northern sides of the Sea Galilee,

and then they would reference the ten Cities or the

decapitalists is another thing, right, and it was these gentile

cities over on the eastern side, and so the good

Jewish kids would never go that direction. The good Jewish

people never went over there. That's where the pigs were.

That's where all of the stuff that they couldn't participate

or wouldn't participate in that would defile them. And then

Cesarea Philippi was the most wicked place, and Jesus takes

his disciples there right before he goes to Jerusalem to

give his life. He starts heading towards Jerusalem. And so

in that context, he's telling them, hey, listen, no matter

how bad it gets, the gates of Hell will never

be able to prevail against against you guys.

Right, yeah, and so against yeah. And so it's interesting

how first of all he says, who do you say

that I am? Because there's rumors out there, right, you know,

which is I think the rumor of John the Baptist

was weird because John the Baptist was still alive during

the time, right, so you know, it's.

Like, oh, no, John the Baptist had already been executed

at this point.

Oh he do you really? Yeah, okay, but but oh

I guess I guess the reason why that's weird thought

Jesus was born and seen with John the Baptist. Right,

That's that's that's what I was meaning.

Yeah, they were saying, it's like you have the spirit

of John the Baptist in you kind of as what right, right?

And and so anyway, I think that that is a

little weird, you know that they would even say John

the Baptist, but some people must have thought that. And

then also others say reincar reincarnate, reincarnation of Elijah or Jeremiah,

or maybe in the spirit of or you know, just

all these weird rumors. People didn't know what to believe. Uh,

and and and Jesus was uh asking one of the

most prominent questions, which is which is, Hey, I want

to know what you think. And that's a question that

all of us have to face for ourselves, don't we

We have to ask ourselves, like in light of the

fact that everybody my phone. I put it on airplane mode.

What what is it doing? Why is it doing this?

Why it's on airplane mode? I don't know. I thought

airplane moment. Stop it.

Well, you got to turn off you have both oh

Wi Fi there it is, okay, So it's a user error.

So anyway, the point is is that we all have

to wrestle with the fact that, uh, you know, regardless

of who people think Jesus is around us, we have

to answer that for ourselves. Who is Jesus to you? Right?

That's why it's such an important question. Who do you

say that I am? And then Peter gets the right answer,

ding ding ding ding ding right, and and then he

says this. Then he says, you are Peter, uh, and

he's no longer Simon right blessed, or you Simon son

of John. But then and now I'm going to give

you a new name, Peter, which means rock. It actually

translates into stone, like a stone that you can hold

in your hand. Right. And then he says, you know

this was revealed to you by your heavenly father. And

then he says on this rock and he and this

time he uses a different word for the word rock

in the Greek. This this word rock when he when

he says on this rock is the is the word

that is used to describe mountain side or cliff right

on this rock. And it's interesting because a lot of people,

I mean, this is what the Catholic Church is built on,

I should say, the structure of the Catholic Church. Right,

So he says on this rock, So the Catholic Church

would say that Peter was the first pope. He was

given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and it

was given to Peter specifically, and then on on Peter

is the church built. And so that structure of the

pope being in charge of the church. They would say

that the pope that was just elected was in you know,

direct succession to Peter. And which is really interesting coming

from this verse. But if you if you, if you

were to take other scholars, in fact, any scholar outside

of I would say the Catholic Church, they would say

that the rock that that you're going to build your

church on is a different Greek word than the stone

that you hold in your hand, and the mountain side

or the big huge cliff side thing that you would

build a church on would be the statement that Peter

actually made. So the little rock made a big rock statement, right,

so that the stone made a mountain statement. He came

up with it, that was revealed from his father in heaven.

And if you think about it, what is the one

thing that the church Capital c is built upon?

Right, I mean, he's the messiahs Yes, I've described it before.

The Greek word for Peter is almost pebble, yes, right,

stone you can fit in your pocket, right, right, kind

of pebble.

Yes.

And then the Greek word that Jesus uses, or the

word that Jesus is using for on this rock is

like rocket gibraltar size, yes, right, yes, he said this

little pebble made this rocket gibraltar statement. That's right, And

that's what the church is going to be built on.

That I am the Messiah, the son of the Living God.

Yeah. And if you think, if you think about it.

And that's why he warned them, don't go tell people

I'm the Messiah. He doesn't say, don't go tell people.

I just made Peter in charge of the church, right,

He doesn't say that, He says, don't make don't tell

anybody I'm the Messiah. That's how this passage ended. That's right, right,

So the whole thing was never all about Peter. It

was only all about Jesus.

That's right, right, that's right. Yeah, and and and again

there's you know, we we try to honor a lot

of great things about every nomination every church. Right, is

really clear that the Catholic Church has done great things

for the human race over the years, there's no doubt

about it. But some you know, some pretty bad things.

But also it's also clear when you have a when

you have a fundamental belief difference, right now, I don't

think we should be afraid to point that out. And

I think that so again, no disrespect in that disagreement, right, So.

Anybody misapplication of this passage.

That's that's what we believe. That's correct. And by the way,

think about it. Right, So, if we were to gather

all of the churches in the area, we would disagree

on a lot of things. What makes a church a church, Well,

a church is only a church if they believe in

Jesus Christ as the way to heaven. Right. If a

church preaches that the way to heaven is that Jesus

Christ came down on the earth to die for the

sins of humanity and that all we have to do

is believe and accept that sacrifice by faith in our lives.

That's the way to heaven. Then that constitutes a church.

But there are churches who disagree, you know. So we

had all the church leaders and let's just say in

all of Michigan in this room, because we're on a

we're on a stage of a very large room, seven

hundred and fifty chairs. In this room, you would have differences, right,

people would baptize different, they would send kids to different colleges,

they would probably dress different, right, they would, they would,

they would, They would have differences in in uh, you know,

all these different different, different, different, different, different across the line.

But if you put us all in one room, what

is the one thing that we agree upon. Jesus is

the Messiah. He is the son of the Living God,

and that is what God is going to build his

church on. That is the thing that is prevalent in

this world two thousand years later. That's the thing we

can measure, that's the thing we can see, that's the

thing that has power. That's the thing that the church

is built upon. So clearly, that is the application of

what Jesus is saying.

You know, in the Middle Eastern mindset, they can say

two things at the same time, you know. So, so

the Western mindset, very oftentimes is very linear. A leads

to B, leads to C, leads to the one goes

to two goes to the If this, then this that.

That's how the Western mind tends to think. But the

Middle Eastern mind and in Jesus way, he can be

and they don't have any problem with double entendres all

the time. Yeah, all the time. They mean two things

at the same time and both are true. And so

this little rock made, this Rock of Gibraltar's statement, I'm

the Son of God, right, I'm the Messiah. That's what

we're going to build the church on. And at the

exact same time, he does hand Peter the keys and say, no,

you're going to be the leader.

That's right.

He's saying both things, little Rock, I'm gonna use you

to push forward the big Rock mission. Right that that

that's what he's doing. And and so the whole idea

being a Christian is that we're little Christs. It's the

same thing. And so he does give Peter the keys.

In fact, in the papal things. There's always the two

keys right in the papal seal, that kind of thing.

So he does give Peter these keys, not as the boss,

but as the leader. And it would make responsibility, Yes,

with responsibility. It makes sense because you remember, Peter was

older than Jesus. More than likely history would put Peter

somewhere around forty. John, the youngest of the disciples, was

a teenager, probably fifteen sixteen years old when Jesus called him. Right,

So all these men, when Jesus had to pay taxes,

he was over thirty and Peter was over thirty, right,

And they were the only two they had to go

pay taxes, right, So all the rest were younger. They

were younger men. So it's natural that Jesus would choose

the oldest of them, the most experienced of them, the

grown up among them. You're going to be the leader.

But the focus of this passage, even he's also appointing

Peter as a leader. Here, the focus of the passage

is not Peter, you are the central focus of my church.

The focus is the central focus of the church is

I'm the Messiah. Now, don't go tell anybody yet, correct,

because I haven't died. Well, it starts and ends with

Jesus being the Messiah, and there's also a secondary statement

of you're going to be a leader in my church.

Well, there's two ways to pass on keys. Yeah, I

can give you the keys to my home and say

now you own this, good luck and I'm leaving. Or

there's a way to say, hey, man it, I own this,

but you're going to manage it, right, because because you

have now the responsibility exactly, So, either Martha Ford is

going to hand you the keys to Ford Field and

either she's going to give it to you and you're

gonna make the papers, or you're going to be the

guy who opens and closes doors. And man, you know,

and and and and uh, you know somehow blesses the

entire city of Detroit, right because you own. Because you own,

you manage the keys. And we all know that Jesus

is the head of the church. Jesus doesn't walk away

from the church. Jesus says I'm going to build the church.

He doesn't say you're going to build the church. He says,

I'm going to build the church. And and and so

we all know that Jesus is the head of the church.

So yeah, it's it's it's the application is is pretty

you know, pretty applicable to the way that every church functions,

right now, that's right, Yeah, so, which is great. And

then and then Jesus then, uh, you know, he actually

doesn't reveal himself as the Messiah until what the woman

at the well right? Or had he already done that? Well, oh, he.

Probably already got he'd already done that. This is now

once they make this turn, they're heading back back towards Jerusalem.

He's on his way to die. So and he's now

heading towards Jerusalem.

Yeah, I was picturing this was I guess it is

Matthew sixteen, isn't that so?

But it really comes down to this main question, and

this is how we can wrap up. He said, who

do you say I am? And I think even a

lot of people who show up in Christian churches have

a different view of Jesus than Jesus was hoping they

would have of him. A lot of people have Jesus

as he's the one that can get me to Heaven.

He's the one that can answer my prayers. He's the

one that is the founder of my religion, as opposed

to the statement was the Messiah, the son of the

Living God. The Messiah came to seek and to save

that which was lost. He's a savior. Behold the lamb

of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John the Baptist said, he's literally the savior of the world.

And so there is no significant relationship with Jesus until

we realize we're sinners that need a savior. We are

sinners that needed a Messiah. We needed somebody to come

and rescue us. And until I know, until I come

to the fact that I realized I need to be rescued,

I'm not really experiencing Jesus in this way, right, and

so I needed the Messiah first and foremost. All the

other things are extras. He's not just my good luck

chime that answers my prayers. It makes me feel good

when I go to bed at night. He is the Messiah.

He's the one who came on a rescue mission to

save me, which means I needed saving. And until I

get to that point where I can humble myself and

say I needed a savior, I'm not really going to

experience what Jesus came to do for me. Yeah, and

so that question, who do you say, Jesus is you

got to get to that answer.

Yeah, so he's our savior based on this statement, and

then Jesus himself and John in the Book of John says,

I have not called you servants, but I've called you friends.

So he's also a friend. His personal relationship Jesus, right,

you know, Paul says that he's.

There is no personal relationship until I realized I needed

to do the Messiah.

That's right. Saviors first, Yes, saviors first. Then's friend, right,

and then then then Paul says, he's also are we're

children of God?

Right?

So we're a child of God, we're heirs, we're airs

of him. Right.

So I mean there's all of all of those things

after point where he's our savior.

That's right. Yeah. So so the most important statement right right.

That's that's why this question is so important. Who do

you say? Because he's asking who are you? And John

the Baptist is this great preacher? You just a really

famous preacher. Elijah represents the prophets, right, Jeremiah prophets Uh.

That that's what they're saying, is man, you're just you're

as good as as as all these other great prophets

and he goes, but really, who do you say, am?

And there's a difference between being a religious leader and

being the savior of the world, the Messiah. So yeah,

that's great, that's where you got to get to first.

Okay, well, hey, hopefully you're enjoying this series and we

will see you next time on the Bible Guys,