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God's Questions
Who Do You Say I Am?
Message Notes
Matthew 16:13-20 (NIV)
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
The Question:
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” — Matthew 16:15
The journey to Caesarea Philippi marks a deliberate, thirty-mile uphill trek from the Sea of Galilee to the rugged foothills of Mount Hermon, orchestrated by Jesus to draw His disciples away from the crowds and confront the ancient world’s most daunting spiritual strongholds. Upon arrival, the disciples were met with a visual assault of pagan idolatry and imperial propaganda, as the region, then known as Paneas, was the premier center for the worship of the goat-god Pan and featured a gleaming white marble temple dedicated to the divine authority of Caesar Augustus. Carved directly into a towering pink limestone cliff were deep niches housing occult idols, all centered around a massive, seemingly bottomless natural cavern from which the headwaters of the Jordan River burst forth. Local pagans viewed this terrifying abyss as a literal portal to the underworld, dubbing it the ‘Gates of Hades’ and using its depths for gruesome animal sacrifices to appease their deities. It was directly in the shadow of this imposing cliffside, surrounded by centuries of dark mythology and imperial might, that Jesus asked His disciples, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ By eliciting Peter’s confession of Christ as the Son of the living God in this exact location, Jesus drew a sharp line between dead idols and true divinity, boldly proclaiming that the foundation of His church would aggressively storm and shatter the very gates of hell and death (Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, 2009).
The Confession:
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” — Matthew 16:16
“You are the Answer, the point, the last Word, the Meaning. You are it.” (Frederick Dale Bruner Translation of v. 16, Matthew: A Commentary — Volume 2: The Churchbook, 2004, translation of v. 16)
The Keys:
“Wherever Jesus is pointed to with faith in his ultimacy, there doors swing open to life” -Bruner, Matthew
“The Church is always dying, yet somehow it survives. It is always being defeated, yet it always wins. For its life comes not from the world, but from the One who overcame the world.” (G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, 1925)
