Who Is Jesus to You?

Luke 9:7–9 says: “Herod the tetrarch heard about all the things Jesus was doing, and he was perplexed, because some were saying, ‘John has risen from the dead’; others, ‘Elijah has appeared’; and still others, ‘One of the prophets of old has risen.’ And Herod said, ‘I had John beheaded; who, then, is this man about whom I hear such things?’ And he sought to see him.”

That passage takes place halfway through Jesus’ ministry. The Lord has already spent a considerable amount of time walking through all the different places—the villages, towns, and cities—ministering to the people’s needs, teaching them about the truths of the kingdom and the principles of the kingdom, teaching them how to live according to the principles of the kingdom so that they could please the Father, healing the sick, and setting free those who were oppressed by evil spirits.

The Lord had already been doing that for a little while. And for an example of that, let us go to Luke 6:17–19 to see an example of it, of the Lord’s walk.

“…And he came down with them—that is, he came down with the Apostles, with his disciples—and stood on a level place in the company of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who had been tormented by unclean spirits were healed, and all the people tried to touch him because power was coming from him and healing them all…”

That was Jesus’ ministry, repeated time after time wherever he went. So what Jesus did was shake all of Palestine. Palestine was no longer the same as before, because Jesus was there doing all the things we have just read about.

He had performed miracles and healings, people were being set free, and he had confronted the hierarchy and the religious system of his day, which were teaching things contrary to the Word of God. So none of that went unnoticed by anyone, much less by the chief ruler of Galilee, who was called Herod the tetrarch.

And who was this man? He was the son of Herod the Great, and if you remember Herod the Great, he was an extremely bloodthirsty man and ruler. He had no problem whatsoever killing multitudes, and that is precisely what he did. He was the same ruler who ordered all the children in Bethlehem two years old and younger to be killed. Why? For the simple reason that the kings from the East had said that, according to their Scriptures, this was the King of the Jews and that he had been born around that time. So Herod made a calculation: about two years—well, let us kill all the children two years old and younger. So that was the father of the Herod we are talking about, Herod the tetrarch.

And the apple did not fall far from the tree. The Herod we are concerned with today was not a good man either, just like his father. He was the man who, because of a mere whim of his illegitimate wife, Herodias, ordered John the Baptist to be beheaded. So he was not a good person.

But his curiosity had been piqued. He had heard about Jesus, about the miracles, about all this upheaval in Palestine, and his curiosity was piqued. He recognizes that the works this Jesus is doing are not natural or normal things. There was an element of the supernatural in what Jesus was doing among the people. Because I imagine Herod thought, “But how does this man make paralytics get up and walk? How is it that the blind see? How is it that the deaf hear? How is it that the dead have been raised?” In other words, this clearly cannot be the work of an ordinary man.

And he reasons about what some are saying—that it is John who has risen. Remember that he had beheaded him. I believe the blood of John the Baptist is still fresh on his conscience. He still has it right here… because it had not happened very long before this. And he declares, perhaps for his own peace of mind, in order to reassure himself, “This Jesus cannot be John, for I myself had him beheaded; it cannot be the same man.”

And then, upon failing to find an answer that satisfies him, he asks his question, a crucial question. He says, “Who, then, is this man?” That is Herod’s question: Who, then, is this man?

Herod asked the right question, but unfortunately his motivation was not right. He was a bloodthirsty, hard, hard-hearted man who did not really want to make changes in his life. It was a question asked as if to say, “Let us just throw it out there, but I do not really want anyone to confront me.” He had no genuine interest in what Jesus was doing, but rather a morbid curiosity, like many people have about the move of God—a morbid curiosity.

Throughout the Gospels, many people have also asked, “Who is this man?” For example, during the storm when Jesus appeared and commanded the water and the wind to become calm, the disciples asked, “Who is this man, that he commands even the winds and the waters, and they obey him?” The disciples wondered, “Who is this?”

The Pharisees also asked questions about who this man Jesus was. They asked, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies and even forgives sins?” So we see that, time after time in the Gospels, this question arises: Who is this man?

Interestingly, the demons have no doubt about who Jesus is. Men do; men doubt, question, and ask themselves questions. But what the demons do is—they know that Jesus is the Christ, and they tremble before his power. So here are human beings doubting, but the demons know very well who this is: the Christ.

Later in the same chapter 9, we read about a conversation between Jesus and his twelve disciples concerning this same subject of who Jesus is. And by this time—again, around the same period—about eighteen months of Jesus’ ministry have passed, `roughly halfway through his ministry, and the disciples have been with him all this time, especially those whom we call the Apostles, staying very close to him.

They had witnessed healings and miracles everywhere—imagine, multitudes. They had heard Jesus teach the multitudes; they had heard the Sermon on the Mount, with all its Beatitudes and all its guidance on how a child of God should live. They had heard parable after parable about the truths of the Kingdom, explained in a way the people could understand. They had been with Jesus; time after time, they had eaten at the same table as Jesus. And they had also been commissioned, as the Word says in Luke 9:1–2. It says that they had been commissioned by him with power and authority over all demons and to heal diseases. And he sent them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And verse 6 says further on:

“…And going out, they passed through all the villages, proclaiming the Gospel and healing everywhere…”

This is no longer an ignorant group that has just met the Lord; this is now a group that has spent at least about eighteen months beside the Lord, following him everywhere, serving him, accompanying him in everything, seeing how the Lord ministered, and being commissioned to do similar things themselves.

Further on, in the same chapter 9, verse 18, is the other question that I want… it follows up on the previous question that Herod himself had asked. Verse 18 says:

“…It came to pass that while Jesus was praying alone, the disciples were with him, and he asked them, saying, ‘Who do the people say that I am?’”

We could imagine that perhaps the Lord elaborated; maybe he said to them, “When you went from one village to another, what did you hear the people saying about me? When you were distributing the loaves and the fish in baskets among groups of fifty, what were the people saying about me?” the Lord asks them.

And in verse 19 we have the disciples’ answer. The question is: “Who do the people say?” The disciples’ answer is:

“…Some, John the Baptist; others, Elijah; and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.”

Have you heard this before? The very same possibilities Herod the tetrarch had considered and heard—exactly the same. When he sought a superficial answer, that was the answer the people brought him: people say this and that. Well, the disciples had heard the same thing, and they report it; they tell the Lord about that answer.

Many times we ask a question as an introduction, but what we really want is to get to a deeper point. And that is what happened in this case. This question preceded a second, essential question. In verse 20, Jesus said to them:

“…And who do you say that I am?”

You who have walked with me, who have seen me heal multitudes, who have seen the lame dance, who have seen the blind see, who have seen lepers healed, who have seen the demon-possessed set free, who have seen all these healings, who have heard the principles of the kingdom that I have taught—who do you say that I am?

Then look at Peter’s answer. He said:

“…The Christ of God…”

Typically, Peter was always the one who stepped forward, a little impulsively. In this case, his contribution was correct; he recognized, because the Spirit of God himself had revealed it to him, “He is the Christ of God.” So the question we must ask ourselves every day of our lives is: Who do you say Jesus is? Who do I say Jesus is?

And the answer to this question cannot be found in either our imagination or our intellect; it cannot be the result of our needs and fantasies—none of that. Because anyone can invent a religion; that is not where the answer to the question “Who do you say that I am?” is found. It is not there. It can only be supported by the Word of God.

When the Lord left this world, what did he do? He left us—the Holy Spirit came, who guides us into all truth. So we are not alone as we learn who Jesus is. The Lord has all kinds of resources for us to learn who Jesus is, and above all, his Word. When we read the Word, we can learn more and more about who Jesus is.

That is why it is so important for us to study the Word seriously, especially the Gospels, which tell us about all the works of Jesus—what he did in this world and why he did it—so that we can nourish our spirit with the truth of the Gospel about who Christ is.

In fact, the Gospels answer that question. That is the purpose of the Gospels: to teach us who Christ is. That is why it is so important to study them. There is one particular verse in the final Gospel, the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 31, that summarizes the purpose of the Gospels. Look at what that verse says:

“…But these—referring to the signs Jesus had performed—have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that by believing you may have life in his name…”

That is the purpose of the Gospel. It is so that we may believe in Jesus, know him, and then have a new life in him.

Today there are far more than three theories. In addition to the theories Herod mentions and the three theories—the same three theories—the disciples mention, there are many more. There are theories to suit every taste about who Jesus is. Some see him as a great teacher; others see him as an enlightened spiritual being who knows things beyond what perhaps any particular man or woman could understand. Others see him as a great example of a person who devoted himself to serving his neighbor. Others believe that when we read about him, we can learn to be a good person.

But all those perspectives diminish Jesus; it is like putting him inside a little box. And when we diminish Jesus, what we are actually doing is magnifying an idol. It could be anything; it could be me myself—I could be my own idol. My career, my finances, my family—anything can become an idol. Because the only one who deserves our worship is the Lord.

So that is why it is so important to truly know Jesus. We must recognize that, in our limitations, we are not going to understand him or know him one hundred percent as he is; we are human beings. But we can learn from him and know him more and more and more. I believe that even until the last day of our lives, we will still be able to go on learning more about who the Lord is, about his power, his grace, his love, and his mercy. That is something about which we can never say, “That is it; I have finished learning who Jesus is.”

Others say that Jesus is a historical figure with little or no relevance, especially because he excludes other religions and philosophies. Because the Word of God says that Jesus is the only way to the Father. And so many may accept that Jesus is a good man and that he has something to teach us, but that is as far as they will go, because he cannot be the center of our lives, since we cannot exclude others.

We live in a completely relativistic world, where anything anyone comes up with is considered a philosophy and something worth following. And this is the world in which we live. It has been this way since the Garden of Eden.

If we turn for just a moment to Genesis—if not, you can listen to it—chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, and then we will move on to chapter 3, verse 1. What I want you to see is how, from the beginning, Satan has been in the business of damaging, soiling, and contaminating humanity’s concept of who God is. He knows that when he accomplishes that, he has already won a great battle. So that has been the enemy’s strategy from the beginning. If we look at those two verses, Genesis 2:16 and 17:

"…And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may eat from every tree of the garden, but you shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you shall surely die…’"

Pay close attention to verse 16, which says, "You may eat from every tree of the garden," and then notice what chapter 3, verse 1 says:

"…But the serpent was more cunning than all the animals of the field that the LORD God had made, and it said to the woman, ‘Has God really said, "You shall not eat from every tree of the garden"?’"

In other words, do you see? The words are very similar, but he distorted their meaning; he turned it backward and upside down. He completely changed the meaning of what God had told Adam and Eve. And do you know that he continues doing that today? He whispers in our ear when God has told us something, when we have read something in the Word that nourishes our soul, and then he comes to whisper doubt to us. And the most effective doubt he can plant in our minds and hearts concerns God’s character—who God is. Again, because he knows that when he manages to win in that department, he has already won the battle.

So we must keep our eyes open to that at all times. Because our calling is not to have an individual concept of who God is. We are not God; we do not have the understanding or the depth for that. Only God does. Therefore, day by day, we must come to know Him more as He truly is.

Every one of us is on that journey. Every day, we must examine what it is that I believe about God. I know that perhaps everyone here has made a covenant with the Lord. Perhaps you have already accepted the Lord. And perhaps you have dedicated your life to the Lord, but even so, many times the concepts we bring from our past about what God is like affect us and keep us from seeing Him as He truly is. Sometimes we see the Lord through clouded lenses that do not allow us to see Him as He is. And many times, what we do is attribute to God the qualities that other human beings have.

But God is God; He is not a human being. He made us in His image and likeness, but He is not a human being. Therefore, His plans and His thoughts are higher than any we could have. And we must never attribute to Him things that are merely human qualities.

What answer do you give the Lord when He asks that question? "And you, who do you say that I am?" I believe we must ask ourselves that question very frequently, and we must continue learning more about the Lord because sometimes we can become contaminated. Ideas can come to us that can contaminate us and keep us from seeing God as He is.

When I understood that Jesus, perfect and without the stain of sin, died for me, I opened my heart to Him and asked Him to be my Lord and Savior. That happened 31 years ago. The Lord captivated me with His love 31 years ago. I came from a Christian, Catholic family, and I knew about God, but I did not have that personal relationship with the Lord.

But something was happening: I suffered during those first years; I suffered because I understood that my love for the Lord was intellectual. I could not love Him as I sensed He needed to be loved. And as I examined this, I realized that my concept of God was mistaken. And I am going to quickly share with you what my concept was. I saw God the Father seated on an inaccessible throne, with a long beard that reached the floor, holding a staff, a scepter, and looking at me with stern eyes like that all the time. That was my image of God.

As I analyzed where that image came from—obviously it was reinforced by many other things; that was not the only one—I remembered that in my home there was a Bible that remained on a little table, as was the case in many homes. Perhaps many of you had that very large Bible with many illustrations, many paintings, and one of the paintings was precisely that: that God looking sternly like that.

The point is that this became engraved in my mind, and I thought God was inaccessible, that God dealt with the big things—with the macro, so to speak—but not with the micro. He could not attend to my small needs. I felt like an insignificant being, and God was not accessible to me.

And in many cases, there are people who have this image of God because they perhaps had an absent father. In my case, that is not so, because I have an extremely loving father to this day. I do not have that problem, but perhaps because of what I was taught religiously, that was the image of the Lord that became engraved in me.

So, in reality, there was no reason for me to ask Him for anything or present my small, insignificant matters and wounds to Him, because I did not think He would respond in any way. And when I began to analyze that, to try to understand the reality of how I saw God, I thought, "I have to resolve this, because the Gospels are painting a very different picture from the one I have." The Jesus I see is the Jesus who went from person to person, the One who said, "Let the children come to Me," the One who touched, the One who healed the woman who was bent over, the One who healed the woman with the flow of blood and the lepers. He was everywhere healing, as we have already read tonight.

For me, the turning point came when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I still become emotional when I think about that day. That day the scales fell from my eyes, and I was able to see my Lord as my Father, as my Heavenly Father. And that has continued to grow and grow, and I have never gone back. It was a truly supernatural work that the Lord did in me.

So all of us have an image, a concept of who God is. When we come to the Lord, we bring our concept with us, a concept that has already been formed. Yours may be different from mine. Perhaps yours came from not having a father present or a family present. Perhaps you experienced rejection, and that very thing prevents you from believing that God could value you as an individual and love you as an individual.

There may often be people who have committed so many sins, and such serious sins, that they think it is impossible for the Lord to forgive them, welcome them, and give them a place of honor at the table. So whatever it may be, we all bring something with us. And sometimes, no matter how many years we have known the Lord, when we look at the Lord, at Jesus, we still often see Him through clouded eyes; we do not see Him as He truly is.

So what happens because of that? What happens is that we are wasting the gift of the abundant life the Lord has for us. The Lord tells us, "Here, I have all of this for you, a banquet," and we settle for a few little crumbs. That is almost a sin, isn’t it? Saying no to the Lord and to His gifts. And we can still be saved. Perhaps we have made a covenant with the Lord and have eternal salvation, but we have not entered into that abundant life.

I know that in my case—and I know it is true in the case of all of you as well—if I had not examined my situation, if I had not repented of my error in how I viewed the Lord and what I thought He was like, and if I had not searched the Scriptures to see the truth about who Jesus is, my life would be very different.

First of all, I would not be standing here, because we all bring something from the past, and even from the present, that prevents us from seeing the Lord. But we have to overcome that. The Lord encourages us to overcome that. And what happens when you overcome it? Then you enter into the plan of the fullness of what the Lord has for you: your calling and a personal relationship with Him. He is no longer a hidden, distant God who has nothing to do with me; it becomes very different. You can even joke with Jesus. Have you ever joked with Jesus? I laugh with Him continually; I laugh, I cry with Him, and I feel Him so present beside me. That is possible because I understood that what I had before was not the truth about who Jesus is, and I began to grow in that area.

All of us must grow in that area, continuing to seek and truly coming to know who Jesus is. And when you manage to do that—to overcome those barriers—then God can use you to help others in their own growth and in the development of their concept of who Jesus is. You can talk about how it has evolved.

I know that my story of how I used to see Jesus from a distance has been helpful. Just think: when I first accepted the Lord, I would see people worshiping, saying to Him, "I love You, Lord," raising their hands, dancing before Him, and I saw them in love with the Lord. That made me so sad because I understood that I did not have that. And I know that my testimony has been able to benefit others by showing them that this is a process and that it is something intentional.

God is not going to force you to read the Word so that you may know who Jesus is. He is not going to force you in this area, but if you recognize that you need to continue growing, then it is your responsibility to say, "By faith, I am going to see changes. I am going to see changes in this area of my walk with the Lord."

So I encourage all of you to do that and to help others as well. It is like welcoming someone else who is a baby in these things and helping that person, giving them the proper milk, guiding them until he or she personally discovers who Jesus is. And notice that one of the most important things we can do is minister in this way to the children in our families.

I do not have to tell you about the dangers in this world and the competing forces seeking to win the souls of our sons and daughters and our children—our nieces and nephews, our grandchildren, whoever they may be, the children with whom we work. And it is our responsibility to guide those children to know who Jesus is.

Do you know that children have spiritual needs too? They have a spirit, just as you and I, who are adults, do. They have one too, and we must learn; we must take the time. We must stand in the gap for the children so that the enemy does not contaminate them and steal their little minds, their souls, and their spirits, before the Lord can speak to them and create in them the fullness of life He wants to create. And that takes time.

One of the things that concerns me most is how much and how frequently children use the internet and all these famous little gaming devices. I believe those things have their place; I am not saying, "Throw all of that away." It would be ignorant of me to say that. But many times, even in church, I see children who, instead of paying attention, are perhaps sitting there slouched down, almost lying down. They are not paying much attention, but they are here, and they know that it is important to their father and mother that they be here too, yet they are playing little games.

I have found them upstairs, children staying near an electrical outlet so that the batteries in their little devices will not run out while a service is taking place here and the Lord is being worshiped. I do not believe that pleases the Lord. I think it reveals a deficiency in the upbringing of those children. So I believe that from the time they are born, from the time they are little babies, we should read Bible stories to them. Even if they do not understand very much, we read to them, we read to them at their level of understanding. We show them that when Mom and Dad, or someone else, has a problem, we go to the Lord in prayer because He always hears our cry.

We tell them about a God who answers their prayers. A short time ago, my daughter and her husband were praying with my little grandson, and they wisely asked him… He prayed, and they asked him, "And what did God say to you?" They assumed that he has a spirit and that he hears from God just as an adult does. And the little boy, with complete conviction, told them, "God tells me that He loves me." And he was deeply moved because God had told him that He loves him.

If we do not believe that is possible, we will not do it. But that is our responsibility: to guide children from an early age, because a time will come when they will already be… their minds, hearts, and spirits will be so full of things that are not of God that it will be harder to put it there—not impossible. It is always possible; God can always do the work, but let us not waste time.

And if you know other young couples, young mothers, or young fathers, teach them this as well, so that they too will minister to the lives of their little children in this way. The home is the most important place where we learn about who God is, where we develop the clearest concept of who the Lord is.

Our children have to know what I believe, what my answer is to the question, "Who am I?" They have to know that, and they have to begin forming their own understanding from an early age. So let us not waste time. Let us not give the enemy room to enter, but instead let us stand in the gap and speak to children and young people about the love of God, about the forgiveness of sins, about the power that is in God, and about the fact that there is a calling for them, even from childhood.

We do not have to wait until they are teenagers or adults. By then it is late. From the time they are very small, we must show them the importance of their calling and that we believe God already has a personal relationship with them. So I hope I have convinced you of the importance of having a healthy concept based on the Word—not on our own thinking or our own intellect, but based on the Word.