Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
Ask anyone and, whether they believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world sent by God to pay for the sins of the world and the Lord of all because He created all or not, they most likely know of Jesus (either from the Bible stories, the Christmas story or the Easter story), but so they know Jesus? Have they received Him into their heart by faith in a loving personal relationship and been saved?
John 1:10-11 tells us that Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. During His earthly visitation and ministry to seek and save the lost, Jesus (the promised Messiah, God incarnate, the Christ, God with us) walked among the people; spoke and ate with them. He taught as no other man could about the things of God, expressed God’s heart for lost sinners, and performed supernatural miracles. But, even after two and a half years of divinely walking among the people in that day, there was still confusion concerning His person – who was He actually? In John 3:1-2, a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
So when Jesus took His disciples aside in Caesarea Philippi, He asks them the question: “Who do men say that I am?” Matthew 16:14 records that they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Then Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” and Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16). What he was really saying was, You are the promised Messiah, the Anointed One predicted in the Old Testament. The Greek word for “Christ” is “Christos”, meaning "anointed". Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God. Israel’s King David foretold in Psalm 2:2, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed.”
In Matthew 16:17 Jesus answered and said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. In other words, you cannot come to this estimate and realization of Jesus as the Christ of God unless the Holy Spirit of God opens your eyes to see. Jesus answers Nicodemus in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 explains, “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Nobody can acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in their heart unless the Holy Spirit reveals it in their born-again heart.
The Bible, the Word of the living God will not, and cannot, be understood until the Holy Spirit of God opens your spiritual eyes to see. Nor will you ever know the person of Jesus Christ until the Holy Spirit of God opens your spiritual eyes to see Him in all the glory of His person – fully man and fully God. You cannot believe His deity, your true redemption by His finished work on the Cross for your sins and your ongoing relationship with the risen Christ daily until the Holy Spirit makes Him real to you. Titus 3:4-7 confirms, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Know Jesus.
In Christ, Brian
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