Who do you say I am?

¹³ Now when Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Human One is?” ¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” ¹⁵ He said, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ Then Jesus replied, “Happy are you, Simon son of Jonah, because no human has shown this to you. Rather my Father who is in heaven has shown you. ¹⁸ I tell you that you are Peter. And I’ll build my church on this rock. The gates of the underworld won’t be able to stand against it. ¹⁹ I’ll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Anything you fasten on earth will be fastened in heaven. Anything you loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered the disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Christ. (Matthew 16:13-20, CEB)

Who do you say Jesus is?

The Christ?

The Messiah?

God?

What do these words mean?

Well, Christ is the Greek term for the Hebrew Messiah, and they roughly mean savior. So do you see Jesus as your savior? And if so what is He saving you from?

Peter said Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God. To which, Jesus responds, yes and God gave this to you. You are blessed.

Then Jesus says upon this rock I will build my church and even the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Now did Jesus mean Peter, the rock, or the rock He was standing on.

I would say yes. Roman Catholics take this as the verse where Jesus makes Peter the Pope or the head of the church and gives him the keys to the kingdom, which is true, and yet he also gives them to the rest of the disciples as well a little later. And the interesting thing is where they are. Actually scholars say they were at the place where a temple of Pan was. And if you don’t know about Pan, look it up, interesting stuff, but it was also known as the gates of Hell. So Jesus was saying that even in this place known for worship of Pan and it being the gates of Hell itself, will not stand against His gathering. His followers will do more and be more than those who stand against it.

Do you believe this?