WHAT WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION JESUS WILL ASK OF YOU?

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WHAT WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION JESUS WILL ASK OF YOU?

 

Scripture: Matthew 16:15-17

Main Theme: Having not thought very deeply concerning this question, many would answer, “have I been good?” Others still would answer, “how much have I given to the Church?” Others would say,” have I helped the poor, the orphan, or the widows?” Still, others would say, “have I kept God’s laws?” Others, “have I loved people?” And the list could go on and on. What is amazing is that we “think” we know the answer, when in reality we know nothing, in fact, in these few short verses we will all see this as it is brought to light in the context of what is being said. Therefore let us with a Bible in our hand, and a prayer upon our heart, and paper and pen to make notes in our hands, let us look to see what,  “thus saith the Word of the Lord.”

Jesus asks Questions

Notice the verses prior to these

    • If we were to forget to look at the previous verses, we would completely miss the reason for the question Jesus asks of His closest followers. What happened prior to the question Jesus poses is that He first asks these men, “who do others say that I am?” As I am sure that you have read, the responses differed depending upon those to whom the question was asked. You will notice that all answers seem to be logical at first glance. Let’s look at some answers that others gave, and then we will look to see why Jesus then asked these men the burning question that He asked of them all.

Notice the question Jesus first poses to the disciples/apostles?

  • This question was a personal one after they had all heard the responses from all others. Each answer different, and the disciples were no closer to the answer, but who knows that some of these men might not have been having the same thoughts. Let’s look at each answer given when the disciples told Jesus who others said that He was.
  • First, we have one who says that Jesus is John the Baptist. The only problem with this answer would be that John, in his zeal to tell people the Word of God, was so successful, he had lost his head. He made Herod’s wife, who was formerly his sister-in-law, yes, you heard me right, Herod’s wife Herodias was His sister in law. John told both of them that their marriage union in the eyes of God was not lawful for him to have her (Mark 6:18). Now please don’t get mad at me for what I am about to say, but it’s one thing to get a man mad, but it’s completely different when you get a woman mad, especially when you tell her to her face that she is wrong. I’m not saying that men don’t get upset whenever it happens to them, but many of us men will, with cool heads, take time to listen to the criticism and go from there. I am not going to say that all women are like this, but this particular woman, Herodias, didn’t forget, and she sought the opportunity to “pay” John back for insulting her in public. John was looked upon by many as the possible Christ, the Messiah to which the Jewish people were looking for, but John had let all know in no uncertain terms that the One they were looking for was not him, but that he was sent to prepare the way for the One whose shoe latchet he was not worthy to unloose (John 1:27). So was John a godly man, yes. Was John a popular man, yes. But John clearly said, I am not “THAT MAN”, meaning “THE MESSIAH”. There were those who still felt that Jesus was John raised from the dead after having lost his head, but they were so wrong.  John would be considered the last of the Old Testament prophets because we do not have the New Testament in effect until after the death of Jesus (Hebrews 9:16-20)
  • The next contestant we have before us would be those whose answer is “Elias”, or better known as Elijah. If ever there was a Jewish prophet would have been a common answer to this question, surely this man fit the bill, well, sort of. Yes, he was a great “man of God”, used in a time when Israel was practicing Baal worship, mostly because of King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel. Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and for three and a half years (James 5:17), it didn’t rain. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did (1 Kings 18:44-45). Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the groves to a contest to see Who was really God, His God, the true God of Israel, or their so-called god. Of course, we know the story, how that he allowed these false prophets to go first, even making fun of them and their so-called God. Finally, it was his turn. He first repaired the altar, which in itself is a sermon worth making, then he had a trench dug around it, another sermon, then water poured over the wood till the trenches were running full, and then prayed for God to accept his sacrifice, which God answered immediately with fire, consuming both the sacrifice and the water. Elijah told those there to capture the false prophets and kill them with the sword, which they did (1 Kings 18:17-40). This, of course, didn’t set well with Jezebel, who made it her mission to kill this man of God. He went and hid in a cave, fearing for his life, even feeling that he alone worshiped God in Israel. God then told Elijah that He had seven thousand men who had not bowed or kissed the image of Baal (1 Kings 19:18). After this, he worships God through giving a sacrifice, then going forward to do as God had commanded him, even anointing his successor, Elisha. We know that Elijah was soon after this taken up in a chariot of fire by a whirlwind to heaven (2 Kings 2:11). Though Elijah was a great man who followed after God, he did not meet the requirements of the Scriptural prophesies concerning the promised Messiah of Israel.
  • The third answer given by the disciples is our next contestant, is Jeremias, better known as Jeremiah, also called “the weeping prophet”. Many in Jeremiah’s day didn’t really like him much, for the great majority of his prophesy is the eyes of Israel’s leaders would not happen, because they didn’t believe that God would punish them for the evil which they were doing. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because it broke his heart that Israel would not listen to The Word of God, given to warned Israel, and it brought condemnation upon the nation of Israel because of their rejection of God’s Word through the prophet Jeremiah.
  • The final candidate is kind of a bundled answer, which may have been where the promotion folks got the very first idea of “bundling”, so popular in today’s culture, with the last answer prior to the correct one, and that last answer being “or one of the other prophets”. Keep in mind that the people of Israel, or at least some of them, who were not of the religious group in the days of Jesus, held the prophets in high esteem. They easily could envision one of them coming to be the Messiah, the Christ that the people of Israel had longed for.
  • What is common in all of these answers is that though they all seem “good”, and “sincere”, yet they are all incorrect. In fact, it looks like a who’s who in the history of Israel. It also shows that they had a misconception of the Messiah. They were all expecting, in reality, a leader who would champion the cause of Israel and bring the people back to their former days of glory, destroying the Romans and no longer being in bondage.

Notice how Peter was able to answer the question Jesus asked?

  • Do not overlook two key elements of what Jesus says to Peter when Peter gave an answer to the question Jesus asks. First, Jesus stated that “flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,”, meaning that the others they had spoken to, those to whom they had posed the question to, had given answers, yes, but all of those answers, even though they may have had a “biblical” ring to it, they were all wrong. And of all the questions that Jesus ever asked of anyone, this one question has more eternal value than all that He ever asked, because of the personal nature of the response.
  • Secondly, we must not overlook how Peter, and only Peter, was able to answer Jesus’ question. Let us look into the Scripture and see what Jesus says. “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” Jesus was saying to Peter that all of the others could not tell him the answer, in fact, they all got it wrong because it was “their” answer (flesh and blood). Jesus said that His Father, speaking of God the Father, had told Peter the answer. Keep in mind at this time, that Jesus had not paid the sin debt for all mankind, that Jesus had not yet ascended into Heaven, and the Holy Spirit of God had not come to indwell the believer, but in this instance, through the Holy Spirit, Peter was given the answer to Jesus’ question. We who are Christians can know the importance of the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit, for He tells us the things of God that we could not know or understand unless He makes them known to us. We too, as Christians, were first told, and convicted, by Jesus’ Father through the Holy Spirit, that Jesus was exactly Who He claimed to be, the very “Son of God.” We also know by the knowledge given us by the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the promised Messiah to the Jewish nation, and that through Him alone can anyone get into heaven (John 14:6; 10:7-9).

 

ONE LAST QUESTION FOR YOU

  • You have not come to this website by accident. What you have just read, the question Jesus asked of His closest followers, is the one question He asks of every person. How you respond to that question will determine your eternal destiny. If you are being convicted, even now by God’s Holy Spirit, I encourage you to do the following.
  1. Confess to God that you are indeed a sinner (Romans 3:23), as God tells us that we all are
  2. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth (Romans 10:9-10), that Jesus is “the Son of God” (Matthew 8:29, 14:33), God in the flesh (John 1:1-3, 14), that He died for your sins, and that God raised Him from the dead three days later (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
  3. Call upon the Name of the Lord, Jesus, to save you as humbly as you know how (Romans 10:13). Once saved, you need to find a church (Hebrews 10:25) and follow in believers baptism (Matthew 28:19).
  • What happens if you fail to listen to this plea.
  1. As stated before, this is an eternal issue. It really doesn’t matter if you do or do not believe in a literal hell, because Matthew 25:41/Isaiah 5:14 tells us that it is real, it is literal, and God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), for it is impossible for Him to do so (Hebrews 6:18)
  • THIS QUESTION IS NOT OPTIONAL, FOR WE WILL ALL ANSWER THIS QUESTION AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.
  1. Our only choice is whether we accept Him as Lord and Saviour, here on earth, or we will acknowledge Him (Philippians 2:9-11) later, much too late for many for it to make an eternal difference. My prayer is that you take this question very seriously, because of all that happens in life, your answer to this question will determine where your eternal destiny will be.

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