Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1703

October 5, 2025

Mark 8.27-30          Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“What Do We Say?”

 

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

 

• What People Said

 

Jesus was walking with His disciples and asked, “Who do people say that I am?”

Have you ever wondered what people are saying about you? I think that for the most part we do not think about what people may or may not be saying. It sometimes does not matter to us. But there are other times, when we hear that something has been said, and we wonder. Why would they think that? The other side of the coin is when we might say something about someone else. I hope that what we normally say is something positive, an observation of a characteristic that is edifying. Sometimes we do that and yet we never tell the person we are talking about. We don’t tell someone that we admire something about them or we fail to complement an achievement. One of the teachings we heard at Presbytery yesterday was about blessing people. We can bless others when we tell them something about what we see in them, something they may not see in themselves yet. A blessing can build up their confidence or plant a seed for great things.

People talked about Jesus. I do not think Jesus was greatly concerned about what people were thinking about Him…at least not in the way we might. Jesus was probably going somewhere with His question for the sake of the disciples, not for His own curiosity about public opinion. Maybe a question to help the disciples think about their own conclusions.

“Who do people say that I am?” Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, or Jesus could be one of the prophets. It is understandable why they might say John the Baptist because he was the one prophet the people had seen in their lifetime. But others thought of Elijah, because Elijah never died. He was taken up in a whirlwind with fiery chariots all around. Still others may have mentioned other prophets. Isaiah comes to mind because John the Baptist quoted from Isaiah. Why not Joel, Micah, or Jeremiah? All kinds of possibilities were probably on the tongues of people who were trying to figure out who Jesus was. People talked and they got it wrong. They did not say Jesus was the Christ. They did not say Jesus was the Son of Man. They were not saying anything true.

We see that all the time in our day. People get things wrong about other people. So many people say things about other people based off misrepresentations and things taken completely out of context and they build an entire dossier full of lies. People misquote the Bible all the time! No reason to think they will not misquote Christians as well. If the EPC comes out on the right side of Scripture on ordination, refusing to ordain those who are same sex attracted, people will say we want to stone gay people. Not so. Not even close. But, people will talk. People will always talk, gossip, lie, and bear false witness.

 

 

 

• What People Say

 

People talk about Jesus today. Who do they say Jesus is or was, in most cases? He was a good teacher. We hear this often from non-believers. People admire Jesus from afar and take some of what He said and try to use it in their lives. So they try not to judge anyone. They try to live by the golden rule of doing to others as they want done to them.

People say Jesus was a liar. He claimed to be God and that cannot be true.

People say Jesus was not sinless. He was a man so some people think He could have not been without sin.

People say He was a prophet. He simply is one among the long line of Bible prophets.

People say a lot of things that are not true about Jesus, but most, even some Christians, have not read the Bible very much to know the truth.

People talk – about who God is, what God does, and who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Newsweek and Time magazine love to talk about Jesus around Easter time. They enjoy putting historical proof questions in an article and usually get the most arid scholars at the extreme of critical liberal thinking to tell us their doubts about Jesus and the gospels. Then those “great theologians” at Newsweek put their two cents in and the Church is left with the chore of explaining away the article. God really is big enough to take the heat, to take whatever might be said.

People throughout the centuries have misunderstood, misrepresented, and flat out lied about Jesus Christ. People bear false witness by pulling things out of context or claim Jesus did not speak on certain topics when He really did. Jesus Christ was a good teacher. Well, yes, He certainly was a good teacher, but when that is all that is said, it presents an incomplete picture. It robs people of knowing the fullness of Christ in His divinity and humanity, in His Lordship and saving work, in His power to work miracles and show us the meaning of faithful obedience to the Father.

Enemies of the cross will slander Christ and will slander those who follow Christ. When they bear false witness against us they are bearing false witness against Jesus. Remember Jesus’ words from John 15.18-19, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

 

• What Do We Say?

 

Jesus comes to the question of what the disciples think. “Who do you say that I am?” Only one disciple spoke up. I wonder if the others nodded in agreement with Peter. Did they just stand there stunned by what Peter confessed? “You are the Christ.” Did they attempt to form an answer? It may be that Peter was speaking on behalf of the group. We did not read beyond Peter’s confession, but later in the story of Christ, the confession is challenged when Christ is arrested. Peter’s confession is shaken, Peter denies he even knows Jesus. The rest of the disciples appear to have abandoned Jesus. Only John is sited at the cross. I hope the others were close enough to see the cross, even at a greater distance.

The question Jesus asked the disciples is also asked of us. What do we say? Who do we say Jesus is? What do we say about Him? Do we talk about Him to others? Do we seek to know more about who Jesus was and is? Peter’s confession of belief was in the context of waiting, waiting for the Messiah to come. To profess “You are the Christ” was to trust that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. Peter was genuinely stepping out in faith, stepping out on the proverbial limb. But who do we say Jesus is? Do we step out in faith?

We are called to present the Messiah, not just in the context of Israel and the Jews, but in the context of Jesus as Savior of all who believe, Jew and Gentile… But we also include the Lordship of Christ, not just Savior. Jesus is not reduced to a ticket to heaven, but He is also the Lord of our lives, Lord of lords and King of kings. He is the One we are to follow by our confession of faith and by our submission to His Lordship. We are certainly grateful to be saved, but we are also committed to obediently follow.

Who do we say He is? What version of Jesus do we confess? Some people project a Jesus that is not of the Bible, like in the prosperity gospel, that Jesus is the One who will guarantee you more than you give financially. Jesus is not a son of God like the Jehovah Witnesses proclaim, but He is THE Son of God. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Good Shepherd. We have many confessions throughout Scripture that tell us who Jesus is. We also proclaim Him in how we live, what we say, in our relationships, in our reflections, basically in everything we are and do.

 

It’s one thing to have people talking about Jesus, it is quite another when we get down to our particular understanding, our confession. People are always going to talk about Jesus and God.

 

Sara Maitland has written humorously about our over protectiveness of the divine reputation. She tells a story that illustrates how petty some people’s concerns can be.

 

A few years ago, just a day or so after [the church] was struck by lightning, I was on my way to the local post office near my home, which is in a wretchedly poor part of the town, when I met an elderly woman. She was most distressed by this bolt from the heavens, this "act of God" as the insurance people call it. She was very upset. Did I think, she asked, that God had done it on purpose, as some newspapers were speculating? I was in a hurry, but how can anyone resist such a subject? No, I said, I didn't really think so, did she? No, she said, she didn't really think that God was like that. There was a pause, and I was poised to escape. Then she added in what I can only describe as a tone of affectionate criticism, "But he should have been more careful; he should have known there'd be talk." (--Sara Maitland, A Big-Enough God (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1995), 131-32.)

People will talk! Who is Jesus? We examine our confession of who the Messiah really is? We may need to ask ourselves, have we packaged and labeled Jesus into a neat controllable Savior? Are we willing to profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – the One who truly suffered for us and is with us? We think we know what being the Christ means, what Jesus would do, who Jesus is, what a Messiah ought to be like. We are more like Peter than we would like to admit. Peter had some preconceived notions about who Jesus was and what Jesus would do. Peter thought he knew who Jesus was in that he thought something very different about what the Messiah would do. Peter was right, Jesus was the Christ, but in Peter’s mind the Christ could not possibly suffer and die on a cross. Jesus did nothing of what Peter expected. Jesus was and is full of surprises! What we do know and what we do say is that Jesus is indeed the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is Lord. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the Morning Star. He is all that the Bible professes Him to be. This is where our testimony comes from, God’s Holy Word. That is what we profess about Jesus.

What we say matters. What we say has power because God’s Word has power, because Jesus has power to save and bless. The gospel has power. We only need to plant seeds in the name of Jesus. We carry that name, we say the name, we live into and out of the name. It is why we are called Christians. Christ’s ambassadors, Christ’s representatives, Christ’s followers who proclaim Him and thus bless those who hear and believe. Who do we say Jesus is? He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is our Savior and Lord. He is all that the Bible proclaims and so we give that same testimony in our answer to the world. Amen.