Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

Proofread Broadcast Transcript

We're glad you're here. We're glad you're here. Fellowship sweeter, knowing you're near.

It's so good to see you. We hope that it's clear. Everyone loves you.

We're glad you're here. Reading from Mark chapter 8, verse 29, But what about you, he asked, who do you say I am? That's Mark chapter 8, verse 29. O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together.

It's Monday, August 24th, 2026. And today, Pastor Matt Clark of CU Church takes us back into Mark chapter 8 and a journey with Jesus that leads us to life's most important question, who do you say that Jesus is? Here's Pastor Matt Clark of CU Church. You remember road trips when you were a kid? We're going to have to rewind here a little bit.

So everybody who's like under the age of 20, these road trips don't count. But you remember road trips when you were a kid? Like when I was a kid, we would load up in our Chevy Astro van. If you guys remember those, we had a Chevy Astro van.

We loaded up in there and we would travel. We would go visit people, but we didn't have screens. Didn't have phones.

Didn't have switches. Didn't have gaming systems. Didn't have portable computers.

You remember these road trips? Where you had to play games and your parents, or some of you, were those parents, had to come up with those games. We're going to play 20 questions. You remember? We're going to play the license plate game.

Anybody? Got to find all the license plates. Got to find all 50. When I was a kid, my parents invented this game called, maybe they didn't invent it, maybe one of you guys had it too.

And they stole it from you. But they called it the quarter game. They would bring a roll of quarters on the road trip, my brother and I, and then they would just name out random stuff.

They would say, first one to find a water tower gets a quarter. And you would search for it, and you got a quarter. And they would just name stuff.

First person to see a brown cow, quarter. And you would look for the brown cow. And this would happen on our road trips.

We would play these games when we would go on a journey together as a family. I don't know what game you played. I don't know what you did now.

Parents in this generation, what do we do? We give them a screen and say, be quiet. Please don't talk. That's what we do now.

Not you. That's what I did. I'm repenting of that.

I was thinking about it in light of what I just read for you this morning, that Jesus takes his disciples on a journey. I don't know if you caught it, but there's two different towns they visit. I'm going to come back and talk to him.

But he takes them on a journey. And it's a very specific journey that when Jesus loads up his disciples and he takes them on this walking journey, it's not a riding journey, it's a walking journey. He has a specific destination in mind.

He knows where he's going. And Jesus isn't a screen guy on the journey. He's a question guy.

When you go on a journey with Jesus, he likes to ask good questions. And we come into a room like this, that all of us come into it in different places on the journey with Jesus. Some of us aren't sure what a journey with Jesus is.

And we walk in here and we're curious about what it would be like. Some of us started that journey last week. We saw their baptism videos.

They started that journey a week ago. We're journeying with Jesus. Some of you in here have been on that journey for generations.

But on a journey with Jesus, he likes to ask questions. And here's how I want to set this up today. And here's where I want us to go as we get a chance to spend the next 25 minutes in God's word.

On a journey with Jesus, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. I'm going to put two statements at the end of that one. On a journey with Jesus.

And I want you just to wander into this with me. And here's how I get there. Did you see the language that was used here? I'll give you a few of the phrases.

Verse 22. They came to Bethsaida. Verse 27.

He went out with his disciples into villages, to Caesarea Philippi, on the way that there's this journey language with Jesus. He's invited them to go. I'll go back to where we ended six weeks ago real quickly, just so you remember what happened.

Jesus had a conversation with his disciples, and it was a bit of a warning conversation. He warned them. He warned them of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

It wasn't a cooking ingredient warning, but it was a warning. And the leaven is something small that can get inside of you, and when something small like leaven gets inside of you, what does it do? It grows. And so Jesus was warning them of allowing things that weren't from him to get inside of who they were and to grow into something else.

And he offered the warning to them with a series of questions. Here were his questions. Do you not understand? Are your hearts not hard? Do you not see? That's an important one.

Do you not see? Do you not hear? Even though you have ears to hear, do you not understand? And realizing that they didn't, he grabbed them, circled them up, and said, hey, y'all, we're going to go on a journey. And he takes them on this walk. And that's how I get to the idea of on a journey with Jesus.

Dot, dot, dot. Two things that come from this passage that I think help answer that statement. They're not the only two things in all of the Bible, but they're the two things that come out of this particular section, and I want to offer them to us this morning.

So let's go to it. Chapter 8, verse 22. And they came to Bethsaida.

They came to Bethsaida. It's a specific town, and Mark gives us the name of that town, probably for a reason, so that we can know a little bit about what it is. We've been there before, maybe not physically, but we've been there in our journey through the gospel of Mark already.

You might remember a while back, there was the feeding of the 5,000, where Jesus had done some teaching, and there were 5,000 plus people who were there, and he broke up some fish and some bread, and he fed them all. That was near Bethsaida. He did that there.

Then Jesus and his disciples had gotten into a boat, and they were on the way across the lake to Bethsaida, and a storm came, and Jesus decides that he's going to walk on water. Bethsaida. So we've been there before.

And I say that because it would be a familiar place of people knowing who Jesus was, knowing some of the things that he'd done, knowing some of the things that he's taught, knowing that he has this ability to perform miracles and to do things that nobody else can do. They would have known that, heard that, talked about that. It's also the hometown to a couple of Jesus' disciples, Peter, Andrew, and Philip.

Peter, Andrew, and Philip. It's their hometown. It's near the place where Jesus spent a lot of time, which is important because of what happens next.

And they come to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man, and they begged him to touch him. Begged him. They pleaded with him because they had heard about his compassion.

They had heard about his ability to heal. They had heard about what he could do. And so they had a friend who had a need that only somebody like Jesus could meet.

And so they simply grabbed their friend, and they brought him to Jesus. And he was blind. Verse 23, Jesus took the blind man by the hand, and he led him out of the village.

There's the journey language. He led him out of the village. And I'm going to give you a little bit of what's going on here.

Jesus is about to heal a blind man. We've read that part. And part of the reason that this is happening is because a blind man needs heal.

But there's another part of this that's happening. Remember, Jesus has grabbed his disciples up, and he's taken them on a journey. And one of the questions that he asked them early on in this chapter was, Do you see? And now you have a blind man here who's going to get healed, but it's also a metaphor and illustration for these disciples that he's taken on this journey, which ultimately means it's a metaphor and illustration for us that sometimes there is a physical blindness that we need to be healed from.

But most often, there's a spiritual blindness in who we are that we need to be healed from, too, that we can't really see. So think about that. So here he goes.

So verse 23. And he took the blind man by the hand, and he led him out of the village. And he led him out of the village because it wasn't a spectacle for all of these people to see.

There was something to be done for the blind man, and there was an opportunity to have a teaching moment with his disciples. So they got away from the crowd. And listen to what it says next.

He spit on his eyes. Do you catch that the first time I read it? It's okay if you thought gross. I did.

I had to wash my hands after I read it, right? Like, that's disgusting, right? He spit on his eyes. I want to think that he spit on his hands and maybe touched his eyes, but that didn't make it any better for me. I was still kind of grossed out by it.

He spit on his eyes. But you have to go back into this ancient culture that there's a belief in that ancient culture that there was healing power in saliva. And there are two instances where Jesus spits directly either on his hands or on somebody that are in Mark's gospel that are unique to Mark's gospel.

There are four books that talk about the life of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Mark is one of them. And there are two stories in Mark where Jesus does this.

And they're only in Mark. The other one, he spits on some mud, and he puts it on somebody's eyes. Not that that's any better.

But he spits. Listen to what happens next. He spits on his eyes, laid his hands on him, and he asked him, Do you see anything? And he looked up, and he said, I see people, but they look like trees walking around.

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Now, a couple of things whenever I read this for the first time. I told you the first one.

I thought, This is gross. The second thing I thought, Did Jesus make a mistake? Did he not muster up enough power to heal the man? And then he realized, Oh, shoot, I got to get a little bit more. So he set everything back down, and Mr. Miyagi warmed his hands back up, and went back to touch him.

Was he incapable of doing this thing that he set out to do? The answer to both of those questions is absolutely no. Jesus didn't make a mistake. Jesus was not incapable.

That there was a larger story at play here. There was the healing that was going to happen with the blind man. Remember, there was also the journey that he was taking these disciples on, and the healing for this particular man was gradual.

That there was a process that was involved in the healing. A couple of things with that. If you go back through Mark's Gospel all the way up to chapter 8, where we are today, there's been a handful of different times when Jesus has healed different people.

For instance, in chapter 1, there was a man in the synagogue who was possessed with the demon. And you remember what Jesus did? He said, Come out of him. Be silent.

And immediately the demon came out of the man, and he was healed. All Jesus did was speak. Later on, in chapter 3, there was a man with a withered hand.

He came to Jesus, and his hand was withered. Jesus asks him, Stretch out your hand. And as he stretches out his hand, it's healed.

He invites the man with the withered hand to be involved in the process, and he is. Chapter 5, I believe, there's a man who's paralyzed. Paralyzed, and Jesus is teaching in a house.

And these friends, four friends, bring this man who's paralyzed. They cut a hole in the roof, and they drop him down at Jesus' feet. And Jesus looks at him and says, Your sins are forgiven.

And then he tells him, Pick up your mat and go. And he picks up his mat, and he goes. All Jesus did was speak it.

Chapter 5, there's a woman who had had a disease for years. She couldn't find healing. She had run out of resources and options.

And the only thing that she could think to do is that I'll sneak up on Jesus in a crowd, and I'll reach out, and I'll simply touch the corner of his clothes, and I'll be healed. And she does, and she's healed. She takes the action, and all she does is touch his clothes.

Fast forward a few verses later. There's a guy whose daughter has died. He invites Jesus to come to his house.

Jesus goes to his house, goes into the room where the little girl is dead, sits down by her bedside, grabs her by the hand, and says, Little girl, awake. He speaks, and she wakes up. Later on, Jesus comes to a man who's been deaf and mute.

He takes his fingers, and he puts them in his deaf ears, and he spits on his tongue, and he's healed. Now, Jesus spits in his eyes, and he sees things that look like trees, and then he reaches out and touches him again. Why are all these different? Here's part of this.

When Jesus does a healing, he wants to make sure that everybody who knows, and all of us who go back and read it, that there's not a formula to the healing. It's not a step-by-step process. If I do one, two, three, I'll be healed.

The common denominator in all the healings is one person, and it's his voice that does it. It's his touch that does it. It's his clothes that are touched that do it.

It's his invitation that brings it. The power to be healed lies in the power of Jesus and Jesus alone. And so it happens all these different ways, so that as we read it, there's no doubt that there's no formula to get what only Jesus offers.

It's simply going to him. And that's an important piece of this. The other side of it is that there's a gradual healing for this man because of the disciples who are on the journey with Jesus.

Notice the words that he used. It says that he opened his eyes. His sight was restored.

It's a word that means something returned to its former state. Something's returned to the way it used to be, which gives us some insight into this man because when his eyes are first opened, what does he see? He sees trees, which the idea is that he had been able to see before, but something had happened because he recognized trees. Something had happened, and Jesus was restoring his sight to the way that it used to be.

But then there's the other word. It said that he could see clearly. This is an important idea.

It said that he could see clearly. It's the only time that that word is used in the New Testament. It's right here in Mark's Gospel.

There's a couple other times where words similar to it are used that help us get the definition, which is the way I want to answer the first part of that question today. I'm going to give you all of these, but I'm going to go back to one. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus has a conversation.

We call it the Sermon on the Mount, where he's preaching a sermon, and in that sermon, he makes this statement. Matthew chapter 7, verse 5, he says, You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly. That's the idea of the word.

You will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. That's a sermon for another day, but I want to give you the idea that sometimes there's something lodged in our eye that's preventing us from being able to see what we're supposed to see, and the only way we can see what we're supposed to see is if we remove the thing that is blocking our vision. The same idea is used in Luke chapter 22, verse 61.

This is maybe a more famous instant that happens with Jesus and Peter. Maybe you remember that Jesus tells Peter that before the rooster crows tonight, you're going to deny you even know I exist, and you're going to do it three times. Peter does that.

And along the way, Jesus and Peter have a moment, and that's in Luke chapter 22, verse 61. Here's what happens. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

That's the idea. He looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.

And he went out and he wept bitterly. That Jesus and Peter caught eyes. Jesus looked at him, and Peter looked at Jesus.

And there was something that was removed from Peter that he could clearly see who Jesus was. Go back to Mark chapter 8, that he had restored this man's sight, and now he could see clearly. He was healed.

But remember, he's taking his disciples on this journey, and along this way, there's the healing of this man. And it's as much for this blind man as it is for his disciples. Let me put it in the form of a statement, and this is beginning to make sense for me, and maybe this will make sense for you.

Sometimes my view of who I think Jesus should be gets in the way of my ability to see who he actually is. That sometimes my perception of the way I think he should respond, the way I think he should whatever, gets in the way of my ability to clearly see who he actually is. That's the disciples.

That sometimes in our journey with Jesus, sometimes it's right at the very beginning, that there's something in our vision that's blocking our ability to see who he is, and we have to remove it so that we can clearly see him. That sometimes when we've been journeying with Jesus for a long time, that we develop this perception of him that is hindering our ability to see who he really is, and so we have to remove it so that who Jesus is becomes clear. So here's how I say it.

On a journey with Jesus, sometimes we need to remove what's blocking our ability to clearly see who he is. I'll put it in the form of a question. What's blocking your ability to see Jesus this morning? Maybe it's something large.

Maybe it's something small. Maybe it's something that's been there for a long time. Maybe it's something that just creeped in this week.

What's blocking your ability to see who Jesus is and what he's inviting you to? The journey continues. Verse 27, And Jesus went on with his disciples to the village of Caesarea Philippi. This is a significant town, Caesarea Philippi.

It was rebuilt by Herod Philip. You can see where he gets his name, Philippi Philip. It was rebuilt by him, but it was a pagan place.

They worshiped false gods. Think back to your time in history class as a kid. They worshipped the god, little g, Pan.

The one that was half goat, half human. They built altars and they worshipped that little g god there. It was pagan.

They worshipped idols. They worshipped false gods. And it was hostile.

It was hostile towards Jewish people. Especially Jewish people who believed in the one true God. That they were hostile towards them.

And Jesus has now grabbed his disciples and they've gone from Bethsaida and they've journeyed along this road a little bit of a distance to Caesarea Philippi which was named by Philip on behalf of Caesar, the Caesarea part, Philippi. You know what else it's described as? This particular town. They didn't go all the way into the city, I don't think.

They stayed on the edge of it. It was a village. They stayed on the edge of it where there were some caves.

If you read this same encounter that shows up in Matthew's gospel, I believe it's in Matthew chapter 16. There's a couple other details there. It's referred to as the gates of hell.

The edges of this village. The gates of Hades. That there was a belief in this ancient culture that there was a portal in one of the caves or in the caves that was a portal to the gates of hell.

It was a dark place. A place where Jesus and his disciples wouldn't necessarily be welcomed or invited to be. And he takes them there.

You can probably sense that they're a little uncomfortable. Jesus, where have you taken us? Why have you taken us to this place? Don't you remember? We're not allowed here. Did you get your GPS coordinates confused and walk the wrong direction on this journey? But Jesus had a destination in mind when he was taking them on this trip.

He wanted to open up their eyes to who he really was in the same way that he wants to open up our eyes so that we can see who he really is. And so he takes them there. And while he's there, he asks his disciples.

Here's the question. Who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others one of the prophets. He asked them a really big question.

Who do people say that I am? He's getting to another question, but he knows that these disciples are wrestling with this. If you remember back in Mark chapter 4 verse 41, Jesus and his disciples were on a boat and they were crossing the sea, and a storm came and the disciples got scared. Jesus was asleep.

They wake him up. You remember what Jesus does? He looks at the wind and the waves, and he says, quiet, be still. And they calm down, and they are completely calm.

And then his disciples, they look at each other, and what do they say? Who is this man? The brother speaks, and the wind and the waves stop. Who is this guy? And they've been asking this question amongst themselves, and Jesus knows it, that they're wrestling with coming to an understanding of who he is. They're on a journey with Jesus.

You ever been there? On a journey with Jesus and wrestling with trying to understand who it is that he is? How it is that he makes sense? And whatever it is that's going on, and whatever it is that we bring into a place like this, Jesus, who are you? And their answer, John the Baptist, Elijah, some of the prophets, kind words that they would have spoken. They said, people say, you're like heroes of the faith. But then Jesus gets to the real question.

Verse 29, and he asked them, maybe the most critical question. Maybe the most critical question for us to answer as we sit in here. Who do you say that I am? The idea is that that's nice.

I get what everybody else in culture is saying about me. I get what all the people that you're interacting with are saying about me. But who do you say that I am? Critical question.

Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, who do your friends say that I am? He doesn't say, who does your pastor say that I am? Even though our pastor has great things to say about him. He doesn't say, what is the most recent podcast that you've listened to say about him? What does the book you're reading say about him? He says, who do you say that I am? It's a critical question.

It's the heart of the beginning, and it's the heart of the journey with Jesus question. We see it in baptisms. It's where this idea comes from.

We didn't hear that part of the baptism video that we saw, but before the baptism, somebody will ask, will you repeat this after me, or will you answer this question? Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? And that person says, yes, I do. And then we say, because of that confession, we're going to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That when they make that declaration that I believe that you are the Christ, it doesn't mean that they fully understand everything that that word means, but it does mean that in this moment, I believe that you are the Christ.

And it's what Peter says. Peter gets up the courage when Jesus asked this question. I know all that, but who do you say that I am? Peter puffs out and he says, you are the Christ.

What does that mean? This is huge. It's not Jesus' last name. Just clear in the air that when he signed his autograph, it wasn't Jesus Christ.

It was a title that Peter was giving him. He was giving him this title, Christ. It would mean anointed one, like you would a king, like you would a ruler, like you would a leader, an anointed one.

It would also be translated as Messiah, which would begin to carry this idea that someone who sets us free, that he's an anointed one, he's the Messiah, he's the King, capital K, that ends all kings, that he's the one who sets you free. Now, when Peter says this, does he fully understand what he's saying when he says this out loud? He doesn't. Because there's a part of Peter, there's a part of the rest of these disciples, that when they say you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, you're the one who's going to set us free, there's a part of him that means for them that he's going to set them free from oppression, that he's going to free them from the rulers and the kingdoms and the powers and the authorities that are oppressing them all around them.

And he's going to do that. But I'm not going to step on Jason's toes, he'll be back here next week to preach. And the rest of this conversation is Jesus telling them how he's going to set them free.

He uses language like this, I'm going to have to suffer many things, I'm going to be rejected, I'm going to be killed, I'm going to rise again. That there's a part of them that thinks Jesus is going to set them free from oppression, but what he's helping them realize is that I don't set you free from oppression. What I set you free from is shame.

What I set you free from is guilt. What I set you free from is sin. What I set you free from are the burdens that you walk into a room like this carrying, that you don't know where else to leave them, and the only place you can leave them is at the foot of that cross.

And Jesus says you can leave them there and walk out of here free, because he is the Christ. He is the Christ, listening friend, the Savior of the world, the King of kings, desiring each of us to come to know and follow him. You've been listening to a message delivered a week ago Sunday by Pastor Matt Clark of CU Church.

If something he shared stirred your heart to know more about Jesus and God's plan for your life, call 1-888-NEED-HIM. That's 1-888-NEED-HIM. You can also listen to this program again, read the transcript, or find many other helpful resources on today's topic by visiting greatnewsradio.org or wluj.org and click on the Mark & Friends tab.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for being a part of our radio listening family. This is Mark Burns with the Ministry of Great News Media.

God bless you, and have a great day and night.