Who is Jesus?

The top of Mount Everest is 29,032 feet. From “the top of the world,” you can see approximately 211 miles (on a clear day). You can also begin to see the difference between the atmosphere and outer space! Standing at the summit is awesome.

But is that enough to prove the existence of God? For those that summit mountains, standing at the top can cause many to reflect on their maker. Throughout history, people have made images that try to help them capture the majesty of God. All the nations, including Israel, made idols to honor ‘gods.’ But God had said in Exodus 20:4, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath…”. 

During Jesus’ ministry, He reminded His followers, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:6-7) 

He had given them ample reasons to trust His claim to be the Messiah, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me?” (14:10) This conversation was after He had taken them to Caesarea Philippi, where the Cave of Pan was located. This was believed by the pagans to be the ‘Gate of Hades.' This entrance into the underworld, the place of the dead, was the place the Greeks and Romans claimed to have received visions from Pan, the "seer." 

Jesus took His disciples to this place as well, a place considered sacred by many cultures throughout the world. Perhaps it was while they were standing at the overlook of the Cave of Pan that He asked them, “Who do people say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” (Mark 8:27-30) 

Whatever Jesus’ reason for taking them to that place, it was important that they understood that the kingdom that Jesus came to reveal was not like other kingdoms. His was not a kingdom built upon man or false gods, but on the “Word that became flesh” (John 1:1). An important lesson to His disciples (and us) that we don’t build our hopes on man-made things or on speculative mysteries, but rather on the truths revealed by God. 

All that Jesus had done pointed to who He was so “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31). Sadly, many of the people who had followed Jesus would forget that fact and turn their back on the one who had shown them so much evidence of His power. As John writes in John 1:10-11, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” 

Where would Jesus need to take you to convince you of God’s deity and His power?