Opinion Poll

Matthew 16:13-20

July 5, 2026 • Mount Pleasant UMC

The story is told of a family who took a cave tour and it was one of those that twisted and turned underground until you got to what the guide said was the lowest spot in the cave. The guide gathered everyone close together and said, “Now I’m going to turn off the lights so you can see just what darkness looks like.” And after giving a moment for parents to grab little ones’ hands, the guide did just that. Maybe you’ve been on one of those tours and it is truly as dark as dark can be. You can hold your hand up in front of your face and the only way you know it’s there is that it’s attached to your body. In this particular instance, one of the little girls was scared of the dark, and when the lights went out, she began to sob. And as the sobbing began to get louder, her brother, standing nearby, said, “Don’t worry, sissy, someone here knows how to turn on the lights!”

Darkness is not something we are comfortable with or in. Many of us, probably most of us, have been through power outages where we had no lights in our home and in those times it gets really dark really fast. I’m not afraid of the dark, but I do have little night lights all over the house to push back the darkness when it arrives. We have street lights and house lights and motion activated lights all designed to conquer the darkness. We do a lot to bring light to our physical world. We don’t want to live in darkness. So why, then, if we don’t really like darkness are we so content to let it take over in the spiritual world?

This morning, we’re beginning the countdown to our annual Vacation Bible School, and, as we have done for the last several years, we’re going to spend the next few Sunday mornings looking at the stories and themes that the kids are going to be learning in VBS. I tell you every year that I love VBS because it was at VBS many years ago that I first gave my life to Jesus. I always have high expectations when it comes to that week, but I’ve also realized that these lessons and stories shouldn’t just be for the kids. Why can’t adults enjoy VBS as well? And so this year, we’re going to spend the next few weeks visiting “Illumination Station,” seeking to shine a light on who Jesus really is. Jesus himself said he is the “light of the world” (John 8:12), but as I also noted a few weeks back, this is the only title that Jesus shares with you and me. We are also called the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-16), mainly because it’s our job to shine a light on Jesus so that those who are in the darkness of the world can see him clearly. For these next few weeks, we’re going to look at four words that help us better understand who Jesus is—and they all start with “P.” Here they are: Jesus is the promised, perfect, powerful and proven Son of God. Today we start with “promised,” and we’re headed to a place called Caesarea Philippi.

Most of the time, Jesus and the disciples were hanging out in Galilee around the beautiful sea there. But one day, Jesus has the disciples leave Galilee and travel twenty-five miles north, ascending about 1,700 feet from the shores of the Sea of Galilee to the base of Mount Hermon. There was a city there on the northern border of ancient Israel called Caesarea Philippi. It had once been called Panias, in honor of the god Pan who was worshipped there, but one of the governors had renamed it in honor of Caesar and another ruler had built a temple here to worship the emperor. Not that worshipping the emperor was the worst thing that happened in this place. It had long been what one author calls “a hot zone for idol worship.” Even today, if you go with me to Israel and we visit Caesarea Philippi, you can see the ruins of temple after temple. I call it a “shopping mall for pagan worship.” Besides the one dedicated to Caesar, there were temples to Pan and other temples dedicated to the dancing goats (Davis, Come Alive: Matthew, pg. 125; Keener, Matthew [IVPNTC], pg. 270; Card, Matthew: The Gospel of Identity, pg. 150). Oh, and right there in the middle of it all was and is “the gates of Hell.”

As you stand facing the plateau where all the temples used to be, you will see a cave off to the left side that is dark and foreboding. This cave is the source of the Jordan River; the waters flow out of springs in the cave and down the length of the country, eventually ending in the Dead Sea. But because of the flowing water and the darkness and depth of the cave, it was believed that this cave was the entrance to the underworld. It was, the pagans believed, where the gods came to spend the winter. Every spring, then, they would engage in rituals to try to get the gods to come back and bless the land with fertility. But it wasn’t a matter of gathering, singing some songs and passing the offering plate. If you wanted your land to be fertile, you went to the temple, got a temple prostitute and took her to the cave. Here’s how one author describes it: “Going to the ‘church of Pan’ meant that you drank all the alcohol you could while sleeping with as many partners as possible, all to honor their god!” (Davis 127). Caesarea Philippi was a red light district in Israel. And Jesus takes his disciples there.

It’s safe to say none of these good, Jewish boys and girls had ever been to Caesarea Philippi. This is the place your mother warned you about

and your father told you never to go to. I want to show you the way The Chosen envisioned Jesus’ arrival in Caesarea Philippi, just to give you an idea of what kind of place it was.

VIDEO: “Arrival”

Abomination. Frightening. Horrific. This is not a simple overnight campout. Jesus is bringing them here for a particular purpose. He wants them to clearly see the stark contrast between darkness and light, and so he brings them to this place of spiritual darkness where the choices are clear. Darkness or light. But first, he begins with an opinion poll. “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” he asks them (16:13). I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t know. Undoubtedly, he’s heard many of the things people are saying. And besides, he is the Son of God. He knows everything. But he wants the disciples to understand the options. All of those people out there, the ones who have been listening to my sermons and stories, who have seen the miracles and the movement—what do they think is going on? Who do they say I am? If this were today, he could post a poll online with the options to choose from. A. John the Baptist. Well, that’s crazy. John and Jesus were often seen together. John baptized Jesus! How could they be the same person? And yet, people say all sorts of crazy things when they are trying to understand something out of the ordinary. So, not “A.” B. Elijah. Okay, well this makes a little more sense. Elijah was a great prophet and preacher back in the days of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who had challenged the prophets of the false god Baal to a battle royale on Mount Carmel. Whichever god responded with fire was to be declared the true god, and when Baal didn’t respond, Elijah got in one of the best insults in all of Scripture: “You’ll have to shout louder than that to catch the attention of your god! Perhaps he is talking to someone, or is out sitting on the toilet, or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”(1 Kings 18:27, TLB). The reports were that Elijah never died. He was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire (cf. 2 Kings 2:11). And, on top of that, God had said (through the last prophet in the Old Testament, Malachi), “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes” (Malachi 4:5). So some thought Jesus was the prophet, come back to earth. C. Jeremiah. He was known as “the weeping prophet,” and perhaps some saw Jesus’ deep emotions toward the people and thought that the spirit of Jeremiah had returned. And then there’s D. “One of the prophets” (16:15). The last one is the catch-all category. Anyone who didn’t know exactly who Jesus was could just assume he was one of those old-timey prophet preacher people, one like they hadn’t seen for centuries until John came along.

It’s interesting that Jesus doesn’t comment on or take down any of these options in the opinion poll. He doesn't feel the need to, because what he really wants to know is what he asks next. Directly to the disciples, he asks, “Who do you say I am?” (16:15). The “you” there is plural, by the way. He’s asking all of them: “Who do all y’all say I am?” (cf. McKnight, Matthew, pg. 251). And none of them speak up! Just a few moments ago, they were all very chatty. They have no problem talking about what other people think, but suddenly they aren’t confident enough in their answer to say it to Jesus. It’s like if you’re in a group of friends, discussing what’s happening in the country, and you have no problem talking about what this person believes or that person thinks. But then someone says, “Well, what do you think about it?” And suddenly, it’s hard to speak. You don’t want to say something dumb, or wrong, or out of step. You don’t want to make anyone mad at you. And so when the spotlight shines directly on you, or when it shines on these disciples, suddenly everything goes quiet.

Except for Peter. You have to love Simon Peter, the one who after this day will emerge as the leader of this band of disciples. Peter never seems to have trouble speaking his mind, asking the question everyone is thinking or saying the thing that no one wants to say. Peter isn’t afraid of getting it wrong because he knows, deep down in his gut, he’s not wrong. His answer is the right one, and so without hesitation, he looks straight at Jesus and answers his question: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16). Or, as we might put it in the language of our bottom line for today: “You are the promised son of God.”

The promise is literally as old as time. From the moment the first woman and man decided they knew better than God (cf. Genesis 3:1-6), the promise was made that someone would come who would crush the head of the evil one (cf. Genesis 3:15), someone who would defeat the power of evil and brokenness. The promise was made, and you can find hints and whispers of it through the entire story of the Jewish people. Noah and his family saved in an ark. Abraham being willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Jacob wrestling with God. Moses leading the people out of slavery in Egypt. David defeating a giant and singing about the Lord being his shepherd. Isaiah preaching about a suffering servant. The promise kept showing up in every generation. When the time is right, God will send someone who will defeat evil and save his people. The people believed this promise, but they didn’t really know what it meant. And then the preachers went dark. The prophecies stopped coming. For four hundred years, they went without a word from the Lord. And still they held on to the promise. God had not failed them. He may have gone silent, but he had never failed them.

And then, one night in a stable in the backwater town of Bethlehem, a baby’s cry pierced the night. A virgin had given birth to a miraculous child, the fulfillment of a promise from God through an angel. Shepherds worshipped, Magi brought gifts, Herod the king raged against a perceived threat to his throne, and the baby grew in wisdom and in favor with God and humankind (cf. Luke 2:40). No one (except his mother and maybe his earthly father) really knew it, but this baby was the fulfillment of the promise. No matter what people said about him, he remained focused on his calling, on his mission, his purpose. He was the promised Son of God, and there in that pagan place, where goats are dancing and promiscuity is happening, one fisherman from Galilee got it right: “You are the promised Son of God.”

Then the strangest thing happens. You would expect Jesus to congratulate Simon Peter, and to tell all of the disciples that, now that they know who he is, go tell everyone. Right? Buy a billboard along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, send out a Facebook announcement (because it’s not official until it’s on Facebook), let the whole world know: God has kept his promise and Jesus is the promised Son of God! But that’s not at all what Jesus does next. Oh, he does congratulate Simon by giving him a new name (one of only four people in the whole Bible who receive new names from God [cf. McKnight 253]—bonus points if you can tell me the other three without Googling it), but then he tells everyone not to tell a soul what they have heard. Matthew reports it this way: “He ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah” (16:20). Wait, what? Isn’t people coming to know and believe that he is the savior of the word the whole point?

It is. And it will be. But not until the right time. Even though Peter has given the right answer, even he doesn’t understand what Jesus is really about, as is proven true in the very next passage. When Jesus begins predicting his death, Peter says, “This shall never happen to you!” (16:22). And very quickly, Jesus goes from giving him a new name to calling him “Satan” (16:23). For most people of the time, the expectation was that the Messiah would be a military leader, a man who would lead a battle, defeat the Romans and give Israel back their nation, independent and free. Misinterpretations of the Scriptures and reading contemporary writing of the time had convinced them that the savior would save by conquering through battle and sword. Jesus will indeed conquer, but he will do it on his own terms and in his own way. He will do it by way of a cross. He will conquer by laying down his life. But his death will bring us life; they just don’t know that yet. So he tells them to keep quiet about it until after the resurrection so that he can fulfill the real promise God gave, not the one people thought he gave (cf. Card 151-152; McKnight 253).

By the way, we are no longer under that restriction. That was for the time up to the resurrection, and after that, Jesus actually commands his disciples to go and tell. “Go and make disciples of all nations,” he told them (cf. Matthew 28:19). And he tells us the same thing because that command has never been rescinded. Our message is the same as what Jesus was saying and demonstrating in Caesarea Philippi: Caesar is not lord and god; Jesus is (cf. Davis 128). We proclaim that with our words, to be sure, but we also proclaim it with our lives, with the way we live. There are a lot of opinions out there about who Jesus is, still today. Such an opinion poll today might have these choices: A. A first-rate Jewish teacher. B. A philosopher. C. A social reformer. D. A charismatic healer. E. A failed Messiah. You could undoubtedly add other opinions to that list; ideas about who Jesus was are not lacking today. Sometimes you will even hear that Jesus never existed, but no serious historian today holds that belief. It’s not whether Jesus did or did not walk on this planet. The question is usually who he was or who did he think he was. And while we or people around us may have opinions about that, ultimately the opinion polls don’t really matter. What matters is that he is the promised Son of God, come to save us from our sin.

No one, in my opinion (there’s that word again!), has put it better than C. S. Lewis. You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s so good and on point that I don’t think we can hear it too much. Lewis described Jesus this way:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to (Lewis, Mere Christianity, pg. 52).

Jesus is the promised Son of God.

As I said, the time would come, not terribly long after this conversation at Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus would save the world in his own way, by giving up his life. He would be arrested, beaten and murdered, hung on a cross. His life was not taken from him; he gave it willingly (cf. John 10:18) so that somehow, in some way we still can’t quite fully understand, we would be saved from sin and death by what happened on that cross. And the night before all of that happened, he shared a meal with his friends. In the midst of that evening gave them a practice to remind them of what would happen and also to help them see how he was in fact the fulfillment of the promise of the ages. Jesus is the promised Son of God who gave his life so that we might live. Every time we gather at his table and celebrate what we call holy communion, we not only remember, we also give thanks for God’s promise and the salvation Jesus brought. So this morning let’s come to the table and celebrate the God who keeps all of his promises.

Will you pray with me as we prepare for holy communion?