Latest / Chapter and First- Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church / Who Do You Think Jesus Is? - Pastor Greg Addison - October 25, 2026

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Who Do You Think Jesus Is? - Pastor Greg Addison - October 25, 2026 · Chapter and First- Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church

0:03
SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's uh as we continue our chronological study of God's Word.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting with us, this is what we've been doing all year as a church family.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: We have been going through uh reading Scripture in chronological fashion, not the order of the books, but the order of the events.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: And as we're reading through the Gospels, it's interesting, you know, we're kind of bouncing back and forth, trying to weave together all the different events in a chronological fashion.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: Some are described in some gospels, some are described in all gospels, and we're kind of bouncing around through that.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: But I think the plan is doing a pretty good job walking us through generally the flow of events in Jesus' ministry.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: Now, we find ourselves this week kind of in that midpoint-ish where we're moving forward.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: And there's some things I want you to see.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about this question that Jesus asks Peter when he says, Who do you say that I am?
1:19
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the most important question that every single person will ever answer.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: Who do you say is Jesus?
1:27
SPEAKER_01: But there is a context to this story that I want us to see.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: And so as you're reading through, here's what happens.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he is preaching the gospel.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: He's always preaching the gospel through throughout his ministry.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: But in the beginning of his ministry, there are some special things that are happening.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of miracles that he conducts.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of healing and a lot of that stuff that goes along with the preaching.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: And in the beginning of his ministry, a lot of that is there to give this sense, this seal of approval of God on the ministry of Jesus.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: It is to affirm his preaching that he is the Son of God, sent as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: As his ministry continues, though, as we'll see today, crowds get bigger, crowds get more confused, people come for the show, people come for the healing, they don't necessarily come for the message.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of confusion that flows around that time.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus begins, as we'll see today, to shift the way he goes about doing ministry because he always is striving for a clear focus on the gospel that people need to be saved.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: And so as the miracles go from affirming him as the Son of God to confusing the crowds and all that, he changes in ways that he's doing that.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: Now, scholars, there are scholars and theologians and stuff.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you'll see some reference to the messianic secret.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: And what they're trying to say is not Jesus is not trying to keep who he is secret, he is trying to avoid terms and settings that create more confusion so he can bring more clarity to who he is as Jesus.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: In this time, as we'll see in a moment, the Pharisees are already the enemies of Jesus.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: They've already set themselves against him.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in periods now, as we read forward, you'll see things like they've already begun to plot his death, but they can't really move against him because he's so popular.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: You see them attack him with all of these questions and conundrums and theological, you know, mumbo jumbo trying to mess him up and trip him and shame him in front of people and all that.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: They are already set against Jesus deeply.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: And then in this setting, Jesus begins to change or morph his teaching.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: He does not change the message of the gospel, but he begins to alter his methodology a little bit.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: You begin to see an intense use of parables.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: And we've preached about parables before here, and what they are they are an illustrative spiritual story designed to teach one truth that Jesus is trying to drive home.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: But as he begins to move into these parables, you see things like a lot of the crowds that haven't come to learn about Jesus or to hear about the gospel, they begin to get confused and they're sort of left out and they don't get it.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: And the people that are coming with legitimate questions and want to understand who Jesus is, they get it and they get to be saved and they're and they're growing.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: And so he is kind of working with his teaching methods to focus and keep the focus on he has come to save people.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: And then you see him intensely move into training, specific training with the apostles.
4:54
SPEAKER_01: He goes into, y'all, this is what is really going to happen.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go and I'm going to die on the cross.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: And that begins to be a struggle for them, and he is working them through, preparing them for when that happens.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: So that's the context that we're reading now in this middle part of Jesus' ministry.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: And now what you get is Jesus is really honing in everyone on this question.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: It is a soul focus on who is Jesus?
5:23
SPEAKER_01: Who am I?
5:24
SPEAKER_01: Who do you say that I am?
5:26
SPEAKER_01: It's not that he wasn't focused on that before, but he is really shifting, changing, addressing, drilling down on this message that he is the one who has come to take away our sins.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: He is the Lamb of God.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: That's the context of that.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: So I want to read a couple of these episodes beginning in Mark chapter 7.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: So if you're there, you're Mark chapter 7, verse 31.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: So watch how this begins to unfold.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: Again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decopolis.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: Now that's just these little towns that are wrapped or ringed around the Sea of Galilee there.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus took him away from the crowd to the private or in private.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Now you see there, this is Jesus.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: You're beginning to see they're confused in all this mess, and he is trying to minister, but he wants to do it in a way that he can focus on this guy's life and he can eliminate or reduce this confusion about people just showing up doing miracles and stuff.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: And so he takes him away in private.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, after putting his fingers in the man's ears and then spitting on his fingers, he touched his tongue, looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply, and he said to the man, Be opened.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and began to speak clearly.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: Jesus ordered them to tell no one.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: But the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, he's not hiding, he's trying to deal with this confusion.
7:15
SPEAKER_01: They're talking about the healings, not about the Son of God who came to way to take away the sins of the world.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: Verse 37, they were extremely astonished, and they said, He has done everything well.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
7:31
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't come to make the deaf hear and the mute speak.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: He didn't come to do everything well.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: He came to die on the cross for our sins and rise again on the third day to conquer death and sin, to provide salvation for us.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus came.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: And so you see this struggle he's having with the crowds here where he's trying to sort this out.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: Now let's go to Mark chapter 8, and we're going to look at an episode with the Pharisees.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, demanding of him a sign from heaven to test him.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: And so it's very clear that this is an attack on Jesus by the Pharisees.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you're the Son of God, then you do this.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: If you're the Son of God, you do this.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to believe you unless you prove whatever.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: And so they are clearly just dead set against him.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: We talked a couple of weeks ago in the conversation with Nicodemus that Jesus always receives honest seekers.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Even if they're doubting, if they're honest, he receives them.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: This is not honest.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Scripture says they are trying to test him, they're attacking him, and so he opposes them back, sighing deeply in his spirit.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Now it's the second time we've seen that phrase.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: You get that?
8:44
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is is so desiring for them to understand why he came and who he is, and he's getting all this confusion and lack of responses and opposition.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says, Why does this generation demand a sign?
9:00
SPEAKER_01: Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: Then he left them, got back in the boat, and went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
9:10
SPEAKER_01: And so now you see the opposition that's against Jesus as he continues to preach and clarify who he is, and that the gospel, the good news, is that Jesus came to pay the price for our sins.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: And now let's get to his internal discussion with his followers.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: So if you'll move over into chapter 8 and verse 27, Jesus went with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: And on the road he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?
9:41
SPEAKER_01: They answered him, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others, a prophet.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: But you, Jesus asked them, Who do you say that I am?
9:54
SPEAKER_01: And in this entire narrative, that's the whole point that Jesus is trying to get to.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: Peter answered and said, You are the Messiah.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: Another version, ESV, a couple others will say, the Christ.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: It's the same thought process.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: It is this technical definition of who Jesus is as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: But even they are starting to learn.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: So here's what it says.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Peter answered him, You are the Messiah.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus strictly warned them to tell no one about him.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: Not trying to hide, but he's trying to get them to understand before they go out with his message.
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SPEAKER_01: And so it says in verse 31, you'll see this illustrated.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: He spoke openly about this.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he's describing that whole journey to the cross and the beatings and the trial and he's going to die on the cross and the whole deal.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: Just to show they're still learning, the Bible says that Peter took him aside and began to rebuke Jesus.
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SPEAKER_01: See, he just doesn't understand yet.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: But turning around and looking at his disciples, in other words, Peter pulls them over.
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SPEAKER_01: Jesus, Jesus, come here.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: Dude, you can't say that.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: That's not what's going to happen.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: You're the Son of God.
11:27
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
11:28
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, to make sure that they all get it, because Peter's just reflecting the confusion that's clearly in a lot of their minds.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: He turns around and says, fellas, listen to this.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: And he rebukes Peter.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Peter, get behind me, Satan.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: You are not thinking about God's concerns, but you're thinking about human concerns.
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SPEAKER_01: Now, what's going on there?
11:55
SPEAKER_01: He's not being ugly to Peter.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: He's not mad at Peter.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: He is trying to get Peter's attention.
11:59
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to get the other 11's attention.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, Listen, you are superimposing your ideas of what you think I should do and can do and shouldn't do.
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SPEAKER_01: And you're not paying attention to the spiritual reality of what's happening.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: I am going to the cross to die for sins.
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SPEAKER_01: I am not here to restore the throne of David.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to overthrow the rope, the yoke of Rome.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to do all that.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: I am here for one purpose.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are going to die and go to hell if I don't go pay the price for your sins.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: And he makes it clear to him.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says this calling the crowd along with his disciples.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: Now he brought the twelve, the eleven in with Peter, and now he goes to get the whole entourage following him around because he wants everybody to hear this.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: But whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save his life.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: Verse 36.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life?
13:18
SPEAKER_01: That is an incredibly insightful question for a first world wealthy nation like America.
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SPEAKER_01: What good does it do to have what we have and all of that and die and go to hell?
13:31
SPEAKER_01: What good does it do?
13:33
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what Jesus is trying to teach them.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: There is one thing that matters, and he came for one reason.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: He came to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins so we could have the salvation that God had promised.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: That's the whole point.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: So here's truth number one.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: This is the most fundamental question in life.
13:56
SPEAKER_01: Who do you say that I am?
13:58
SPEAKER_01: Everyone has to answer this question.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: It confronts all of us.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: Your eternal destiny rests on your answer to this question.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: The Bible teaches very clearly all of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be an axe murderer, you don't have to be a bank robber, you don't have to be Ole Miss Rebel.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be any of those things in order to be lost.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: You're just a sinner.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: All of us are there.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: We grade levels of sin.
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SPEAKER_01: Axe murderers are here, bank robbers are here, cheat on your spouse, you're here, whatever.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: We got all this.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: God didn't have a hierarchy.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: If you sin, you've fallen short of God's glory.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: And all of us have done that.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: There's no one in this room, pretty much, unless there's a baby I hadn't seen yet, who doesn't have enough of a conscience and all of that to understand, I did that, that was wrong.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that sin is to be punished.
14:59
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus stepped out of heaven.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: He came so that he could die on the cross, and that his death would have no judgment attached to it.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: He dies on the cross voluntarily.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: It just drives me up the wall every time I hear people argue in our culture day about the Jews killed Jesus and the Romans killed, Romans killed Jesus, and all that.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: Listen, Jesus Himself said, it's in red letters in your Bible, no one takes my life.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: I lay it down for you.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: He told Nicodemus, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Jesus voluntarily went to the cross, and those other people were nothing more than tools that God was using in this journey to affirm the prophecy and the promise that he sent Jesus to die for our sins.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: It is all the work of God.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: He voluntarily submitted himself to all of that nonsense.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: He voluntarily went to the cross.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says before he died, while he's still functioning, he's still breathing, he's still speaking, he's still thinking, the Bible says that he cried out with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: He voluntarily died for our sins.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: And then he rose again on the third day, conquering death and sin.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: And now when you come to give your life to Jesus, you are confronted.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: Who do I believe Jesus is?
16:31
SPEAKER_01: If you do not believe that he did that and you don't place your faith in him, that's fine, but you are going to pay the price for your sin.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: Which means when you die, you're going to spend an eternity in hell, separated from God.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: To come to Jesus is to answer the question, who do you say that I am?
16:48
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, I believe that you are the Messiah.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: God sent you to die on the cross for my sins.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: It really happened, and I'm going to give my life to you.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: Everything lock, stock, and barrel, and place all of my hope and life in your hands.
17:01
SPEAKER_01: It's now your life, not mine.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: And when you do that, the Bible says that you are saved.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: Whosoever believes in him will never perish, but have everlasting life.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: And this fundamental question, you would think by 2026 in human history it would be settled.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: But for all human history, people have been attacking Jesus.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: They've been confused about who Jesus is.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: You have crowd people and they think it's this and that.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: And you have Pharisees and people who are opposing Jesus, and you have false religions, and you have all of this stuff going on trying to redefine Jesus.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: And in our culture, it is every bit as engaged a conversation as it has ever been.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: We live in a culture today.
17:45
SPEAKER_01: I told the campus at Chaffee this morning, twice in the last three weeks, I've had Mormons or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or whatever knock on my door.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to be critical, it's not my point.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: My point is people are still confused about who Jesus is.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: And both times I have these nice young people knock on my door and they're very pleasant, and they say, Good evening, and how are you?
18:10
SPEAKER_01: I say, I'm fine.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: And I say, listen, I see your sign on your thing, and so I don't want to be rude or disrespectful for you.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to argue with you.
18:19
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want you to know before you leave my porch, I'm going to pray for you that you meet the real Jesus who died on the cross for your sins.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: And in our house, we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who died on the cross for our sins.
18:34
SPEAKER_01: And they immediately say this, both of them, to different groups, because they are trained to say this.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: We believe that too.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: That's what they say.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: And I immediately say, you do not believe in the same Jesus that I believe in, because your faith heritage teaches a different Jesus.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: He is not the only Son of God, he is a God.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: And if you live a really good life and you do some spiritual commitment ceremony that's taught in your deal, and you earn your way to heaven, what that means for you is you get to become a God like Jesus is a God, and you spend eternity populating your planet the way he populated this one.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: And that is not what the Bible teaches about Jesus.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: And it is my prayer for you.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to argue with you, I don't want to be disrespectful.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that you trust your faith, but I want you to know that I am going to pray for you that you meet the real Jesus who is the only means of salvation.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: They're going to knock on your door if they haven't already.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: We have a person running for senator, United States Senator in the state of Texas, who claims to be a Christian, and he is incredibly dangerous as a theologian.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm not commenting on his political party.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Don't send me any more emails.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: But when a guy stands up or goes on these interviews and he lies about who Jesus is, he's a liar.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: And it is dangerous theologically because there are other people who are listening to him who are in the first crowd that Jesus talked to, and they don't understand who Jesus is.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: And when he says that God is non-binary, when he says that Jesus didn't say this and Jesus said that, and Jesus came for poor people and all of that, he's not telling the truth.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: He either intentionally is lying or he doesn't know anything about Scripture.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: But for people who are listening to that, they are getting a bogus false picture of Jesus.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: And it's wrong.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: It's wrong.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't come for social justice, he didn't come for LGBTQ people or whatever.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: He came for all of us because we're all sinners on our way to hell.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus died for us so that we could all be saved.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, whatever their struggle is.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: And there's no struggle that's any worse than mine or yours.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: We're all, we are all in that boat where we all need a Savior and Jesus died for all of us.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: And so we don't talk ugly about people, we don't talk down to people, but what we do is we help them understand that Jesus loves them and Jesus came for one purpose and one purpose only.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: He did not come for poverty.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Jesus said, Why are you not following me?
21:35
SPEAKER_01: The poor will always be here with us.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: It is the result of sin and struggles of sin and the culture and everything else.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Don't have to break all that down, but you know what the answer is.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus didn't come to resolve poverty, he didn't come for social justice.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to die on the cross to pay the price for your sins so that you could trust him as your Savior.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: You could be saved and forgiven and spend an eternity in heaven with him instead of an eternity in hell.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: And we live in a culture where that's going to be said.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: We have fundamental Muslims who are taking over political offices to push fundamental Islam.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: And Islam is a lie.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to be ugly.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to be pejorative.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: Send me an email about I'm Islamophobic or whatever.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: I don't really care.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: But here's what they say: Jesus is not the Son of God.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is a prophet.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: When he asked Peter, Peter said, Some people say you're a prophet.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: And they'll try to be nice and they'll try to cover up what they say and all of that.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: And they'll say he was a great prophet and he was a good prophet and he taught wonderful things or whatever.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: He's not a prophet.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: He's the son of the living God who stepped out of heaven, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again so we would have salvation.
22:59
SPEAKER_01: You get it.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: And so this is the fundamental question of life.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus?
23:07
SPEAKER_01: And whoever is proclaiming a false Jesus, we have to speak the truth in love because we want them to meet the Jesus that we know.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: So we don't argue, we don't scream at people, we don't call them names, we don't do all that kind of stuff.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: What we do is we go in love and say, Do you know Jesus?
23:34
SPEAKER_01: Do you know who Jesus is?
23:36
SPEAKER_01: That brings truth number two.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: We must understand the influence of this question.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: There is an impact when you bring up the name of Jesus.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: I mean, people react, right?
23:53
SPEAKER_01: And so there are many different answers to that question, and we have to realize that.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: So when we start talking about Jesus, we should have our spiritual ears up and we should listen because there are people who don't understand.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: There are people who reject Jesus.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: There are people who acknowledge Jesus or some form of Jesus and they don't really understand who he is, or they have tried to shape him in their own picture based on their own thought process.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: Live your own truth and whatever.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: And there are people who surrender to him, like us.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: And so when you're talking, you've got to realize there's going to be different responses, and there are different answers, and you are prepared on how to answer those.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: And it's important because of that, because this is the single most important question.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: We must clarify our language, our questions, our sharing, and everything to the personhood of Jesus.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: And then we commit to ask that question.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: You need to ask people, hey, what do you who do you know Jesus to be?
25:01
SPEAKER_01: Or who is Jesus?
25:02
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus to you?
25:04
SPEAKER_01: Ask that question.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: They're going to react.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of reactions.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: That's fine.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: We're there to share truth and to explain to them who Jesus is.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: I've shared this before, but it's a great illustration.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: The pastor where I grew up, when I got on staff and he was coaching us on, you know, preaching and teaching and all those other things, he said, listen, fellas, here's what I want you to know.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: You need to beware of preachers or teachers who only talk about God.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: And that's all they ever say.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's nothing wrong with using the name God.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: It's God's name, there's all kinds of names of God in the Bible.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: That's not the point.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: But the point is if they never say Jesus, there's something broken.
25:48
SPEAKER_01: Either they're not willing to confront the question because they know the response, or they are hiding some off theology or some other deal, or they're just walked away from Scripture and they're in all this social justice and all this other stuff that doesn't have anything to do with it.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: And if they're not willing to point to Jesus, then something is off.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the Bible says very clearly that Jesus is a stumbling block.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: It says that us as Jesus people, to people who are being saved, we are the aroma of incense in God's prayers to heaven, and to people who've rejected Jesus, like the Pharisees in this story, we are the aroma of death leading to death.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: Why?
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Because God can be anybody, anything.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: You can describe him however you want to, but when you talk about Jesus, you have to get to the cross.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: And to get to the cross, you have to define Jesus went to the cross and died there for us because we're all sinners.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Right?
27:03
SPEAKER_01: And so what we want to do is make sure that we are always committed on Jesus.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: I told you when I came with questions and answers and all that, and I hope I'm modeling that as best I can.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: When I sit down to write a sermon or study and I'm praying through these messages, the first fundamental thing I do is I need to make sure there's enough scripture that the Holy Spirit has a living and powerful Word of God to work with, and I say the name of Jesus as many times as I possibly can.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: As many times as I can work it in.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: That is on purpose.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm not repeating myself.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: I am following a plan to say Jesus as much as I can because Jesus is the Savior, Jesus is the point, and every person needs to answer the question, Who do you say that I am?
27:48
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus asks.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: And that leads us to truth number three.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: Truth number three is this to accept Jesus is to take up your cross.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: It's not to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in another passage that demons acknowledge He is the Son of God.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: But they reject and oppose him.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: He says in another passage, everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: So what it means to accept Christ as your Savior is just what Jesus said.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: He calls everybody over so everybody hears this.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: He is working past the confusion of the miracles and the opponents and all of that.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: And he makes it clear to them if you are going to follow me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.
28:42
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a very specific description that he is giving about how you place your faith in him as the Savior.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: It means that you deny yourself, it is no longer your life.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: You take everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be, and you give it all to Jesus, and it's all his and you don't own your life in any way, shape, or form.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: And he says, take up your cross and follow me.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: And all of that crowd, they know exactly what that means.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: Historians tell us in this era of Jesus and in this time frame in Israel in that area, they had probably estimated that they had crucified over 30,000 people at that point.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they crucified criminals that were detrimental to order and the society and all of that.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: They hung rebels who rebelled against Rome on the cross and all of that.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: And they didn't go off like we do in some room somewhere and giving them injection.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: They beat them, they carried them out in the streets in front of everybody, just like the story of Jesus, and they hung them out on I-40.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: So everybody saw them.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens to you if you oppose Rome.
29:51
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they wanted everybody to see it.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Imagine Rogers and Mazar Road, like you don't have sidewalks, you have people bleeding and dying on the crosses in front of you.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: That's where they lived.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus explained to Peter, James, John, the 12, I am, that's gonna happen to me, what you've seen.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: That's why Peter reacted.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: No way.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: How can I, man, I don't, I can't wrap my mind around that, Jesus.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: How, man, you know who they hang on?
30:21
SPEAKER_01: How's that gonna happen?
30:22
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I am doing that to pay the price for your sins.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: It is a spiritual purpose that I've come for, for salvation.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: And then when he calls them up and he says, take up your cross and follow me, that means something to them.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: Specific.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: That means you flat out have executed your life and desires for life and separated yourself from anything you ever wanted to happen, and you've given your life totally locked, stock, and barrel to Jesus.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: That's what that means to them.
30:58
SPEAKER_01: There's no confusion here.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Now we may be confused because we don't drive down Rogers Road and see people dying on the cross in front of us, but they knew exactly what that meant.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, I'm dying for you, you're going to die with me.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: To think that the Christian life is some sort of, yeah, okay, I got fire insurance, I'm not going to hell, now I'm going about my life and do what I wanted to do, and don't have to be committed to ministry in the advance of the gospel and the church and all that deal.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: How incredibly disrespectful and dishonest is that to the work of Jesus.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: Y'all, I'm going to the cross and die for you there.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: Peter, who do you say I am?
31:51
SPEAKER_01: Technical term, you're the Messiah, the Christ, you're the anointed sacrifice.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: Take up your cross and follow me.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: See, that's how that works.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to learn this.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: This is not a one-time question that you answer and you're saved, and then you go about your life.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: Again, when you are confronted with who is Jesus?
32:14
SPEAKER_01: Who is the Christ?
32:15
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that he died for you on the cross?
32:17
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, what that means is you deny yourself and you end your life as you know it, and it becomes Jesus' life.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: And for a Christian, it's not a one-time decision.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: It becomes a decision that you make every day, and it's the only decision left that you make in your life.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: So we get this idea, we get up in the morning, I'm going to decide what I'm going to do today, and I will either watch that or drink that or say that or do that.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: I'll either give that or not give that.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: I'll go and I'll do that when making these decisions.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: No, that is not what Jesus clearly explains.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: Once you gave your life to Jesus, all the other decisions are already made for you, and you can't go back into the decision process.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: The decisions are already made.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: I gave my life to Jesus, and now he's the only one making decisions.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: And every day, the only decision I make is again, I'm going to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow what Jesus has for us today.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: And the great thing about that, friends, is Jesus will do more with your life than you could ever imagine.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: You don't want it to be your life anymore.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: If you answer the question, Jesus is the Messiah.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: Why would you want to take it back from him?
33:43
SPEAKER_01: He conquered death and sin.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: You're going to do your little pedestrian, American, Arkansas, whatever thing.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: Are you going to live by allowing Jesus to live and work through you and guide you and do everything he's going to do and that he's planned to do through you?
34:01
SPEAKER_01: That he saved you to do.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: That is the foundation of every other faith choice we make.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: Which basically is, I'm going to follow you today.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: And then he puts a conversation in front of you, and I don't really get to say no.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: I may get to go, okay, I don't know if I can do that.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: You're going to have to help me or guide me or teach me or put somebody in my life to help me do that, but I can't really say no because it's not my life, and you told me to do that.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: I've shared my testimony before when I went into ministry.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: I didn't really want to be in the ministry.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: I was spent my life since the time I was a seventh grader.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be a lawyer.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you why.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: It still offends my parents to this day that I wanted to be a lawyer.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: And I love lawyers.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: I love our lawyers in the room.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: I love I couldn't wait to be a lawyer.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: All my favorite people on television were lawyers.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: In fact, my very first hero, I love westerns.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: My dad loved westerns.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: We're John Wayne family.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: I love westerns and all that.
35:10
SPEAKER_01: And my first hero in Westerns was Jared Barkley.
35:15
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're under 50, you don't know who Jared Barkley was.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: There was a Western called the Big Valley, and his family owned this big ranch and all that, and he was the lawyer in the family.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: A cowboy and a lawyer at the same time.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't get any better than that.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: That was my vision for life.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: And after practicing law for six years, Jesus showed up and he said, Okay, we're done with this.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to be a preacher.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: I said, I don't really want to.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I want you to be a preacher.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Look, I'm already tithing.
35:48
SPEAKER_01: Don't you know how much more I'll tithe as a lawyer than a preacher?
35:54
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I want you to be a lawyer.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: And I literally, this is not an exaggeration, there was a guy in my firm who was selling his red BMW convertible.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: And I'd practiced six years.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: I was at that point.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: I was looking at it was used, but I was still in.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I this is a sacrifice.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: You Jesus said, deny yourself, take up your cross.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: I will buy that new red BMW convertible that everybody's going to look at it, and I will put one of those fish symbols on the paint, on the trunk.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: Because I'll be a testimony for Jesus.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: And literally, conversation is about this long.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: He said, okay, I'm done with this.
36:40
SPEAKER_01: Whose life is it?
36:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, when I acknowledged as a nine and a half-year-old boy that Jesus was the Christ and I gave my life to him, it wasn't for 15 years till I was 25.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: It was for the rest of my life.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: And I gave my life to Jesus and not his, and he says, You're going to be a preacher, it's not my life.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: It's his.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: I don't make that decision anymore.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: And when you give your life to Jesus, you don't make those decisions in your life anymore either.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: Your life is no different than mine or any other Christian who has answered the question, you are the Christ.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: You are the Messiah.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: I have placed my faith in you for the forgiveness of my sins and the creation of resurrected life and salvation, and now I get no more choices.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, this it's no this life I live in the flesh, this human life, it's no longer me living it.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: But it is Christ in and through me.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: My identity is not Greg.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: My identity is I am a blood-bought child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: I've been adopted by God.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: He is my father, and it is his life because Jesus paid for my life with his life, and I gave mine to him.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: It's not my life.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: And even in our identity, when you read these people who are these false teachers and they're claiming Jesus is all these things, what you get is Jesus wants me to be happy, or Jesus wants this to happen, or this is the culture I think, and I want Jesus to affirm this and that and change this and that.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm going to define Jesus that way because that is what I want to view.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: And that is not where my identity is.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: You have no more identity outside of Jesus once you've given your life to Jesus.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Even when we say in church life, in church speak, we use this phrase, our identity in Christ.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: That right there is a very specific phrasing of that deal when we say that.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we just repeat that in church because we heard it so long and we forget what it really means.
38:54
SPEAKER_01: My identity outside of Christ is nothing.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: I'm a sinner on my way to hell.
39:02
SPEAKER_01: My sins are judged.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: That's who I am.
39:07
SPEAKER_01: But when I give my life to Christ and I have taken up my cross and I've denied myself and I'm following him because he took his cross and died in my place, it's not my life anymore.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: My identity is in Christ.
39:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm a child of God.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: I've been changed.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: I follow him.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm obedient to the teaching of Scripture and to ministry and to loving people to Christ and all the things that we do.
39:39
SPEAKER_01: And my identity is I am a Christian.
39:43
SPEAKER_01: I am a follower of Christ.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: The life is not my life anymore.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: It is lived solely through him.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: And when you come to Scripture and you look at Scripture and you follow that Scripture, if you agree with it, you're being obedient.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: And if you disagree with Scripture and you don't do it, you're wrong.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: And you are trying to take your life back that you gave to Jesus.
40:15
SPEAKER_01: So tomorrow, if you're a Christian, I want you to practice with me tomorrow.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: You get up, you get your reading, and before you start, say, Jesus, I've taken up my cross.
40:30
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for saving me.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: It's your life.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: What are you going to do with it today?
40:39
SPEAKER_01: Just try that for a week and see if it doesn't what it doesn't spiritually revolutionize your view of Jesus and what's going on in your life and what he does and the things that it will open up for you that Jesus wants to do in your life.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you bow your heads if we close?
40:58
SPEAKER_01: If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I can't even count the number of times I've shared the gospel.
41:04
SPEAKER_01: It's a pretty simple deal.
41:07
SPEAKER_01: At this point, you have a question in front of you.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: Who do you say that Jesus is?
41:12
SPEAKER_01: If you've never accepted Christ, we want we were praying for you.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: I have prayed for you today.
41:17
SPEAKER_01: We want to invite you to give your life to Christ.
41:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to pray in a moment.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: We're going to sing just one or two verses of a simple song that gives testimony to what we've just studied together.
41:27
SPEAKER_01: And if you need Jesus, I want to invite you to come.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: You come and meet Jesus.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: If you're searching, that's fine.
41:36
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, as we've talked about, never turns away.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: Honest questions.
41:41
SPEAKER_01: If you want to spend some time together, you just come here, we'll make an appointment or see me or Dave or somebody out in the lobby after we're over, and we'll sit down and talk with you.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: And we'll spend as much time as you want to walk through those journeys because Jesus never turns away.
41:57
SPEAKER_01: An honest seeker.
42:00
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, I want you to know you have to make the choice.
42:06
SPEAKER_01: Are you going to accept Jesus as your Savior?
42:09
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, if you have, man, just join me tomorrow, this week.
42:13
SPEAKER_01: Let's commit.
42:14
SPEAKER_01: Pretty simple application.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: Let's commit every day to go, Jesus, it's your life today.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: What do you want to do with it?
42:22
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you for this time, and I thank you for the clear teaching of Jesus.
42:26
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that you'll help us to see clearly so that we can experience what it means to have a life that you have planned and are living through us.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: Us out of the way, us surrendered to you, and you directing our lives.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: Lord, this is our prayer we pray in the saving name of Jesus and all God's people said.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.