But when Jesus was come into the parts of Caesarea-Philippi, he demanded of his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I the Son of man am?
Jesus leaves the crowds of Galilee and travels north to the district of Caesarea Philippi. There He asks His twelve disciples what people are saying about Him. He is not after information. This is a test, and the rest of the chapter — including His word about building His church — turns on the answer.
The place matters. This district lay outside Jewish territory, and what the Lord announced there fits the ground He chose for it.
There seems to be a fitness in the place where and the time when the announcement, "I will build My Church," was made. It was in the district of Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13), in Ituraea, outside Judea and even outside Galilee (Luke 3:1). We are here on Gentile ground, and there the Lord announces that He would build His Church, made up not of Jews only, but of Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:11-13, 19-21). And it is after He had given the Pharisees the sign of His death (Matt. 16:1-4; Matt. 12:40).
The question also closed something. It brought the nation's verdict on Him out into the open.
Here in the quiet region of Caesarea Philippi, the Lord, as we read, "asked His disciples, saying, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" By this He intended to draw out the full and formal proof of the nation's unbelief. He was closing His controversy with them. They had failed or refused to see in Him the light that was to give light to the Gentiles, and to be the glory of His people Israel.
The title He gives Himself is the one He takes up after they refuse Him as Messiah. Older translations read "I the Son of man," and the writers below comment on that wording. Two Psalms mark the change.
In Psalm 2 we have God's Anointed and God's King introduced, and He is God's Son. Rejection follows, pictured in the history of David and his experiences. Then in Psalm 8 we read, "What is man, that You are mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that You visit Him?" That is, after the rejection of Christ as the Messiah He takes the wider title of the Son of Man. It is under Him in this character that all things will be put under His feet.
The wording had a purpose. By naming Himself in His lowliest character, He made room for a higher answer.
"Who do men — not you, but people generally — say that I the Son of Man am?" He called Himself "the Son of man," so that He might draw out more clearly from their hearts their confession that He was the Son of God. As the Son of God they had seen His glory and received Him (John 1:12-14). The disciples told Him the various opinions people held about Him.
The same question still tests everyone who reads it.
The great test question then, as now, is "Who do men say that I am?" All glory for God and blessing for man turns on the Person of Christ. It becomes clear that mere human intelligence will never arrive at the truth. The men of that day included many scholars with great intellectual ability. Yet all their thoughts about Christ ended in speculation and uncertainty. … In contrast we see in Peter the result of simple faith, in a man who was ignorant and unlearned when measured against the intellectual leaders of this world. Faith does not speculate or reason. It arrives at the truth with complete certainty, for faith is the gift of God.
He already knew the answer. The question was for their sake — and for ours.
In putting the question to His disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" He knew perfectly well what men said of Him, for He knows all things. Nor does He include in this question those proud and evil Pharisees with their blasphemies; He means the crowds who had followed Him, the men who had listened to His words and seen His miracles. … And is this not still the burning and important question, "Who is He? What do you think of Christ?" It is still so, and the attacks of the enemy are always aimed at the person of the Lord.
- Place — He asks on Gentile ground, outside Judea and Galilee. That fits the church He announces there: Jew and Gentile alike.
- Purpose — The Lord asks not to learn but to draw out formal proof that the nation had failed to recognise Him.
- Title — "Son of Man" is the wider name He takes after they refuse Him as Messiah. Under it, Psalm 8 puts all things under His feet.
- Method — He names Himself by His lowliest title to draw out the higher confession from His own.
- Reach — All God's glory and man's blessing turn on His Person. Cleverness never reaches Him; faith does, because faith is God's gift. "Who is He?" is still the burning question today.
And they said, Some, John the baptist; and others, Elias; and others again, Jeremias or one of the prophets.
Jesus had asked His disciples what people were saying about Him. The answers here are respectful, even flattering — and every one of them is wrong. This verse shows what human opinion produces when it looks straight at the Son of God.
The question came at the end of a ministry in which nothing had been held back.
A great crisis had come in the path of the Lord. The most perfect witness to the Messiah had been given in the middle of Israel. There had been signs, miracles, and fulfilled prophecies. In word and life, He displayed the highest moral perfection before men, along with love, grace, and sympathy that reached out to everyone, without distinction or limit. But it was all in vain. The unbelief, the scorn, and the deadly hostility of the leaders grew with every fresh display of grace.
Jesus put the question using one name for Himself: "Son of man."
"Son of man" is the title of His rejection. "Son of man" is the name that He took when the Jews refused Him as the Messiah. You will find a remarkable proof of this in Matt. 16:13 and Luke 9:18 (the same event recorded by two different Gospel writers).
Jeremiah's appearance in the list is not random. He held a leading place in Jewish thinking. His own call echoed the promise of a coming Prophet.
The same words spoken there about the coming "Prophet" are used of Jeremiah too, though they clearly refer first of all to the Lord. God said to Moses, "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him" (Deut. 18:18). Of Jeremiah we read, "the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth" (Jer. 1:9)... It is easy to understand, then, why the prophet Jeremiah had such an outstanding place in the mind of an Israelite; and why, when our blessed Saviour was here, some thought He was "Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." Jeremiah himself becomes a distinct picture of Christ as the Prophet promised in Deuteronomy.
Every name on the list has one thing in common. Each one needs someone from the past living on earth again.
In each case — John, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the old prophets — huge numbers of people were willing to believe the incredible. They thought a man who had died had come back to live here on earth again. Elijah had not died; he had been taken to heaven alive. The disciples never suggested that people took Him for an ordinary man. That was not a credible option.
The crowd meant to honour Him. That is what makes the answer so sobering. This was the best that human reasoning could reach.
"One of the prophets!" That was the highest point the natural man could reach by his religious reasoning and conclusions. It was the same whether the speaker was "men" in general or "a man of the Pharisees," who said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."
The list looks varied. The variety hides one shared failure.
The answer only takes the judgment of friends into account, and it varies... But this varied judgment is, in fact, just one: no one really knows. Among the crowds around Him there is, so to speak, no true faith. We can allow the best that could be said for them: they wanted to honour Him. Even so, the difference between these thoughts matters far less than their amazing agreement.
Being content to guess about Christ says something about the guesser.
Men are content to speculate about Christ and willing to stay uncertain. That is solemn proof that they have no sense of need on the one hand and no faith on the other. With a sense of need, they would have had discernment; with faith, they would have had certainty. And in all their speculations, they never once came near the truth. This shows how completely unable man is to see the glory of Christ, even in the most favourable circumstances and in the presence of the Son of God Himself.
Every answer in this verse is a near miss. A near miss will not do.
No confession short of "the Son of the living God" will do. The people may have high and honourable thoughts of Jesus... They may speak of Him as "a good man," or as "a prophet," as Elijah or Jeremiah. But nothing of this kind will do. Nothing less will do than the faith that grasps and receives Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God.
- Evidence — Israel had perfect witness in word, life and miracle. The weak answers were not for lack of proof.
- Estimate — Every name offered was a compliment. "One of the prophets" is as high as human reasoning can climb.
- Echo — Three different replies, one result. Nobody really knew, and the variety only exposed a shared unbelief.
- Emptiness — To keep guessing about Christ shows no sense of need and no faith. Need brings discernment; faith brings certainty.
- Enough — Only one confession will do: He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Anything less leaves Him rejected, which is what the name "Son of man" marks.
He says to them, But *ye*, who do ye say that I am?
The Lord first asked His disciples what people were saying about Him, and they reported a spread of guesses. Then He aimed the question straight at the men in front of Him. Everything in the chapter turns on how they answer.
The first question surveyed what people thought. One writer sees that range of answers as a sign of not caring, not of honest searching.
Afterwards He asks His disciples what people in general said about Him. It was all a matter of opinion, not of faith. Such uncertainty belongs to moral indifference. It belongs to people who feel no need in their soul — the need that can only rest in the truth, in the Saviour one has found.
People often use that spread of opinions to argue that nobody can know for sure. One writer answers that argument.
There are so many opinions among men, unbelief argues, that certainty is impossible. Some say one thing and some another; you talk of truth and Scripture, yet after all it is only your view. But what does faith say? Certainty from God is ours the moment we see who Jesus is. He is the only remedy that banishes difficulty and doubt from the mind of man. "But who do you say that I am?" This question was meant to bring out the pivot of man's blessing and God's glory. It becomes the turning point of the chapter.
The Lord stops asking for a report about other people. He puts the matter to the men closest to Him.
He leaves the outside circle. He brings the question into a much closer circle, much nearer to ourselves: "Who do you say that I am?" How beautiful this is! The man who is taught of God answers at once. There is no hesitation, no uncertainty, no fear, but a distinct utterance.
The question asks a person what he holds about a Person.
The Lord now put the question to them. He wanted them to confess with their mouths what was in their hearts about Him. "Who do you say that I am?" It was a personal challenge. The word of the Lord Jesus Christ came direct to their hearts, bringing them face to face with Himself. "What do you think of Me?"
This question sorts out true faith from opinion. One writer calls it the decisive question of the whole exchange.
A searching and decisive question, all-important in its bearing and results! His disciples had told Him what "men" in general thought, and those opinions varied a great deal, as they still do today. But now He put that testing, searching question to them — the touchstone of genuine faith!
The Lord had just rebuked Peter for weak faith. That did not spoil his answer.
Peter's faith may indeed have been weak, for the Lord had just said, "O you of little faith." But it was a living faith. It saw the glory of the Person of Christ, and it confessed Him with complete certainty.
If human opinion produced only guesses, the true answer must come from somewhere else. One writer names the source.
This confession was not a deduction of logic. It did not spring from Peter's own mind or his own feelings. It was a word that was completely true, and right for that moment, because the Father in heaven had made it known to the apostle.
Peter's confession does not stay a private opinion. It becomes the ground of what the Lord announces next.
This truth is the special foundation on which the church is built. It gives the church stability, so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. The Messiah must be the Mighty God, or He has no Messianic glory. It is just as necessary that Jehovah should be Jesus, or there is no calling and forming of the assembly of God. There could be no church, no restoration for Israel without Him.
- Opinion. The crowd's answers were guesses. Such uncertainty comes from not caring who He is.
- Question. The Lord moves from the outer circle to the inner one. The question becomes a personal challenge: what do you think of Me?
- Touchstone. This is the testing question that shows whether faith is genuine — and Peter's weak but living faith passed it.
- Revelation. No one reasons his way to the right answer. The Father in heaven makes the Son known.
- Foundation. Peter's confession is the ground the church is built on, and hell cannot break it. The same question still waits for your answer.
And Simon Peter answering said, *Thou* art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Just before the cross comes into view, Jesus takes His disciples aside and asks who people say He is. The answers vary. Then one man answers for them all, and everything after that turns on his reply.
The disciples report only guesses. One writer says the Lord asked because human uncertainty draws out the faith of His own.
There was the usual answer of men, the uncertainty of human opinion. "He said to them, But who do you say that I am?" He asked because the very uncertainty of men brings out the faith of God's elect. So there is no time at all that God does not turn for good to the believer.
Peter's first title, "the Christ," names Jesus as Israel's promised King. Yet in the same chapter He tells the disciples to stop announcing it. The whole direction of His ministry changes.
The public preaching of the kingdom to the Jews was now to stop. He no longer offered Himself to the nation as their Messiah or Christ. Instead He told His disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ. Instead of pointing to national acceptance and an earthly crown, He speaks of national rejection and an earthly cross. Instead of the old hope of the prophetic kingdom, He mentions a new thing which He was about to establish: the assembly or Church. He had set aside the name Messiah, which linked Him with the throne of David. In its place, for the Church, He takes up a title just made known and infinitely higher: the "Son of the living God."
Peter does not stop at "Son of God." He says "the living God," and one writer shows how much rests on that one word.
He owns Him to be the Son of the One in whom is life and life-giving power. The life of God cannot be destroyed, and the Son of the living God cannot be overcome. In Him is that power of life which nothing can defeat. Satan had the power of death; the Son of God has the power of life. The unchangeable power of life, even though He goes into death, cannot be overcome by death. It is the very reverse. He annuls death. Every other man was overcome by death; the Son of the living God could not be. It is worth noticing the force of "living" here, because He goes on to speak of death, and of "the gates of hell," which mean Satan's kingdom. The Assembly is founded on the unchanging power of life in the Son of God. So the kingdom of death cannot touch it.
That power was not merely claimed; it was demonstrated when the tomb could not hold Him.
The resurrection of the Son of God, according to the power of life which was in Him, is the foundation and measure of the life and security of the church, and it was sheltered, and the church by it, from all the attacks of him who had the power of death. In vain the tomb wrapped itself in darkness — out of the middle of it came life more powerful than ever.
The Lord does not trace this confession to Peter's own thinking. He points to another source, and the Father still opens hearts the same way today.
"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah," said the Lord, "for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." We all come to this same blessedness if we know our Lord as "the Christ, the Son of the living God." It is the Father's work to reveal Him to us this way. How wonderful it is! We have not only tasted that the Lord is gracious, equal to all our deep need. The Father in His grace has also opened our hearts to a new position, a new calling, a new place of favour, by revealing to us who His Son is.
Mark and Luke record only the first half of Peter's answer — and in neither place does the Lord speak of building. That difference is not accidental.
If He had been only the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, that would not have been a firm enough basis for the Church. His Messianic dignity might have been rock enough for Israel, since it was their faith and hope. Psalm 2 also speaks of Him in that dignity as Son of God. But "the Son of the living God" was a revelation of His glory that went far beyond it. Once you know and confess the Lord in this His highest glory, He begins for the first time to announce His building of His Church.
Commentators differ on how to name the rock. Some point to the confession, others to the Person confessed in it.
That confession was the rock on which Christ would build His Church — not poor Peter, who so soon denied his Lord and Master. Peter was a stone — a living stone — built into the rock, but the foundation is the confession of Christ Himself.
- Question — Human opinion about Jesus ran out in uncertainty. The Lord's question brought out the faith of His own.
- Gift — Peter did not work this out. The Father revealed it, and the same blessedness belongs to everyone who knows Him this way.
- Word — "Living" is the key word. He is Son of the One in whom is life and life-giving power, and He annuls death.
- Reach — The Lord lays "the Christ" aside as a public title. The higher name takes its place, and He announces a new thing: the Church.
- Result — The Church rests on that unchanging power of life. The kingdom of death cannot touch it; the gates of hell will not prevail.