Welcome. It's good you are here today, because today's question is, without a doubt, the most important one Jesus ever asked.

There are many important questions in life. Where will you go to school? What career will you pursue? Who will you marry? Where will you live? How will you raise your children? Those are significant questions because they shape the course of your earthly life.

But there is one question that determines far more than the next few decades. It determines your eternity. The question is found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16.

"Who do YOU say that I am?" Everything about faith rises or falls on the answer to that question. Throughout history people have wrestled with that question. Maybe you're here today and that question still lingers in your life. WHO is Jesus?

Throughout this series, we have been examining some of the questions Jesus asked during His earthly ministry. That may seem a little unusual at first because we often think of Jesus as the One who provides answers. People came to Him with questions about God, life, eternity, forgiveness, marriage, money, and countless other subjects. Yet when you read the Gospels carefully, you discover that Jesus frequently responded to questions by asking questions of His own. In fact, one scholar estimated that Jesus asked more than 300 questions during His ministry. He understood something that every good teacher understands: answers can inform the mind, but questions have a way of revealing the heart.

When Jesus asked a question, it was never because He lacked information. He already knew the answer. Instead, His questions invited people to examine themselves. They exposed assumptions, uncovered motives, and forced individuals to confront truths they might otherwise avoid. And the same is true today. The questions Jesus asked two thousand years ago continue to echo into our lives because they are not merely questions for the people in the story; they are questions for us.

Billy Graham was arguably one of the most respected Christian leaders of the twentieth century. When he passed away, during his funeral service, his son, Franklin Graham shared something significant to those of us whose vocation and calling is to preach. He said one of the defining characteristics of his father's ministry was his absolute confidence in the Word of God. He recalled countless occasions when his father would stand before thousands of people, hold up his Bible, and simply declare, "The Bible says..."

For generations of Christians, that phrase was the foundation of preaching. The preacher's authority wasn't found in his personality or his opinions. It wasn't found in his education. It wasn't even found in his experience. The authority came from one simple conviction: "The Bible says."

And yet today, there are rising voices - even from those who preach - suggesting that this phrase "The Bible says" should be cast aside because it is essentially outdated. Some preachers claim that since modern people are suspicious of authority, when we appeal to Scripture AS authoritative in one's life, we are in danger of creating barriers rather than bridges to faith. There is one prominent modern-day preacher who has even suggested that portions of the Bible, particularly the OT, are outdated, embarrassing, or largely irrelevant to modern believers.

So which is it? Is the Bible still relevant? Does it still matter? Can we still confidently say, "The Bible says"? Or has the Bible become little more than a religious artifact that we respect but rarely open?