Have you ever known someone who, if asked, “Who is Jesus?, might say something like, “He was a great teacher. Very wise. Very loving. Kind of like… Buddha, or Gandhi, or Oprah.”
The problem with that answer is Oprah has never said, “Before Oprah Winfrey was, I am.” Oprah has never claimed she would return on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead. And if Oprah ever did say those things, we would not respond by calling her a wonderful teacher. We would respond by calling her… a doctor.
The point is — Jesus said things that make the “nice teacher” answer to that question not an option.
I want you to know that by the time we’re done today, you may find that the “nice teacher” option doesn’t exist, and by Jesus’ own words, He leaves you with fewer comfortable options about who He is than you arrived with. That’s not me being dramatic. That’s just Jesus being Jesus.
Who Is Jesus? This is the most important question you will ever answer. How you answer that question will determine many, many things in your life, and perhaps more importantly, what happens when your physical life ends.
Our culture tends to view Jesus as a good moral teacher, but often wants to avoid His own claims about who He was.
I shared this quote from C.S. Lewis a couple of weeks ago.
Either Jesus is the Son of God ; or a madman or worse. But His being just a great teacher? He’s not left that open to us.
—C.S. Lewis
Lewis then went on to say this:
“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… or else he would be the Devil of Hell.”
—C.S. Lewis
Was Jesus Lord or Liar? That is the title of today’s message.
So who did Jesus actually claim to be? There are several places throughout the Gospels where Jesus clearly says who He is and why He came. Let’s look at one of those moments in the Gospel of Mark.
Jesus’ Claim
Mk14:55–64 (CSB)—The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they could not find any. For many were giving false testimony against him, and the testimonies did not agree. Some stood up and gave false testimony against him, stating, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another not made by hands.’ ” Yet their testimony did not agree even on this. Then the high priest stood up before them all and questioned Jesus, “Don’t you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?” But he kept silent and did not answer. Again the high priest questioned him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What is your decision?” They all condemned him as deserving death.
Here’s the context: Jesus has been arrested by the religious leaders in Jerusalem. He is before the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court, on Thursday, before His crucifixion. They want to charge him with blasphemy, which is a capital offense. Jesus knows exactly what happens when He is found guilty of blasphemy.
In the first few verses, we see that false witnesses can’t agree on what Jesus actually said that was blasphemous. It’s looking like once again, the case for those arresting Jesus is falling apart. Then, the High Priest, Caiaphas, asks Jesus a direct question.
“Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t hedge, deflect, or correct a misunderstanding. He says, “I am”—the same words God used to identify Himself to Moses. Remember, Moses is out tending his flock when he comes across a bush that is burning but not being consumed by the flames. It is God, and He has an assignment for Moses; God wants Moses to lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt.
Ex 3:13-14 (CSB)—Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM., This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
Moses asks God His name and God replies, “I AM WHO I AM.” That name — YHWH, the great I AM — was so sacred that devout Jews wouldn’t even say it out loud. When Jesus uses those exact words to answer the High Priest’s question about His identity, He isn’t just saying “Yes, I’m the Messiah.” He is reaching back to the burning bush and basically saying, “That was Me.”
Jesus then combines two OT images. The first is from Daniel 7.
In Daniel’s vision of the four beasts, He sees Jesus returning to the throne room of Heaven after His resurrection:
Dan 7:13 (CSB)—I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him.
The second is from Psalm 110:
Ps 110:1 (CSB)—This is the declaration of the LORD to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
“Those things were written about Me”, Jesus said. His response to the question about His identity is not a vague spiritual claim — it is a precise, deliberate assertion of His divine identity.
You may hear people today say Jesus never claimed to be God. That is not true. Mark 14 is one of many passages that show otherwise.
Next, look at the reaction by Caiphas, the High Priest; They understood exactly what Jesus meant when He said those words.
The Response to Jesus’ Claim
Mk 14:63–64 (CSB)—Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What is your decision?” They all condemned him as deserving death.
The High Priest’s tearing his robes is one of the more dramatic moments in the trial of Jesus. This wasn’t an emotional outburst — it was a legal and religious act. According to Jewish tradition, a judge who heard blasphemy was required to tear his garments as a sign of grief and horror. Caiaphas wasn’t losing his composure. He was pronouncing a verdict.
Do you see the irony of Caiphas’ actions? The High Priest is the one man in Israel whose entire job was to mediate between God and his people, yet he is the one who condemns the very God he claimed to represent.
They understood what Jesus was saying.
The Sanhedrin doesn’t say “He’s confused” or “He misspoke. They don’t call more witnesses to clarify what He meant. They don’t treat it as a metaphor or a misunderstanding.
The best-trained men in Jewish law — men who had spent their lives studying the Jewish law — heard Jesus’s words and concluded immediately: This man is claiming to be God. Their response was outrage, not confusion.
This is important to understand because modern skeptics sometimes argue that the early church invented the idea of Jesus’s divinity decades after His death — that Jesus never actually claimed to be God. But the men who condemned Him believed otherwise, and they were there. They were experts in Jewish theology. And they killed Him specifically because of what He claimed.
The question was never “What did He mean?” The question has always been “Is it true?”
C.S. Lewis famously argued that Jesus’s identity claims eliminate the comfortable middle ground most people want to occupy. People are generally happy to call Jesus a great moral teacher, a wise philosopher, or a spiritual example. The problem is that Jesus Himself won’t allow that category. A person who claims to be the divine Son of God, seated at the right hand of the Father, returning in glory to judge the world — that person is either telling the truth, or he is not a great moral teacher at all.
Lewis said we must choose. And there aren’t many options to choose from.
The Options to Jesus’ Claim
The first option is that Jesus knew He wasn’t God but claimed to be anyway.
Option A — Liar
If Jesus was lying, we have to deal with what that actually means. This wasn’t a small exaggeration. He made this claim: Repeatedly, across all four Gospels in public, before crowds, under oath, before a court, knowing it would cost Him His life. He did this while teaching that telling the truth was a moral absolute and that He Himself was the truth. (John 14:6)
A liar of this magnitude—one who fabricated a divine identity, inspired twelve men to die for it, comforted the grieving and the broken with words He knew were false, and then died rather than admit He was lying—would be one of the most awful figures in human history. Not a good teacher. Not a wise guide. Basically, He would have been a con artist.
Does that portrait fit the Jesus of the Gospels? The Sermon on the Mount? The raising of Lazarus? The washing of the disciples’ feet? The liar option requires us to believe that the most morally compelling person in history was also its biggest deceiver. That is a very heavy burden of proof.
Option B — Lunatic
He sincerely believed He was God but was tragically mistaken.
This option is often more appealing to skeptics because it lets Jesus off the moral hook while still dismissing His claims. They would say He wasn’t evil—just crazy. But this theory has serious problems of its own.
First, consider the content of His teaching.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), the parables, His handling of trick questions from the Pharisees, His responses under pressure — none of this sounds like a crazy person.
Being eccentric, unconventional, or counter-cultural is not the same as being delusional. History is full of brilliant, unconventional thinkers who were considered strange by their contemporaries but were vindicated later.
But clinical delusion, especially the grandiose kind, in which a person believes they are God, has identifiable characteristics: it tends to be accompanied by incoherence, an inability to engage with challenges, and a fragile ego that crumbles under pressure. Jesus displays none of these.
When the Pharisees try to trap Jesus with trick questions, He doesn’t unravel — He responds with clarity and quick thinking that leaves them at a loss for words. When He is mocked and beaten at His trial, He doesn’t fly into a rage or panic. The psychological picture of Jesus in the Gospels is one of the most integrated, grounded, and self-possessed figures in all of ancient literature. That’s not the profile of a delusional man.
Second, consider the nature of His claim.
Jesus didn’t just say “I am very close to God” or “God speaks through me.” Lots of people made those kinds of claims even in Jesus’ day. What Jesus claimed was different.
He claimed that He existed before Abraham (John 8:58), that He and the Father are one (John 10:30), that He would sit at the right hand of Power and return to judge the living and the dead.
A person sincerely holding those beliefs about themselves would not simply be wrong or a little off or misguided. They would be totally detached from reality. But that is not what we see in Jesus.
If the liar theory doesn’t fit the moral character of Jesus, and the lunatic theory doesn’t fit the psychological portrait of Jesus, we are left with only one possibility: that He was telling the truth.
Option C is that He is exactly who He claimed to be.
Option C — Lord
This is where the resurrection becomes so important. The claim Jesus made before the Sanhedrin — “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” — is either the most audacious lie ever told or it is the truth. The resurrection of Jesus is God the Father’s answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?” An empty tomb on Sunday morning is the verdict from Thursday night’s trial.
“Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
The answer from the throne room of Heaven was YES!
If you are still undecided about who Jesus is, I want you to understand that faith in Jesus is not a leap into the dark. It is a step toward Jesus, based on evidence. The evidence of His life, the evidence of His character, the evidence of His death, and the evidence of the empty tomb all point in the same direction—Jesus is who He claimed to be—He is Lord!
If you’ve been holding Jesus at arm’s length by calling Him a good teacher, this passage should cause you to ask the hard question. Not “Was He good?” but “Was He right?” Because if He was right about who He is, then everything else He said about sin, grace, the way to God, eternal life, and about you ought to be taken seriously.
If you are a follower of Jesus, and you believe He is Lord, then understand that Jesus isn’t some supplement to your life. He is the center of it; He is the Lord of your life. The Sanhedrin’s mistake wasn’t that they got their theology wrong. It was their unwillingness to let that theology cost them anything. Jesus represented a threat to their power and their control. If Jesus was who He said He was, then that had implications.
Our Response to Jesus’ Claim
Jesus’ claim requires a decision, not just an opinion.
The Sanhedrin made a decision that night. Every person hearing Jesus’ claim must do the same. Believing Jesus is a good teacher while ignoring His claim isn’t being open-minded; it’s an option that doesn’t exist. Placing your faith in Jesus isn’t intellectual surrender; it’s trusting a Person based on the evidence about who He is.
If you claim to follow Jesus, my question to you is, does your daily life reflect that you believe Jesus is Lord, not just a guide or your life coach?
If you have never placed your faith in Jesus and given your life to Him, the question isn’t “Can I prove Jesus’ claim beyond all doubt?” but “Is the evidence enough to step toward Him?”
The Sanhedrin didn’t ignore the claim. They made a decision. We have to do the same. Every person in the room is somewhere on the spectrum between the Sanhedrin, who rejected Him, and Peter, who, despite his failures, would ultimately answer Jesus question, Who do you say I am? With “You are the Christ”.
Jesus is asking the same question today. Who do you say I am? If you have never answered the question, “Who is Jesus,” by making Him the Lord of your life, I want to give you that opportunity today.
How do you do that? You admit your need for Him, you ask Him to forgive you of all sin (which is why He came), and you open the door of your life and ask Him to step in and become Lord of your life.
Acts 16:30-31 (CSB)—He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Chris Hankel 
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