Walking on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus was charting the course for His Calvary. Three times He laid out the battle plan in full detail. “We’re going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes; they will condemn Him to death, and hand Him over to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and spit on Him, and whip Him, and kill Him; and after three days He will rise again.” That’s the plan.

Fire snakes were loose in the camp of Israel. Slithering all over the place. Hiding in dark corners, slipping in under tents and into sleeping bags. Venomous and deadly. People were dying all over the camp of Israel. The Lord sent those snakes; they were His judgment over the grumbling of a faithless, ungrateful people. Ungrateful for the manna that fell from heaven every day but Saturday and for the fresh water that streamed from the stricken rock. They despised the Lord’s food. They despised the Lord. They despised their freedom and longed for Egypt. So God sent snakes.

“Who do you say that I am?” That’s the question Jesus posed to His disciples in Caesarea Philippi, and that’s the question He poses to you here this morning. Who do you say that I am?

The answer to that question reveals what we believe about this Jesus. You can’t be neutral when it comes to Jesus. That’s why His Name creates the fuss that it does. This is no benign, take it or leave it sort of name. You have to come to some kind of answer, one way or another.

There is vast difference between temptation and testing. God tempts no one. James is clear on that, and we need to be clear on that too. God does not dangle sin in front of our eyes and then dare us to disobey. That’s the work of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh.

Temptation begins with desire, the heart unbuckled from God. The heart that does not “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Inward idolatry. The self curved in on itself. Desire births sin, and sin matured gives birth to death. But don’t blame God for that. It’s in you.