In Mark 8.29 we read that Jesus gathered his disciples together and asked them “Who do the people say that I am?” His disciples saw Him do amazing things. He walked on water; fed 5000 people with a few loaves and a couple of fish; he healed the sick and even raised the dead. But He also did normal things. He worked, as a carpenter, told jokes, got angry, went to the bathroom, laughed and wept.

The question reverberates through history about Jesus: “Who is this guy?” Every thoughtful person has to raise and answer this question. Just as in Jesus’ day, there were various popular answers, so there are many answers in our own time. In The Story, let’s consider some of the answers to the question about Jesus, “Who is this guy?”

The Old Testament gave us many kingdom images. The King created the world with just a word. He commanded the flood to come, commanded the Israelites to leave, commanded the sea to open, sent His children into exile, and pulled them out of exile. God is creating a kingdom.

In the New Testament, Jesus quiets storms and controls demons to give us an inkling of what life will be like when the King is on this earth, where He will once and for all silence all storms and banish all demons. The purpose of the miracles is to give us incontrovertible evidence that Jesus is something other than anyone we have ever seen, worthy to be called king. He proves his kingship now so that we, longing for a king, will turn to him as ours.

God’s people were waiting for a deliverer, the Messiah, to come. They were expecting a lion to crush their enemies. Instead they got Jesus – a lamb who would take their sin away. But Jesus was no pushover. He stirred fear in the heart of the opposition and amazement in the heart of the onlookers. He goes head-to-head with demons – even the Devil himself. He does the impossible. Contemporaries of Jesus Christ saw firsthand what it meant to be more than conquerors.

We’ve heard the story before – An angel’s message. A miraculous conception. No accommodation. Shepherds. Wisemen. Saviour.

John’s rendition of the birth of Christ forgoes some of those details. He writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” (John 1.14) Greek readers understood the word “logos” as the representation and the essence of God. Hebrew readers also understood John’s message. John writes: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” “In the beginning” are the first words of the book of Genesis.

John says the beginning of all creation is with the Logos, the Word of God who has become flesh. For the Greeks, he was reason who became flesh. For the Hebrews, he was the Creator who became flesh. For us all, he is God who became flesh.

We all know people whose defences have fallen down. Their lives have become ruinous, absolutely hopeless and helpless. For a ruined life, what does it mean to rebuild defences? Can a ruined life be rebuilt to strength and power and purpose again?

This week in The Story, we look at the book of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. God’s people return from captivity and begin the arduous task of rebuilding Jerusalem’s defences.

In the ‘Parable of Shrewd Manager’ Jesus comments on the belief that morality or being law abiding is the end result of being a Christian. Jesus seems to be saying that the end result of following Him is living a life of generosity that produces the fruits of the Spirit. Certainly morality is tied up in the way Jesus calls us to live, but if we stop at living morally we may have missed the point. Jesus calls us to something far richer and far, far more beautiful than simply raising a moral standard.

The things we do demonstrate how we feel about God. Or, to get right at the heart of the matter: what we do with our money reveals what we believe about God. What money is to us shows what God is to us. Jesus cares more than anything about what your heart is pursuing. That is why he said, “A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”. It consists in his relationship to God. “This is eternal life – true life” Jesus said, “that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” What we do with our money shows where we believe life – and joy and love and hope and security and meaning and freedom – is found.

Jesus taught more about wealth than he did any other social issue - more than marriage, politics, work, sex, or power. He considered money hazardous and helpful. And he taught us how to minimise the hazard, and maximise the helpfulness. In Matthew 6.19-24, Jesus takes on the danger of money and the relationship between how we spend our money and what we believe about the Kingdom. What does our heart’s treasure say about our loyalty to God’s Kingdom?