Jesus. One generation after another says good things about him. People seem to want Jesus on their side. It’s been 2,000 years since he walked the earth, but Jesus is still talked about as much as ever.

Cross necklaces and Jesus tattoos abound. Some wear Jesus t-shirts. He’s even admired by people who don’t call themselves Christians.

The Most Famous Person in History

By any sober evaluation, Jesus is the most famous person in history. No one has been more frequently painted, written about, or sung to. No person has affected human history as much as Jesus.

But who is Jesus really? It’s only fair to let him speak for himself. Jesus never wrote his own book, but he taught day after day in public, and several of his friends wrote down much of what he taught. What they recorded is our most reliable account of what Jesus really had to say about himself.

More Than a Teacher

Jesus was a great teacher, no doubt. Everyone seems to agree on that. He’s likely the best teacher who’s ever lived, and many of his sayings are recognized and familiar: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” “Do not judge others, so that you will not be judged.” “Our Father, who art in heaven . . .” And the list goes on.

But Jesus didn’t think about himself as just a teacher, and it’s significant that his friends each record him saying these things just once. There is only one thing that Jesus’ friends Matthew, Mark, and Luke record three times each: Jesus’ teaching that he was going to die and then rise again.

So His Death Was Planned?

Matthew’s 16th chapter is the first place we encounter Jesus explicitly talking about his death: “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must . . . be killed, and on the third day be raised” (vv. 21-23).

Then again in the next chapter, Jesus says that he “is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day” (Matthew 17:22-23).

Then a third time—this one in Matthew, chapter 20: Jesus said to his disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem [the city where he was going to be killed]. And the Son of Man [talking about himself] will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over the Gentiles [the non-Jewish Romans] to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day’” (vv. 17-19).

And again, both Mark and Luke also record Jesus clearly teaching about his death and resurrect