Election Year 2024: The Original Public Opinion Poll

by Tad Lindley

During the last presidential election, we still had a landline phone, and every day we were getting calls from people claiming that they were doing political research. Sometimes it was issue related, often it was candidate related. They were trying to gauge what people around the country were thinking about then President Trump and his opponent Joe Biden. The candidates from both parties were wanting to find out what was on people’s minds in order to make themselves more appealing to the voters. A recent example of this is that President Biden seems to have gone suntanning after the first presidential debate in response to public opinion about his pale skin tone, as since then he looks much healthier.

The original public opinion poll

If you don’t read the Bible frequently, it may surprise you to learn that Jesus also conducted a public opinion poll. He wasn’t even running for office (why would he, when he was the King of Israel?), and yet he still reached out to his disciples and asked them what people were saying about him. We might ask, “Why would God manifest in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16) need to know what the public was saying about him? Couldn’t he just read their minds?” See what you think.

Jesus’ original public opinion poll

Jesus had only two questions in his public opinion poll:

1. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?(Matthew 16:13 NKJV)

2. He said to them, “But who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15 NKJV)

No dumb questions, but…

Now I know that there are no dumb questions, especially coming from Jesus, but I often wonder why he asks about who the general public thinks he is. After all, opinion does not trump facts (except perhaps in the voting booth). For instance, Abraham Lincoln was a great president who contended for the end of the institution of slavery, and yet he had the lowest ratings of any president in US history among eligible voters in the South. Greatness is not dictated by what people think of you. And so it seems silly that Jesus would say to his disciples, “What are people saying about me?”

Answer #1: What people were saying about him

So they [the disciples] said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:14 NKJV) They had been talking with people and listening and they found out that much like today, not everybody was in agreement about who Jesus is. In fact, according to the disciples, there were a lot of ideas, but none of them were correct.

Answer #2: What the disciples were saying

Then Jesus asked his second survey question. He dialed in on the disciples, “Who do you guys say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16 NKJV) Peter saw something that nobody else was seeing, and Jesus called him out for it!

Nailed it!

Nobody was expecting a grand prize on this survey, but it came anyway. Look at this: Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17-19 NKJV)

We need to pay attention to what Jesus said

Sometimes you will hear people who want to arbitrarily pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to believe say, “Well that was Peter talking,” or, “That is what Paul said, and I am only going to read the words in red ink, because that’s what Jesus said!” If you reread carefully what Jesus says to Peter up above, you will see that Jesus is literally certifying Peter to lead people into the kingdom of heaven. Both to the Jews on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and to the Gentiles (Acts 10) Peter unlocked the kingdom of heaven. I urge you to closely read Acts 2:37-39 and Acts 10:44-48. He preached repentance, water baptism in Jesus’ name, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Very few churches preach that anymore. They are of the opinion that it doesn’t matter, but public opinion never overrides truth. Your Bible is the truth. Read it and obey it, and the truth will make you free!

Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.

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