14 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
15 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus asked a simple question with a loaded answer. The first question is "Who do PEOPLE say that I am?" This question is about how he appeared to others. The answers made it clear that those who did not know Him personally could only guess wildly based on what they knew about OTHER people that they didn't know.
The next question was "Who do YOU say I am?" And they got it right.
I think that the point here was not that Jesus was(is) the Messiah, but that a personal relationship with Him is necessary if we are to really know who He is. This ought to be a "no-brainer," but how often do we settle for what we have heard about Jesus and neglect to seek Him for ourselves?
If you answer the question "Who do you say I am?" with "The Christ" or "The Messiah" and you are only quoting what you have heard, then you (we) are no better than the ones who thought that he was John the Baptist or Jeremiah.
Peter's answer was right because he had a relationship with Jesus and, through that relationship, he heard God.
Luke 13:
22 Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”
He replied, 24 “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. 25 When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil.’God WANTS a relationship with us and EVERYTHING points to that and warns against shallow, uncommitted people.
All you have to do is truly SEEK, God will do the rest.
God bless you all. Be at peace, know truth, and settle for nothing less than what you have been promised.
I also see where God is "testing" his people by being silent in times of stress and it is like He is saying..."Do you really trust me?" In the end times the Bible says the hearts of many will grow cold and it is talking about the church, not the world there. I see all around me where God appears to be throwing the wheat up in the air and letting the wind blow away the chaff. We need to reaffirm our relationships with God. More than ever I believe we need to surround outselves with what we KNOW as TRUTH so that we will not loose sight of it when we are "tossed" in the air. He is "tossing" everyone, but it is those who do not let the fear get the better of them when they feel "up in the air" who will fall back down into the harvest of God and not be caught and blown away on the wind. This seems so simple, and yet, I myself have found myself so caught up in fear and anger and hurt that I had lost "sight" of God and was being buffeted by the wind. My heart growing cold to those around me.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what we are facing in life, we HAVE to hold on to our relationship to God and if we don't have a secure one, then we are in very real danger of being blown away on the winds of the world. I was actually thinking about this in church today. We need to DESPERATLY reorient ourselves. We ahve allowed "life" to so consume us that we have put God in a place of convienance (I am as guilty as anyone I would point a finger at). We are so consumed with what we are "living" through (both good and bad) that we have wrapped ourselves up in a personal blanket that shuts out the anyone excpet what is within our current sight or that touches our personal lives. We have gotton comfortable, even in our "mess" because it is what we know and the risks are comfortable and we are secure in our salvation and we trust that God will provide for the "others" who might need us without our having to get out of our "space."
hummm, appears I have something to say about all this lolol perhaps I should take it to my blog LOLOLOL
thanks Benjamin for making me think and making me open my mind to listen and too "see" through the veil of life around me to what God has in store for me and perhaps even as a message for others. :)