The Kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ
Looking Toward the End and the Beginning
Luke 9:19-20 The disciples replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” 20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
JESUS asked his disciples a faith question in Luke 9:18b “Who do the crowds say I am?” Today we have their response. Is their answer a picture of the world’s response today? It seems so if we consider the following views of Jesus from the Barna Group Survey defining five views of Jesus in the United States:
These are certainly faith issues, aren’t they? As the Jews and the Gentiles who saw and heard Jesus preach denied Jesus’ deity and the Bible’s teachings, so does most of the country – and you could say, so does the church. We are prone to get to a certain level of belief – “Jesus was a man.” But then see the many faithless paths leading people astray. So few are fully committed to a full faith, to all of Jesus. Even Peter’s confession, “(You are) the Christ of God.” could be seen as a limited view of Jesus. “Christ” means “messiah”. The Jews expected the Christ would sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem, not on the throne of Heaven to the right hand of the Father. But because Peter said, “Christ of God”, Peter faithfully declared, “You are the One God has chosen above all others, the One who will bring salvation.” (from The Reformation Study Bible, Copyright © 2005 by Ligonier Ministries. All rights reserved.) Further, in Matthew 16, where this conversation is also written, Jesus is recorded to affirm Peter: Matthew 16:17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in Heaven,” Note, also, that when Jesus said, “Who do you say I am?” he was separating his disciples from the rest of the world. He wanted to hear his closest disciples to faithfully confess he was of God. There must be no equivocation, no doubt, no compromise of the Bible’s teaching of Jesus. Know this: Jesus also wants to hear what you say? Are you prepared to faithfully affirm and live for the Christ of God? Prayer: Lord Jesus, I confess you are the Christ of God. You are my Savior, who calls me to faithfully speak your true identity to all. In your name, I pray, amen. Comments are closed.
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November 2024
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