Who Do You Say He Is?

Jesus, speaking to the disciples decides to ask them a question, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Matthew 16:13. Why do you think He asked them this particular question? Certainly Jesus knew what people were saying about Him and for that matter what His own disciples were saying; Then why the question?

So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Matthew 16:14.

It’s kind of easy to talk about what others think. You have nothing personally invested; you’re more of a reporter, gathering the facts. History is full of people who claim to know who Jesus is.

Mormons believe Jesus was a god. An important one no doubt, but a god.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus was the son of God, but not God.

Islam believes Jesus was a prophet.

Some Buddhists believe Jesus was a Buddhist teacher.

Baha’i teaching says that Jesus is one of a series of Manifestations from God.

The list goes on

Good Moral Teacher

Moral Man

Jesus then brings it home, “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:15.

That’s the real question isn’t it? Not what everyone else believes, but what you believe. It doesn’t matter if my parents are believers in Christ if I’m not. What do you believe? That’s the question. That’s the question Jesus asks over and over again through the scriptures. What do I believe?

The disciples of Jesus did not have the advantage of history on their side like we do. The Old Testament was their Bible and they didn’t have a grasp of exactly what it said about who Jesus was. They must have had their own thoughts like everyone else, but they were not sure. Could He be a resurrected prophet? Maybe. One thing they knew for sure was that Jesus was very special and very different. Could He be the Messiah?

No one dared say what they thought. What if they were wrong? Have you ever failed to answer a question because you weren’t sure and didn’t want to be embarrassed?

I can imagine Thomas saying after Peter gave the correct response; “That’s what I was going to say!”

But Peter said it, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16.

There was great boldness there. Peter was the one to blurt it out. I don’t really know if they were all reluctant or if everybody knew the answer like on Jeopardy and the first one to hit the button got to speak. Either way Peter knew the answer.

Peter was the winner. Jesus calls him blessed because he received this revelation from God the Father not from his own meanderings or deductions. God told him.

Jesus then makes a play on words when He says, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:17.

He calls Peter a rock (Petros in Greek) and says upon “this rock” (Petra in Greek) I will build my church. Petros means a rock or small rock, whereas Petra means a cliff or a ledge according to Thayer’s Lexicon. The Rock that Jesus will build on is not Peter and his successors, but upon the rock of a statement that Peter made.

Who is Jesus to you? Just a name, or the Name above all Names?

Jesus continues the conversation saying, “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18.

When our faith is planted firmly on the Rock – Jesus Christ – nothing can prevail. We are the church that matters because our faith is not one that just serves us, or changes when things get tough. It’s a faith that stands firm on the rock of Christ, the Son of the living God.

Friends We Need

“Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” (1 Samuel 20:42)

I don’t know if I ever had a friend like Jonathan or David. These two men had a love for each other that went beyond anything we might know as friendship. In my experience, people can be BFFs one minute and enemies the next. True friendship is rare. Jean de la Fontaine a famous French poet from the 17th century said, “Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.” This is the reason David and Jonathan’s friendship has been spoken about for millennia. Jonathan, son of King Saul, would have given up his right to the throne of Israel for his friend David. There was value beyond material things that came with their friendship. David and Jonathan pledged themselves to one another, which included responsibility for the others family.

Jonathan eventually died in battle. When David was in Power as King, he sought to find if there were any of Jonathan’s children still alive so that he could take care of them. He eventually found and sent for Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, who was hiding far from David whom he feared. Mephibosheth who was crippled expected judgment, but instead received grace abundance and a seat at David’s table because he was Jonathan’s friend.

At one time we were far away from God. Then the Son sought us. He found us and called us to come to Him. When we did finally come we may have been expecting judgment, instead we got acceptance, forgiveness and a seat at God’s table of grace.

Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends.” As rare as it is, we can have intimate friendship with the Creator of the universe who loves not for what we’ve done but for who we are.

Vanishing Vapor

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away (James 4:14).

James in chapter 4 has accused the people he's speaking to of lusting after things they don't have, fighting among themselves, being covetous, murderers, being adulterers, enemies of God and being friends with the world! Wow what a tough crowd!
All of the things he speaks about are things that can be inside us. Our lives are filled with all the negativity that inhabits the old sin nature when we are living outside of God's will for our lives. That's why James begins to focus on grace and humility.
Grace is what we need from God. It is a favor that we don't deserve but is offered to us freely because of the work of Christ on the cross. Philippians 2:5-8 says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." 
Humility is what Jesus teaches. Humility is what He lived. He was never overcome by the world. He gave himself willingly for us. That's the mind of Christ. It's what James says we need too. He says just as God the Father lifted up Jesus, we will be lifted up in the sight of God.
When this happens we'll begin to see that life is short. It's like a vapor. The Psalmist in Psalm 39:5 compares our years to the width of our hands and says that our life at best is like a vapor, so let's pray that God makes the most out of the vapor of our life.

Man in the Mirror

Greater Grace Christian Fellowship is a local church that teaches salvation is a free gift for all who come by faith to Jesus Christ.

That’s the message of the Gospel.

Too often people who are searching in life find another gospel, one that says you have to measure up to a particular standard. One that causes a person to strive to be better, but does not provide the love that’s needed for an individual to grow up into what The Father has planned for their lives.

When a baby is born well-meaning friends and family members often compare the looks of the baby to the father or mother. The truth is it’s very rare that there are distinguishing attributes that can be compared to the parents. That’s why each child is so carefully labeled so that they don’t get switched by accident with another.

Just as a new born baby looks very little like its parents, a new born Christian resembles very little his Heavenly Father. It takes a while to grow. Change doesn’t happen outwardly right away. When we try to push a new Christian into doing spiritual things they don’t understand, they experience failure and get condemned that they couldn’t live up to the standard set for them. Would you put an infant behind the wheel of a car and expect him to drive? Of course not! Then why do we expect brand new believers to perform miracles in their behavior and relationships?

A few years ago I was shaving in the morning and I as I looked in the mirror I saw someone I never saw there before. Dad, is that you? There was no mistaking it. My father was looking back at me from the mirror. As I get older I see him more often sometimes in the physical sense and other times in the way I talk, deal with people or even when I get angry. I remind me of him. In a real sense I am him. He made me. I have his genetic code.

God made me too. I am His creation, but now since I placed my trust in Him, I’m also His son. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

As His son,  I don’t always look like Him or act like Him, but as I  mature in my understanding I begin to resemble His likeness in kindness, patience, love and forgiveness.  

As much as we may love our earthly father, we really want that Man in the mirror to be our Heavenly Father as He has changed us into His image. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

He is for you

One of the most powerful passages in the New Testament is found in Romans chapter 8:31-39. In this portion of Scripture the apostle Paul asks the question, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” In the Amplified version of the Bible the translators add, “Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?” As this passage continues we see how God, in choosing not to spare His own Son but delivering Him up for us all really proved His love for us. Paul is asking “How can you doubt God’s commitment to you when He gave everything He had to make you free?”

The end of this passage drives the point home when Paul pens God’s thoughts to us in this way in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing in all of creation can separate you from His love. Let’s let His love be our motivation for everything as we live our lives on this earth. With all that may be against you in life, be assured of this thing, there is nothing greater or more powerful than our God. He is for you.

You Are The Answer

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

            The truly amazing thing about the Christian life is that we have a God who became like us. How could God communicate His love to people in a more personal way than to become like them?

            Man had a need. God had the answer. He would come as a man, be rejected and crucified. Then He would be buried and raised again three days later. Some would follow, but most would reject Him.

            In the world today Jesus is no longer here bodily. His presence is manifested through His church, the body of Christ. In other words, as Jesus was the answer, (and of course still is) the church is the answer for the world, as we become the feet, hands and mouth of Jesus.

            The Apostle Paul says, “To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)  Paul knew that if the gospel was to be spread he had to do it. He was the answer for the world around him. He said in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.”

            As Jesus came bodily, so must we recognize that we are here in Christ’s stead.  ( 2 Corinthians 5:20) We are the answer for the world around us. Let’s become what we need to become, so that we can communicate to people the love that God demonstrated to us.

Rubber Meets Road

If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.  Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. 

James 1:26-27

One of the things I love to do occasionally, (in a responsible way of course), is to floor the gas pedal of my car and spin the tires so I can hear them screeching as I take off from a dead stop. I like the sound of the friction between the tires and the pavement. I don't care about how I look doing it.

In the book of James, the writer speaks about a person who thinks he's religious; one who talks the talk of religion. That's a someone who knows how to play the part. He says the right words at the right time. He wears the clothes that fit the idea of how a Christian should look. This individual may even talk about how he is going to start a new work for God and how the Lord is leading him in a particular direction, but his life just becomes a series of false starts and unrealized dreams. He believes his own words, but his religion, as James says, is useless and empty. There is no change or growth in his life and all the words of vision and action vanish. The person is quite literally deceived. He lives in a religious fantasy, imagining that he is someone who he is not. What a waste of time!

If our religion is real, action, not talk is what will come out of us. The Book says true religion visits the fatherless and the widows. That means we will do things that are not glamorous, but are helpful. The Christian walk is not all glory. It's doing the things that need to be done, comforting those who need comfort, and giving of ourselves in whatever way we feel that God wants us to. It's more guts than glory. We need to stop gazing at the beauty of our polished car, push the clutch in and shift the gears. We need to burn some rubber! A new car might look good in the showroom, but looking good doesn't get you to the grocery store. The car has to leave the showroom. It's going to get  scratched, dinged and dented, and occasionally have a flat tire and might even have to get towed into the shop but it got you somewhere. You took a ride, took a risk. That's what true religion does. It loves the unlovely. It feeds the hungry. It leads people from despair to hope. Rubber....., meet Road.