The Real Jesus. Have you ever had one of those days when everything was going along beautifully, and then all of a sudden, a crisis hit? It may have caused you to ask, “Why me, God? What did I do to deserve this?” The Bible asks the question, “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:34 NIV) The answer to that question is I have – on many occasions. I’ve tried to give God counsel and direction: “Lord, this is the plan here. This is what we need to do. Now, just do it the way I tell you, because I love you and have a wonderful plan for your life.” Then God has the audacity to bypass my recommendations and counsel and do it his own way. I’m being sarcastic of course. God knows exactly what he is doing. As I think about my attitude many times, I realize that I’m not alone. I have found my soul mate in the pages of the Scriptures: the outspoken, thoroughly honest Simon Peter. You have to love a guy like this because he was so utterly human. He said what we probably would have said in the same situations. He was impulsive, impetuous, hotheaded, and at the same time, he was very honest, courageous and intelligent. And perhaps he was the most accessible of all the followers of Jesus. I’m so glad Peter’s story is in the Bible. I can look at the life of the apostle Paul and admire him, and I can look at John and think he was a great man. But I can look at Peter and say, “There’s hope for me.” Not only are Peter’s great victories recorded, but his defeats, foibles and shortcomings are there for us to see as well. But that doesn’t make me think less of him. Instead, it gives me hope that God can work in my life, too. In Matthew 16 we find an important question that Jesus asked of his disciples in a place called Caesarea Philippi. We also find the remarkable answer Peter gave to that question. Up to this point, Peter had been going through a process of transformation. He had watched Jesus perform miracles, even healing Peter’s own mother-in-law of a fever. Peter had the incredibly wonderful, faith-building experience of walking on the water with Jesus. So each day, Peter’s faith grew, and his understanding grew. And then one day he was brought face-to-face with an inescapable question from Jesus that everyone, at some point in their lives, must answer: “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) Where Jesus asked this question of the disciples is important. Caesarea Philippi was strongly identified with various religions, and for many years it had been a center for Baal worship. The Greek god Pan also had shrines in Caesarea Philippi, and Herod the Great had built a temple there to honor Caesar Augustus. But here in the midst of this pagan superstition, against a very dark background, Peter made his confession of who Jesus was: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). In this pagan area, Peter made this profession of his belief and faith in Jesus Christ. At this time there was a lot of confusion as to who Jesus really was. It had not yet dawned on most people that Jesus was indeed the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. Some, like King Herod, thought that he was John the Baptist, back from the dead. (Herod’s paranoia stemmed from his personal responsibility for John’s death.) Others thought Jesus might be Elijah, while others thought he might be Jeremiah. Maybe they saw in Jesus the features of these individuals. Maybe they saw the boldness and fire and character of John the Baptist. Or maybe they saw the miracle power of Elijah. Maybe they saw in Jesus the grief and sorrow like Jeremiah had felt over people. Yet in all of these identities, no one had quite figured it out yet. But Peter, the great fisherman, gained an insight that was missed by the others, including the always-perceptive John. It was Peter who got it. And it really is the work of God when he opens the eyes of a person to see the truth of the gospel. Peter was getting it. His eyes had been opened. And not only that, it was Peter who had the guts to say it publicly in front of the others: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He had identified Jesus for who he really was: the Son of God, God in human form, the Messiah. Today, more people profess faith in Jesus Christ than probably any other time in American history. Yet people are still confused as to who he is. As we look over the pages of history, it’s interesting to hear the statements that have been made about Jesus Christ – including the claim that he was merely a great moral teacher. Responding to that claim, C. S. Lewis wrote, “A man who was really a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic … or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. … But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” Jesus really leaves us with only two choices: either accept him and believe that he is indeed God the Son, or reject him. There are no other options.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 05:39:27 +0000
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