A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (March 13, 2018)
And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. (Mark 8:27-29)
Jesus asked His disciples who people were saying He was. I don’t know if you have really ever thought much about their answer but it is very telling about where we are today as the Church.
Some people thought Jesus was John the Baptist. Who was John the Baptist? What did he do? John the Baptist preached repentance. He was a turn-or-burn type preacher. His main consideration was salvation with subsequent baptism in water. Some people thought Jesus was Elijah. Who was Elijah? He was a signs-and-wonders guy. He raised the dead and called down fire from Heaven. He spoke to nature and commanded the rain to cease. He talked to angels and God. Some people thought Jesus was one of the old prophets (like Jeremiah) who studied the scrolls and prophesied of future events and warned people to get right with God.
Then Jesus asked His disciples directly about who they thought He was and that is when Peter spoke up and said you art the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). Now, you could interpret that to mean Jesus was none of the things people thought He was or you could interpret that to mean He was all those things and even more. I prefer the latter interpretation.
We live in religious world that is constantly trying to put Jesus and God in a box. We have a large part of the Christian church that wants to limit God to salvation and baptism and exclude signs and wonders and the prophetic. We have another large part of the Christian church that wants to concentrate on signs and wonders. We have another large part of the Christian church that wants to concentrate on the prophetic and the study of end-times. To be such an advanced culture it appears to me that we are still asking the same questions as the people were back in the days of Jesus.
Peter was given the right answer by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is all these things and much, much more:
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:17-21)
Lord help us realize that we need all that Jesus is, not just certain pieces of Him. The Body of Christ needs all the parts to function together if we are ever going to see this world changed.
