Editors Note: The devotional has a background song by called which can be heard if you use Internet
Explorer.
SCRIPTURE:
"Jesus
and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On
the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" They replied, "Some say
John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the
prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter
answered, "You are the Christ." Jesus warned them not to tell anyone
about him." (Mark 8:27-30, NIV)
OBSERVATION:
I asked myself what do we learn about Jesus from
this passage?
1. Jesus went on to the villages around
Caesarea Philippi.
2. On the way, Jesus asked His disciples,
"Who do people say I am?"
3. Jesus followed up that question with
"But what about you?", "Who do you say I am?"
OBSERVATION:
I asked myself what do we learn about
Jesus' disciples from this passage?
1. Jesus' disciples went on to the villages
around Caesarea Philippi.
2. Jesus' disciples replied to Jesus' question with the claims people
were making about Jesus.
3. Peter responds to Jesus' question with "You are
the Christ."
OBSERVATION:
I asked myself what are the claims being
made about Jesus?
1. The disciples replied, 'Some say John
the Baptist'
2. The disciples replied, 'Some say Elijah'
3. The disciples replied, 'Still others, one of
the prophets'
4. Peter answered, 'You are the Christ!'
INTERPRETATION:
I asked myself why
does Jesus ask,
'Who do people say I am?'
Jesus already knows what the people are saying
about Him but Jesus asks this question for the benefit of the disciples.
Jesus wanted the disciples to realize what people are saying about Him.
But more than that I believe Jesus used the question 'Who do people say I am?'
as a springboard for the follow up question of
'But what about you?, Who do you say I am?'
INTERPRETATION:
I asked myself
the significance of Jesus asking the disciples, "But what about
you?, Who do you say I am?"
Jesus knew what the disciples thought about Him just as Jesus knew what
the people were saying about Him but Jesus wanted the disciples to
personalize it beyond what others were saying about Jesus so Jesus asks
this profound question.
It makes me think that it
does not really matter to Jesus what others think about Jesus more than
it matters how the disciples see Jesus as. This is evidenced by:
Peter answered, "You are the Christ." Jesus
warned them not to tell anyone about him."
Jesus wanted the disciples
to know who He is and why He came as He spends so much time with them.
Jesus wanted them to have a personal relationship with Him and
understand who He is.
INTERPRETATION:
I asked myself the significance of the
response to Jesus' question?
It is very significant when Jesus asked the disciples, "What
about you?, Who do you say I am?", none of them
answered the same way as what the people were thinking about Jesus but
we do get Peter's response which is so different from the people's view
of Jesus.
Peter answered, "You are the Christ."
This shows me Peter's own personal relationship with Jesus to be able
to personalize and let Jesus know He is the Anointed one for him and
others. I believe Peter was also speaking on behalf of all the disciples
but speaking on behalf of someone is not the same as speaking for self.
Peter made a verbal confession of who He knew Jesus to be in front
of the other disciples and Jesus. It was different than the view of the
people. Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the
Anointed One. Peter showed that He had a personal relationship with
Jesus and it was based on His time with Jesus and not what others were
saying about Jesus.
When Peter answered, 'You are the Christ',
Jesus' warned them not to tell anyone about him.
This shows Jesus'
acknowledgement that the confession Peter had made was right on and that
He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. In essence Jesus was
saying, 'I AM the Messiah', 'I AM the Christ',
and 'I AM the Anointed One' but do not tell
anyone about me.
IMPLICATIONS:
I saw important implications for my own life. What
matters to Jesus is what my belief and view of Jesus
is, whether it is correct or not.
Jesus wants me to have a personal relationship with Him and understand
who He is. It does not matter to Jesus when I tell Him about all the
wonderful things people are saying about Him as much as it matters to
Him what I say about Jesus. Jesus is about a personal relationship than
following a religion.
I feel like Jesus asking me, 'What about you Ramesh?, Who do you say
I am?'
HOW GOSPEL GIVES ME A TESTIMONY
REGARDING P.E.R.S.O.N.A.L.L.Y:
My mom's belief system, Billy Graham's belief system, or the famous
people of the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11's belief system will
not save me. It does not matter to Jesus what others think of Him as
much as what I think of Him personally. Jesus knows others view of Him
will not save me. Jesus wants me to PERSONALLY realize who He is and why
He came.
Jesus wants me to articulate my belief about Him and who do I really
believe Jesus is because my belief about Jesus will determine how I live
my life whether it is for myself or whether it is for Him. Jesus is God to me first and
foremost. This is evident to me by the number of times Jesus has used 'I
AM'. God is the One that introduced Himself as 'I AM' to Moses at the
burning bush and now Jesus uses the words 'I AM' multiple times
throughout Scripture especially we see Jesus' claims to 'I AM' in the
Gospel of John:
I AM the Bread of Life; I AM the Light of the world; I AM the
Resurrection and Life; I AM the Good Shepherd; I AM the Gate; and I AM
the Vine.
Peter's response also shows who Jesus is. Jesus confirms what
Peter is saying. To me this means Jesus is saying, 'I AM the Messiah',
'I AM the Christ', 'I AM the Anointed One'.
I believe Jesus to be God and my Messiah, my Christ, my Anointed One.
I believe Jesus is the Only One that can save me from the sin that has
captivated humanity. I believe Jesus came to die for my sins, shedding
His precious cleansing blood on the cross for me, being buried, and
coming back to life on the third day to save. In essence, I believe
Jesus is my Savior and my Lord. I believe in the Lordship of Jesus
Christ who became my Lord and Personal Savior when I gave my life to
Him. Jesus can be your Lord and Personal Savior too!
I ask you now dear friend, why bother who Jesus
is PERSONALLY in your life ?
Dear friend, another person's belief system cannot save you. Only Christ can save
you so you PERSONALLY have to believe and say to Jesus, 'Jesus you are
my Lord and my Personal Savior' and act on that asking the Holy Spirit
to transform you and guide you. When you say that you are actually
realizing your sinfulness before a Holy God and asking Him to redeem you
by His grace and help you live by His grace as Pastor Ed always
emphasizes.
Who you say Jesus is will be dependent on how seriously you
take the Bible as the Word of God and believe it. If you take God's Word as
infallible, incorruptible, and inspired divinely by God Himself even as
we have it in our English translations, you are believing the Bible is
the Word of God and has not been altered because God can use even
fallible human beings to bring about His infallible Word. If God could
speak through a donkey to Balaam, God can definitely give His Word
through human beings without it being corrupted even through
translation.
When you believe Jesus is God, it will be based on Scripture and
Scripture alone. Whatever you believe about Jesus must be based solely
on Scripture. Jesus
acknowledged what Peter said about Him because Peter was right. Jesus is
the Messiah; Jesus is the Christ; and Jesus is the Anointed One among
many other Names that can be given Jesus and attributed to Jesus.
More than anything Jesus wants you to believe and acknowledge that He
is your Lord and your Savior. Yes, friend Jesus is Lord and Jesus is
Savior. It is not enough to Jesus that you believe that I believe Jesus
is Lord and Personal Savior. He wants you to believe that He is the Lord
and Savior of the world.
Can you say that my friend without any hesitation or doubt?
For your Salvation, you have to believe Jesus is Lord and Savior of
your life as you yield to Him.
You can only believe that if you believe 'The Bible is the Word of
God' and not if you believe 'The Bible contains the Word of God', or
'The Bible becomes the Word of God'
All three cannot be right because God is about Absolute Truth and the
other two basically ask you to pick and choose what you believe to be
Scripture and not.
If you want to read more about this, you can send me your email
address and I can send detailed information to you on why only 'Bible is
the Word of God' should be believed in instead of the other views and
the evidence for that.
The book by Norman Geisler and William Nix, A General Introduction to
the Bible, Moody Press, Chicago, USA 1986 addresses these issues well.
When we believe Bible is the Word of God, then we can believe who
Jesus is. If we do not believe the Bible we have as the Word of God then
we are no different than a Muslim or any other person of another
religious background. For a Muslim believes the Bible has
been altered as we have it so they do not believe Jesus is God. Yet,
they believe certain parts of Scripture that don't contradict the Koran,
etc. They are picking and choosing.
God's Word is the Absolute Truth from Genesis to Revelation.
"All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV)
Believing the 'Bible is the Word of God', we come to the issue of
sin, separation, and redemption.
When the world was marred with sin and our sin separated us from God,
God in His love for humanity came down as God-incarnate in Christ Jesus
to redeem humanity. That means even if you and I were the only ones
living, God would have done the same.
The redemption of humanity began at the Cross of Calvary. Jesus
Christ, the Anointed One who Saves shed His precious cleansing blood
on the cross as nails were pounded through his hands, feet, and as
thorns were pierced through His head so that you and I can be delivered
from the deadly virus known as sin.
No matter how the media tries to portray President Barack Obama, he
is not the one. Obama cannot save humanity from the deadly
virus it faces for he faces the deadly virus too.
Only Christ can because He who had no sin
became sin for us so we can become the righteousness of God.
Yes, friend Jesus which also means Joshua or Yeshua, One who Saves
did this for you and me because He loves us so much. But He won't force
us to believe in Him. Jesus does not want people to believe in Him out
of fear but out of love and knowing that all Jesus stands for is
Absolute and True. If Jesus wanted people to believe in Him, Jesus could
have come of the cross but He did not.
Friend, Jesus died, was buried, and came back to life on the third
day to Save. So when you turn to Jesus who can Save, Jesus will become
your Savior. Oh yes, friend we all need a Savior, yes we do.
No matter how good people think about us it really does not matter
because all our good works are seen as filthy rags to the Lord. If that
is the case, it shows us that we cannot enter God's Holiness by the good
we think we do. Because in God's eyes we are filthy, wicked, and sinful
apart from the grace of Jesus Christ.
God wants us to come to Heaven and live with Him but He will not
allow sin to enter His Holy Presence. This means a small black dot on a
white poster is still considered not pure. It is like 99% of water being
polluted by 1% of cyanide. It is not pure anymore no matter how much we
argue about PH balance, etc of the liquid.
In the same way, we can be seen as a philanthropist or the nicest
person others have met. That may be great in the world's sight but not to God.
God only sees our righteousness if we are covered by the Blood of
Christ. This is because the cleansing blood of Jesus washes away all our
sin and wipes our slate clean.
This is exciting to know so when God looks at us, He sees Christ's
cleansing blood covering over us and His judgment passes over us. Also,
when we yield to Christ, we are saying that we are not going to live our
life on our own anymore but that we want His Holy Spirit to work in us
and through us as we PERSONALLY want to have a relationship with Jesus.
Salvation is a gift of God and it is by grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ that we are saved through faith and it is not of any good works
that we can boast.
When we confess to Jesus as Peter made a confession, we are saying
that Jesus is God, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is
the Anointed One, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Savior, etc
It also makes us realize when we do sin in our humanity, that we have
a gracious Savior who loves us so much and can wash us clean and restore
our fellowship to Him when we confess our sin.
May you come to understand who Jesus is and live your life for Him!
"PERSONALLY Expect Righteous Scripture Offers
Now Almighty Lord's Love, Yeah!" (P.E.R.S.O.N.A.L.L.Y)/"Why
bother who
Jesus is P.E.R.S.O.N.A.L.L.Y in your life?"
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for asking the disciples who the
people were saying you were and then PERSONALLY posing the question to
the disciples to ask them. Oh Lord, Peter answered and said, 'You are
the Christ!'. Lord Jesus you acknowledged what Peter was saying and
warned him and the disciples not to tell anyone about it. I know you had
your reasons for that. Now you ask us 'Who do you think I am'. Jesus I
believe you are God. I believe you are the Messiah, the Christ, the
Anointed One. I believe you are my Lord and Personal Savior. Thank you
for being my Lord and Personal Savior. Thank you Jesus for dying on the
cross for my sin to save me as your blood cleansed me of all my sin as I
turned to you. I was able to turn to you because you became the
Initiator to turn to you when you died, were buried, and rose on the
third day to give me an invitation to follow you. I want to follow you
Lord so please help me. I confess my sins to you and ask you to be the
Lord and Savior of my life. Thank you for saving me by your grace. Thank
you for your Word. Help us to believe the Bible is the Word of God. It
is your Word given to us. Thank you Jesus so much. I pray for the one
that does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God that you would
work in their heart and mind that they can be open to investigate your
claims and what your Word says is true from Genesis to Revelation. Thank
you so much Jesus. Thank you for hearing my prayer and answering me. In
Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!
May you experience the POWER OF
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION this day, and give Him the LOCKED areas of your
life too so you can experience His PEACE as you become an ACTOR in the
film called LIFE being directed by your DIRECTOR, JESUS CHRIST who comes
to give JOY and PEACE.
You
don't have to be locked away anymore for Christ is here to free you and
give you peace to live out your actions.
How do you look at GODISNOWHERE?
One
of my pastors, Pastor Hugo shared this example this past Sunday at the
RESURRECTION DAY SERVICE in the combined worship service of Pittsburgh
Chinese Church-Oakland & Oakland International Fellowship:
If
you look at it as GOD IS NO WHERE, you will still be lost in your sin
and be in bondage locked away in your sins and problems finding no
peace.
But
as my pastor spoke to the congregation and spoke to me, I am here to
tell you that GOD IS NOW HERE.
Yes,
friend God is alive and wants to bring a transformation in your life
through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for He paid the penalty on
the cross to rescue you and me and came back to life to save us and live
with us.
Yes,
friend that is exciting to know that we can experience HIS SAVING GRACE
& LIVING GRACE.
When
we mess up, we can go to Jesus with our shortcomings and He will forgive
us and RESTORE us to Him and we will find peace in Him.
"Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the
world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he
has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore
Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him
who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God." (Colossians 5:17-21, NIV)
"For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord." (Romans 6:23, NIV)
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his
Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness." (1 John 1:7-9, NIV)
Friend, we need Jesus because we have been separated from God due to our
sin. Because of our sin, Jesus had to pay the price to become our bridge
so we can reach God now not of our own good works but because of the
finished work of Christ, the Lord on the cross.
"For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not
by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)
Come to Jesus as you are and pray this prayer to accept Jesus as your
Lord and Personal Savior. He will transform your life around! Praise the
Lord! You don't have to have all the answers! You can come as you are!
Prayer:
Jesus, I thank you for being the BREAD of Life. You are the Living BREAD
of my life. Thank you for coming from Heaven and giving your life for
the life of the world. You sacrificed yourself for humanity. Thank you
Lord when we eat of you symbolically making you part of our life,
digesting what you teach us by following you, we can be living
Eternally, and the fruit that comes will reflect and resemble your life.
I want that Father God. I want that Lord Jesus! I want that Holy Spirit!
I know of a lot of people who partake of Holy Communion where the BREAD
represents your body broken for their sin and the juice represents your
blood shed for their sin. When we partake of Holy Communion, we are
reminded that we are remembering you. I want to remember you always Lord
Jesus. But for me to remember you always, I need to know you and
acknowledge everything you said you are. So right now I acknowledge that
you are my Lord and Personal Savior who died and rose again to give me
life from sin. So right now, I come to you and say how sorry I am for my
sin and living a life on my own. I repent of my sin and ask you to
forgive me of my sin with your cleansing blood which I accept. Wash me
and I will be clean from this infection of sin. Come Lord Jesus and
please become part of my life as you live in me and I will live for you.
I thank you Jesus for coming into my heart and making my heart your
home. Thank you for living in me Jesus and I will live for you and serve
you the rest of the days of my life. I do need your Spirit to reside in
me and work in me and through me so I surrender all that I am and will
be to you. Whatever your will is for me, please give me the strength and
willingness to bear it and rejoice in you. Thank you so much Jesus. I
thank you Jesus for becoming my Lord and Personal Savior. I thank you
Jesus you have heard my prayer and have answered me. I thank you that I
am your child Oh God. I thank you for becoming my only Way to Eternal
Life. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!
