"The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and...ask[ed] him to show them a sign from heaven....When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is....But what about you?...Who do you say I am?'" (Matthew 16, NIV)
Jesus is just not "enough" for some people. Religion for them is a constant search in uncharted waters, something new, exciting, always discovering. Well, I can say that over my years of loving and serving our Lord Jesus Christ, I have found all of the aforementioned. Don't be like the people of our text, always looking for proof of God working, saving, healing, delivering, always wanting God, "to show them a sign from heaven." Yet there He stood.
The religious folk of the First Century AD were always searching for some religious "truth." Many were as J. B. Phillips paraphrases a section of Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, "Creatures...with an exaggerated sense of sin and morbid cravings-- who are always learning and yet never able to grasp the truth." In fact, "These men are...enemies to the truth...." The Truth was before the people of First Century AD Israel, from the Golan to the Negev, from the Eastern Judean border to the Mediterranean Sea, Jesus, "The Way, the Truth, and the Life," walked among them, "the carpenter's Son," loving, serving, "who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil...." This Jesus, "came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." Why?-- always wanting more, no deed, no words ever enough. They were, "....never able to grasp the truth," when all the time there He was waiting to "grasp" and be grasped.
"But what about you?...Who do you say I am?"--today, right now. Embrace Jesus afresh today. I know the questions, the cravings, which indeed can sometimes even be called, "morbid," the confusion, the understanding of life which at times may seem just beyond the next horizon on life's journey, all these are crying out for answers, coming to people in the midst of a hectic day, or as they lay their head on a pillow at night. But in the midst of suffering and joy, victory and defeat, praise and complaining, here is Jesus---"I will never leave you nor forsake you"--- always here, always in us. "Who do people say that I am?" Well, they are saying the all sorts of speculative things people always have been saying about Him. "But what about you (today)?...Who do you say I am?"---------------- today.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I say You are mine and I am Yours, "Faithful God." Amen.
Jesus is just not "enough" for some people. Religion for them is a constant search in uncharted waters, something new, exciting, always discovering. Well, I can say that over my years of loving and serving our Lord Jesus Christ, I have found all of the aforementioned. Don't be like the people of our text, always looking for proof of God working, saving, healing, delivering, always wanting God, "to show them a sign from heaven." Yet there He stood.
The religious folk of the First Century AD were always searching for some religious "truth." Many were as J. B. Phillips paraphrases a section of Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, "Creatures...with an exaggerated sense of sin and morbid cravings-- who are always learning and yet never able to grasp the truth." In fact, "These men are...enemies to the truth...." The Truth was before the people of First Century AD Israel, from the Golan to the Negev, from the Eastern Judean border to the Mediterranean Sea, Jesus, "The Way, the Truth, and the Life," walked among them, "the carpenter's Son," loving, serving, "who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil...." This Jesus, "came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." Why?-- always wanting more, no deed, no words ever enough. They were, "....never able to grasp the truth," when all the time there He was waiting to "grasp" and be grasped.
"But what about you?...Who do you say I am?"--today, right now. Embrace Jesus afresh today. I know the questions, the cravings, which indeed can sometimes even be called, "morbid," the confusion, the understanding of life which at times may seem just beyond the next horizon on life's journey, all these are crying out for answers, coming to people in the midst of a hectic day, or as they lay their head on a pillow at night. But in the midst of suffering and joy, victory and defeat, praise and complaining, here is Jesus---"I will never leave you nor forsake you"--- always here, always in us. "Who do people say that I am?" Well, they are saying the all sorts of speculative things people always have been saying about Him. "But what about you (today)?...Who do you say I am?"---------------- today.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I say You are mine and I am Yours, "Faithful God." Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
