Who Do You Say I Am? (Luke 8:18-20)

Who Do You Say I Am?

(Luke 9:18-20)

We have all been falsely accused, prejudged, just wrongfully thought of by others, it can be one of the most frustrating things to experience. These things come from people who don't really know us, who make their observations from a distance. It is is fine if someone sees something not right with me and confronts me about it, but usually they don't, rather they spread slander, gossip, and backbite. 

Now some people spend their life trying to please everyone, doing all that they can to make people believe the best about them. Not me, I am about pleasing God, life is too short, and God's plan is too big, for me to waste time, spending my energy on changing people's perspective about me. I will do what I can as God leads me, but I understand that only those whom I have a relationship with can really understand me.

Those whom God draws into relationship with me will know my true intentions and will hold me accountable in love when they disagree. They will confront me, and not sit back, and speak about me to everyone but me.

People thought all kind of things about Jesus as they still do today. Few people deny His existence, but they rationalize Him just to be a Great Teacher. If anyone though truly hears His teachings, you either got to believe He is the Messiah or He is mental patient. 

Jesus main concern is with those who know Him personally, His disciples, that they have the right perspective of who He is. So here in Luke 9:18-20, in a very personal time of prayer, that only His disciples witnessed, He asked them "who do people say I am?" The people all had different incomplete views, but when He asked them who do you say I am, Peter replied, "You are the Messiah sent from God!"

It is sad when someone's view of us changes because of listening to popular demand. They deep down know that we are not what others perceive of us, yet they deny the truth, because they don't want to experience rejection. These are the ones that hurt us the most, our family or close friends who forsake us because of Christ. Usually though people will turn back to those who are genuine and real when life crisis comes and they need true support as we will see later with Peter. 

It is upon this confession of Peter that the church is built. Jesus was limited to the amount of influence He had just like all of us, for He was one body, with a small amount of time. He realized that the small amount of people who truly knew Him, would be the ones that carry further His plans, that His one body would later become many bodies. We must always think more about quality than quantity, knowing that with quality will come quantity. Jesus made twelve disciples who each made their own disciples until it multiplied continually up to today where 1/3 of the world claims to be Christians.

So we must ask ourselves do we know Jesus as our personal Savior or from a distant as just a mere image.  If Jesus is known personal then we must take His words literally and therefore our life will declare His reality to the world.