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He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that
I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matthew 16:13 NKJV).
The Real Jesus
By Greg Laurie
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 NKJV). In
this pagan area, Peter made this profession of his belief and faith in Jesus Christ.
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?”
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.
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:
I’m so glad Peter’s story is in the Bible. I can look at the
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi,
either accept
him and believe
that he is indeed
God the Son, or
reject him. There
are no other
options
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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
that Peter gave to that
question.
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.
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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.
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.
Read & Pass it on
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he Bible asks the question, “Who has known
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