Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”My Understanding: The people of Jesus’ day did not recognize Jesus for who he was. In John’s gospel, he recorded that Jesus came into the world, but the world did not recognize him; he came to his own people, but his own people did not accept him as their Messiah and Lord. Yet, it was essential that Jesus’ own disciples realized who he was, especially because of what Jesus was going to tell them next concerning his own death and resurrection, and because of what being followers of Jesus Christ was going to cost them in the future. So, he asked his disciples first of all what everyone else was saying about who he was, and then he asked them who they thought he was, because it was important that they did not think like the world did, but that they had a clear understanding of who they were following.
28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
Jesus Predicts His Death
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
I believe the same is true of us today. I believe it is very important that, if we are going to be Jesus’ true disciples, we have a clear understanding of who Jesus really is. “Oh,” you might say, “I know who he is. He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, our Lord and Savior who died on the cross for our sins so that we could live eternally with God in heaven.” That is most certainly true, yet he is so much more than that.
He is not only the Son of God, but he is God the Son, i.e. he is the second person of our triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the creator of the universe and he holds all things together (see Col. 1:15-23). He is our high priest, so we need no others to speak to God on our behalf, i.e. we need not go to another human priest, or pray to any other gods, nor pray to people who have died before us, because he is our only mediator between us and God the Father. He is our redeemer who bought us back from sin to faith in Jesus Christ so that we could be restored to a right relationship with God the Father, and so we could walk in obedient fellowship with him. He saved us, not only so we could go to heaven one day, but he saved us from bondage to and the control of sin over our lives on a day-to-day basis. As well, he saved us so that we could live to please him and to obey him in all things. One day he is going to judge us and the world, and he will say “I never knew you” to all those who had the notion that nothing was required of them but that Jesus does it all.
Next, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to have to suffer many things. He would be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law. They would kill him, but after three days he would rise again. In other places in the gospels, Jesus warned his disciples that they would face the same kinds of treatment because they were his followers. The whole of the New Testament continually emphasizes the cost of following Jesus Christ, i.e. that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we die with him to our old way of life and we are resurrected to a new life in Christ in which Christ now rules our hearts and the old life of sin is done away with. And, we are taught that being in Christ means sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. So, if we are truly following Jesus Christ with our lives, we have left our old lives of sin behind us, we are living to please God in all things, and we are walking in obedient daily fellowship with him, we will be persecuted and rejected for our relationship with Jesus Christ, even by the religious leaders of our churches today and/or by people in our modern-day congregations.
If we think that being a Christian means that everyone will like us and that we are to live lives pleasing to men so that people see us as “good” or “nice,” and/or that being a good Christian means that people will view us as such, then we need to go back and read through the New Testament and read the life of Jesus and his teachings. Jesus was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. He was despised and rejected of man. Men hid their faces from him. They mocked him, accused him falsely, thought he was crazy, and even accused him of being of Satan. He said that if this is how he was treated, we, as his followers, will be treated the same. So, if we think being a follower of Christ will not mean rejection, persecution and great suffering for our faith, then we do not have in mind the things of God, just like Peter did not when he rebuked Jesus for telling his disciples all that he must suffer at the hands of the religious of his day. And, if we are not being rejected for our faith, then we need to ask why. Maybe we are not standing out as true followers of Jesus Christ in following him and we are living just like the world, so there is no reason to reject us.
Yet, Jesus taught his disciples what it meant to truly be followers of Jesus Christ. He said that if anyone was to come after him as one of his followers, he must first of all deny himself. To deny (disallow; forbid; prevent) oneself means to stop making ourselves and our interests, desires, wants and needs the objects (goals; motivation) of our lives, actions and decisions. The second requirement for being a follower of Jesus Christ is to take up our cross daily and to follow him. When Jesus made the decision to take up his cross and he carried it to Golgotha, he knew that this meant rejection, persecution, beatings, mocking, abandonment, betrayal, false accusations, and that a horrible death awaited him. Although he was God and he could have stopped it all, he submitted himself to the cross to die in our place so that we could go free. So, he denied his rights, as God, and he took upon himself the place of a servant because he loves us so very much. So, taking up our cross daily means daily dying to our own selfish desires, to sin, to what we want out of life, and to humbly submit (surrender) ourselves to God’s will and direction for our lives in all things.
Jesus said that if we want to save our human lives, i.e. our fleshly and worldly desires and our own selfish wills for our lives to live as we please and to do what pleases us without regard for or inquiry of God as to what he wants and desires of us, then we will lose our lives for eternity. Yet, if we choose to deny ourselves and to take up our cross daily and to truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ in living to please him and to obey him, leaving our lives of sin behind us, then we will be saved for eternity.
We cannot live our lives for the goal of gaining the world and the world’s approval of us and possessing the things of this world to satisfy the longings of our hearts, because if we do, we will forfeit our souls. As well, if we are ashamed of Christ and our relationship with him, i.e. we tell our friends and family members about all the worldly things going on in our lives – about our possessions, achievements, or the pleasures this world has to offer us in the world of entertainment, education, etc. – and yet we fail to tell them about Jesus Christ and what he means in our lives, because we are more concerned about fitting into and pleasing this “adulterous and sinful generation” in which we now live rather than with following after and living lives pleasing to Christ, then we will have no part of God’s eternal kingdom. We need to know and to understand this so that one day we don’t hear, “I never knew you.”
Our Awesome God / An Original Work / May 25, 2011
I praise and adore You, Father,
I worship and praise You, Lord.
You are such an awesome God,
Who loves us so much, You implore
Us to follow You each moment
Of the days we have on earth,
So that we might live forever
With You, ‘cause of our new birth.
I praise and adore You, Jesus.
You died on a cruel tree,
So that we might be forgiven
Of our sins; You set us free
To love and obey You only,
While we bow on bended knee,
As we humbly walk before You,
Serving freely; You to please.
I praise and adore You, Spirit,
You came in to live with me.
Jesus sent You to abide
Within us, and our comfort be.
You guide and direct and counsel
Us in all of our God’s ways,
So that we can live for Jesus,
To follow Him all our days.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
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