"Who do you say I am?" :: 3

This is the third and final part of a talk I gave this last weekend. The passage is Mark 8:27-30. You can find the first part by clicking *here*. You can find the second part by clicking *here*.

"But if it is true, if Jesus is God and we want to “respond rightly”, to acknowledge him as God, what does that mean? Well, we can look at Peter and his life for an answer to that question. We know from history that Peter whole heartedly followed the life and teaching of Jesus. That he trusted it and that he saw it as an issue so important that he was willing to die for it. He saw it as something worth explaining and persuading others about; in fact we see a great example of that explanation a little later on in an account written about Peter and the early church.

““Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know - this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

…

““Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.””

[Acts 2:22-24, 36-38]

What does Peter want us to understand here? What does he want us to be persuaded of? He wants us to know and trust that Jesus’ death and resurrection is the means by which we can be restored to right relationship with God; the very relationship that we were originally created for. Peter wants us to know that the punishment that we deserve for severing that relationship with God and for rejecting him in the way that we live has been taken by Jesus, in his death and resurrection, if we trust in him to do that for us. Finally Peter desperately wants us to understand that if we don’t accept that Jesus wants to take that punishment for and from us, that Jesus wants us to be restored to right relationship with God, then we will have to take the punishment for rejecting God ourselves and that is a terrible thing.

Jesus, like Peter, wants us to recognise his true identity. We see Peter’s right response, both there in the villages around Caesarea Philippi, and also in his life that followed – that Peter recognised Jesus as God’s anointed one, as the King of his life and as one worth following, as God himself. For Rhys Jones a sad case of mistaken identity became a life or death issue. Jesus wants us to know and to recognise that if we do not get his identity right that it is a life or death issue for us. Jesus has given us a lifetime of opportunity to respond rightly to his true identity. Let’s not squander or miss our opportunity."

God Bless.

Dear Freedom