LEARNING DAILY

John 8:25, Then they said to Him, “Who are You?”

Matthew 16:13, When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

Matthew 16:15, He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

By way of an introduction, I am not trying to go back over the elementary teachings of who Jesus is; most readers of this blog have already established Jesus as the Son of God as Simon Peter responded to the last question. In the last page of the blog, the statement was made about each of us desiring to walk in holiness because God Himself is holy. Encouragement to do so is the intent of this blog. Also, I would like to begin writing what the Pastor of NorthRock Church called Jesus Stories by examining the writings of John about Jesus. John 8:25 is where we begin.

 In John 8, John writes about Jesus being brought a woman caught in adultery, defending His self-witness, and predicting He is going to a place (heaven) where the Pharisees cannot go. He tells them that their unbelief in Him will cause them to die in their sins. After all this the Pharisees ask Him, “Who are You?” I suppose there might be different interpretations of this question. Were they genuinely interested? Or, were they asking more of a question of, “who do You think You are?” Jesus continues on He is who He has said He was from the beginning of His ministry. Yet, the religious leaders simply did not understand that He was portraying them as ignorant, lost sheep. He went on to tell them there was coming a time, when they would “lift Him up” that they would know who He was and that all He did was to please His Father.

Different groups of people had their thoughts and ideas of who Jesus was. That is no different from the time we live in. Thus, the question Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” The disciples told Him that some thought He was one of the Old Testament prophets and some thought He was John the Baptist (resurrected). The voices today might say a good teacher or a prophet or just a historical figure. Yet this question was not at the heart of what Jesus wanted to know; it was really a lead up to the question, “But who do you say that I am?”

The question was aimed specifically at this close group of followers. They were never going to understand His teachings, His gospel without knowing and believing who He truly was. May I tell you that once one answers that question and knows fully who Jesus is, you will begin to represent Him as He desires and walk that narrow way, desiring to be holy as He is holy. Yes, the narrow way is still difficult. Notice a few verses later, Jesus disciplined the same Peter that had previously declared Jesus to be, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Just as Peter showed his limited understanding of what following Jesus means, we might deny or misunderstand and even focus on our own agendas rather than the things of God. When we do, we can expect God’s discipline to get us back on track as we walk the narrow way into His kingdom.

Perhaps there is one more question to be asked and to be answered by each of us. Whose are you? When you know you are a child of God, that you belong to Him, there is an identity with Him. That certainly helps us know we are members of the family of God and He is with us through every situation we face, helping us grow in our knowledge of Him, which helps us walk confidently on the narrow way.