But Who Do You Say That I Am

I was approached after service on Sunday buy a gal who had some questions regarding the conversations she often found herself in with her parents. She was sharing that many of her visits end up in debates about politics, the President, the war and God’s role in all of it. She was expressing her general frustration and her concern that her responses to her parents were Biblical.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate her concern; may we all be committed to speak in a way that represents the true heart of our Lord.

The bottom line was that she was convinced that the conversations were really fruitless and that the debates were really, mostly, for the sake of the debate. That is so often the case particularly when we join conversations that pick at the periphery of the issue of Jesus Christ.

My suggestion to her was to bring the conversation directly to the issue of who Jesus was and is.

This brings me to our text:

In looking ahead to what the Lord may have me speak about on Sunday I came to this classic passage in Mark 8.27-29:

Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”

That is the real question isn’t it? It must come down to the person of Jesus Christ; who He is, what He did, what He said, what He meant, what He promised. And until the question of who Jesus is is answered, all the other questions are really irrelevant aren’t they.

In fact, all the other question just get in the way. All the other questions can be a barrier to getting to the real heart of the issue.

Paul says in II Timothy: 2.14-16

...charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers... avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness...

Keep the main thing the main thing. Keep the conversations on Jesus.