Four Great Questions Of Jesus Iv: "who Do You Say I Am?" Series

FOUR GREAT QUESTIONS OF JESUS IV

A Series of Devotional Sermons

Fourth Great Question:

“Who do you say I am?”

(Mark 8:29)

There came a time in the life of Jesus, just as there comes a time in the lives of most of us, when He wondered whether His life and ministry had made a difference in the lives of folks in general, and in the lives of his followers. So, he thought it best to simply ask those closest to Him a very searching question.

Jesus wondered at this point in His ministry if He had accomplished anything worthwhile; or, to put it another way, He wondered if anyone had discovered who He really was?

If He had lived a life pleasing to God, taught with divine authority, healed people of diseases, cleansed sinners; and yet if no one had caught even a glimpse of God at work in and through Him, then all His work would have amounted to nothing; He would have lived in vain.

Most of the older folks who talk to me from time to time, wonder if their life has been worth it all – if they have accomplished anything while on this earth. I recall that my brother Howard, while lying in the hospital after suffering a stroke, made the comment to me, “Well, if by now I have not done what the good Lord intended for me to do, I don’t suppose I ever will.”

Hopefully each one of you, by now, has come to realize that you have meant more to your family and others during your lifetime than you could ever imagine. Just because you can no longer do some of the things you used to do, or go to some of the places you used to go to, does not mean that you have finished the course. You still have a way to go – whether days or months or years – and you still are a child of God who is loved by your heavenly Father.

If you can speak words of encouragement . . . listen to someone who needs to talk about themselves . . . simply reach out and touch . . . be touched by someone who loves you . . . be here for family and friends to visit you . . . your life is useful to the Lord. Yes, you have been and still are useful. Whether you know it or not . . . whether someone has told you or not . . . your presence is meaningful to somebody. “I am somebody!”

It was not that Jesus needed to be reassured who He was; He knew who He was; but, realizing that time was of the essence, and that He was headed toward the Cross, He wanted His disciples to start giving serious thought as to who He was – not just a popular miracle worker – but who He really was --- Mark 8:27-30 . . .

Jesus asked them, first, what the public was saying about him; and He heard them repeat all of the popular rumors and reports that were circulating among the townspeople. “Some say this, and some say that.”

The short of it was that nobody had really figured out who this man Jesus was - except that He had done some pretty amazing things that caused quite a stir among the people; and it was no secret that He had upset the religious authorities, who despised Him so much that they were out to silence this Jewish rabbi – whoever He was!

It’s hard for us to imagine that folks in that day despised Jesus and rejected Him; but we need to understand that through the centuries prior to His coming, Jewish folks had thought of the Messiah as an earthly ruler who would sit on a throne.

After all, the Jewish people had never forgotten that they were in a very special sense God’s chosen people; and they had always regarded the greatest days in their history as the days of King David; so, quite naturally, they dreamed of a day when there would arise another king of David’s greatness and power.

As time went by, it became clear that God’s kingdom would not be established by another King David. How could it be when you consider that: the ten tribes that occupied the Promised Land were taken by force to Assyria and never heard from again . . . later, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were taken captive by the Babylonians . . . next came the Persians to conquer them . . . then came the Greeks . . . then came the Romans?

By the time Jesus came, the hopes of the Jewish people had been dashed so many times that the rulers of the Jews were not willing to believe, let alone accept the notion, that a peasant from Nazareth could possibly be the Messiah. “Can anything GOOD come out of Nazareth!?”