Last night I was up late sharing the gospel with a unsaved family member. He was very interested and had many questions. Every person is at their own stage when it comes to what they believe about Jesus, and people need to come to their own conclusions and have their own revelation of who Jesus is; it is our place to allow them the time to do just that. Jesus asked Peter in Mark 8:29 “But who do you say I am?” Jesus spent months, even years with Peter and the other disciples; yet in all that time, Jesus had never really come out and said who He was. He wanted Peter to come to his own conclusions.
As I shared with my family member, I was fully aware of the fact that Jesus works with us exactly at the point of understanding we are at. We can be very quick to get someone to a decision point, and that is so important, but we also need to give people the time time they need to get to that point themselves. This was Jesus’ approach. Jesus had allowed His disciples watch Him pray for the sick and see them healed. He had allowed them to watch him walk on water and calm the storms with just a word.
They had seen all these incredible miracles; Jesus let his life do the talking. He let his life speak before He began to help people understand who He was. He asked Peter, “Who do others say I am?” He then asked, “Who do you say I am?” Everyone had an opinion about Jesus; some said He was a great Prophet or great Teacher. Jesus could see the Holy Spirit at work in Peter, revealing something. So He asked him, “Who do you say I am?”
Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” Jesus said, “blessed are you Simon Peter for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-17) Peter’s revelation is ultimately at the heart of the Gospel message. If Jesus was not God, then He could not come as the sacrifice for all humanity. Jesus gave Peter time to observe and He also gave time for the Holy Spirit to work in his life.
Today I want to encourage you in your Evangelistic efforts. Take the time to understand and work with people exactly where they are at. If you need to sow a seed, sow a seed; some are ready to make a decision for Christ right away, it’s a matter of what stage they are in. When we have our Gospel events, we give people the opportunity to see the power of God demonstrated before we make an appeal. It’s amazing what witnessing a miracle from God will do to to a person’s faith and willingness to believe!
What we believe about Jesus is vital to our Christian faith. Throughout the history of the Church, particularly the early Church, the answer to Jesus’ question “Who do you say I am?” has been a major issue. The enemy has always been at work to undermine the essential truth of who Jesus is. The Church has had to fight off these heresies that have tried to creep into the Church concerning the nature of Christ.
The Ebionites taught that Jesus was just a man and not Divine. Adoptionist’s taught that Jesus was human and became the Son of God by adoption. Gnostics taught that Jesus was completely Divine and not human at all. Arianism taught that Jesus is related to God as His Son, but He is not fully Divine. Appolinarianism taught that the Word, (which was the perfect Divine nature) assumed a human body in Jesus and replaced his human mind and soul.
Nestorianism emphasized the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus. The issue of who Jesus has has been debated by Church leaders and theologians for Centuries! Various Creeds and Councils have been held to settle this issue. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD had this to say in answer to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?”:
“Following, then, the holy Fathers, we all unanimously teach that our Lord Jesus Christ is to us One and the same Son, the Self-same Perfect in Godhead, the Self-same Perfect in Manhood; truly God and truly Man; the Self-same of a rational soul and body; co-essential with the Father according to the Godhead, the Self-same co-essential with us according to the Manhood; like us in all things, sin apart; before the ages begotten of the Father as to the Godhead, but in the last days, the Self-same, for us and for our salvation (born) of Mary the Virgin Theotokos as to the Manhood; One and the Same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten; acknowledged in Two Natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the difference of the Natures being in no way removed because of the Union, but rather the properties of each Nature being preserved, and (both) concurring into One Person and One Hypostasis; not as though He were parted or divided into Two Persons, but One and the Self-same Son and Only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ; even as from the beginning the prophets have taught concerning Him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself hath taught us, and as the Symbol of the Fathers hath handed down to us.”
Wow, what a statement! But of course it has been made in response to the tremendous controversy surrounding this quintessential question of who Jesus is. And Jesus is one of the most controversial figures of history. Who He truly is has been debated by countless thousands over the centuries. C.S. Lewis had this to say about the person of Jesus:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. ”
Jesus is the central person of history, and it’s only faith in Jesus and His finished work that provides salvation to all humanity. This is the message that needs to get out into the worl! Today I want to encourage you that Jesus truly is all that He says He is. As you head out into your world, you carry a truth that the world needs to hear. With your life and witness, you can help people to get to the point where they say, like Peter, “Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
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