Who Is Jesus?

Matthew 16:13-20

Today was very tiring. I slept pretty much the entire day because of my cold. I wanted to get rid of my cold as fast as possible. I want to make sure that I'm healthy by next week because I have a lot of exams coming up. Today's Bible Study was rather small, but I liked the topic. I wish my small group members gained something out of it.

I don't know why yesterday's post got cut off. I wrote my summary of the passage, but for some reason it was deleted. I think I deleted it before publishing it. In any case, my bad. I posted it again in case you want to know what it was about. Actually I re-wrote it because I can't seem to get back what I wrote. :(

Peter's Confession Of Christ
Reading: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2016:13-20;&version=49;

Jesus and His disciples arrived in Caesarea Philippi and He asked His disciples who the people in the district were saying the Son of Man was. They replied that the people thought John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah were the Son of Man. Then Jesus asked the disciples who they think He is. And Peter replied that He is Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus blessed Peter and told Him that He will build churches with him. Then He told the disciples not to tell anyone that He is Christ.

Now to go back to when Jesus asked who the people thought the Son of Man was, I think this question had two purposes. The first was to see what the crowd thought and to see what kind of an impact He may have left on the people. It could be to check on what people were thinking so that He can make preparations for His death. He could also be checking to see if people were being affected by His presence, both good and bad. I think Jesus's intention with the question was to see the faith of these people. If the people's faiths were strong, they would have noticed who the real Son of God was.

The second intention was to see what the disciples thought. I think when He especially asked who they thought He was, it was a question of their faith. Then I thought, if Jesus asked us that question, would we be able to answer the way Peter did. Do we have a faith strong enough to answer that He truly is the Son of God. Or is He just another one of those things that we follow because a lot of other people follow Him.

This passage really made me wonder about how I think about Jesus. The way Jesus asked the first question really hit me because it made me wonder how I view Jesus. Do I perceive Jesus the same way other people perceive their gods? Or is Jesus something more, or maybe even less. Is He just something I worship because I've been taught to? Or do I really believe He is Christ. Am I strong enough in faith for Him to build a church with. That's the question we really need to be asking ourselves.