A Study In Luke - Day 31

DAY 31 - LUKE 9:18-27
 
18 One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. Only his disciples were with him, and he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

19 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead.”

20 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Peter replied, “You are the Messiah sent from God!”
Jesus Predicts His Death

21 Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone who he was. 22 “The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day, he will be raised from the dead.”

23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God.”
Today is full of so many insights. First, we see Jesus needing some time to be with God. He left the crowds to pray alone. But then he asks that all-important question; “who do people say I am?”

There is a much more precise narrative that includes this in Mark 8:27-29, but this will do for us today. The thing I want you to think about today is how you would answer this question if you were asked. Would you say he was a prophet or a teacher? Or would you answer as Peter answered? Do you believe that Jesus was the messiah sent from God? Do you believe that he was and is God?
 
Big questions, to be sure. But perhaps it is really the only question that matters. This goes to the heart of what we believe as Christians. With this answer your spiritual trajectory is set and you grow toward a more mature faith in Christ.

But that trajectory, as we see in the following verses, means that we have to forego some things we might have wanted. We have to become disciples, and that means we work as Christ worked, suffer like Christ suffered, and view our lives as he did as something worth giving away to God.
 

1. How would you answer this question if you were asked today? 
2. Do you go to quiet places to pray? 
3. Are you ready to be a disciple of Christ? To go where he went, and to live as he lived?