Year 3 Day 3

Year 3 Day 3


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 8:27-30 (Focus v29)


Message - Alan Burke 


We have been think about the question, or rather questions of Jesus here in this passage this week, where Jesus asks His disciples ‘who do people say that I am?’ And ‘Who do you say that I am?’. So I ask you ‘who do you say Jesus is?’ I’m not asking who you are, what you have done, or anything else for that matter, I’m asking ‘Who do you say Jesus is?’. That might seem pretty obvious to you, Jesus question after all wasn’t concerned about anything other than His identity, who they confessed Jesus to be. But for many they have fallen into the trap of thinking what maters isn’t who Jesus is, it is what we have done, who we are, our history, how we’ve tried to live a good life, how we’ve been kind, but these things do not matter. For soon enough we won’t even be a footnote on the pages of history but it will matters then as it matters now who we say Jesus is for the gospel is about Jesus and it is only good news if we understand who He is.   


There are many who can say lots about Jesus, but they are just like those who said Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah one of the prophets. Their answers had the one thing in common and that is they failed to understand. You may know about Jesus, you know that He is the Son of God, you know what the scriptures teach, you know that He is the Promised King, you may be able to say all these things and more, you may even be able to say that Jesus is the Christ, but it must impact your life. It is not enough to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah and do nothing more than simply make a mental note of it, the knowledge of who Christ is it demands a response, and that response is either you will bow willingly or unwillingly. 


If you confess that Jesus is the Christ then what it should mean is that you at its most basic level, is that you believe the truth of the gospel, that Jesus died for your sins, He rose again, that you are justified by faith in His name and His sacrifice. It means that we trust in that He has done it all, faith begins with belief but it is more than that for it is a personal commitment to God in Christ. It’s more than putting our hand up at a meeting and praying the ‘sinners’ prayer, but commitment to God. It should impact how you live today right now, for He’s the Anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ, the one who calls you to live for Him, it means that you live your life in light of that, when it costs you, when you want to do something else, when you want to live in your own way, you seek to live for Him. 


It is.essential that we get the answer to this question right and we live in response to the truth of what that means, because if we don’t if we get it wrong then eternity is at stake. For one day we will all have to stand before the Lord Jesus, on that day we will all bow the knee, and we will all confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father but unless we’ve got it right before that day, unless we have repented and believed, unless we know Him as the Christ now then on that great day when Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, the sheep being those who are his and the goats those who do not know Him, well the goats, they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous, those who are his sheep go to eternal life with him, so the answer for all of us is really important (Phil 2:9-11, Mk 1:15, Matt 25:31-46). 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q11 What are God’ s works of providence?
God’ s works of providence are, his most holy, (Ps. 145:17) wise, (Ps. 104:24, Isa. 28:29) and powerful preserving, (Heb. 1:3) and governing all his creatures, and all their actions. (Ps. 103:19, Matt. 10:29–31)
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