WHOM SAY YE THAT I AM?



TEXT: MATTHEW 16:13-19
TOPIC: WHOM SAY YE THAT I AM?

                In the above text, Jesus Christ asked his disciples who people said he was. His disciples answered Him, some said He was Elijah, some one of the Prophets, some john the Baptist. Jesus then asked His disciples “who do you think I am?” Jesus Christ had to ask His disciples this important question because it is ok if the people of the world do not know whom He is but it is disastrous for His disciples not to know Him.
                Thank God one of Jesus’ disciples Simon peter knew who He was and gave Jesus the right answer. Jesus Christ is asking you the same question He asked his disciples at Phillipi that “who do you think I am?”
                From the text above, I can see that there are two sources of God’s revelation, I mean one can know God via two ways. The first source is from other’s people testimony about God and the second one is through one’s personal revelation of God.

 REVELATIONS OF GOD FROM OTHERS

As good as this source of revelation is our Lord Jesus Christ is not satisfied with it. This source of God’s revelation rely solely on someone else’s revelation or testimony about Jesus Christ. This source of revelation is good because no one can become a Christian/disciple without it. We became Christians because someone witnessed to us about Jesus Christ, someone told us who Jesus Christ is to him personally. This source of revelation is good but not the best because it doesn’t encourage spiritual growth and development, any disciple/Christian who solely rely on this revelation will ever remain a baby in faith.
Today, we get revelations of others about Jesus Christ through mentorship, preaching, Christian articles, literatures, novels, e.t.c. As I said earlier, it is good to get revelations of Jesus Christ through these means but you can see in the above text that Jesus Christ was not satisfied with what other people tell you He is, He want to know what He is to you.
Today, we have Christians/disciples whose national anthem is my pastor/mentor/general overseer says, it is good to quote and believe what our spiritual heads told us but it is best for us to get our own revelations from Jesus Christ directly. The danger of relying on people’s revelation is that the revelation might be wrong or not good enough because it is human revelations (Matt 16:17 living bible translation). Let us consider people’s view about Jesus Christ to see how dangerous it is to solely rely on others revelations of Jesus Christ.
       John the Baptist; some Israelite see Jesus as John the Baptist. These people are wrong because Jesus is not John the Baptist.
       Elijah/Jeremiah; Jesus Christ is neither Elijah nor Jeremiah.
       One of the Prophets: people with this view are close to the answer because Jesus Christ is a prophet    but more than a prophet.
Can you see that only one out of the three answers is close to what Jesus Christ really is? There is danger in relying on what other tell you Jesus Christ is.

    PERSONAL REVELATIONS

Simon Peter's response to Jesus Christ’s question was his own personal revelation of Jesus Christ. Though, other people saw Jesus as prophet or John the Baptist, he saw Jesus as the son of God and Messiah (the anointed). Jesus Christ was happy with Peter answer, nothing makes Jesus happier than Him seeing us grow in spiritual understanding. Jesus Christ wants all Christians/disciples to move from other people’s revelation of Himself to individual revelation of Him.
The source of this revelation is revealed in our text, God. God through Holy Spirit and the word of God is the best source of revelation about Jesus Christ. I am sure God revealed who Jesus Christ really is to apostle Peter because Peter devoted his time to making research about who his master is.
It is good to listen to word of God from our pastors, it is good to read and learn from Christian literatures, novels and articles, but, God wants us move further by knowing Him through our own personal study, meditation and research.
Sources of personal revelation of God.
  1. Holy Spirit: 
                             
            John 14:26
 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall       teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

       1 Cor 2:9-10
 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
  Holy Spirit is given us to teach us all things, Holy Spirit in us is given us to teach us about Jesus Christ. The holy spirit in you will reveal Jesus Christ to you if you ask him because that is what he does.

  1. Word of God: I wrote earlier on this blog that Jesus Christ is the Word/logos. You want to know who Jesus is, study the scripture.  A time with Bible is time with Jesus Christ himself, the more will prayerfully study the word, the more will get revelation of Jesus Christ.
               
     Acts 20:32
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
It is the word of God only that can build us up and give us our inheritance in Jesus Christ, Christians should stop relying solely on their pastor’s sermons but find time to study and meditate on the word of God personally.

Why is personal revelation of Jesus important?

1.       Gone are the days when God needed intermediary between his people (Israel) and Himself. In old testament time, high priest was the only one who had access to the Holy of Holies(God), Israelites relied on what the high priest told them.
Thank God for Jesus Christ, the middle wall of partition has been broken and everyone now has access to Him. God deals with us individually now, you can get revelation of Jesus Christ as much as your Spiritual heads.

2.       Your level of revelation determines your manifestation

                Dan 11:32
And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
No Christian can grow nor manifest beyond the level of his spiritual understanding. Do you want to manifest in this generation? Other People’s revelation of Jesus Christ is not enough for you, you must get God’s revelation yourself.
David defeated Goliath standing on his personal revelation of God, his elder brother and king Saul told him he lacked the expertise to defeat Goliath. To king Saul, God needed a warrior to defeat Goliath, but David knew God of Yahweh did not need a warrior. If David didn’t have a personal revelation Of God, he would definitely be discouraged by King Saul word.
Just like David, when you get your own revelation about Jesus Christ, you will be unstoppable and definitely manifest God’s glory in your generation.

3.       You must know God personally to grow from babyhood to adulthood in Christianity. Any Christian who relies solely on what people tell him about God would never grow spiritually.
1 peter2:2

4.       Relying on others view about God may not take you home (heaven). As you can see in our text, people’s views of Jesus Christ were not correct, only one was close to the truth. There is need for personal revelation of Jesus Christ now more than ever. There are diverse doctrines (scriptural and unscriptural) around now more than ever, anyone who base his/her faith on what they tell him/her is in danger of hell fire. Christians need to have personal encounter with God to save themselves in this perilous time.

CONCLUSION
                              Acts 17:10-11
10 As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
God wants all believers to learn from the Berean church, the Bereans didn’t rely on what the great apostle Paul told them but check the scripture themselves. 
BE A  BEREAN CHRISTIAN HENCEFORTH.




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