Do you remember those knock-knock jokes we used to tell each other when we were children? Some of them were silly, and some were just plain terrible!
I remember one time in the Bible when it looked like the disciples thought Jesus was telling them a knock-knock joke. I’m talking about the time when He asked them, “Who do men say that I…am?” (Matthew 16:13 NKJV).
The disciples began to take turns trying to guess the answer they thought Jesus was looking for. They told him that some people said he was John the Baptis…Elijah…or some other prophet. After Jesus had listened to them for a few minutes, He said, “But who do you say that I am?” (v.15). There were no more guessing games then. I can imagine everybody looking at each other, wondering what they were going to say…when suddenly Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). That was the right answer…and it’s still the right answer today!
Who Do the Polls Say He Is?
What would have happened if Jesus had said to His disciples, “I want you to go out and take a poll. Talk to the people on the streets and ask, ‘Who do you say Jesus is?’” I can picture them going out into the neighborhoods, asking people that question, then coming back to Jesus with their report. I can imagine one of them saying, “Jesus, I met a woman who told me, ‘I know Who He is. I met Him at a well in Samaria. He asked me for a drink. And before I knew what had happened, He told me everything I’ve ever done!’”
Another disciple might have said, “I met a man named Bartimaeus. He waved his beggar’s robe as he told me, ‘Because of Jesus, I don’t have to wear this robe anymore. I was blind, but now I can see!’” I can picture another disciple saying, “I met a woman who told me, ‘I know Who Jesus is. He’s the most forgiving person I’ve ever known. I was caught in the act of adultery, and men had rocks in their hands, ready to stone me to death. But Jesus told them not to cast their stones at me unless they had never sinned. One by one, they dropped their stones to the ground. Then Jesus told me to go and sin no more.’”
Who Do You Say He Is?
The question Jesus is still asking each one of us today is, Who do you say that I am? Was Jesus just a great preacher? Was He only a prophet? Did He just die on a cross and that was it? Or is He who He said He was? Does He have a name you can speak when all hell is breaking loose, and suddenly the whole situation around can be turned around?
Do you call on His name? Or is His name just a word that you sometimes use before an exclamation point? The Bible says, Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21 NKJV). Two weeks before I turned 20, I called on the name of the Lord. I prayed a simple prayer to ask Jesus to come into my heart, and my whole life was changed.
If you’ve never prayed a prayer like that, or if you’ve drifted away from the Lord, I encourage you to pray this prayer with me right now: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner, a backslider. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Save me. Heal me. Deliver me, and set me free. From this hour I will serve You with all of my strength. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer from your heart, then you don’t have to play guessing games with God anymore. And when you find out who Jesus really is, then I believe you can begin to find out who you really are…and how you can begin to fulfill all the wonderful plans He has for your life.
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