Today it's all about WHO Jesus is:
Jesus is the Messiah: The disciples now understand this as Peter boldly answers Jesus' question. Because of their faith, Jesus tells them that they will be the leaders in His church. Jesus will establish the church founded on His sacrifical work of salvation and redemption. The disciples will open the doors of this church to all people everywhere. As His followers, we also have been given leadership of the church. As leaders, we are to open the doors to everyone we meet.
Jesus will sacrifice His life: As He tells them of His upcoming death, He reminds them that by aligning themselves to Him, they will suffer the same persecution Jesus suffers. To be a follower of Christ is to live like Christ. This lifestyle will offend many & they will react with violence toward it. However, to live like Jesus, means you will LIVE LIKE JESUS - gaining eternal life. So we need to ask ourselves - are we God centered or self centered? To be self centered is to only live in the moment, seeking only what will benefit you. To be God centered is to live eternally, looking at what will glorify God and benefit others in the big picture.
Jesus is the Son of God: Jesus then takes three disciples up the mountain for a very special meeting. At this meeting, Jesus talks with Moses & Elijah. What they spoke about, we won't know until we get to heaven. But what we do know is this was a fulfillment of Jesus' words in verse 28, "And some of you standing right here now will certainly live to see me coming in my kingdom." At the transfiguration (which means transformation), Jesus was physically revealed as the Son of God. He was also verbally revealed as the Son of God, by His Father in Heaven. You may wonder, why Moses and Elijah? A couple of reasons: they represent the kingdom of heaven - Moses represents those who die and go to heaven & Elijah represents those who are caught up to heaven without death (as in the rapture). They also represent Jesus' authority over the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah), (the Old Testament) which He came to fulfill. Our psalm for today speaks of the blessings of a king who puts God first in his life. Notice the writer praises God for the king's position, prosperity, fame, honor, long life, and joy. This is how we are to live our life - wholly dependent on the love of God for everything. This goes back to being God centered or self centered. I love verse 7, "And because the king trusts in the Lord, he will never stumble, never fall; for he depends upon the steadfast love of God who is above all gods."
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