FBC Daily Devotional – Feb. 19, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Friday to you. Last day of our work week and heading into the weekend. I hope you're looking forward to the

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Lord's Day and are planning to get out to church to worship together with God's people.

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If so, of course, we'll be meeting for our Sunday school classes at 930 on Sunday morning and then the morning worship service at 1030.

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So if you can make it in person this week, I encourage you to do so and try to do what we can to, you know, honor the distancing and all that kind of thing.

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If you're still concerned about COVID and not getting out into crowds, understand that as well.

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We will, of course, be live -streaming the service as we have been doing so for almost a year now.

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So join us on the Lord's Day. Well today in our reading, we're in Matthew chapter 16 and there is this interesting conversation that Jesus has with his disciples.

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He asks them, who do people say that I am? Now one of the greatest expressions of blessedness, of being blessed, is clearly seeing who

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Jesus really is. Do you understand that? Do you realize that? If you really see who

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Jesus really is, if you clearly see who he really is, that is a blessing that is an astounding and significant blessing that you really need to appreciate.

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And it comes out here in this particular passage. So Jesus asks his disciples, who do people say that I am?

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And they answer him with some contemporary speculations, contemporary to them.

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Well, some people say you're Elijah. Some people say you're John the Baptist that's raised from the dead.

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You know, John by that time had already had his head cut off and was buried and gone.

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But some were speculating that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead. Others were saying, well, he's

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Jeremiah or he's one of the prophets. But then Jesus asks, who do you say that I am?

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Now ask that question of yourself, of our world. Who do people say that Jesus is today?

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What are some of the current answers to that question? Well, some people who have, you know, maybe grown up in church or whatever, they have a pretty good respect for him.

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So they say, well, you know, he was a good man. He was a good man. Others, maybe not quite so charitable, would nevertheless say, well, he was a martyr for his cause.

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He had this cause he was after and wanted to see, you know, he was a martyr. Others, he was just an imposter.

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He claimed to be the Messiah, but he's not. A lot of our

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Jewish friends would have that kind of a view of Jesus that, you know, he claimed to be the

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Messiah. His disciples claimed he was the Messiah, but no, he's not really, he's an imposter.

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And then there are those who say he was just a prophet. Muslims would claim that of Jesus.

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He was just a prophet, just like, you know, just like Abraham, just like some of the other

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Old Testament prophets. He was just a prophet, and just like Muhammad was a prophet. He's just a prophet.

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Others, even less charitable, would say, well, he's just Jesus. This Jesus figure is just a figment of the imagination.

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In other words, he was just an ordinary man and did ordinary stuff, but he was made into kind of a legendary mythical figure, you know, sort of like a you know, a

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Superman. He's just a really, normally he's just really a Clark Kent, but he's made into a

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Superman. He's just a figment of the imagination. And then there are others who, and I'm afraid their number is increasing in our day and age, who would just say, who?

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Who? Jesus, who? Who's that? Who's that?

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Well, then there's the blessedness of clear perception.

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Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? And Peter answers with clear perception.

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He says, you are the Messiah, you are the Christ, you are the Anointed One, you are the

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Messiah, the Son of the Living God. He's got it. He's nailed it.

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You are the Messiah. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Now, here's the thing.

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Have you come to that conclusion? Do you see clearly that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and all that is wrapped up in that designation of Messiah and Son of God, do you see clearly who

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Jesus is? All right. Now, here's the thing. Here's the blessedness of that clear perception. It has absolutely nothing to do with the idea that you're so smart, that you are smart enough to look at all the data, look at all the evidence, and reach this conclusion that Jesus, yeah, okay, he's the

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Christ, he is the Messiah. That's not it. It's not because of you and your intelligence and your savvy and your wisdom and none of that.

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The blessedness of that clear perception is that God has graciously revealed the truth to you, just like he did to Peter.

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That's what Jesus told Peter. He said, Blessed are you, Simon, Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

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This doesn't come because somebody taught this to you and because you were smart enough to figure it all out and put two and two together and come up with four.

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He said, this is flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but my

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Father who is in heaven, he has revealed this to you.

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So listen, why is it that you clearly see who

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Christ is, but others don't? Others don't.

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You may be in a family of a number of family members where you and maybe one or two others are the only ones who trust

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Christ as your Savior and see who he really is. Why is that? Why you and not your sister or you and not your brother or you and not your parent or you and not your child?

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Why? Because of the blessedness of the grace of God. So give thanks today.

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If you clearly see who Jesus is, give thanks that you perceive him because of the grace of God that has worked in your heart, worked in your mind, and he has opened your blind eyes to see and he has illuminated your dull mind to perceive.

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What a blessed state, a blessed case if God, our

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Father in heaven, has graciously revealed to you who Jesus really is.

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Give thanks today for that perception. Our Father and our God, when this truth strikes our hearts, we must be profoundly thankful for that blessedness of knowing

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Christ, of seeing him for who he is, seeing him clearly as the anointed one to save his people from their sin.

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Thank you for revealing that to those of us who claim him and know him as our

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Savior. And in this we rejoice and for greater perception and greater clarity, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.

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Amen. Well, again, have a good rest of your Friday, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend and are able to worship together with God's people on this coming