“Who do you say that I AM?”

We all wear different hats. We have different relationships with various people. It’s rare to find someone that’s consistent across the board with every single person in their given life.

With my kids I’m “dada” or “daddy.” With my wife I’m “husband” or “honey.” With my parent’s, “son.” We’ve got extended relatives, bosses, acquaintances, and enemies. We’ve got friends. But even friends has it’s own categories. If you don’t believe me just ask your Facebook profile. There’s high school friends, college friends, friends from a different city, friends whom you met in a certain career and friends who send you friend requests from many other places around the while that you’ve never actually met.

If someone asked you who Caleb was, then you may get a different answer depending on what walk of life the person knew me from, the age I was, or the context of the relationship. But one thing I would hope to hear, is that, “Caleb loves Jesus.”

In Luke 9, Jesus asks Peter a question. Here’s the account:

One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. Only his disciples were with him, and he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead.”

Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

Peter replied, “You are the Messiah sent from God!”

The first question Jesus asked of Peter was who the culture said he was. The second question became personal.

We all have to face the question of who Jesus is? We all have to have the question of who Jesus is to me? And who Jesus is to you?

We have to choose to believe that Jesus is who He says He was. And if we believe it, we absolutely have to act on it.

Many people preach about a Jesus that has been formed from their pre-conceived ideas. Many people speak of a limited Jesus based on our experiential knowledge of our finite lives. Many people KNOW that JESUS CAN do anything, but DON’T ACT AS IF HE WILL.

It reminds me of a story I once heard of a church that called a prayer meeting. There was a severe drought in the land and all of the crops were dying. The region was on the brink of an absolute disaster. If water couldn’t be found, if rain didn’t come they would most certainly die!

As the story goes, the church gathered to fast and pray. They called out to God to ask for the response to their prayers to their cries to be answered. Then a little boy showed up with an umbrella. The adults looked at the little boy laughing while rolling their eyes at the foolishness of the boy. They are felt the need to remind him that there was a severe drought going on and that it hadn’t rained in several years.

The boy was very confused. He looked at all of the adults and simply said, “ I thought we were praying for rain to come.”

The boy had come WITH EXPECTANCY that JESUS WAS GOING TO DO A MIRACLE THAT DAY IN RESPONSE TO THEIR PRAYERS. The conviction of the Holy Spirit fell on those adults. They repented and everybody got wet that day.

Everybody except for one little boy with an umbrella.

Many of us KNOW that Jesus is the LIVING GOD who CAN do anything. Yet our actions and words contradict it with each passing choice that we make.

My friends, I have two simple questions for you.

1) Who do you say that Jesus is?

2) How are you living and acting in response to it?