Do you want people to know who you are? Does it make you feel good when someone recognizes you for something you have done? Do you recognize other people for who they are? Does status mean a lot to you?
We see people chasing after status in this world. They look to gain a new title. People are looking to be recognized when they walk down the street. We sometimes hear people say they are disappointed when others, perhaps strangers, didn’t recognize them.
There seems to be a constant chasing after fame and fortune. Even those who say they don’t want to be in the spotlight feel good when they are recognized. Our human nature is to feel good when others recognize us for who we are or what we have accomplished.
Do you recognize God? Do you recognize Jesus? Do you have a full appreciation for what He has done for you? Far too many in this world don’t have a full appreciation for what God has done for them. They simply don’t know.
Why don’t they know? In many cases, they have never been taught. That seems strange to those of us who know God. Yet, many in this world only know God’s name and not really what He has done. God is someone a celebrity might mention, but nothing more.
The apostles were able to spend about three years with Jesus. They saw firsthand His miracles. They heard His lessons in person. The recognized something about Him that no one else had. They knew Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world.
For us today, it may be a little harder for us to understand, since we don’t see Him face-to-face. Yet, we listen to witnesses all the time. People who tell us they saw something happen or heard something said. We trust them. So, why don’t we trust the witness of the apostles?
The Bible is full of eyewitness accounts of what God has done. We see how He set up the coming of Jesus through the people of Israel. We are told about Jesus in the gospels. We see how the church spread and what the basis for its growth was in the letters of the New Testament. We should take the eyewitness accounts in the Bible as serious as we take an eyewitness account of a crime being heard in our courts.
I pray we all read the eyewitness accounts in the Bible. I pray we take them seriously. I pray each one of us apply the truth of the Bible in our lives. Recognize Jesus for who He is. Trust the eyewitness accounts. Know the truth. Apply the truths of the Bible in your life.
Luke 9:18-20 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”
Marty Pressey 