Thur's. Devo - Who Do You Say That I Am?

Read Luke 9:18-27 When Jesus gets alone with his disciples he asks them who people say he is? They reply, “John the Baptist, or Elijah, or an one of the prophets.” Then he asked them who they say he is. Peter speaks up and says, “the Christ of God.” Then he tells them to keep that secret to themselves. A strange thing to say, but Jesus knows what is up ahead for him, and he doesn’t want them to fall to the same fate. If he can keep them quiet and safe till he dies then he can send the Holy Spirit to give them power to speak the truth and save them from being taken out by the devil. He tells them exactly what is about to happen even though they can’t grasp it then. He is going to suffer, be betrayed by the religious leaders, be killed and be raised up on the third day. That was a hard pill to swallow No wonder they couldn’t grasp it. Then he told them to be his follower they must die to their own self. The only way to live was to die, but if they tried to live they would die. (I wonder if they followed that.) Then he asked them a question: what good is it going to do you if you gain all the riches of the world and lose your soul? He goes on to say that if they are embarrassed to be Jesus’ disciple, then he will deny them in the end. He ends with a statement that I still don’t understand: “But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.” I think it means that some of the ones he is talking to were going to realize that he would place the kingdom of God within them. Hopefully, Judas was the only one who didn’t live to see that. I’m sure that after Jesus died all these conversations made much more sense to them and the Holy Spirit brought them all back so they could understand, but I think at the time they just listened and wondered. Lord, we want to see your kingdom come here on earth like it is in heaven. May we walk in your kingdom today and may our lives testify of who you are.