Simply Jesus - UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE

By guest blogger Bev Seale

Matthew 16 & 17

These chapters introduces what a turning point in the Gospel, before the emphasis of Jesus' teaching was on the kingdom and its ethics, now the emphasis shifts to discipleship and to the cross.

In v 6 Jesus was warning the disciples to be on their guard against the Pharisees and Sadducees,
They were quite aware of the many miracles Jesus had done but here they were, pretending not to know anything by asking for a sign. Jesus was a bit angry with them so much so that He refused to give them an answer.

As Christians we sometimes ask the most ridiculous questions ( and I include myself ) about how to deal with things in our lives when God has made it so easy for us. He wants to help us understand his all encompassing love for us. I guess what I am saying here is, in order to be overcomers, we need to do everything we can with the help of the Holy Spirit to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection.

When Jesus asked His disciples, Who did people believed Him to be , their answers were very different, but when He personalized it, now that was a more sobering thought. Hand on my heart I can honestly say there were times in my life when I questioned my belief. Thankfully those days are long gone you'll be happy to hear. Here Peter had no hesitation, he might have been impulsive or whatever, but it was clear he knew who Jesus was, he had spent time with Him.

We all have difficult times in our lives, there are also important lessons for us to learn, but most importantly we have to move on. Peter won the highest praise for discerning Jesus' identity but in the next scene he made maybe the biggest blunder in his life, he wanted to save Jesus from the pain of the cross not understanding that without the pain of the cross there would be no salvation.

Matt 17: 1- 5

I often wondered why Jesus only took Peter James and John up to high mountain by themselves?

In the Message it says "His appearance changed from the inside out right before their eyes, sunlight poured from His face and His clothes were filled with light". As I read this, the word that came to me was intimacy, Jesus had gone to great lengths to be alone with them ( there were always people around him) none of the other disciple would see Him like they did and there was more, Moses and Elijah was there also, can you imagine the awesomeness of that moment?