Daily Devotionals

In or Out Week 4 Monday

Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, 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 prophets.” Mark 8:27-28

Webster’s dictionary defines a distraction as “an object that directs one’s attention away from something else…especially amusement.” I do not know about you, but I can think of many things that threaten to distract me. Can you relate? Between our busy schedules, responsibilities, activities, and even social media, a lot shifts our focus. Now, none of these things are necessarily bad, but when they distract us from what matters most and threaten to hold a more important place in our lives than Christ, we have a problem. After all, Scripture makes it clear that only One is worthy of being Lord over our lives, and that is Jesus.

Jesus was traveling with His disciples one day, and they found themselves in a place called Caesarea Philippi (Mark 6). While walking, He asked them an interesting question: “Who do people say I am?” (verse 27). This question called them to pause and evaluate. What did people during this time say about Him? As we heard in the weekend service, it was interesting that Jesus asked this question in Caesarea Philippi because this was a place where people worshiped all kinds of false gods. The disciples answered the question, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets” (verse 28). This was what many people said about Jesus, and all of these people did not truly understand who Jesus was. Jesus then asked an even deeper, more poignant question: “But who do you say I am?” (verse 29). You see, Jesus wanted to know if they were distracted by the rest of the people around Him who recognized that there was something special about Him but did not see that He was Lord, or if they thought differently than the rest of the world. 

In our world today, people have all kinds of opinions and views of who Jesus is, and they worship many things. We have to be careful not to be blinded or distracted by everyone and everything around us. At the end of the day, will we be distracted and influenced by the world, or will we focus on Jesus and believe that He, and only He, is Lord. He alone is worthy of all of our attention and affection.

Moving Toward Action

Just like many people in Caesarea Philippi, we too can be tempted to be distracted by things that threaten to take place in our lives that only Jesus deserves. Is there anything distracting you from letting Jesus be Lord over your life? What is keeping you from being a fully devoted follower? How can you turn your focus and attention back to Jesus today? Today, it is time to release our grips of anything keeping us from Jesus.

Going Deeper

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, 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 prophets.”

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

Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”

But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

 

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.

Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

(NLT)

Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, 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 prophets.”

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

Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”

But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.

Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”