Luke 9:18-27 — Who is Taylor Swift to you?

READ THIS: Luke 9:18-27

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” 19 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.” 20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” 21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” 

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 

27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

Yesterday, Herod the tetrarch asked who Jesus was, and in today's reading, we see that Jesus asks his disciples basically the same question, but with a twist. It's not simply a "who am I?" Instead, He's asking, "who am I to other people? Who am I to you?" That distinction is important because even if Jesus is truly the Messiah, that does not mean people see Him that way. 

If we met Taylor Swift in person, but she didn't really look the way we thought, then we might not really believe that she's actually Taylor Swift...and then we wouldn't treat her the way we would if we actually believed that she was TSwizzle. If she asked, "who am I to you?" The answers would vary depending on 1) if we believed her to be TS 2) how we feel about TS. Some possible responses to that question would then be:
    "I don't some random person who looks a bit like a famous singer." 
    "OH YOU'RE TAYLOR SWIFT; YOU'RE THE SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE!"
    "You're Taylor Swift. You've ruined my ears and football for eternity."

Jesus lets us know that if we DO believe Him to be the Messiah, and we love Him, then our response should be this:
    -We follow Jesus, even when we'd rather do something else
    -We give up everything when Jesus directs us to
    -We trust our souls to Jesus
    -We are proud of who Jesus is
    -We seek out the Kingdom of God

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. Who do YOU think Jesus is? (No church answers. You can't say Messiah or King or Savior. You need to use your own words without any Christian slang...and you are free to answer that you're not sure as long as you say why!)

2. How does your answer to number one affect how you respond to Jesus in your daily life?

TRY THIS:

Two routes:

1) If you believe Jesus is Messiah: Name one area of your life where you don't really act like you believe Jesus is Messiah. Name one thing you could do differently so that your belief in who Jesus is shines through better!

2) If you don't believe Jesus is Messiah: I dare you to tell someone that you don't believe if you've kinda been secretive about it...you should never feel like you have to pretend to believe something! We won't be disappointed in you, and if you're scared to tell anyone, please know that Dan/Liz will never be upset if you told that to us!!! We love all of you!!! No matter what!!! And we don't want anyone to feel like they have to hide their true thoughts/beliefs/selves!

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