WHO ARE YOU?
(First part)
Memory verse (John1: 22-23) “ Then they said to him, Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? He said: I am The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the LORD, as the prophet Isaiah said.”
One of the greatest crises of this world is the identity crisis. Multitudes walk this journey of life for years and years and they hit their graves before discovering who they are. We are born and grow up as strangers to ourselves. The society calls us every kind of things, every kind of names, every kind of people and so on.
Jesus asked his disciples what the society called him, some said he was Elijah, others said he was John the Baptist who had risen, others thought he was Jeremiah, while others argued that he was one of the prophets and yet all of them were wrong! Amazingly, many people run their lives by what people think about them! What a tragedy to live by what people say about you and all their opinions about you are wrong.
The leaders of the Jews sent a delegation to go to John the Baptist and found out who he was and took the report to them. John raised a lot of questions and suspicions among the Jews. His lifestyle, his preaching, his boldness, his baptizing, this was a new doctrine they had not seen anyone practicing. No one seemed to understand him. Some thought he was the Christ, others thought he was Elijah, some thought he was a prophet. I can imagine the arguments that used to be among the Sadducees and Pharisees. They could not agree on who he was, so they decided to send people to him to know from him. So, they came to him and asked him, are you the Christ? He said no. Then are you Elijah? He said no. They continued, are you the prophet? He said no. Then who are you?
When you don’t know who you are, this world will call you anything. It’s amazing that even our very fathers and mothers many times don’t know who we are. Isaac got twins Esau and Jacob. Isaac loved Esau but God loved Jacob. Think about such a conflict. He gave him a wrong name, Jacob, but the day God met him he told him your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel.
We will continue this teaching tomorrow.
