Who is Jesus..

Tonight at prayer meeting, we will study Mark 8:27-33, which presents Jesus as the Messiah and shows how Jesus was beginning to be more specific in his teachings, emphasizing the fact that the Messiah had to suffer in order to be the Savior.
He began his lesson by asking them directly, “Who do people say that I am?” They replied that some people said he was John the Baptist, others said he was Elijah or one of the prophets. (Some folks of that day seem to have held the belief that souls transmigrate from one person to another–clearly a belief derived from the Greeks and definitely not from orthodox Jewish belief).
Then followed an even more direct question: “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” Peter answered for himself and the others: “You are the Messiah.”
All well and good up to this point. Then Jesus dropped the bomb on them. It was time for them to understand what all this meant–for Jesus and for them. And for the followers of Jesus in time to come. Jesus continued: “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 after three days rise again” (verse 31).
Peter then stepped up to the plate for his momentous “strike-out.” “This shall never happen to you!” He was unprepared for the reply of Jesus: ““Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Self-denial and sacrifice are integral duties of the Savior. He made plain to us all that the invitation to follow him involves taking a cross of our own. We, too, as his followers, are to be willing to deny ourselves, sacrifice all we have, and even to die if necessary. The invitation to be saved is the invitation to become totally committed to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.