the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Matthew 16:13-28
The question which the Lord puts to His disciples shows us that opinions concerning Himself are divided, and it is still the same today. But you, reader, can you say who He is and what He is to you? It is the revelation of the Father to Peter which prompts him to make his magnificent confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". There is the unshakeable foundation on which the Lord will build His Church (Assembly), of which each believer, like Simon, will become a living stone. How could the forces of evil prevail against that which belongs to Christ, and which He Himself builds? And the Lord honours His disciple with a special mission: by his preaching to open the gates of the kingdom to the Jews and to the Gentiles (Acts 2:36; Acts 10:43).
"From that time forth" the Lord Jesus, referring to the Assembly, must speak of the price He would pay in order to purchase it: His suffering and His death. Then poor Peter, who a moment before was speaking "as the oracles of God", becomes here an instrument of Satan. The latter seeks to turn Christ away from the path of obedience, but he is immediately recognised and repulsed.
The Lord Jesus, who was the first to tread the path of complete self-denial, does not hide what it involves to follow Him (cf. Matthew 10:37-40). Are we ready to follow Him, cost what it may? (Philippians 3:8).
