Luke 9:18-27
Who Is Jesus to You?
As I have said for the last two weeks, if there is a chapter in Luke
that I would call the Discipleship Chapter, this would be it. Jesus
moved the disciples from the sidelines to the field. \\#1-6\\ They
were sent to preach and to heal then \\#13\\ they were commanded to
feed the multitude.
However, serving Jesus is not just about doing physical work. It is
also about knowing spiritual truth. So Jesus took His disciples
aside, according to \\#Matt 16:13\\, up north to Caesarea Philippi,
just outside the actual borders of Israel and there asked the
disciples an important question, "Who is Jesus to you?"
Some important truths were revealed to the disciples that day, truths
that every disciple should know. Let’s note them.
I. \\#18-21\\ First topic: Who is Jesus?
A. Three will give testimony and all three will agree, Jesus Is
the Christ.
B. It has not been long since we have looked at this account from
a parallel passage so I will skip over some aspects.
1. Luke himself did.
2. This account is given in Matt 16 and Mark 8, but Luke
devoted the fewest words to recording it, giving us only
the essence of the conversation.
C. It was Jesus who started the lesson.
1. \\#18\\ He asked first who do others say that I am?
a. This establishes the topic, i.e. who is Jesus?
b. This was the testimony of others.
c. Jesus started by listening to what others, the people,
thought.
(1) This was just general conversation.
(2) Jesus apparently made no comments on the thoughts
of general public.
(3) Why?
(a) Because it did not matter what others
thought.
(b) What others thought would not determine what
the disciples did.
(c) But it matter greatly what the disciples
thought for that would determine what the
disciples did.
2. \\#20\\ Once Jesus heard what others thought, He got more
to the heart of the matter by asking the disciples what
they thought.
a. This is the testimony of Peter if not the testimony of
all of the disciples.
(1) Peter declared Jesus was the Christ. (He still
is.)
(2) The word "Christ" means the "anointed One."
(3) It was a term used to describe the One whom God
had promised to both redeem the Jews and to
establish a divine kingdom on the earth.
(4) By using this term, Peter was testifying that
Jesus was the One that God had promised would
come.
(a) This was a conclusion of faith on Peter’s
part for so far Jesus had not provided
either salvation or a kingdom.
(b) One can truly call Peter a believer at this
point.
(c) Indeed, Peter went on to show even more
faith.
(5) Matthew recorded another statement Peter made in
his answer.
Mt 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
(a) By calling Jesus the Son of God, Peter was
stating that Jesus was not just a man but
God Himself.
(b) Jesus is the Son in that His body was
supernaturally conceived by God but Jesus
is God in that the One inside the body is
the eternal God.
(c) So the term reflects both the deity and the
humanity of Jesus, 100% God, 100% man.
(d) Again, Peter accepted this by faith,
although seeing the miracles that Jesus
performed did provide sound evidence as
well.
b. But Matthew also recorded that Another was giving
testimony that night.
3. The Father also bore witness that night.
Matt 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven.
a. This was God the Father’s testimony.
b. Jesus said that Peter’s understanding came from the
Father.
(1) That meant it was not JUST Peter’s testimony as
to who Jesus was, it was also the Father’s.
(2) But the Father was not finished with His
testimony.
(a) He was going to be more forthright.
(b) \\#Lu 9:28-36\\
i. \\#29\\ God allowed Jesus’ true nature
and glory to break forth.
ii. \\#30\\ God sent two ancient witnesses
to stand with Jesus.
iii. \\#33\\ And when Peter still did not
completely understand what God was
telling them, the very voice of God
plainly spoke:
Luke 9:35 And there came a voice out of the
cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear
him.
c. Who is Jesus? He is God come in the flesh of a Man
but God none-the-less.
II. Second Topic: What did Jesus come to do?
Luke 9:22 Saying, The Son of man must suffer
many things, and be rejected of the elders and
chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and
be raised the third day.
A. This was and is one of the most important lessons that a
disciple needs to know.
1. Jesus came to die.
2. Jesus had taught this truth to the disciples before but
Matthew made it clear that from this point, Jesus began
with earnest repetition to get this truth across to the
disciples.
Matt 16:21 FROM THAT TIME FORWARD BEGAN
Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things
of the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
B. But it was not just His death that Jesus wanted the disciples
to understand. It was also the brutality of His death.
1. What was going to happen to Jesus was almost beyond
comprehension for the disciples.
2. And so Jesus told them and then He repeated it and He told
them and then He repeated it and on it went.
a. But even with all the times He told them, they did not
get.
b. Even as it happened, they did not get it.
3. I’m not sure that it completely sank in until AFTER the
resurrection and the forty days of teaching and the
ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
III. Third Topic: What they must do.
Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross daily, and follow me.
A. Now here is where the rubber meets the road for us.
1. What we do has no influence on the topic of who Jesus is.
2. What we do has no influence on the topic of what Jesus
did.
3. But what we do not only influences Jesus’ third topic, it
is Jesus’ third topic.
B. What does Jesus expect us to do.
1. Jesus gave three expectations.
a. \\#23\\ Jesus expects us to deny ourselves.
b. He expects us to carry our own cross with us.
(1) You might could have passed that off as some kind
of symbolic language until the day that Jesus
died.
(2) Rome made Jesus carry His own cross, lie down on
it, and lay there while He was nailed to it.
(3) God is literally telling them and us to always be
ready to lay down our lives in any brutal
fashion the world could impose upon us,
including the cross.
(4) It would not surprise me if the anti-Christ
re-implements this barbaric means of cruel death
for Christians before God deals with him.
c. And He expects us to follow Him knowing all of that.
2. So in a short sentence, Jesus expects His disciples to
forget about all of the costs of following Him and follow
Him.
3. This is what is required that disciples know and do to be
disciples.
C. To help them and us in making the correct decision, Jesus gave
a few more statements:
Luke 9:24 For whosoever will save his life shall
lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my
sake, the same shall save it.
1. \\#24\\ If you save your life for yourself, you are going
to lose it.
a. Jesus was not talking to lost people but saved people.
b. That means for Christians to live their lives here for
themselves is to waste life.
(1) Life does not start until you get to heaven.
(2) What we are doing right now is not really living,
but it is determining the life we are going to
have.
(3) Don’t waste the opportunity to create a wonderful
eternity.
(4) Follow Jesus!
2. \\#25\\ What have you profited if you gain the whole
world?
Luke 9:25 For what is a man advantaged, if he
gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be
cast away?
a. Everything this world offers is nothing.
(1) That is true for the lost person who "loses his
soul."
(2) It is also true for the saved person who wastes
his life chasing things that have no value.
b. I do not mean to under-value our lives.
(1) The people in our lives are very valuable.
(2) The love we show to those people is very
valuable and it takes time and effort to show
love to people.
(3) But everything else has little to no value.
3. \\#26\\ If we are ashamed of Jesus here, Jesus will be
ashamed of us there.
Luke 9:26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me
and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be
ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and
in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.
a. Oh, I don’t want that.
b. I don’t want Jesus to be ashamed that He saved me,
that He died for me, that He called me, that He gave
me live and let me the number of years that He gives
me!
c. What will determine that?
(1) What I do will determine that.
(2) He did not say what I believe will determine that
but what I do.
(3) I know what we believe is important, but perhaps
even more is what we do.
(4) Let us live for Him, all the way to death no
matter what death that may be.
Who is Jesus to you? Your answer is important. If it is different
that what Jesus taught the disciples, it is leading you down a wrong
path.
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