Sermon Central
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Personality, Purpose And Power Through Prayer-Luke 9:18-36 Series
Contributed by Ken Henson on Feb 1, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: Jesus knew His identity, and gained strength to take the cross through prayer. Through this He was glorified. We will only see the glory of God if we will also take up the cross and embrace God's will for our lives, finding our identity in Him.
918 And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
19 So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.”
20 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”
21 And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” 23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”
28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. 30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him. 33 Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.
34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” 36 When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.
PRAYER AND PERSONALITY
PRAYER AND PURPOSE
PRAYER AND POWER
Do you know your personality? Do you really know who you are-your identity?
How?
After praying He asks the disciples who people said He was, yet it is clear He already knew the answer.
Jesus knew who He was. In context, in Luke Chapter 7, even John the Baptist was doubting Jesus’ identity and sent messengers to ask Jesus if He was, indeed the Messiah. Jesus didn’t answer them, he made no attempt to defend Himself or argue His identity. He simply kept doing His work and let them see, then told them to tell John what they saw and heard. He knew who He was. How did He have such certainty of identity and purpose?
How do we know who we are?
Identity: The highly decorated general & two merchant marines
Two merchant marines had a bit of time on shore leave and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to spend a large portion of the evening at a pub, drinking too much. As the night wore on they realized they needed to get back to their ship. They also realized they had no idea where they were in relation to the port where their ship was located. They happened to run into a highly decorated general in the British navy and, with slurred speech and a bit too loud, they asked him for directions. The general was a bit put off and said "do you know who I am?!" One of the marines said "imagine, we don't know where we are, but this bloke doesn't even know who he is".
There is a progress here: first the outer circle-those who gossip and tell stories,
The inner circle-those who were with Jesus, knew His ways and His habits, His coming in and His going out. They gave the right answer.
The Chinese saying: A man is who others think he is, who he thinks he is and who he really is. The progress here is similar-outer, inner, and then reality.
