BELIEVERS CONFESS JESUS IS THE CHRIST
LUKE 9:18-24 JULY 13, 2003
LUKE 9:18-24
18Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"
19They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."
20"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "The Christ of God."
21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
23Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
True confessions – when we hear those words we might think of a number of different things. A long time ago, there used to be an interesting magazine called True Confessions. We might think of baring our soul of some of the deep, dark sins that we have committed. True confessions also refer to those things we believe in our heart. True confessions are great confessions. We heard a true, great confession in today’s text from Peter, when he declared that Jesus was the Christ of God. You and I make true confessions day after day in our earthly life, either with our words or by our actions. We are able to do so, not because we’ve gone out of our way to find Christ, but that the Lord God has sought us and found us. You and I are able to make true confessions day after day because of the Word of God, which God, by His grace, has placed in our hearts and in our lives. Thus Paul writes to the Romans: "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ"(ROMANS 10:17). That is why we’re here today – to hear that word of God so that our faith may grow, so that we too, like Peter, would confess that Jesus is the Christ. When we hear Peter say that, we’re filled with awe and wonder at God’s abundant free grace and we are encouraged. Today the Lord encourages us by reminding us that we too, are just like Peter as:
BELIEVERS CONFESS JESUS IS THE CHRIST
I. With words by faith
II. With lives of faith
I. With words by faith
As our text begins, we find Jesus setting an example for His disciples in a number of ways. 18Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him… He teaches them a couple of things – first of all, that prayer is important. Here was Jesus, the very Son of God, part of the triune God. He knew His Father’s will perfectly yet He still takes time to pray to His heavenly Father. Jesus does that so He is strengthened and to teach His disciples an example of the importance of prayer. Then we see too, that they’re off by themselves in private – just Jesus and His disciples. At this time in Jesus’ ministry we are told the crowds were so great that sometimes they could not even find a place to eat, the room was so crowded. Jesus showed His disciples it’s important to pray and it’s important to pray off by without distractions.
Then He asked them about public opinion. Jesus asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" He wanted to hear what the people thought. Jesus knew the crowds were following Him because He had done miracles, because He had performed signs and wonders. He was wondering (although He knew) what the disciples had heard from the crowds. 19They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life." In essence, the people (public opinion) had put Jesus in a very high category. They grouped Him with Elijah, one of the greatest prophets that had ever lived. They said if maybe He wasn’t Elijah, maybe He was John the Baptist or maybe another great prophet come back to life. The trouble with this category of great is that these people were dead – Elijah, long gone and yet the people expected him to return. They thought maybe Jesus was Elijah come back to life. He wasn’t. That was only the public opinion of the day. They weren’t so anxious to admit that this Jesus is the Christ.
Now Jesus becomes very personal with the disciples. 20"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" It made no difference what the crowd thought, but what about those who were following Jesus? What did they think? What did they know in their hearts? Peter answered, "The Christ of God." If we would look in Matthew and in John, we would find the gospels there adding to the answer…”You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” We would find there the reply of Jesus – Jesus says, “Blessed are you Simon because this was not revealed to you by men but by the Holy Spirit.”
We are clearly reminded that man does not make his decision to believe or decide to accept Christ, but Christ chooses him and reveals Himself to mankind. That’s important in our day and age. It’s important in any day and age. Throughout the history of the church, the church teaching was awful! Those who thought it was important to make that decision for Christ split the church. The Lord says that is not the case. When it comes to being saved, you and I are saved simply by God’s grace. We can’t earn His forgiveness. We certainly do not deserve His forgiveness. We cannot pay for it. God freely gives it to us in spite of ourselves, in spite of our sinfulness, and in spite of the fact that we’re going to sin the rest of our life here on earth until we reach heaven itself. That’s the very foundation of our Christian faith – we are saved by God’s grace alone. Paul wrote to Titus -- "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy"(TITUS 3:4b, 5). God’s mercy is alive in our hearts by faith. It’s by His grace that you and I are saved. It’s by His grace that you and I are here today.
It is by His grace that you and I look ahead to what is yet to come for each and every one of us – so then, we’re like Peter. We’re able to see Jesus, not just as another great prophet, not just as someone who might have come back to life from the dead, but as the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of the Living God. We know that in our hearts by the faith that the Holy Spirit has put there. We say it with our words. Paul writes to the believers in Corinth and he reminded them of how at one time he did not believe but now he believed. Because of that he was anxious to speak. In 2 CORINTHIANS 4:13 we read, "It is written: ’I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak.” You and I are able to speak about our knowledge of salvation because we believe. We believe because the Holy Spirit has called us to faith. What a miracle that is! What a miracle it truly is that anyone of us or anyone in the world at all is saved. And yet countless thousands are! As we are saved, then we know that this is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
In our short time here on earth, how many of us haven’t seen some of those religions that pop up and then disappear. These cults have certain leaders that lead people astray and they come to a sad end because they have taken scripture and twisted it. They have taken the focus of man and believer’s attention away from Christ. That comes to no good end. When the apostles after Pentecost went and preached to the crowds and told them that they had put the Savior to death they were filled with remorse. The apostles continued preaching that the people would be saved because of Jesus’ death and the people were overjoyed! They wanted to know what they could do to be saved. The apostles had to remind them and to re-focus their attention away from their sacrifices, away from their law-orientation, to the gospel. They tell them in ACTS 4:12 (which is also vital for us to remember), "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved". Salvation is through Christ alone. That is the very simplicity of the Christian faith. That is the very simplicity of our faith so that you and I, no matter how well educated or how poorly educated, no matter what station in life, are saved by that simple fact that Christ has died for our sins. We don’t have to put our confidence in ourselves. We don’t have to put our confidence in the church or in the preacher, but in God’s Word and in Christ alone.
As believers then, we’re able to confess because we believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Christ. We do that with words by faith and we do that
II. With lives of faith
As we look at our text, it almost seems as if Jesus is going to stop these disciples from living their faith. Remember, He says, ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answers, ‘You are the Christ of God.’ Then Jesus said to them all, 21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. Of course, that always sounds strange to us – that they were to keep quiet. Again, this was early in Jesus ministry. Remember the opinion of the crowd? Who did they think Jesus was? Maybe Elijah, John the Baptist, another great prophet – they didn’t recognize Him as the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. The disciples did by God’s grace. If they were to go now and preach the fact that ‘Here is the King! Here is the Messiah! Here is the Anointed One!’ there could have been a political disturbance. The people could have revolted against the Roman rule in Jerusalem and said, ‘We want Jesus as our King!’ Jesus didn’t want that to happen so He told His disciples, ‘Keep quiet until the time is right so that more people understand that indeed, I am the King – not an earthly king but a heavenly king.’
Then Jesus describes what is going to happen to this, their Messiah, the Christ. 22And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." As we look in the other gospels, we see the reaction of the disciples. They get to that point where they hear He is going to be rejected, He’s going to suffer, and He’s going to be killed. At this point it seems as if they tune Jesus out. We see the reactions in the other gospels. They try to stop Jesus from going to Jerusalem. They try to stop Him from being put to death. Whether they didn’t listen or whether it was so traumatic, they didn’t hear those final words that ‘on the third day be raised to life.’ This king would live! First, He would have to face death but then He would come back to life. He would take up His cross, be put to death, return to life and ascend to His Father’s side.
If Jesus was going to do that, His followers would also. 23Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. You and I see that in the life of the disciples. We find Matthew, the tax collector, very wealthy because he cheated people out of their money, and yet, he took up his cross to follow Jesus. We see the sons of Zebedee who were fishermen and had their own industry. Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ They did. They took up their cross daily and followed the Lord. They understood the blessings of the Lord’s promise. They understood the last verse of our text. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. Matthew, Peter, Simon, and the list goes on – all the apostles, all the disciples lost their earthly life so that they could follow Jesus. They lost their earthly life because they found Jesus. (Really, Jesus found them.) They lost nothing, did they? They saved their life for eternity. That’s what Jesus told His disciples. They would live their lives of faith, confessing that this Jesus is the Christ.
We learn the same thing in our life. The Lord doesn’t tell us that we have to go out of our way to find our crosses. He says they will be there. The Lord does tell us we shouldn’t expect any better than He. We look at Jesus and what do we see? We see the Savior of mankind who never did one thing wrong, who never had an evil thought and who never spoke a harsh word. What happens? The people don’t like Him. They crucify Him. Rather than let Him go at the end of His life, they let Barabbas go, a known criminal, so that someone innocent would be put to death. Jesus said if they are going to do that to Me, you could expect that people in this world are going to do that to His followers. From JOHN 15:20 we read, "Remember the words I spoke to you: ’No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” He says, yes, there will be those detractors against Christ and His followers. There will also be those followers who believe in Christ and then believe in those who teach the truth of scripture.
How are you and I to do that in a world of absolutes that doesn’t really care anymore? They would rather make up their own standards and live by them or not live by them. People would rather make up their own standards and judge others by them. Scripture gives us all the standards we need – all the guidelines we would require for living a godly life. How do you and I confess that Jesus is the Christ? We can do it with our words, but also we are encouraged to confess Christ by our lives of faith. We realize that as we look around in this world, there are people that are distraught with worry. There are people that are filled with fear. There are people that are simply afraid of what might yet happen in this life. Who can blame them? We read the news, we watch the news, and we listen to it. There is always another new disease cropping up on the horizon. There is always another new place that we have to fight another war. The number crunchers tell us that we’re on the edge of falling into economic ruin and despair. What do we do? You and I know that the Lord has everything under His control. You and I do not need to be scared about the future. You and I do not need to be frightened by what might come or what might not happen. We are able to live our lives without fear. We are able to live our lives with contentment, joy and peace – something that we can reflect in our lives to those who are frightened and have no peace or joy or contentment. That is the way we live our lives of faith. That is the way the faith in our hearts becomes a part of our day by day living. James writes these words. "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead"(JAMES 2:17). It’s not that we’re going around looking to help other people – helping people cross the street or whatever, just to do good deeds. Our whole life is a life of joy and thanksgiving. This type of Christian living does make a difference in this world.
There are many, many people who are not filled with joy, who are not thankful. We are to live our lives of faith that shows the confession in our heart that Jesus is the Christ. He is our living Savior and He gives us our reason for living, our joy, contentment and peace. That’s why we are here on earth. Listen to this from EPHESIANS 2:10. "For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” This verse comes right after Ephesians 2: 8,9 which says, ‘For by grace are you saved…’ Our reaction is that we live our lives of faith for our Savior because of all the things He has done for us.
True confessions – whether we think of them as true confessions of the soul which admit our sin, or true confessions of the soul which lives our faith. True confessions are great confessions. Great confessions – not because of our sinful nature; great confessions not on our own but by God’s grace; great confessions that say that Jesus is the Christ. Christ is the only way of salvation. We are able to confess that as boldly and as confidently as Peter – that Jesus is the Christ. We are able to do it with words by faith by God’s grace. We are able to do it with lives of faith by God’s grace.
As Matthew tells us, "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds (your good living, your contented living, your fearless living, your joy in this life) and praise your Father in heaven"(MATTHEW 5:16). Be bold like Peter with your true confession of faith, that Jesus is the Christ, with words by faith and lives of faith. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
