Luke 9:18-22, 28-36
Introduction:
Who is Jesus?
That’s the question asked and answered in our text today. Although that question was answered a long time ago, it is still being asked these days!
*Story at Books a Million*
*Paper on Bible Interpretation*
A lot of people have a lot of opinions on who Jesus is. If you evaluate those opinions that contradict the Bible, you’ll find them to be subjective and biased. An atheist who doesn’t believe any of the miracles recorded, but selectively finds a couple verses here and there that support his idea of a revolutionary: how surprising! Surely no bias took place at all in your very selective approval and rejection of Scripture.
A Muslim who sees Jesus as merely a prophet and accepts or rejects whatever conforms with what the Koran says. Nope, not subjective at all.
Gandhi had a very high opinion of Jesus as a moral teacher. He said “Jesus to me is a great moral teacher, among others.”
People have a lot of opinions about who Jesus is. If you are building your definition of Jesus on your wants, desires, biases, preconceptions, etc., then your opinion is just one more to add to the list.
But there’s no need to trust in your own opinion or the opinions of others. There’s no need to be subjective or biased about it like so many others. We can see what Jesus had to say for Himself and we can see what His disciples had to say about Him. It has been written down for us in the Bible. And the Bible isn’t some book written in 2015 by an atheist with an axe to grind. It’s not written by someone with a political agenda that you need to be suspicious of.
The majority of this book was written before Jesus even walked the earth and the remainder shortly after He did. It was written by many people and is in agreement with itself, unlike the varied opinions of the day. It’s stood the test of time and proved itself time and again to be the perfect word of God.
So, for me, and I trust also for you, we aren’t interested in biased opinions about who Jesus is. We want to see what God has to say about it. We are going to see what the Bible has to say to the question “Who is Jesus?” I’m looking forward to finding the answer.
Text: Luke 9:18-22, 28-36
Theme: Who is Jesus?
This question is asked over and over again in Luke up to this point. It’s very easy to miss that going slowly through the book as we are. I think we’ve been in Luke almost two years now, though more like 3/4th of a year if you added the time together.
In Luke 1:66 they ask “Who then will this child be?”; Luke 4:36 “what is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out!”; Luke 5:21 “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”; Luke 7:19 “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
And on it goes. Last week we encountered 3 verses with Herod and others wondering “Who is Jesus?” “Is He John the Baptist raised from the dead? Is He Elijah? Or is He an old prophet, risen from the dead?”
So there is a lot of build up to this moment. This is a key moment in the Gospel of Luke. Now at last Jesus engages His disciples in a discussion about these questions they and others have been asking. They’ve had a lot of time now to hear His words and to see His miracles. He wants to know what their opinion of Him is.
Verses 18-20 – Jesus is the Messiah
So, first thing we find out about who Jesus is: He isn’t anybody other than Jesus. He’s not John the Baptist. He’s not Elijah. And he’s not one of the many prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and so on.
He’s not a reincarnated person. That might be obvious to us, but you’d be surprised what some people have come to believe about Jesus. There is a cult in China that was formed by a woman who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus. There have been people believing that Jesus is a reincarnation of Adam, giving man a second chance. Some have thought that Jesus is really the archangel Michael. And recently, I read researching this sermon, that there’s a TV series in development about a 12 year old boy who is Jesus reincarnated.
No, Jesus is not a reincarnated person and anyone thinking they are Him today have what’s called a Messiah complex. Jesus is God’s Son, and He has existed for eternity.
Peter gives the answer. Or at least part of it. This is often called Peter’s confession. Peter is the one who answers the question, but he answers it on behalf of all the twelve. Jesus’ question was plural, it is a plural “you” there, he wants to know who all of them say that Jesus is. Now, there is at least one amongst there number who is unconvinced, and that would be Judas the traitor.
Peter and at least the majority of the twelve believe that Jesus is “the Christ of God.” Jesus does not deny it, but rather charges them to keep it to themselves. That charge for the disciples to keep the information to themselves has often appeared mysterious to people, but it’s not so mysterious when you remember how many people want to kill Jesus. Jesus will die, it is part of His mission, but it is not yet His time to die.
So what does “the Christ of God” mean? Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. Christ and Messiah mean the same thing. Christ or Messiah actually means anointed one – kings were anointed so it is a kingly title. An anointed king. But not just any anointed person: the anointed one of God.
Everybody, everybody that was a Jew knew what that meant. It meant the promised deliverer and king, so often talked about in Old Testament prophecies and covenants. Any Jew living in and around Jerusalem, as these men were, would be especially familiar with this term as they were longing for this person to appear. They believed that The Christ of God would come and rescue them from Roman occupation and all of their enemies and turn Jerusalem and surrounding lands into a God appointed and protected eternal kingdom. They’d stop being at the bottom of the world and start being at the top with foreign leaders from all nations, including Rome, coming to pay homage to the Christ of God.
It was to be wonderful. That is who they believed Jesus to be. And Jesus doesn’t deny it. He is that person. He is the Christ of God who will rule over an eternal kingdom that is blessed and protected by God. And it will be wonderful.
But His response must have thrown them into confusion, because it is practically the opposite of what they believed to be true about the Messiah. I know they didn’t know what to make of it, because even after this event the disciples still wonder who Jesus is from time to time and they don’t believe He is actually going to be rejected and killed.
He says:
Verses 21-22 – Jesus is the Suffering Servant – the Savior
In another account of this, Peter rebukes Jesus for saying this. In Matthew 16:23 he says to Jesus “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” He couldn’t believe it.
Jesus’ response is unbelievable and unacceptable to the disciples. How can the Messiah die? The promised king, die? How can God’s chosen one be rejected and murdered and still rule over the nation?
It didn’t compute to them. And still today, this is the chief objection that Jewish people have about Jesus: “No, the Messiah isn’t meant to die. He is meant to rule over an eternal and God blessed kingdom. Therefore, Jesus was not the Messiah.” The problem then and the problem still today is that there is another element to the Messiah that they miss.
A few weeks ago we read through Isaiah 53 together. It talked about a suffering servant who would die for the sins of the people and bring salvation to people through His sacrifice. By His sacrifice, people’s sins would be forgiven, they would be healed. The Jewish people then and still today thought that they were two separate people. You have the suffering servant and you have the Messiah.
But they aren’t two separate people. One person serves in the role of Messiah and Suffering Servant. Jesus is the Messiah and He is the Suffering Servant – the Savior. He tells them that now. They don’t understand it, but they will in time.
Before Jesus can rule over an eternal kingdom of God, He needs eternal redeemed people to be a part of that kingdom. What people miss is that, apart from the sin issue being dealt with, apart from us finding forgiveness, you and I have no place in that eternally blessed kingdom. If we are to spend forever with God, we need to be acceptable to God, and we have a sin issue that needs dealt with in order to be acceptable to God.
One day, you and I will get to be a part of that forever kingdom. Jesus will fulfill the role of Messiah. But before that can take place, He says, He “must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” And that’s the role of the suffering servant, what we know better as the Savior. Jesus took upon Himself all of our sins so that we could have forgiveness and receive eternal life and holiness through faith in Him.
Link: So, Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Suffering Servant or the Savior. And we read about one more title in verses 28-36. Jesus is God’s Son. By the way, I’m skipping 23-27 today, but that’s because we are going to do them next week. Those verses are just too good to totally skip over or treat halfway.
Verses 28-36 – Jesus is God’s Son
This event is often called by theologians the transfiguration, because here the glory of Jesus is revealed. The three disciples of the inner circle witness that Jesus, while being a man, is more than just a man. He is the glorious Son of God, radiant and holy.
But, though they saw His glory, they failed to understand the significance of it, at least at first. Peter says that it is good for them to be there, so let’s make a tent for the three of you. Basically, his groggy and sleepy thinking is that “Hey! This is a good thing! Let’s make it last longer by setting up some tents and hearing what everyone has to say.” There’d be a tent for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
And that’s where Peter makes his mistake. Peter puts Jesus, Moses, and Elijah on an equal plane by suggesting there should be a tent for each of them. “Moses is really great, so he gets a tent. Elijah is really great, he also gets a tent. And Jesus is really great, so a tent for him. The three best people there ever were. Let’s put down a tent for everybody!”
But, though Moses and Elijah were great men, Jesus is much more. Jesus is God’s Son. Jesus is without flaw. Jesus is God the Son. He’s the Word of God. He reveals God and all of His glory and attributes to mankind. He is without sin.
It is wrong to say that Jesus is just another lawgiver or just another prophet. It’s wrong, as Gandhi did, to say that Jesus is a great moral teacher amongst many others. He is more than just one of the greats and one of the heroes of humanity. Jesus is God’s Son. That makes Him divine and supremely wonderful. That makes Him the best, and by a long shot.
And here again, though God made this very clear long ago, for some reason this is still an issue today. We are taught in the culture that Jesus is one of many great teachers. That all beliefs are essentially the same and are tied by the golden rule of love your neighbor as yourself. We’re taught that Mohammed is great, Buddha is great, Moses is great, and so on. That’s very popular teaching. You’ll hear it at school, work, television, etc. Even some churches would teach you that.
That’s a common teaching of men, but what do you think God thinks of that? Based upon this event in the Bible, what do you think God would say to that? It’s not a mystery. He says “No, This is my Son, My Chosen One; listen to him!”
To emphasize the point, after God the Father comes to rebuke Peter with this comment, Moses and Elijah go away and there is only Jesus.
Moses was the giver of the Mosaic Law and Elijah considered the foremost of the prophets. You have here the human representative of the law and the representative of the prophets. These guys were great, and they delivered God’s words to people in their own way. They should be listened to. God doesn’t say don’t listen to them.
But, God says, one greater than Moses and Elijah is here. Listen to Him!
Application:
What are your thoughts about Jesus? There are a lot of opinions out there. Those opinions aren’t new.
Are you basing your opinions on the Bible or somebody writing a book in 2018 with an axe to grind?
Jesus being one among many great teachers might sound like a nice idea that will net you some friends and give you peace with others, but what does God say about that idea?
Jesus is the Messiah – He is coming back to reign.
Jesus is the Savior – He loves you more than anybody, has made you holy, has saved you, and is our access to the Father.
Jesus is God’s Son – There is no one greater than Him.