Feb. 11, 2001

Luke 9:18-36

Who Is Jesus?

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Katherine Ann Power. Do you remember the name? She lived here in Lebanon, worked in Corvallis, and was a "normal" wife and mother. But her real identity remained a secret until she revealed herself as a former Black Panther activist who had driven the getaway car for a bank robbery during which a cop was killed.
2. Context – Just as the people of Linn County didn’t have a clue about who Katherine Ann Power really was, so too we often have no clue about Who Jesus really is. Let’s look at Luke 9:18-36 to try to get a better picture of Who Jesus is.

1. Scripture Passages

1. Luke 9:18-36 - Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" ¹⁹ They 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." ²¹ Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. ²² And 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." 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 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God." ²⁸ About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹ As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰ Two men, Moses and Elijah, ³¹ appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³² Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³³ As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.) ³⁴ While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." ³⁶ When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.
2. How we react to Jesus in our daily lives will be heavily influenced by who we believe Him to be. It is imperative that we have a correct understanding of Who Jesus is, and apply that understanding to our lives. This passage shows us the Christ, the cost, and the Incarnation of God. Today, we’re going to take a look at these three aspects of understanding Who Jesus is.

1. The Christ

1. First, we see that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus and his disciples were off by themselves, away from the crowds. The issue of Who Jesus was must have been pressing in the disciples’ minds, so Jesus addressed it. First, He asked for the popular opinion poll. "It’s a split vote, Jesus. It’s between John the Baptist, Elijah, and some other prophet that has come back to life." Notice that they didn’t offer their opinion about Who He was. So Jesus asked them Who they thought He was. Impulsive Peter, talk-first-and-think-later Peter, spoke what was foremost on his mind: "You’ve gotta be the Christ."
2. Why did Peter feel that way? The disciples had seen Jesus heal a number of people, call the Pharisees on the carpet, raise a widow’s son from the dead, calm a storm, raise a little girl from the dead, feed five thousand men plus their families, and teach like no one ever had before. They knew He was something special. But Matthew 16:17-18 tells us that Peter’s insight came from God, and that the church would be built on this confession. But Jesus told them not to spread the word about Who He was, probably because they would have tried to make Him king of Israel by force.
3. By not denying Peter’s confession, and by warning the disciples to keep quiet about it, Jesus was confirming to them that He is indeed the Christ, the Messiah. In a very practical sense, we have to depend on Jesus as our Savior in order to make it in the world today. Jesus has to be our Savior, our Christ, if we are going to walk as He did. If we see Him as just another great guy, or as someone totally disconnected with the "real" world, we will severely limit what He will be able to do in our lives. We have to believe that Jesus is the Christ of our lives.
4. Illustration – The world has expressed many different views about salvation. Isaac Azimov wrote, Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation of we are to be saved at all. Educator Nannie Burroughs wrote, What we need are mental and spiritual giants who are aflame with a purpose…We’re a race ready for crusade, for we’ve recognized that we’re a race on this continent that can work out its own salvation. Czech playwright Vaclav Havel wrote, The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all. Jesus said, in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." We have to believe that Jesus is the Christ of our lives if we are going to gain any kind of understanding of Who Jesus is. But we also have to know the cost.

1. The Cost

1. Tom and Henry Blackaby, in The Man God Uses, write: The Bible says of Jesus, "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Heb. 5:8-9). Jesus learned obedience through suffering. Men today are not willing to suffer and often avoid pain at all costs. If our marriages are in decline, we divorce. If our teenagers rebel, we throw them out of our homes. If we have pain, we search for a drug to end it. Pain is our body’s alarm system. Pain tells us something needs immediate attention. Pain in the Christian life leads to a focused alertness to the activity of God, whose purpose is to lead us to obedience. If we felt no pain when we were disobeying God and, therefore, had nothing to restrain us, we could self-destruct. Of course, that’s not to say that all suffering is God’s discipline. That thinking is not the Blackabys’ intent. But this quote brings out what Jesus was telling His disciples: there is a cost to obedience, even a painful cost. Understanding the cost of following Jesus is another key to understanding Who He is.
2. First, Jesus outlines what it is going to cost Him to obey God. In verse 22, He tells the disciples that He is going to suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders, be rejected by them and killed by them. He tells them this to show them the lengths to which He is going to be obedient to God. He sets the standard for them. But He also says that this isn’t the end – He is going to be raised to life again on the third day. They aren’t going to be left on their own in trying to obey God. Jesus would be coming back to give them a living role model. But the process of getting there would cost Him dearly.
3. Second, He gives the disciples an up-front appraisal of the cost of following Him. What is the key to following Him? Self-denial for His sake, not for their sakes. In other words, denying yourself even if it does not reap any earthly benefit. Jesus also tells them that it isn’t a once for all kind of thing, but a daily taking up your cross. Why does He call it a cross?
4. In our sensually oriented society, often the hardest thing for us to do is deny ourselves, isn’t it? We feel tired so we go out to dinner. We want that extra bite after we’re full so we eat it. We "deserve" a better car, so we buy it. We want a bigger house so we buy it. We’re bored with our lives, so we surf the internet for pornography or other things that will entertain us and fulfill our sensual needs. We tend not to deny ourselves. We want, we do whatever it takes to get. All of us have been guilty of this sin of wanting to serve our senses rather than deny ourselves for the sake of Christ at some time or another. That’s why it’s a daily thing. Jesus says that stuff doesn’t cut it. Jesus says that self-fulfillment doesn’t cut it. It takes a daily denying of ourselves and following Him no matter what the cost. Daily also means a fresh start when we stumble. If we repent and ask for forgiveness, we get a new start. And we can begin daily denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Him all over again. The cost is steep, but well worth it because we are following the Christ.
5. Illustration – A.W. Tozer wrote, I am afraid we modern Christians are long on talk and short on conduct. We use the language of power but our deeds are the deeds of weakness. We settle for words in religion because deeds are too costly. It is easier to pray, "Lord, help me to carry my cross daily" then to pick up the cross and carry it; but since the mere request for help to do something we do not actually intend to do has a certain degree of religious comfort, we are content with repetition of words. We must daily deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Jesus. Then we’ll make another stride toward understanding Who Jesus really is.

1. The Incarnation of God

1. A third step in gaining an understanding of Who Jesus is, is understanding that Jesus is God Incarnate, God with skin on. Jesus took His three best buddies on a little trek up the mountainside to pray. As He was praying He was physically transformed. Talk about being changed by an encounter with God! Jesus, while still there physically, took on part of His heavenly glory. Then two of the main characters in the Jewish Prophetic Hall of Fame, Moses and Elijah, came and began to talk to Him about His death. The disciples were overwhelmed. The cloud covered them, and the voice told them that Jesus is God’s Son, and then ordered them to listen to Him.
2. We have to understand that in Jesus we find God in the flesh, God Incarnate. Verse 33 tells us that Peter was so overwhelmed by what he was experiencing that he said something that he wasn’t even aware of. He expressed a desire to stay right there, in the middle of Jesus’ glory, on the mountaintop. We often are caught up in the desire to stay in the middle of a mountaintop experience for long periods of time, because they touch a need in our souls so deeply. Peter felt his need being touched, so he said something very impulsive, kind of stupid, but that all of us can identify with.
3. When we experience the true glory of God in our lives, we will know it. There can be no substitute. We will find ourselves on our faces before a holy God. Maybe that’s a part of the Christian experience that we are missing so badly that it actually damages our understanding of Who Jesus is. We like to see Jesus as a good Savior-type dude, to revel in our privileges as Christians, to bask in the warm feelings that knowledge gives us. Maybe we’ve become too comfortable with Jesus. Maybe we’ve lost a bit of that reverent awe that overwhelmed Peter and James and John. I think there’s no maybe about it, because we would act differently if we truly believed that Jesus is God in the flesh, Holy Love Incarnate. We get the love picture pretty well, but we don’t like to think of the holiness thing. We don’t like to accept the fact that Jesus is holy just as God is holy, and as such we are called to be holy. Maybe when we truly believe that God is holy as well as loving we will have the honor and privilege of being on our faces before a holy and loving Christ.
4. Illustration – A.W. Tozer, in Knowledge of the Holy, writes, The sudden realization of his personal depravity came like a stroke from heaven upon the trembling heart of Isaiah at the moment when he had his revolutionary vision of the holiness of God. His pain-filled cry, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts," expresses the feeling of every man who has discovered himself under his disguises and has been confronted with an inward sight of the holy whiteness that is God. Such an experience cannot but be emotionally violent. When we truly believe that Jesus is holy, we will cry out like Isaiah did, for we will see ourselves as we truly are. Then we will allow God to change us to be holy as He is holy. And we can be pure vessels for the Spirit of Him Who is God with skin on.

1. How Does This Affect Me?

1. As we’ve seen, how we see Christ and how we react to Him are intertwined. There can be no separating these two. We’ve talked about the Christ, the Cost, and the God Incarnate. Let’s review again how these three need to impact our lives.
2. First, Jesus must be the Christ, or Redeemer, of every area of our life. We have to allow Him to examine every aspect of who we are and to root out those attitudes and beliefs that keep Him from being Lord of every area of our life. As the saying goes, "Either Jesus is Lord of all, or He isn’t Lord at all."
3. Second, Jesus showed us the way by paying the cost for our salvation on the cross. He set an example for us to follow, one of daily denying ourselves and taking up our cross of obedience every day and following Him no matter what the cost. As the Blackabys note, Love for God causes you to want to do what he says. It keeps your "doing" from becoming burdensome and causes you to find joy in your obedience (John 15:9-11).
4. Third, we have got to understand that Jesus is God Incarnate, God with skin on, and as such deserves our reverent awe. We have to believe that Jesus is holy as well as loving if we are going to experience Him in His true glory, and be changed by that experience.
5. As each person in this room examines their heart, we have to ask ourselves if we truly are where God wants us to be in these three areas. Is Jesus Lord and Savior of all areas of our lives? Are we daily denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Him no matter what the cost? Do we truly believe that Jesus is the Holy Son of God as well as the Loving Son of God and deserves our reverent awe?
6. I can’t answer those questions for you, but I know that in my own heart and life those tend to be issues from time to time. He’ll reveal an area in my life I don’t want to deal with, and I’ll struggle for a while with letting Him do so. Sometimes I don’t want to deny myself and take up my cross of obedience and follow Him. When my love is focused on someplace other than Him, denying myself and taking up my cross and following Him can be a real drag. And there are times when I get a little too chummy with Jesus and try to impose my will and my desires on Him.
7. There is one word that describes all three of those things: sin. Paul, in Galatians 5:1, says, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. The freedom he’s referring isn’t freedom to do what we want, but freedom from the slavery of sin. Nazarene theologian W.T. Purkiser writes, The question is not whether we have the Spirit when we believe in Jesus, but whether the Spirit has us under control of the lordship of Christ. When I allow Jesus to be Lord and Savior of every area of my life, deny myself and taking up my cross and follow Him, and truly believe that Jesus is the Holy and Loving Son of God, then the Spirit has me under control. Does the Spirit have you under control? How do you measure up in these three areas?

1. Conclusion

1. With every head bowed and eye closed, if God’s Spirit has been speaking to you in any area of your life today, and you want to commit to allowing Him to change your thinking and beliefs and truly deny yourself and follow Him, now’s the time to take action. Come forward and seek God for the direction He wants you to take, humbly telling Him that you will follow Him no matter what the cost. Come forward now and pray.
2. Let’s pray.