Luke 9:7-9

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 9, and I want to read verses 7 through 9 for our text and study this morning. Now here, the Tetriarch, heard of all that was done by him, and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some that John was risen from the dead, and of some that Elias had appeared. and of others that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod said, John, have I beheaded? But who is this? Of whom I hear of such things. And he desired to see him. May God bless through us, he is sacred and holy word this morning. There’s a old saying, never eat. cuttlefish. Cottlefish has an ability to emit a black liquid which dies all the water around it and turning it dark, which evidently hides the fish so that it can escape. It’s enemies. There are people that are like the cuttlefish that whenever they open their mouth, they spew darks. Dark. Dark. and everything around them. Because their foolish heart is darkened, everything they say ends up being dark with regard to any type of spiritual understanding. Now, Christ has sent out his 12 apostles, as we saw in the first six verses of this chapter, to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. our text reveals what people thought about Jesus Christ and especially what Herod’s view was of Christ. As we see in this text very clearly. Sadly, none of them had a proper view of Jesus Christ. Here, Christ is preaching. His apostles are out there preaching. And they’re all. confused about Jesus Christ. Their opinions are spewing darkness. Salvation depends on a right understanding about who Jesus Christ is and they are missing such a understanding. Now you see here how misguided people are concerning the person of Christ. You find a great diversity of opinion. about Christ. When we think about Christ’s day after the apostles had fanned out and preached the gospel, the name of Jesus Christ seems to become even more famous. It was almost as if he was on the lips of everyone. He was like front-page news. He was universally the topic of conversation. among the people. Everyone seemed to have an opinion about who Jesus Christ was. Even King Herod heard about all that was done by Christ and his disciples. He heard about the miracles. He too had an opinion concerning the person of Christ. Now, while the opinions that these people had, at least were respectful of Christ, they certainly did not have a clue as to who he really was. Some thought that Christ was John the Baptist, risen from the dead according to verse 7. Herod heard that and he began to think it was true. Some believed that those who died as martyrs could come back after they had died and could return to earth. The Bible doesn’t teach that. Some people in that day believed it. And evidently it was a popular view with regard to John the Baptist. Herod feared this was the case, and it troubled him. Even though John performed no miracles yet, some people believe because he was martyred that then he would have some kind of extraordinary powers granted to him so that when he came back, he could do them, supposedly. Some thought that Jesus was Elias, according to verse 8. Elias here is Elijah the Tishbite that we read about in 1st Kings 17 and on. The great prophet, really, in the days of King Ahab. Remember that he didn’t even die. He was snatched away by a church. chariot of fire. Evidently some type of angelic appearance and just swept him away and never even died. Supposedly he’s come back. Some of them perhaps remembered that prophecy in Malachi. If you get to the last chapter of Malachi, chapter of Malachi, chapter four, you read one of the last verses there, verse five, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. this must be it. He’s come back. Now it’s true that Elijah, just as Christ, perform great miracles. We know from the scripture. So he was a popular candidate for this Jesus that was roaming here. It’s Elijah. He’s come back. However, if one reads the scriptures and hears Christ’s own words about this matter, we find that Melachi’s God. prophecy was fulfilled by John the Baptist who came in the spirit and the power of Elijah. According to Matthew, Chapter 11, 7 to 14, so it’s not Elijah. They’re mistaken about this interpretation. Others thought that Christ was one of the old prophets risen from the dead. Verse 8 again, maybe it was Jeremiah, maybe was Isaiah, maybe was Jose. Jeremiah was a top choice, evidently, because Matthew’s Gospel mentions him by name, as that people were actually using his name and not just using the generic. They also mentioned him in particular. Now, Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, and certainly Christ was one who is known often to be in tears. He was a very compassionate. Lord and Savior. Plus God said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 110, See, I have this day set thee over the nations, over the kingdoms. Some took this as a prophecy of the Messiah, and that he would come back as the Messiah and be over the nations and the kingdoms, which of course was really improper interpretation of the passage of Scripture. just meant that I gave you power over these, that they can’t harm you, and you can bring judgment against them with your prophecies. But the point is this. All these diverse opinions were wrong. They were all wrong. This is not who Jesus was. Now, I would like to say in our day and age, in with the Enlightenment of the New Testament, that we wouldn’t have such problems as this. But actually, we have worse problems than this. things are not much better in our own day, despite the fuller revelation that we have. The Jehovah Witnesses teach that Jesus is actually Michael the Archangel, and he was the first creation of God, and he came to earth as a man. This despite the fact that Jesus is said to be so much better than the angels in Hebrews. He’s not an angel. He’s far superior to any angel. Then there’s the Christian science people. With Mary Baker, Eddie, taught that Jesus is only a man. Christ was just a divine idea. And Jesus never did any supernatural miracles. That’s her philosophy. Despite the fact that 1 Timothy 316 says that Jesus was God manifested in the flesh. And then there are the Mormons. Well, Jesus is the Spirit, brother of Satan. He was once a human being like you and I, but through good works, he became a God. And that you can do the same thing. Jesus is just one God among a many, a pantheon of gods. Despite the fact that Isaiah 44-6 tells us, thus saitheth the Lord, I am the first. I am the last, and beside me, there is no God. There’s only one God, according to Scripture. Then there are the Moonies. Son Mayamun, a Moon, claims that Jesus is a man who failed on his divine mission, and that Reverend Moon is the second coming of Christ to unite the world under the power of the Unification Church. Despite the fact that Isaiah 44 says that Christ, shall not fail nor be discouraged. He didn’t fail. The Unitarians, Jesus was a good man who was mistakenly deified by his followers. Despite the fact that in Philippians chapter 2, we read very clearly who being in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God took upon himself the form of a servant who was made in the likeness of a man. And then there’s a Scientologist. El Ron Hubbard claims that Jesus is a false dream. It doesn’t actually exist, despite the fact that Scripture tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory. I can go on. But that’s enough, isn’t it? That’s enough false ideas for our own society. As you can see, we have a diverse opinion in our own day, and it’s all wrong. And it’s clear that people today are just as mixed up as in Christ’s day. I won’t even get to the Muslims. I’m thinking that Jesus is just a prophet. Well, we know he’s greater than any prophet. He’s the prophet. He’s the messianic prophet. So our day. Now, let me make this observation. We look at all these things and we say, well, why is this the case? Because people, are kept in the dark by Satan as to who Jesus Christ really is. He wants it to be like a maze. In our day and age, we have farmers that sometimes will create mazes in their large cornfields. And they will charge people an admission and see if you can make your way through the maze with all the dead ends and everything in it, and get on the other side. And so they charge people to go through this big maze that they’ve made in the cornfield. Some people need help getting out. They get lost in there. But all these twists and turns and dead ends and they get lost. Well, this is what Satan has done. You see, he creates the maze so that we don’t have a very clear statement before people as they go to the scriptures. Oh, who Jesus Christ really is. He wants it that way. He wants people to have the wrong view of Christ. He wants people confused and have these false ideas. He’s a master deceiver. And if you believe the lie about Christ, you can’t be saved. So we find a great diversity of opinion about Jesus Christ. If you find the truth about Christ must be divinely revealed. Now, friends, this is the secret. You say, why do all these people have wrong views of Christ? Because their eyes were not enlightened by God. That’s why. Look with me at Matthew chapter 16. This is a crucial passage. Very similar to our own text here. If you read it through carefully. Notice Matthew 16, 13, through 17. Jesus came into the coast of Sessori and he asked his disciples whom do men say that I the son of man am. And they said some say that thou art John the Baptist Sam Elias others Jeremiahus or one of the prophets. He set unto them but whom say ye that I am and Simon Peter answered and said thou art the Christ the son of the living God and Jesus answered and said unto him blessed are at thou Simon bared Jonah for flesh and bloodeth not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven my friends amidst all the conjectures about who Christ is Jesus asked his disciples well who do you think I am and we get a very clear statement here by Peter hopefully I believe he’s probably speaking for all the disciples in a sense here I think all but Judas perhaps they’re all believing that he is Christ and the son of God. Now what’s clear here and what Jesus points out is Peter you didn’t get that by your own human reasoning. You’ve got it because you are illuminated by my heavenly father. That’s why you are not as mixed up and confused like everybody else. You have been dealt with by my father. He’s opened your heart. He’s opened your understanding. Human reasoning alone is incapable of deducing the truth about Jesus Christ and his glorious person. You know, people say many diverse things about Jesus Christ, but it’s the Spirit of God alone who provides the true witness concerning Jesus Christ. Peter, I think here, is one who has perceived that Christ is the Messiah, that he is indeed the Son. That is a tremendous statement to make about Jesus Christ. And unless we come to the conviction that Jesus is the Lord’s an anointed the son of the living God that you don’t know the truth about Jesus Christ, the word that was with God, God and was God was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. John, who writes his gospel, saw this too. Same with Peter, you see. The disciples, came to understand this truth by illumination by the Father. My friends, I tell you this morning, and it’s so important, because unless there’s a right understanding about who Christ is, there is no salvation for your soul. Do you believe the same thing as Peter? Can you make the same confession that Peter makes in this passage of Scripture? Have you come to realize that the reason you can make such a confession? confession and honestly believe this and have the conviction that Peter has about this is because you have had your eyes opened by God to this truth. That is an important thing. You know, Jesus says, blessed, or thou Simon. Yeah, he is blessed. It’s a blessed thing to have your eyes open to know. the truth about Jesus Christ. That God by His Spirit has revealed it to you, has taught you to truth. Flesh and blood, would it be a human teacher, whether it be human reasoning or human observation, human deduction, all those things cannot get you to this point. Well, you might hear the truth by a human teacher, but you won’t believe the truth unless you’re enlightened to it. Now, there are those who perhaps could recite the truth from a human doctrinal statement, but that’s not the same thing of having the conviction and the assurance that Peter has in this text of Scripture, but you are spiritually blessed if you come to the same conclusion. So you see how misguided people are concerning the person in Christ. And you see the power here, also secondly this morning, the powerful effect of a guilty conscience. Your sins are always called the remembrance when you have a guilty conscience. You remember how David would say in Psalm 51, my sins are ever before me. I can’t escape it. Herod heard all that was done by Jesus and he was perplexed because he said, I beheaded John the Baptist. He’s angry. He’s distressed about this, not knowing what to think about this idea of John being risen from the dead. Has he come back to take revenge on me for putting him to death? He’s uneasy. He’s filled with horror about this. He’s fearful. He’s troubled in conscience. He’s troubled in conscience. He knew that he had put to death a godly and righteous man for no good reason. His hands were stained with the blood of Jesus Christ. And perhaps for a time Herod was able to put it out of his mind, this vile deed that he had done, but suddenly now his sin comes back to haunt him. He hears about all these miracles. is being done by someone called Jesus and he’s thinking, no, no, no. People are saying it’s John the Baptist. He’s come back to get me. He’s troubled. You know, the scriptures speak about the fact of being convicted by your conscience, John chapter 8, verse 9, about your conscience bearing witness against you in Romans chapter 2 and verse 15. Your conscience brings accusations against you. Tells you you’re guilty before God. Will not let you be. You can’t get away from it. You become convicted of your sin. You can’t find a way to justify your actions, and you know you are guilty before God. And His wrath hangs over you. My friend, this is no way to live. To be haunted day and night because of what you’ve done. The Bible says that the wicked are like the troubled see when it cannot rest. In Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 20. I’m reminded of this story, and you recall, Joseph’s brothers. Remember how they hated Joseph? And how they decided, you know what? we’re going to throw them into this pit and later on they said let’s sell them into slavery we’ll make some money on them off of. They were happy to get rid of the dreamer, the one who had these prophetic dreams, and dad’s favorite. He’s dad’s favorite. I don’t like that. So they got rid of them. And for years, it didn’t seem to bother them at all. They were happy that they got rid of them. They didn’t have any remorse that I can tell. Nothing said about it in the scripture. They were pleased. However, and my friends, there’s always in a however. There came a day when famine came upon the land. And there was no food. Jacob says to his sons, well, you’re going to have to go down to Egypt because I hear there’s food down in Egypt. You can go down there and get some, buy some grain for us. when they get down there, the Egyptian leader with whom they had to deal treats them harshly. He accuses them of being spies. He throws them in a prison. Well, they don’t know, of course, this is Joseph at the time. All their protests of being innocent are ignored. They claim there were all brothers of one father and that there were 12 brothers and the youngest is at home and one is no more. Joseph. supposedly. Didn’t tell what happened, but we got rid of him. After three days, Joseph says, I guess I’ll release them from prison. All except for Simon, he’s going to stay in prison. He said, that was the other 10. I’ll tell you what. Or the other nine, excuse me. You can go home and you can prove that you are really all brothers of one of one father, if you bring your youngest brother back. If not, then I know you’re spies, and I’ll put you to death. And I’m keeping Simon right here until you get back. Now, can you imagine Joseph’s brothers now? They’re on their way back home. What are they talking about? What are they thinking about? They were shaken by this experience. And then their consciences started bothering them. They began to think back. how they treated Joseph. Here’s what we read in Genesis 42. And they said to one another, we are very guilty concerning our brother, and that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore, this distress come upon us. And Rubin answered them and saying, spake I nod unto you, saying, do not sin against the child and you would not hear? Therefore, behold. also his blood is required. We’re in for it now. God is getting us back for what we did to Joseph. Their consciences troubled them. Your sins are called the remembrance. They greatly trouble you. Now you may have terrors of a troubled conscience without even being brought to salvation. The troubled Herod here desired to see Christ, but not for the purpose of finding salvation. Far from repenting and seeking forgiveness and seeing that he has the need of a Savior and believing on Christ, he only has a human idea of who Christ is. It seems he’s more interested in satisfying his curiosity. Is this really John the Baptist? He decided to see Christ. Perhaps he wanted to see Christ perform some kind of miracle before him, he said. But we know there’s something. some malice in his heart. If you look a little bit past our text here this morning, Luke chapter 13, verse 31, 1331. We read here, the same day, there came certain of the Pharisees saying unto him, Jesus, get thee out and depart hence for Herod will kill thee. Now that doesn’t sound like Herod had a positive view of Christ. It seems like he still has hostility here. in his heart. You remember when Pilate sent Herod, or sent Jesus to Herod. First he goes to Pilate, and Pilate realizes that he’s really under Herod’s jurisdiction, so he sends him to Herod. And what did Herod and the men of war, his soldiers do? The Bible says they set him at Mon. They mocked him. They mocked him. They ridiculed Christ. So you see how useless all the of conscience were to King Herod here. My friends, without the pardoning mercy and grace of God, Herod remains in his sins, hardened. My friends, as a sinner, you need to see your convictions of conscience leading you to repentance and to salvation. Your trouble, conscience is only useful to you if it drives you to repentance. Otherwise, it terrorizes you. It’s not going to allow you to have peace. Do you remember the story of Judas? Judas was the false disciple. Judas was driven by covetousness, and we know how he sold out Jesus, betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. He’s the one that led the temple guards. to the garden where Jesus was praying so that they could arrest him. Betrayed him with a kiss even, remember? As if he was his friend. However, remember after Jesus was arrested and he was condemned to death by the Jewish religious authorities and then, of course, by the Roman authorities who were just trying to please the Jews. Judas had a trial. troubled conscience, the Bible says. He was remorseful. He regretted what he had done. So much so that he tried to return to 30 pieces of silver. He took it to the temple. He tried to give it back to the religious leaders because it was blood money that had betrayed the Lord. And the Jews refused to take it back. It’s not our problem. It’s yours. He says, I have sinned and that I have betrayed innocent blood. Matthew 27. Judas cast down those 30 pieces of silver right there in the temple. And he’s greatly disturbed in mind. He’s terrorized by a guilty conscience, no doubt believing that his soul was doomed. He goes out and he commits suicide. The Bible tells us that he hanged himself in his body. Bowls burst open. That’s where his terrorized conscience led him. My friends, that’s what happens when you have a guilty conscience, and it’s not helped by repentance and grace so that you can be changed, so that you can repent and be different and be made right and be forgiven of your sins. It terrorize your people commit suicide. So you may have the terrors of a troubled conscience, a lot of even being brought to salvation. Herod certainly did. Now, let me close with this observation, though. You and I should seek to obtain and preserve a conscience that is void of offense. I like what Paul says in Acts 2416, and herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and men. Herod had guilt of conscience. Paul says, I exercise my, I’m trying to be careful that I don’t have that type of guilt on my conscience. Your aim and desire should always be to have a conscience void of offense. You know, when David numbered the people, what do you read? His heart smote him. He was troubled in conscience. He felt guilty about it. This is what we want. avoid. As I mentioned earlier, David in Psalm 51 when he pence of his great sin, he says, my sin is ever before me. I’m troubled by it. Let us make it our business. You notice he says, always, here always means at all times and in all ways. Never have a conscience that will condemn you. Get rid of that. You don’t want that. So your care and endeavor is I exercise myself. It’s an interesting word. It’s the word it’s used for athletes or training for the Olympics. I exercise. I poured a great effort and I’m very careful here. I work hard that I might not have a conscience that’s offensive toward God or man. We have to discipline ourselves so that we don’t have this alarm of the conscience going off all the time. The extent of your care here should be toward God and all men. Now we have to be careful to endeavor to keep both tables of the law with regard to God and regard to our neighbor. There are sins of omission and commission. We should avoid them both. But not being perfect. You and I are those who are going to sin in one way or another. I’m afraid. if we sin against man, we also sin against God. So there’s a sense in which you do both in that case. However, if you immediately recognize that you’ve sinned, the best thing to do is to confess it to God who forgives sins, and you can be spared a terrorized conscience. The best thing to go is to go to God and unburden your sin. Cast it before us. and say, you know, I’ve sinned, I failed. I did the wrong thing here. I violated your law. I’m guilty. He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, the Bible tells us. And then you won’t have a troubled conscience any longer. By quickly endeavoring to seek forgiveness from people you’ve offended too, and rectify any rights these wrong, we can keep from having a chararized conscience. We have to put a much greater effort. into this than we do. And I’m afraid we’ll all fail in one way or another. But a clear conscience is a wonderful thing to have. May the Lord enable us to have one and maintain one. It’s a great thing about Scripture. It only tells you about your guilt, but it tells you how to deal with your guilt. It certainly isn’t suicide. It’s repent. Go to the Lord. Go to Christ. Ask for forgiveness. That’s the way. we deal with our guilt. There’s an old saying, never eat a cuddlfish, because all they do is spew all this black, dark, ink out. My friends, people whose hearts are foolishly darkened are going to spew forth blackness. Their darkness about whatever they think in the spiritual realm, it’s going to be wrong. It’s going to be confused. The truth about Jesus Christ is divinely revealed. It is the work of the Spirit. He enlightens us regarding who Christ is. May we know who Christ is and may we not have the conscience of a Herod who’s terrorized because his guilt just keeps back coming back to haunt him. Well, let us close this morning with prayer.