Luke 9:18-22

Luke chapter 9 verses 18 through 22 for our text and study this morning. And it came to pass as he was alone praying. His disciples were with him. And he asked them saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist. But some say, Elias, and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, but whom say ye that I am. Peter answering said, the Christ of God. And he straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing. the son of man must suffer many things, be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain and be raised the third day. God blessed to us his sacred and holy word. This morning, there was a schoolteacher that inquired of a little girl in her classroom. How is it, my dear? that you do not understand the simplest things. And the little girl answered with a perplexed look on her face. She says, I do not know. But I sometimes think that I have so much to learn that I don’t have time to understand. Sometimes there may be much hearing, much reading, much classroom attendance, the little actual learning. Jesus has been training the disciples in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Even every so often we should say Christ will test their knowledge, to see how much they know. Not for his sake, but really actually for their sake, and to show them where they stand. And so he does so. in this text of scripture. But the problem we have, as even Christians today, as we may be like the little girl in the classroom, we may read our Bible, we may even hear much sound preaching, we may even go to Bible conferences and so forth, and still be in spiritual ignorance about many things. In our text here, Christ is going to question the disciples’ knowledge about his person, who he is, and he’s also going to talk to them about what he’s going to do very shortly. Whom say he that I am? He begins to explain what lies ahead for him as the Son of Man in verse 22 here. There we are. many false ideas that were being circulated about the Messiah in Jewish circles, and he must make sure that his disciples have the correct understanding of what’s going to happen. Now, it takes them a while to get that correct understanding, as we shall see, but he is preparing them for what lies ahead. The disciples must not be misled by Christ. person or his work as the Lord’s anointed. Now obviously, what is taught by Christ here is useful for us to understand as well. Now we see here Christ’s care for his little flock, especially his disciples. Christ’s prayer for his flock and their spiritual illumination. We see here in the first part, of verse 18. And it came to pass as he was alone praying his disciples were with him. As we look at Christ here example, you see the need and the importance of prayer for yourself and for God’s flock. Jesus, no doubt, prayed to his Heavenly Father for himself for himself as the God’s flock. man as the man and mediator. No doubt prayed for the success of the gospel and the increase of the kingdom of God. And certainly for his disciples who had much still to learn that they might have a clear revelation of what he came to accomplish. From Peter’s confession in this section of scripture, I think we can conclude that certainly Christ’s prayers were heard, or he has a very clear confession about who Christ is. And we should see him, I think, in the sense, speaking for the rest of the disciples when he says this. Now we read here that Jesus had retired from the multitudes and he was praying alone, although we are told the disciples were with him, but I take it that there was a separation, here from the crowds and the people around them. And we would imagine that they would hear, at least some of the petitions, that he lifted up. I think he often prayed in such a manner that they would hear what he had to say for them and his prayers to the Father. And though Jesus has much public work to do, he sees the need for prayer. He sees the need for prayer for the success of the gospel as he proclaims it, and as he has now sent out the disciples to preach some, their success as well. One repeated fact, as you go through the book of Luke, and we’re beginning to see this over and over again, is this idea of Christ getting alone to pray, the seeing the need. of prayer in his ministry, seeing how important prayer is. It’s laid out here for us very clearly time after time in Christ’s life here. We certainly should value prayer more, I think, and we should, you and I, you and I, who are engaged in the Lord’s work, and I’m not saying that you must be full-time and minister, a missionary, or something like that, but you’re in the Lord’s work regardless of what you are doing. you carry the message of the gospel with you. And God has placed you in your little spear, your little place in society, that you might be a witness for him, and carry the gospel to the people around you. And we should always be thinking like Christ here, I need prayer. I need the Lord’s blessing that there would be an illumination, that people would understand the message. and I’m trying to tell them about the gospel, about Christ and his work. Now, when you pray, certainly you have to pray for yourself. Your personal walk with God, the fruit of the spirit in your life, your faithfulness in witnessing, your zeal for God’s cause, your resisting of the devil and so forth, and you need to pray for the advancement of the kingdom of God, for God’s church, on the earth, for your brothers and sisters in Christ and the local assembly that you attend, for the effectiveness of your witness, for the spiritual growth of the people of God. Prayer cannot be neglected if we are going to be of any use for the kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God is going to get advanced prayer is an essential aspect, we must follow Christ example. Remember how many times we have to say this. We have not because we ask not, as James tells us in James 4 too. So you see the importance of prayer for yourself in the flock, and you see the necessity of prayer for people for people to grasp spiritual truth. Before Christ questions the disciples here, we can imagine them praying and praying for their spiritual truth. We can spiritual illumination. It’s one thing to hear or to read the Word of God. It’s quite another to understand it. I have a young woman at the clinic that I attend. She’s a nurse. She’s actually the training nurse for new people. And through various discussions I’ve had with her, I encourage her to read her Bible. she started reading her Bible and she says, I don’t understand what I read. That’s very typical. How can you? And I say, well, you need to ask the Lord to open your eyes to behold wondrous things out of his law. He can illuminate you about these things. So I told her you need to pray about what you’re reading. And we should see how important this is. We read it this morning when we read that scripture passage where Jesus, when he talked about the cities that did not respond to the message of the gospel, right there in Israel, after he had preached many times and did many miracles, then he prays to the Father. And he talks about the fact and he thanks the Father for, as the Lord of Heaven and Earth, because he hid these things from the wise and the prudent, certainly from the fact that he thanks to the Father. and the religious leaders, people like them, but you revealed it on the babes. Some of the most common folk, his own disciples, some of them were fishermen, publicans, and so forth. The tax collector, you know. And so they hear the gospel and they believe. We see that even harlots were entering the kingdom of God before the religious leaders were. in many cases. And he says, thou hast revealed them unto babes, even so Father, for it seemed good in my sight. You open their understanding. Do you remember Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers in chapter 1 in verses 17 and 18? He says that the Lord, or that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you this spirit of wisdom and revelations. in the knowledge of him that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened. Now here it’s not just that they would believe the gospel, but they would continue to understand the Word of God, even as those who knew the gospel of Christ. So we see how important this is. We always need a fuller, more complete knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures. We’re not going to be a important thing. to get that just merely by reading. We don’t ask for illumination as we read. In Zechariahe Chapter 4, the prophet sees the vision of the golden candlestick and the two olive trees. Zachariah, though he’s a prophet, though he has received revelation from God, did not understand what was revealed to him. And he says to the angel who’s speaking with him at the time, what are these things, my Lord? I don’t understand this. And the angel responds and says, knowest thou not what these things be? No, my Lord, says Zachara. You might expect me to grasp this, but I don’t understand it. I need help. So it is with you and I, when we come to the Word of God. There are many times that I have read a portion of scripture, and I had to pray. I usually pray before I read Scripture so that I’d be prepared to receive what I hear in the Word. But, and there’s times you have to spend extra prayer, praying about this matter of a passage, because it’s difficult. Those of us who are involved in the actual exegesis of Scripture are trying to teach the Word of God, find ourselves at times, especially if you’re going expository teaching through a book, you don’t get to ignore the difficult parts and, you know, skip over that. We have to deal with those. And so you come to these passages, it require quite a bit of prayer and understanding. I remember, you know, going through Daniel one time, and it was just every time it was like, I don’t understand all of this, you know. I feel like Zachariah, I don’t understand all this. So we need God’s help. John Calvin. said this, the Lord will supply us with understanding when we confess that his mysteries are hid from us. And when consciousness of our want of knowledge, when conscious of our want of knowledge, we flee to him and implore him not to speak in vain to us, but to grant us the knowledge of his truth. Do you remember the prophet Elisha kept revealing the Syrian king’s military secrets where he was setting up his camp to the Israelite king? He says, don’t go over here. The Syrians are setting up a camp over here. Stay away from it. At first, the Syrian king thought that there must be a traitor in our midst that’s giving away our military secrets to the enemy. But finally, his, I guess his advisor said to him, no, it’s that prophet Elijah over there. He’s telling them where everything is going. Whatever you speak in your bedchamber, it’s revealed to him and he tells the king. He says, I’ll take care of that problem. I’ll send his vast army and surround the city when I find him, and we’ll get him. So they find him in the city of Dothan, and Next thing we know, when the servant of Elisha gets up in the morning, I guess he looks out, sees what’s going on out there, all of a sudden during the night, this army has surrounded the city. Of the Syrian army has come. And it looks like everything’s lost. And he comes into the master. And he says, alas, my master, how shall we do? What are we going to do? And Elish is unmoved by all this. He says, fear not. not they that be with us or more than they would be with them. And then he does something that’s important. He prays for a servant that he would have eyes to see. That would it be revealed to him what Elisha himself understands. Lord, I pray, the open his eyes that he may see. And when he looks again, he sees. that the mountain was full of horses and chariots round about the Elisha, angelic protection. Once again, we see how important prayer is to understanding heavenly things. You and I are no different. And Christ presently, and think about this, he’s interceding for us that we might understand his word. Just as he did for the disciples of old, He is doing it for us even now. So Christ’s prayer for his flock and their spiritual illumination. Secondly, we see that Christ questions his flock about their understanding of spiritual truth. Here in the second part of verse 18 through 20. And he asked them, saying, whom say, the people that I am? They answering said John the Baptist, but some say Elias. Others say that one of the prophets has risen again. He said unto them, but whom say ye that I am, Peter answering said, the Christ of God. Diverse opinions about Christ should not discourage us. The judgments of other men about Christ, as we see here, were generally respectful, prophet risen from the dead. Maybe he is Elijah, maybe John the Baptist, risen from the dead. But each of these denied his Godhead and who he really was. Jesus already knew what others thought, but he, again, he’s drawing out the disciples here. John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the old prophets, were all mere men. Christ was God manifested in flesh. He was the Messiah. The key thing is that these were the conclusions of flesh and blood. This was human reasoning that men had about who Christ was, and every one of them was wrong. To know Christ a right requires divine illumination. Otherwise, you will never have a true understanding of Christ’s person, nor his work. The people granted a true knowledge of Christ are classified here as his disciples. There are learners of Christ. So judge yourself this morning. Are you among the men or simply relying on your own intellect, on your own human reasoning, about what you think or who you think Christ is? or are you a disciple? Have you been enlightened by the Spirit of God and by the message of the Spirit of God called the Scriptures? Concerning the Savior. It’s useful for you to know, though, what is commonly thought about Christ so that you may refute it, so that you may show from the Scriptures where they are in error about these things. Diverse opinions about Christ should. and discourage you. The important question is, what we find here in verse 20, who do you say that I have? Not everybody else. What about you? You as an individual. Do you have a biblical knowledge of Christ? Peter properly understood that Jesus was the Christ of God. Christ, meaning here, the anointed one. The Lord. Messiah that was promised in the Old Testament. And of God explains to us that he was sent of God and he came to do God’s work. The redemption of his people, which he will talk about in verse 22 of our text. God teaches you his saving truth in the scriptures. And my friends, it’s only the scriptures that provide the truth. about who Jesus Christ really is. And therefore, it is the only sure and safe teaching about Christ. Everything else is man’s conjecture. You can never know the son unless the Holy Spirit provides the illumination of the scriptures. You’ll never perceive that he is the true son of God and he is the Messiah. The scripture says this in 1st John 5. Whosoever believeth Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Of course he is. How else can you believe unless you’re born of God? Or as we read in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3, no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. So all your knowledge of Christ must be biblically based. and not left the imagination of men. You have to have a biblical knowledge of Christ. You have to have a certainty about what you believe. You’ll notice how Peter states emphatically that he is the Christ of God. Or as Matthew’s Gospel provides a little fuller expression, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. There is a certainty. Is there not? about what Peter says here. He is convinced that this who is who Jesus really is. There’s no doubting. When the Holy Spirit reveals to us the truth from the scripture, it comes with an assurance of what we are to believe. And we can take it to heart. It’s not only what Peter knew, it is the way in which he came to knowing. which solidified his faith? There shouldn’t be any maybes when it comes to Christ and his person. Well, maybe he is the Christ. Maybe he is the Son of God and co-equal with the Father. How would that come off? You mean maybe? He either is or he isn’t. And either we believe what the Scriptures tell us or we’re going to be an error because we’re using only our human judgment about these matters. Are you so convinced about Christ’s person that you could make such a bold and unwavering declaration about Jesus Christ? Can you take up the words of Peter this morning? Can you say that with the confidence of Peter? My friends, we should pray that that God would make us more like Peter in many ways. Yeah, he has lots of flaws. And they’re very clearly laid out for us in Scripture. But one thing about Peter is you never have to question his boldness. He seems to be a very bold person when it comes to declaring who Christ is. Whether it be on the day of Pentecost or here, as he speaks, I think, for the rest of the disciples. We have many flaws too. But we have We can be convinced by Christ and Spirit here that we know his person. What a rare thing it is when the Holy Spirit so impresses truth upon your heart that you may be one among 10,000 who can make the confession of Peter. Thou art the Christ. Christ questioning his flock above their understanding of spiritual truth. The third thing we see here is Christ prepares his flock for his death and his resurrection. In verse 22, saying the son of man or excuse me, verses 21 and 22, and he straightway charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priest and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day. Now we find here that Christ Messiah’s ship would not be publicly proclaimed until after his resurrection and ascension into heaven. Verse 21 indicates here that it was Christ’s desire for people to infer his messiahship from his teaching and his miracles without him directly speaking about him. He doesn’t usually speak, especially early on in his ministry. He didn’t even speak about it so much to his apostles. But he didn’t make public assertions about it so much. The reason may be that he didn’t want to stir up his enemies. means any more than they were already for start up. It was not the time to do that because it was time to preach the gospel to Israel. And he didn’t want to provoke them and sense them more. They were already trying to kill him before his time. You can imagine that could have, it will intensify greatly if they would hear this other part of the message. Maybe it would stir up the anger of the Romans at this point and they would said that he would be looked upon as someone that was going to be king and therefore a rival to Caesar. Who knows what the thinking might be. But he directed his apostles here to abstain from openly proclaiming this great truth until the evidence upon which it rested was complete. In other words, wait till after my death, my burial, my resurrection, my ascension in the heaven, when I sit at the right hand of the throne of God as the king, then you can proclaim it. And therefore, on the day of Pentecost, what does Peter do? But he talks about Christ being enthroned in heaven. That God had raised him up to sit upon the throne until he makes his enemies his footstool and so forth as you read in chapter 2 of the book of Acts. Go through the book of Acts, you’ll see this more and more publicly stated by the apostles. We learn from this that Christ has a suitable time when he will reveal mysteries about himself. Sometimes he does not reveal everything about it. He withholds certain knowledge about himself until the time is right. And then it’s revealed. You know, the scriptures tell us this in 1. Corinthians 2.8. If the princes of this world had known the wisdom of God, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Remember how reluctant. Pilate was. After his wife said, I’ve ever had many things happening in a dream because of this person. And when he heard that he claims to be the king of the Jews and the son of God, he begins to get worried about doing anything with regard to Christ. But let the multitudes, of course, sway him. If they had known, they wouldn’t have crucified Christ. Well, that wasn’t in the plan, was it? He had to go to the cross. And so there’s a sense in which we see this in play. So the accomplishment of the prophecy in the Old Testament and the redemption of the people of God required some ignorance at least for a period of time here about Christ. His disciples knew, but he kept things quiet with regard to the population at large. There’s a time to be silent, there’s time to speak, as ecclesiastes would indicate to us. So we find Christ’s messiahship would not be publicly proclaimed until his ascension in the throne and heaven. And then you find the necessity to believe in Christ’s death as a substitute and his resurrection. from the debt to exaltation in verse 22. The son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be signed and be raised the third day. Now Jesus here speaks very plainly to his disciples about the Messiah. He had to rid them of the carnal notions that the Jews had. they struggle with this. But from this time onward, contrary to the Jewish notion of an earthly rule, Jesus explains that he’s going to be the suffering Messiah. You know the Jews were very confused about the Messiah, because sometimes there’s a glorious reign of the Messiah that they read about. And then there are also passages that talk about the suffering Messiah. And finally, some of them said, well, there must be two times. messias. The glorious Messiah and the suffering Messiah. No, there’s not two messias. You’re just not putting him in the right order. He will be the suffering Messiah and before he becomes the reigning Messiah. But notice the emphasis here that Christ puts on the son of man must suffer. It is essential. It is necessary that I die. His rejection by the chief priest and the scribes and so forth. And even the people. And being put to death is to be expected by the disciples. It’s necessary to accomplish their salvation and our salvation. Is the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. One cannot read a prophecy like Isaiah 53 without thinking about the cross, without thinking about what Christ was going to accomplish. but this will be followed by what? By his resurrection from the dead. His exaltation to the throne and he’s the glorious Messiah. He is the king that shall reign. Do you remember what Jesus said to the two disciples on the way to Amas that were all mournful about Christ’s death on the cross? They didn’t recognize him at first and they’re talking to them and relating, don’t you know these things? What happened to us? What happened in Jerusalem or too long ago? And by Jesus of Nazareth? Who we thought was the Messiah? And Jesus says to them, oh, fools, and slow heart to believe all that all the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter it into his glory. Don’t you understand? you had to suffer these things? Do you remember we read this many times in Revelace? So when we study Revelation, Daniel chapter 7, again, verses 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the son of man, came with the clouds of heaven, and he came to the ancient of days. It’s not Christ coming down to earth. It’s Christ ascending to heaven. It is after his death. And they brought him near him, and there was given him dominion and glory, and it came. kingdom. That’s what we’re talking about. That message is in the Old Testament too. This is the message that Jesus is trying to get across to his disciples. You know, the scripture is very clear in Daniel chapter 9 on the 70 weeks prophecy, that the Messiah shall be cut off after so many weeks. In the 70th week, he gets cut off. Jesus was not ignorant about what was going to happen to him. My friends, he came to lay down his life. He came to die as a sacrifice. Let us never doubt that. He came to suffer the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. He willingly, knowingly, purposefully, lay down his life. It’s essential that you believe the unjust that he might bring us to God. gospel truths and that you also believe that he was raised from the dead. If he wasn’t raised from the dead, what assurance would you have that your sins are forgiven? The Bible says if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved in Romans 10, 9 and 10. This is what you you believe? Is it not? Do you understand the concept of a substitutionary atonement of Christ dying in the place of his people, bearing the sin that they were guilty of the broken law? Or you’re fully persuaded that Christ is risen from the dead? and is now seated at the right hand of God? do not serve a God or Lord that’s still in the grave. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns on high. These are the truths which provide comfort for you and I as believers. May the Lord grant us such a sure and firm knowledge of this truth this morning. Well, let me close by saying, this. A little girl puzzled her teacher because she didn’t understand the simplest things. For all her reading and her hearing and her classroom attendance, she learned very little. In the spiritual realm, this is also true. You can read your Bible. You may hear very sound preaching. You may attend Bible conferences and so forth and still be spiritually ignorant. What need we have for Christ’s prayer, for illumination. What need we have to pray that Christ would eliminate us by His Spirit? It’s essential that we know who Christ is and what he came to do. And that’s what Jesus is explaining here in this text this morning. Well, let us close with a word.