Wednesday, May 5, 2021 PM

Luke 9: The Person and Work of Christ

I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke, Gospel of Luke, Chapter 9, reading verses 21 through 36 tonight. Let me start with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for this day where we know that you are good and all that you do is good.

We thank you for your providence, your watch care, reminder of how you hold all things in your hands. We pray that you would be at work right now in the lives of the Barnetts and that you would especially bless Caitlin and bring healing to her body, help her to recover, Father, from this car wreck.

We thank you and give you praise for your preserving mercy that she and Christian are still alive and with us and with their family. We thank you for your mercy in this regard and for the person that hit them, that this person as well is still alive and Lord I pray that you would provide for every need in that situation and that you would help us to be ready and however we can to be a blessing to the Barnetts.

Lord, now as we read your word together, I pray that you would give us clarity and understanding of the text. I pray that through your Holy Spirit that we would hear what you have to say, how you glorify your son through these words and help us to glorify him as well, that in him as you are, that we also would be satisfied and rejoice in him.

We pray these things for Christ's sake.

Amen.

Peter’s Confession and Jesus’ Prediction of Suffering

Luke chapter 9, start reading beginning in verse 21. And he strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one. If you're looking for the this, you see that in verse 20. He said to them, but who do you say that I am?

Peter answered and said, the Christ of God. So he strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one saying the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day.

Then he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life, we'll lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll save it.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost for whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him, the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his father's and of the holy angels.

But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God. Now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took Peter, John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

As he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered and his robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Then it happened as they were parting from him that Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here.

Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.

And a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.

The Need for Silence Before the Cross and Resurrection

So the beginning and the end of this passage, we have the same refrain. Keep quiet. Don't tell anyone. We've got ourselves a very important secret. And so these two observations, or the first is a command, the second is, I would say, continued obedience to what Jesus had already said.

To tell no one. To keep this secret. And then we consider what is in the middle of these two bookends. But it is interesting, isn't it, that the disciples were instructed to keep quiet. Especially since at the beginning of the chapter, Jesus gathered his disciples and sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God.

To preach the kingdom of God, to preach the glad tidings of this kingdom and to do miracles and powerful things in his name. But now he says, keep quiet. And there's a lot of curiosities about this passage.

But we need to make sense of this silence if we can. In the previous passage, there was some degree of confusion about who Jesus was. We read that Herod and the crowds, well, they just didn't know what to make of Jesus.

Maybe he's Elijah, come back. Maybe he's one of the prophets of old and raised from the dead. Maybe he's John the Baptist, all put back together again. And he's out there doing these signs and wonders.

They just didn't know what to make of Jesus. And the culminating of all of that confusion, we come to that clarifying moment where Jesus asks his disciples, but who do you say that I am? Critical question for every single person.

Great question to ask somebody, who do you say that Jesus of Nazareth is? Who do you say of him? What do you say of him? And Peter, by the grace of God, gets it right. You are the Christ of God. You are the Messiah.

You are the anointed one of God. And then Jesus says, okay, now keep that quiet. It's an odd thing to see the confusion dissolving into silence in the light of Christ. You'd think the confusion would be swept away with trumpets, a clear sounding note, to make everything crystal clear.

But the point is that Peter says the right thing about the person of Christ, but the work of Christ has not yet been completed. Many of the folks that were following Jesus and excited about Jesus were willing to believe that he was the Messiah, that he was the anointed one of God.

The timing fit, after all. I mean, they had heard Daniel read to them. They had done the math. Jesus fit picture perfect to the date of when Messiah was to come. So they're just fine believing that this is the Christ.

What they had not yet seen, though, was the work he came to complete. Yes, he was healing people. Yes, he was delivering people from bondage to sin and to demons. Yes, he was feeding people, 5 ,000 people with just a few loaves and fishes, and he was calming storms with a word.

Yes, he was all of that, but they had not yet seen him as the Lamb of God who came into the world to take away our sins. They had not yet seen him suffer and die on the cross as God's Lamb and shed his blood for the remission of sins.

They had not yet seen him raised from the dead in glorious body as he promised that he would, that his work had not yet been completed. And so, yes, very quickly people were latching on to Jesus as the person of the Messiah, but they did not understand the work of the Messiah.

And you have to have both the person and the work of Jesus to understand the gospel. Not just the person of Jesus, but also the work of Jesus. That's a good way to sum up the gospel. What is the gospel?

What's the good news? It's the person and work of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus says, now you're going to keep a lid on this. You are correct about my person. However, notice what he does next. It's the very next thing.

He says, now don't tell anyone. And he keeps on talking. See verse 22, saying, like he's in the process of telling them, now you all be quiet about this because why? The son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day.

All sorts of surprising things happening here as Jesus says, well, who do you say that I am? It was the Christ of God. He says, and obviously, Peter, you're A plus. Good job. Great answer. And then Jesus does not then say the Christ of God must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders.

He says, no, he says the son of man. Son of man. Why is he using that title? Where's that coming from? It's coming from Daniel. It's a royal title. It's the name of a king. The name of a king. There's an expression in the Hebrew, son of.

And it's not the genealogy kind of expression. But it's an association of or the destiny of. And so when people are called children of wrath, what's the expression mean? They're destined unto wrath. Children of the devil.

Sons of the devil.

Right?

Their fate is tied in with the devil's himself. Okay? It's an expression. Not a genealogical term, but a term of saying this is your end. This is the ultimate end of. The title son of man is a royal title because it indicates the destiny of man is with Christ.

Right?

The first Adam and all who are in Adam die. But all those who are in the second Adam will be raised to life. And he is the king. He is the second Adam. So he's the second head of the human race. And the destiny of man is tied up with Christ.

Where will we look to see what humanity is? What is mankind? Look at Christ. Look at Jesus Christ. So it's a very royal title. And he says some things are going to happen first. So you need to wait for these things to happen.

And you see in other passages where he says this. Son of man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed and raised the third day. And Peter says, not if I can help it.

I'm not going to let that happen. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. No, no. You're not going to try to redefine the work of Christ because then you're going to misunderstand the person of Christ. You have to have both.

You have to have both. So that's, I think, the reasoning for keeping the secret. Because Jesus says, keep secret. And then he immediately says all the things that have to take place that haven't taken place yet.

Once you have the full picture, yes, the trumpet's blaring. You know, cut loose. Declare the good news of Jesus Christ. But you have to have both. And so let's think about what happens in the passage.

We see that he must be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes. So the civil and religious and academic theological leaders of Second Temple Judaism, those last unfaithful stewards of the Old Covenant, are going to totally reject the Messiah.

You see that? The Son of Man must be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. These are the tenants of the vineyard who want it for themselves. And when they see the son of the landowner coming, kill him and throw him outside to try to take it for themselves.

These are the tenants of the kingdom in shadow expressed in the Old Covenant. And they want it for themselves. They're jealous of the greater son. They're jealous of the favored son who is apparently wearing a blessed raiment, a coat of many colors, if you will.

And they'll not have it. And so they're going to do what they do. So this must happen first. But there's rejection, suffering, death, and then resurrection of the Son of Man. He says, be raised the third day.

All of this must take place. And when he goes to Jerusalem. Now, this is later spoken of when Jesus is talking with Moses and Elijah. Isn't that interesting? During the transfiguration, Jesus' appearance is changed.

He looks very glorious in appearance. So also do Moses and Elijah, who apparently are believers in Jesus as well. And they're all talking. And what are they talking about? Verse 31. Well, verse 30. Behold, two men talked with him, where Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his.

See the word decease? Anybody have a different word there? Departure? Okay.

Exodus.

It is the Greek word for Exodus. Exodon. It's almost like you don't even have to translate it. You can just transliterate it. They're talking about his exodus. And that's since departure is closer to the Greek.

His exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Interesting. Yeah, so what happened in the exodus? How did the exodus take place? When did it go? What happened first? Many signs and wonders.

Ten plagues upon Egypt. God defeated all the gods of Egypt. And the last plague that he sent was the angel of death, who passed over the houses where the blood was put upon the mantle, where the sheep had been slaughtered and sacrificed.

And it was at Passover that Christ was going to die. It was through Passover that the people were, and here's the word from the Old Testament and repeated again in the New Testament, the people were redeemed.

God says, I have redeemed you up out of Egypt in this exodus. And then how long did it take for them to get into the promised land? Anybody remember? A whole what? A whole generation. Which I think then makes sense of what he's saying here in verse 27.

But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God. Later on in the same chapter, he's going to be preaching against a faithless and perverse generation, verse 41.

And he's like, you know, he says he's going to be betrayed, but he's committed to going to Jerusalem. But he's against the faithless and perverse generation. But he says, yet there's going to be some.

Take verse 27 at face value. I tell you truly, verily, verily, amen, amen. There are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God. Now, what does that mean? It means that a whole lot, you know, a lot of them are going to be dead.

But then others are some that were right there with him at that moment. And at that time, we're going to be alive and well and will not have even tasted death. And they're going to see the kingdom of God.

What does that mean? Well, I think what that means is that the rejection, suffering, death and resurrection of the son of man is a new exodus, as being discussed with Moses and Elijah, the exodus he was about to achieve, which redeems and delivers his people and brings them into a kingdom.

What is that called? It's called the kingdom of God. And he's against the current generation, but some will be alive and not taste death till they see the kingdom of God. So in about 40 years. Some will still be alive and they're going to see the kingdom of God.

What was the point of the 40 years, by the way, in the wilderness? They were waiting for what? The old generation to die off. Right. Remember? Someone did the math on that. It was something like, I think, about 650 deaths a day.

They were waiting for the old generation to die off. And then what generation went in? The new generation. This is making sense of all kinds of stories that Jesus tells about the old passing away. The new has come.

And I think this is a nod to the fact that the old covenant was going to pass away in 40 years. You realize biblical Judaism no longer exists on the face of the planet. There is no temple. There is no offering of sacrifices.

There are no priests. There is no old covenant in existence. The temple is gone. There is no altar. There is no priesthood. There are no sacrifices. The whole thing has passed away. It was obsolete, Hebrews says, and ready to pass away.

And it has passed away. And Jesus says some of you all are going to be alive to see it. You're going to be alive to see it. So a new exodus into a new kingdom in 40 years. It fits very well with the pattern already established in the scriptures.

And so this is maybe why he's talking to Moses and Elijah about his exodus about to take place through his death and resurrection. And so what is needful then? What is needful? Jesus says, if anyone desires to come after me, verse 23, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Repent and believe is another way to say it. Deny yourself. Repent. Take up your cross daily and follow me.

Believe.

If anybody desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost?

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his father's and of the holy angels. So we must deny ourselves to affirm Christ. Deny ourselves to affirm Christ.

All sorts of people listening to him right then and there.

Yeah.

What are they going to have to deny? A whole lot to affirm Christ. If you are a Jew, you have to deny a lot about yourself to affirm Christ. A lot of it is going to have to go away, but in affirming Christ, they would find it all fulfilled.

They would have to lose their life in order to save it in Christ. And there was always this potential of being ashamed of Jesus, being ashamed of his words. Jesus said, don't be ashamed. You know, move, lose out on yourself.

Embrace the shame of the cross and find the life of Christ and the glory of Christ. Jesus Christ is God's son. God says that from the Shekinah glory classes. My son, hear him, hear him. Why does Jesus get to say what he says about the old covenant?

Why does Jesus get to say what he says about Israel? Why does Jesus get to say what he says about Jerusalem or about salvation or about any of it? Why does Jesus get to say it? Well, God says it this way.

This is my beloved son, hear him. You know, Peter's ready to have like a guru mountain. This is a great mountain. What a holy place. Let's build three tabernacles, three tents. Let's put Elijah in one, Moses in the other, and Jesus is in the one over here.

And people can climb up the mountain and search wisdom from either the Moses tent or the Elijah tent or the Jesus tent.

Right?

This is what people are today. It's like, oh, you can find wisdom from Jesus or from Buddha, you know, or Hare Krishna or whatever.

Right?

Just come up for enlightenment. And God shuts that whole thing down. Do you notice that when Peter has this wonderful spiritual experience, he just starts, you know, blabbing at the mouth, but he has no idea what he's saying.

Isn't that interesting? No, listen. He says, this is my beloved son, hear him. And then when the voice ceased, Jesus was found alone. In the Matthew account, it says they saw no one but Jesus himself alone.

And Jesus is Jesus Christ, the son of God, the supreme manifestation of God's truth. So you want to know what the old covenant is about, what the new covenant is about. You want to know what the sacrifices were about or what forgiveness is about.

You want to know what all of the history recorded in the Bible is about. God says, listen to Jesus. Listen to Jesus. Moses and Elijah were checking in with him. And if prophets like that come to hear what Jesus had to say, then everybody else should too.

He gets to say what things are. And so when we look at this passage and we see not only the exaltation of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, but also the demands that he has in verses 23 through 26.

When you put them together, we see what? He says Christ is giving his life, giving his all for us. So we should not be ashamed in giving ourselves to him, especially in light of his coming glory. When he returns in all the glory of the Father with all the angels, he gives a glimpse of that coming glory on Mount Transfiguration.

Gives a glimpse of that. Jesus Christ is our all-glorious Savior and Sovereign who deserves and demands our total allegiance. Our total allegiance. It's not, I'll take Jesus and some other sources. It isn't where I have an affinity for Jesus.

It's lay down your life, take up your cross. It's listen to him. It's everything. The Son of Man must be heeded and heard. So walking away from this passage, what do we, how shall we now live? Well, first of all, we see the point that we should declare only that clear and definitive gospel from the scriptures.

The person and work of Christ. We shouldn't declare just parts of it. Certainly shouldn't mix the declaration of the gospel with other sources, no matter how seemingly biblical. It's very important that we have the message correct.

We also see that we are to deny ourselves and hold fast to Christ without any shame at all. We don't have to make apologies. And we're to hear Christ as the whole way of interpreting the scriptures, understanding what's in the Bible.

He's the way we read the whole scripture. He's our hermeneutic. So we don't have to give ourselves cover about our commitment to Christ. We don't have to make apologies ahead of time. We don't have to soften our allegiance to Christ.

When we're talking with others, we need to speak clearly of his person and work. We need to pray for the advance of his kingdom and pray for his return. And pray that we'll know what we're saying. Peter didn't know what he was saying.

Pray that we'll know what we're saying. I pray that we'll have clarity from the Lord, from his word. Any thoughts or questions about this passage? Enter the room mouth first. Yeah, it's Peter.

After the resurrection, he said, go. Yes, yes, that's right. It's been accomplished.

Yes.

And it's time now to go and tell.

That's right.

Yeah, you had said, like the world.

Yeah, and I think maybe part of it is sometimes we want them to believe us. But the main thing is to get them to deal with Christ. We want them to believe Christ. Yeah, so, you know, something as simple as six day creation.

It's like, well, Jesus says everything was made in six days. He's king of the universe and he was there. So I figure he knows. You know, it's not about you disagreeing with me. It's about you pitting your sophistication against Jesus Christ.

They have to you have to demonstrate what Jesus was always demonstrating. The need to deny the self, take up the cross and follow him to actually lay down our sophistication or lay down our pride or lay down our pagan commitments.

To to lay hold of Christ. You know, so that's that's that's the thing is putting him front and center on those conversations. It's not about, you know, whether you think I'm believable. It's whether or not you agree with Jesus or not.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. That's exactly where it has to be.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was. I was telling the hospital chaplain at OU today that it was morally wrong to deny access.