Series on Luke
III The Initiation
D The Activities of His Ministry Revealing that the Kingdom Is:
14 Founded on Christ
Text 9:18-27
Introduction
When the tribes of Israel had finally entered the promised land, Joshua their leader said, Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. This text of Scripture presents us with the same choice. Shall we serve the gods of this age or the true and living God. This is what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples as he asks them first, who do men say that I am, and then who do you say that I am? Our opinion of Jesus is what separates true disciples from the crowd. Consider the steps here. The confession of Christ, the consecration of the cross, and the conquest of cowardice or more simply, the person the pattern and the prospect.
I The Person
To discover who Jesus really is, is to lose your life. The majority of the people were speculative as reported in verses 18 and 19, Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” 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.” Maybe he is? They didn’t lose anything by their opinions, but Peter representing all the Apostles says you are the Christ of God as we read in verses 20 and 21, “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. That this is a dangerous confession seems apparent from Jesus’ warning. In the Hebrew Old Testament the Christ or Messiah was revealed as the prophet bringing the final revelation, the priest bringing perfect redemption and the king bringing absolute rule. However, the Jews of Jesus’ day generally missed his priestly sacrificial mission, and to a lesser extent the finality of his prophetic ministry, but one thing they were very sure of is that the Messiah was coming to be king. Jesus announces his death in verse 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.” According to Matthew’s account Peter immediately rebuked Jesus and said, Never lord, this shall never happen to you! Later at the last supper he vowed that he would follow Jesus to the death saying even if i have to die with you i will never disown you. They did not adequately understand yet why Jesus had to die but he was the king and if he had to die then they had to die with him. They turned out to be cowards but Jesus had a purpose even in that, and he loved them anyway. The point is that when you confess who Jesus really is you accept death as an option. This is the reason that we baptize new Christians. The water represents cleansing but it also represents death. It was death in the midst of the Red Sea, it was death in the days of Noah and the flood, and it’s death now. I am always interested in army recruiting ads. Come to us they say, you may have to wait a few months but we will give you very expensive, highly sophisticated, technical training that will fix you for life and make you a great success. Rush to your recruiter. You can have your choice of a program and have a wonderful life. They don’t come on TV and say, sign up with us so you can die. We’ll send you to Korea or Vietnam or the Persian gulf or we’ll figure some other God-forsaken place where you can lose your life. Jesus doesn’t hide his agenda. Be careful how you answer the question, who do you say that I am? The right answer brings us to the consecration of the cross, it’s the pattern.
II The Pattern
The message is clear in verse 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. Following Jesus is synonymous with denying oneself and taking up the cross daily. This is a startling declaration to these men who had seen hundreds of followers of Jewish patriots crucified by the Romans. It is no less startling to us in our generation where for many people religion is an accessory somewhat less important than earrings in a woman’s wardrobe. Contrary to the philosophy that treats membership in the church as a pleasant and helpful addition to a well rounded life, we are not here joining the Boy Scouts or the Kiwanis or the Senior Citizen Center. We are here making a choice and the choice is to die. There are many ways to die besides becoming a martyr. That is why Jesus speaks of denying oneself. This does not mean simply denying things to oneself, though that is included. It means that the measure of any person’s life is in voluntary sacrifice. It is a choice to take up the cross and a choice to take it up daily. I surely do not want to belittle our sufferings, our illnesses, or our bereavements or their value in our growth, but we don’t choose these things. All too often our fondness for the good life makes us think of these painful experiences as crosses we bear. They are not what Jesus is talking about. I think of the poor widow who came to the temple court one day as the munificent gifts of the wealthy Jews were clattering in the offering box. Undoubtedly many would say the poverty of this lonely lady was a cross she bore. But that wasn’t her choice. Yet on that day she did seize the cross and embrace it because she dropped in her last two coins, all she had, and thus outstripped all the others in giving. Christian growth is progressive death.
III The Prospect
The Lord also focuses on the prospect which involves the conquest of cowardice in verses 24-26, For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 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. In the end we are all cowards like Peter. We say we will die but when the opportunity arises we tend to repeat his words, I never knew the man. and the cock crows again. The only way to avoid this is to focus on the gain and the loss as Jesus says. What do I gain and what do I lose. I cannot say it better than Paul the apostle in Philippians 3:7-11, But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul throws away everything. Sells everything to buy that one precious pearl. Everything else is rubbish, garbage, junk except one thing. What is that? Being made righteous or being declared righteous and acceptable to God. You can’t earn it, make it, achieve it or buy it, and it’s the only thing you really need. God made him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It’s a gift, only believe. This is what you gain, and what do you lose? Everything else! Is this a trade you are willing to make. Are you willing to give up everything else and die in order to have the one thing that matters?
Conclusion
Jesus concludes with a strange warning in verse 27, I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” He refers not to his death and resurrection just a few months away, nor to His second coming too far in the future to matter to that generation. He refers to the final judgment on the Jewish nation. These were Jews to whom he spoke. In 70 AD, 40 years later, Old Testament Judaism would be ended in the destruction of the Temple by Titus the Roman general. This was the main thing Jesus prophesied. They would know then that it was a time to choose. Let us not miss the point. Jesus is saying to us as well as to them, choose this day whom you will serve.
Dr. John P. Clark's Sermons & Writings 