If you would turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 9 tonight. You can find that on page 866 in the pew Bibles. We’re continuing our study through the book of Luke, and after tonight we’ll actually take a break from this gospel for a few weeks to study different psalms during the summer. And Lord willing, we’ll pick back up with the gospel of Luke beginning again in the month of August.
And as we come to bring this section to a close, it may help to think back over the story a little bit up until this point. A church member told me one time about his nephew who had completed a training program for Rolex. And at the end of his training program, he was given a brand new Rolex watch, except that it was actually a box full of the parts of a Rolex watch that could be put together and formed into a watch. And so that was actually his final test of his training program – it was to put this watch together; to take all that he had learned, put it into use, put the watch together, and then the reward would be that he got to keep the watch, the new watch.
Well sometimes we can break down the Bible into so many parts that we may lose the overall message or the storyline. For us, Theophilus and the angels and the manger may seem like a distant memory as we’ve studied through the book of Luke. But chapter 9 actually represents a turning point in that same story that began back in chapter 1. In chapter 9, the one who was announced by the angels and who was born in obscurity and yet promise, the one who began His ministry at around thirty years of age proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, the one who called His disciples to Himself and went around attracting the crowds by His teaching and by His miracles, this one is now bringing His ministry in Galilee to a close and He is setting His face to go to Jerusalem. And so in our passage tonight we find some of the clearest and most explicit statements about Jesus’ identity and His calling and about what that means for us to follow Him. So much of this book so far has been leading up to these declarations that we find in Luke chapter 9. And if Luke is writing that we may have certainty about what we have been taught about Jesus, then this passage makes us face head on the very things about Jesus that so many people find unappealing and unattractive. Things like suffering and rejection and self- denial and a cross. So it’s important for us to give our attention to these verses tonight.
We’ll consider these verses considering two questions as our outline. One of those questions is actually more of an interjection. We’ll think about “Who” and “What.” “Who” and “What” – that will be our outline tonight. Before we read, let’s ask God to bless the reading and study of His Word. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we want to see more of who Jesus is and what He means for us and for our lives and for eternity in Your presence. And so we ask that Your Spirit would teach us tonight, that You would open Your Word to us, that we would hear and understand and apply, that we would grow in our love for You and for one another and that we would grow in our faithfulness to what You call us to do. Speak Lord, for Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 9, starting in verse 7:
“Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen. Herod said, ‘John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?’ And he sought to see him.
On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, ‘Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.’ But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.’ For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, ‘Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.’ And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.’ Then he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’
And he strictly charged 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 on the third day be raised.’
And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.’”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
Who?
The big question is, “Who?” It’s what Herod the tetrarch asked when he heard about all that Jesus and His disciples had been doing. Some of the people said that John had been raised from the dead, others said that Elijah had appeared, while others said that one of the prophets from old has risen. But Herod said, “John I beheaded.” He knew what had happened to John. “But who is this about whom I hear such things?” Who is this? Who is Jesus? That is the big question. And Herod is not the first person to ask that question. In fact, that question has come up over and over again in this section of Luke’s gospel. You remember how John the Baptist, when he heard all that Jesus had been doing, he sent his disciples to Jesus and said, “Are you the one who is to come?” And then there was Jesus at the table when the sinful woman came up to Jesus and He said, “Your sins are forgiven you,” you remember what the people at the table with Him said? They said, “Who is that that even forgives sins?” And then it was His own disciples when they were on the Sea of Galilee and the storm came up and He calmed the winds and the waves with a word and His disciples said, “Who is this that He commands even winds and water and they obey Him?”
In Luke’s presentation of Jesus, what he is showing us is that those who were exposed to Jesus could not avoid asking themselves this very question – “Who is this?” Who is this Jesus who is doing and saying such remarkable things? In fact, that’s the question that Jesus poses point blank to His own disciples when He says to them in verse 20, “Who do you say that I am? Who do you believe Me to be?” This is the big question during Jesus’ ministry, but it’s also the big question for us as well. As we read and study this gospel, this is the big question for us tonight. In light of all that we have read and studied about Jesus, who do you say that He is? Do you recognize who this is who is portrayed for us in this gospel? Because everything that is written up until this point is directing us to make a response to that very question, to make a response to Jesus. We cannot be passive bystanders. This gospel will not allow us to be passive bystanders. No, we will make a response to Him one way or the other and everything depends on what response we make to Jesus. This question of, “Who?” is at the forefront of this gospel and it’s at the forefront of these verses in particular.
And yet sandwiched between these questions, we have this miracle. Sandwiched between the question that Herod asked and the question that Jesus asked to His disciples, it’s the miracle that we find in verses 11 through 17, it’s the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 – it’s familiar to us. This miracle may be one of the most familiar miracles in all of the gospels. Part of the reason for that is it’s the only miracle aside from the resurrection that is found in all four of the gospel messages. We find this miracle in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And there are details that we find in those other gospels that make this, this miracle, almost custom-tailored to be heard and told to those who are at a young age. We love to think about the little boy that we read about in John’s gospel; the little boy who had come to see Jesus. And it must have been that his mother had packed him a lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish. And how this little boy offered them to Jesus and Jesus took and He then used his little lunch and He fed all the mommies and the daddies and the brothers and sisters that had gathered there today. It makes a perfect story for a children’s storybook Bible. In fact, there’s one that came out recently that Kevin DeYoung put together, a children’s storybook Bible, and this story is in there and the title of that chapter is, “The Happy Meal that Kept on Going.” We remember this from a young age. It gets down and sinks down deep within us.
And yet Luke doesn’t tell us all of that. Luke is much more straightforward. He’s telling us in some ways just the basic details of this miracle, but this miracle is essential to the point that he is trying to make. It’s essential for us to see the different responses that people make to Jesus in light of this miracle. It’s almost like this miracle provides a snapshot; it’s a snapshot of the state of Jesus’ ministry at this point. It highlights why this is a turning point in the message of Luke. And so much of that has to do with the crowd. The crowd is really the key detail of this miracle in the gospel of Luke. Almost from the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He had attracted a following. The crowd pressed in on Him to hear the Word of God at every point. You remember how we read about the paralytic man. We read about Jesus’ own mother and His brothers. They were unable to get to Jesus because of the crowd that had gathered around Him. We read last week the woman who had approached Jesus and touched the hem of His garment and was healed from her ailment; that she thought she would go unnoticed because there was so much of a crowd around Jesus.
The crowd had been there throughout His ministry, and yet this is one of the only times in Luke’s gospel that we are told the size of the crowd. Luke tells us that there were about 5,000 men there. In the gospel of Matthew, Matthew 14, Matthew tells us that there were about 5,000 men besides women and children. So if we are going to make a guess about the size of that crowd, a conservative guess would probably put the size of the crowd at around or above 10,000 people; 10,000 people at least I think we could say. This is a large crowd. This is a major gathering that has come around Jesus and it tells us something about the general popularity that Jesus enjoyed at this point in His life. He enjoyed favor with the crowds at this point in His ministry. And also, this is the only account in Luke’s gospel in which everyone in the crowd personally experienced the miraculous power of Jesus. There were other times, of course, when Jesus ministered to the crowds and He healed those who came to Him with certain diseases. In fact, if you look back at verse 11 that we just read, it says, “He cured those who had need of healing.” See, in the crowds, He cured, He worked miracles for those who had need of healing. If they didn’t need to be healed, they didn’t need a miracle.
All the other stories in Luke’s gospel, they are about His interaction with individual people. They are about His interaction with small groups – people like the paralytic and people like the centurion’s servant and like Jairus’ daughter and even like His own disciples. But not here. When we come to this one, when Jesus takes the five loaves and the two fish and He breaks the loaves, He gives them to His disciples to set before the crowd, they all ate and were satisfied. Every one of them ate and were satisfied by what Jesus did in multiplying the bread and the fish. The whole crowd ate. The whole crowd was satisfied. What Jesus did, He did for everyone who was there.
Everyone who was there had this basic need, just like we all have this basic need – to have food, to receive sustenance. And no one could have missed the point; no one could have denied what Jesus had done this very day. And what He did, He did in abundance. He went above and beyond the needs of the people in multiplying the bread and the fish. We are told that what was leftover was picked up and it was placed in twelve baskets. There were twelve baskets of broken pieces that remained after everyone ate and was satisfied. Twelve baskets full of leftovers. Now I don’t know exactly what to make of that number 12 in this miracle. There is surely something to it. Jesus was 12 years old, you remember, when He was found in the temple. He had been left behind in Jerusalem. He called to Himself 12 disciples. The girl who had died that He raised from the dead was 12 years old when she died. And the woman who had the discharge, she had it for 12 years. And now there are 12 baskets that are filled with the leftovers of His multiplying the bread and the loaves. By the way, Luke records – if you count up the miracles that Luke records in this gospel up until this point – there are 12 of them. And here at the turning point, this is the thirteenth miracle that he records in his gospel.
Now I am not trying to bring up any kind of number codes or anything like that. I was even hesitant to look up on the internet what the number 12 means in the gospel of Luke. It’s almost like if you’re not feeling well, your doctor gives you a diagnosis, it’s probably not a good idea to go to the internet because it’s going to show you the worst case scenario! There’s probably all sorts of crazy things out there about the number 12 in the gospel of Luke, so don’t go there! I’m not trying to take us there! But perhaps it has something to do with the 12 tribes of Israel and now Jesus is forming a new Israel. And just as Moses fed the people in the wilderness with the manna, now stands before them one who is greater than Moses, a better than Moses to lead His people. But what we do know, what is clear from the 12 baskets full of leftovers, is that Jesus provides. Jesus provides for the most basic needs of the people and He provides in abundance.
And so, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” For all these people who had heard what Jesus taught, they had seen what Jesus had done, they had literally, personally experienced His miraculous power for themselves, they had touched, they had tasted, they had filled their bellies with what Jesus could do by His power – and who do they say that Jesus is? The answer – John the Baptist. Maybe Elijah. Maybe one of the prophets from old had risen again. “But who do you say that I am?” In verse 20, Peter says, “The Christ of God.” The Christ of God – yes, that is the answer. That is the answer to the “Who?” question. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Christ of God. And the crowds missed it. Even with all the promises of God’s Word, even with the expectations of the people, even with the preparation of John the Baptist and with all of these signs of Jesus’ ministry that are pointing in this direction and they missed it. And they tried to put Jesus into a category that they could understand, into a category that they had seen before; that He was like one of the other prophets that had come onto the scene for a time and now they were gone. And that’s how they tried to understand Jesus.
What?
But that would not do. What Peter says is what we must all recognize, and that is that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. He is the anointed of God. Jesus is the one to bring about the salvation of God. He is the one to bring about all of the blessings of God’s kingdom and to establish God’s rule over all things for all time. He is the good news. Jesus is the good news. And yet Jesus says, “Don’t tell anyone. Keep it to yourself.” And He says, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by elders and scribes and chief priests and be killed and on the third day be raised.” What? How could these things be? How could this be the way of God’s salvation?
In one of my favorite movies there is a scene, almost in the middle of the movie, where in one shot you watch the main couple walk into a greenhouse full of flowers. And then a few seconds later when the camera doesn’t move from those flowers, you see a little boy come out of the greenhouse pulling a little toy tank. And the whole movie had been leading up until that point, up to this moment where the two became a married couple, and then they had become a happy family. And they’re living together in this picturesque Tuscany city sometime in the 1940s. But in the same scene, the same scene in which you have this beautiful domestic life, there is the toy tank. And then you see soldiers in the city square and you see them come up to a storefront and there is a sign in the window and it says, “No Jews or dogs allowed.” And it was a sign of the trouble that was to come. Right at that moment, right at that moment where everything seemed picture perfect, it seemed to be falling into place perfectly and they were set to live happily ever after, it was actually a major turning point in the whole movie.
Well here in Luke chapter 9, everything has been leading up until this point. Jesus’ ministry has been spreading. He has the approval of the crowds. His disciples make this pronouncement that Jesus is the Christ. This is the good news about Jesus. This is the keynote of His greatness and His immortality. And then Jesus tells His disciples this word that He is going to suffer and die. It’s the first time that He has said anything like this. This is the first prediction from Jesus about His death. The first mention of the cross from Jesus in this gospel. How can this be? You see, the Christ, the Christ is supposed to be the one who is set apart and exalted and received as the uniquely anointed King over God’s people, not the one who is scorned by His own people, not the one who is rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. You see, the Christ is supposed to be the one who is to set the prisoner’s free, not the one who is going to be taken captive as a common criminal and thrown into a prison. And the Christ is the one who is supposed to undo the effects of sin and death not the one who will be subjected to the wages of sin Himself and ultimately to die. It’s unthinkable. It’s unthinkable that verses 20 and verses 21 go together – that Jesus is the Christ of God and He must suffer many things and be rejected and killed.
You see, it’s at this point that things begin to turn, and from here on out the trajectory of this story is toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem is where Jesus will suffer. Jerusalem is where Jesus will be rejected. Jerusalem is where He will die. And there becomes an even greater urgency to the “Who?” question as the subsequent chapters unfold. And the full response to this question, to this “Who?” question about Jesus, it includes His suffering and His death. Yes, He is the Christ. Yes, He is the Son of Man, that exalted Messianic figure, but what that means is that the way to glory first passes through the way of the cross. The way to glory is through crucifixion and resurrection. And that’s hard to accept. Christ crucified – it’s a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. People don’t want this kind of Christ. People don’t want it this way. But these two things must go together. You cannot have one without the other. There is no Christ without the suffering. There is no glory without the cross.
“Therefore, if anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die,” as Bonhoeffer said. John Calvin, in book three of the institutes of Chistian religion, it’s been published as a little book called “A Little Book on the Christian Life” – it was given to our graduating seniors this year. But in that part of the institutes, John Calvin writes this. He says, “The sum of the Christian life is the denial of ourselves.” The sum of the Christian life is the denial of ourselves. The way to save your life is to lose your life for Christ. And the way to true and lasting gain is through loss. The way to glory is by not stumbling over the difficulty of what Jesus says in these verses, but it is by following Him and it’s by following the way that He lays out for us.
I would think that that would have been a shock for His disciples to hear the implications of who He is. And maybe we have a hard time embracing it ourselves. The direct implications of confessing Jesus as the Christ is then to take up a burden. It’s to take up a cross daily. That’s a difficult calling to accept, and yet it has to be this way. Because if Jesus is the Christ, then we’re not, and that means that we are to submit to Him and to submit to Him completely with our lives. And if Jesus is the Christ, then we can’t do anything to save ourselves. We are helpless apart from Jesus. We are lost. And that strikes right at the root of our pride. It’s devastating to our pride to hear that you are helpless and can’t do anything on your own apart from the salvation of Jesus Christ. And if Jesus is the Christ, then he is the one who reveals the way of God’s kingdom to us and the way of God’s kingdom is the way of glory through self-denial and sacrifice.
Think about what David said, King David, in 2 Samuel chapter 24. He was preparing to build an altar and to sacrifice to God during a time of plague. And the person who owned the land and owned the animals and owned the materials, he wanted to give it to David that David could build an altar and sacrifice for free, to have it all. “You’re the king. Take it and build and sacrifice.” What did David say? “No. No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” What about Paul in Philippians chapter 3? “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Any sacrifice is worth it. Any sacrifice is worth it to know Christ. Self-denial, a cross to bear daily, leaving all to follow Him – it’s worth it to know Christ and to come into His glory at God’s appointed time.
So how are we doing with self-denial? Do we give cheerfully and generously and sacrificially? Think about your complaints, your criticisms, your conflict this week. Has there been a subtle Christ-complex that has crept into your own thinking? A self-righteousness? Or have you denied yourself, your preferences, your comforts? Have you denied yourselves even your rights for the sake of following Jesus? And where have we put ourselves out there? Where have we put ourselves out there as a witness to Christ to face possible rejection and the misunderstanding of those around us as a follower of Christ? Do we say, “No,” to the temptations and the distractions of our phones and of sports and of materialism in order to spend time in God’s Word and to spend time in prayer and to serve Christ? I wonder. I wonder if the conflicts, the discontentment, the distractions, I wonder if they would look the same if we were intentionally taking up our cross daily and leaving all to follow Christ. I have to think that if we really faced hardship, how much differently would we think about and approach the main concerns of our weeks and days? We could very well gain the whole world, and yet forfeit ourselves. Or we could deny ourselves and gain Christ. And that is far, far better.
The “Who” of the Christin life is Christ. The “What” is self-denial and the hope of glory through faith in Christ. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we want to avoid and to run away from the difficult sayings of Your Word and the difficult call that Christ gives to us, and yet we ask that You would help us by Your Spirit to submit and to see all the glories of the Gospel and of following Christ that You have promised and secured for us by the cross through Your resurrection. We ask, Father, that You would help us as we deny ourselves to follow Jesus, to be faithful, and that You would use us in our following You to be a blessing to those around us and to spread Your kingdom, to advance Your glory wherever we go. We pray that You would be honored in all that we do and say, and we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.