Luke 9:18-27
Peter's Confession of Christ
18Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"
19They 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."
20"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "The Christ of God."
21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22And 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."
23Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26If 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. 27I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."
Jesus prayed a lot...Here He was praying in private with His disciples...He ask them "Who do the crowds say I am?"...Jesus knew much more, infinitely more than the disciples...He knew the answer...Jesus wanted the disciples to think about what the crowds were thinking about Him, and who the Twelve disciples thought He was...Sometimes we can be with someone or doing something and just miss things...When we take time to reflect and think on the subject or matter we have a better understanding of it...
The disciples told Him, that some thought He was John the Baptist and others thought He was Elijah...Others were saying He was one of the old prophets, who had came back to life...So the people thought He was at the very least one of the old prophets, and in John the Baptist's case, a relatively new prophet...The disciples knew that the crowds thought He was "this prophet" who now was spreading the good news...Jesus asks His Twelve, "Who do you think I am?"...Peter answers, "The Christ of God"...
Peter knows He is the Messiah...Jesus warns them that they should not tell others that He is the Messiah...Jesus tells them that He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the teachers of the law...He tells them that He must be killed, and on the third day raised (back) to life"...Popularity was not a goal of the Messiah...
He them tells them that whoever takes up His cross, must deny himself, and then they/we can follow Him...For whoever wants to save his life, will lose it...If anyone is ashamed of Him, when He comes in His glory, He, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of him, when He is in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels...
The early Christians would be persecuted by the Roman government...Many would be crucified on crosses they had to carry themselves, in much the way Jesus did and died...Today we are ask to do the same...It is not always popular to follow Jesus, and take up His cross...We are to commit our lives to Him. be obedient to Him, and to follow God's will...We will face hardships in life for not only in making this commitment to Him, but life brings about its own problems of pain...We are not to be ashamed of Him...
Jesus tells the Twelve that some of those (not all the disciples) will not taste death, before they see the kingdom of God...We know Judas did not see the resurrected One...I think that Jesus is also is referring to the transfiguration...In the next verses, Jesus takes James, Peter, and John with Him, up the mountain to see Moses and Elijah and to hear the voice of God...
We must learn from this...The Master has taken the disciples to a solitary place to pray and reflect on who He is...Then as we learn and figure out who who is, then we are told how hard this life on earth will be, even when we follow Him...In this busy world, we must spend time in solitude and reflect...
Jesus could have told the disciples easy, nice things, but instead we hear about how He must suffer...Neither does He tell the disciples how happy, fun, and easy life will be by believing in Him...What He tells us is how difficult things will be...Jesus let's us know we cannot avoid suffering, and the problems of pain...Yet, through all of this, Jesus brings us peace...One can even feel it in these tough verses..God has given Him this authority...We learn as this section ends that there is a kingdom of God, and we can get there by following our Messiah...
Jesus wants us to say and see who is...When we read the Bible and wonder and think many things...Two things that come to me immediately, is this from God, and should we believe it?...Does God exist?...As we read the Bible, Jesus wants us to think about who He is...After a while, Jesus wants us to come to a decision on Him...
We seek excuses, alibis, delay our decision, and other thoughts and reasons, not to believe...Jesus opposition of the Pharisees, chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders were not even looking to see and find out if He was the Messiah...They were looking to discredit Jesus...They were certainly not seeking the Messiah, or even information about Him, or if Jesus was the true Messiah...Were the Pharisees, chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders comfortable with the knowledge and things they had on earth, or were they really seeking the LORD?...
Jesus everyday went around with the people...He spent His time healing and feeding crowds, proclaiming the kingdom, raising the dead, and teaching about His Father...He did many miracles for non-believers and His opposition to see and hear about...These groups did not want to seek Him and learn from Him and about Him...They did ask for another sign, another miracle...Would one more miracle, make a non-believer now believe?...His opposition could have ask one of those raised from the dead, about Jesus...They did question and investigate one blind man, who was healed, and this did not convince them (John 9:13-41)...Jesus' opposition was Spiritually blind and were not aware of what they were seeing...Sometimes our own lives can be too busy, too disobedient, and (we think) too important to us to see the things we really need to see...Sometimes we cannot see the Truth...Sometime we want to learn and learn but never acknowledge the truth (1 Timothy 3:7)...
When we read the Bible and about Jesus healing, feeding His crowds, raising the dead, and doing miracles we must see and not be Spiritually blind...We must be aware of what we see...When we hear what Jesus spoke, when we see what He did, these are not earthly things, and earthly tendencies...You have to make a decision about Him?...He wants us to make a decision about Him...When one has evidence or access to the evidence to Jesus like the chief priests, teachers of the law, and the Pharisees had you should have a thought on where His authority came from...He did and does things only One could do if they are from above, from heaven...The chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders could have researched ALL the things He did if they wanted to, but they did not...They were there...They were an eyewitness to Him...They took the knowledge they had and failed to advance it to the truth...
When some asks who Jesus is, we must be ready to say, He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God...