#71 Lu. 9:18-20 BELIEVING THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST Introduction: In our previous text Jesus and His disciples were over on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. There Jesus miraculously fed a great multitude of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. In our text today Luke does not say anything about them moving from there nor does he say anything about any other event taking place between the feeding of the multitude and our present text. However, other gospel writers tell us that they did move from there and about several events that took place after the feeding of the multitude and the time of our present text. I am not going to try to list all that transpired, but I do want to tell you about one event that took place in the wilderness after right after Jesus fed the multitude. John tells us that after Jesus fed that great crowd of people with five loaves and two fish that the multitude wanted to take Jesus and crown Him as their king. They were so excited that they threatened to take Him by force, if necessary, and crown Him as king. Jesus, of course was master of the situation and would not let them crown Him. Matthew tells us that the event of our text today takes place in Caesarea Philippi. As Jesus and His disciples were traveling, He stops out on the roadside and takes His disciples a short distance away from the road for some privacy. V. 18, "And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him..." It seems that the chief purpose of this stop was to pray. Jesus was soon to go to Jerusalem where He would be crucified and we will see shortly that the approaching time of His death was weighing heavily on His mind. This may or may not have been the reason that He felt a special need for prayer. Luke tells us that He was alone praying. Luke then tells us that His disciples were with Him. The picture I get is somewhat like that experience in the Garden of Gethsemane just before He was arrested. In Gethsemane Jesus was completely alone for prayer, but His disciples were with Him in the sense that they were nearby. Three of them were very nearby and the others were fairly close by. That is the picture I get here. Jesus was totally alone and all of the disciples were together in a group nearby. disciples were nearby. I. The first question which Jesus asked His disciples Then after the prayer Jesus presented two questions to His disciples. (V. 18), "...and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?" Keep in mind that Jesus was not asking for information. He knew very well the answer to the question before He asked it. He asked because He wanted to draw the attention of the disciples to the attitude that the general public had toward Him. He also wanted to get this on record for our benefit. He wanted us to know the true attitude of the masses of people toward Him. II. The answer the disciples gave to that first question V. 19, "They answering said, John the Baptist..." This is exactly what Herod had thought. Herod was afraid that Jesus was John the Baptist. He was afraid because He had John beheaded. The masses were not afraid that He was John the Baptist. They were hoping that He was John the Baptist. They used to love to go down to the wilderness of Judea and hear John preach. They still had a great deal of respect for John the Baptist. They considered him a great man of God and they just could not feature God letting Herod get by with beheading a great man of God like John. The idea that Jesus might be John probably came first from Herod himself. Then the people heard the news that Herod was afraid that Jesus was John and the people liked that idea. It seemed perfectly logical to them. How could they account for Jesus being such a great man of God if He were not John the Baptist? Besides, they liked the idea of God sending John back to plague Herod and I'm sure they hoped that He would get even with Herod. So the great majority of the people felt that Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life again. The disciples informed Jesus, however, that not all of the people thought Him to be John the Baptist. (V. 19), "...but some say, Elias..." Elias is the New Testament word for Elijah. The word, Elijah comes to us from the Hebrew language in which the Old Testament was originally written. The word, Elias, comes to us from the Greek language in which the New Testament was originally written. Some of the people in the general public did not at all agree that Jesus is John the Baptist. They thought that Jesus was Elijah come back to life again. They were certain in their own minds that an Old Testament prophecy in the Book of Malachi identified Jesus as Elijah. They must have said, "We have got Bible for our identification," and they did. They could cite you Book, chapter, and verse. That made it seem official. The problem was that they had misinterpreted the Bible in this matter. The disciples went on to tell Jesus that this is not all. There were a few that they had heard of who did not agree that Jesus was either John the Baptist or Elijah. For some reason or other they thought that Jesus was some other Old Testament prophet come back to life again. Matthew says that some identified Him as being Jeremiah. Perhaps Jeremiah was their favorite Old Testament prophet. Then there were other Old Testament prophets suggested whom none of the gospel writers named. (V. 19), "...and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again." The general consensus of opinion among the general public in Israel was that Jesus was either John the Baptist come back to life again or that He was one of the other Old Testament prophets come back to life again. The great masses of people in Israel had missed the point. Jesus had come among them and had fulfilled prophecy after prophecy from the Old Testament showing conclusively that He is the Christ. For instance, He was born in the city of Bethlehem, the city where the Christ was to be born. He was born of a virgin, but I'll acknowledge that the people probably did not know that. He went to Egypt as a baby and later returned to Galilee. It was prophesied in Scripture that He would come to Israel out of Egypt. He was introduced to Israel by John the Baptist. It was prophesied that God would send His messenger before Him to identify Him. They recognized John as being from God, but they refused to believe him when identified Jesus as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Then there were the miracles that identified Jesus as the Christ. It was not just that He was able to perform miracles. The clincher was that they particular kind of miracles that He performed were the very things that Old Testament prophecies had said would identify the Christ. He caused the blind to see. He caused the lame to walk. He caused the deaf to hear. He visited the poor and needy. These were things that the Old Testament prophecies had specifically said would be performed by the Christ. Then there were some of the miracles that by their very display of power should have convinced them that Jesus is the Christ. For instance, He fed a multitude with five loaves of bread and two fishes. He healed even those with leprosy. This was an impossible thing for an ordinary man. He even raised the dead back to life again right before their very eyes. He had cast demon spirits out wild, dangerous men. There were literally hundreds and thousands of people throughout the land that had been healed of one kind of disease or another. There was no reason in the world for these people not to know that Jesus is the Christ except that they had refused to accept it as true. There is no excuse for them to fail to understand that Jesus is the Christ. When they stand before Him in judgment they will not be able to offer one single solitary excuse for failing to recognize Him as the Christ and for failing to trust in Him as their Savior. III. The second question Jesus asked His disciples After the disciples had answered the question that Jesus asked them about whom the people say that He is, Jesus then put the question to them in a very personal way. V. 20, "He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am?" Whom, Simon Peter, do you say that I am? Just whom, Andrew do you say that I am? Whom, James, do you say that I am? Whom, John, do you say that I am? What about you, Philip; whom do you say that I am? And you, Bartholomew, whom do you say that I am? And you, Thomas, whom do you say that I am? Are you sure? Do you have any doubts? And, Matthew, just whom do you say that I am? And you, James the son of Alphaeus, whom do you think that I am? Thaddaeus, what about you? Whom do you think I am? Simon, you, the Canaanite, whom do you say that I am? And Judas, Judas Iscariot, what about you? Judas, whom do you say that I am?" Oh, I'm not at all sure that He called them by their names individually, but that is the way that it must have come across to them. He was asking them personally whom they believed Him to be. IV. The answer as given by the Apostle Peter (V. 20), "...Peter answering said, The Christ of God." Matthew goes into greater detail. Matthew has Peter saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." The word, Christ, means "Anointed one." Peter is saying that Jesus is One Whom God the Father has anointed to be the Redeemer. He is the promised King. He is the Son of God, the Savior of men. He is one of the Godhead who was born in human flesh to be the Redeemer of sinful men. Jesus came to this world not to heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, and feed the multitudes. Jesus came to this world to save men, women, boys and girls who are lost in sin. He is, as the Apostle Peter said, the Christ of God. He is the Savior of men. V. If Jesus were here today to ask us questions If Jesus were here today to ask the question, "Whom do men say that I am?" there would be a wide variety of answers. We would have to tell Him that almost all say that He was a good man. All men should say this about Him, but not all agree. I think that you know that a recent movie portrayed Jesus as having committed adultery with Mary Magdalene. They made this blasphemous movie in direct contradiction to all available records of the life of Jesus. The Bible declares Him to be without sin whatsoever. He lived His whole life without committing one sin whatsoever. Even secular historians who lived in His day portray Jesus as a man of most excellent morals and character. Only the most wicked men filled with the most bitter hatred could make such a movie defiling the name of good man in direct contradiction to all the evidence. We would have to say to Jesus, "Lord, there are some who say that you set a good example for all men to follow." We can all agree, with that, of course. But we cannot at all agree with what they mean by it. They mean that Jesus came to set a good example for men to follow and that if one will follow the example that Jesus set and live a good life like Jesus lived, that they will make it to heaven. They also mean that if one does not follow the good example that Jesus set that he will die and go to hell. This is most certainly not in keeping with what the Bible teaches. The Bible declares in no uncertain terms that salvation is not of works, Eph. 2:8, 9; Titus 3:5. The Apostle Paul certainly would not agree with such an idea. Paul said, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief," I Tim. 1:15. Taking the world's population as a whole we would have to say to Him, "Lord, the great majority consider you only as one of the prophets whom God the Father has sent to the world. The Buddhists, the Hindus, the Moslems, the Taoists, the Shintoist and a few others make up the great majority of the world's population and the very best that they consider you is one of God's prophets. The Jews, on the other hand, think that you are a great imposter. But thank God we would be able to say to Him, "There are some who believe as the Apostle Peter and all but one of His apostles. There are some who believe that you are truly the Christ of God, the very Son of God. If Jesus were here, I am sure that He would make the question to us in a personal way. He would ask each one of us, "How about you? What do you think of me? Do you really believe that I am the Christ?" Then if you say that you do and you have never called on Him and asked Him to save your soul, He would say, "How in the world can you really believe that I am the Christ of God, the Savior of men and never call on me for salvation?" Conclusion: I will tell you what I am going to do. Since Jesus is not here bodily with us today, I am going to ask the questions for Him. I am going to ask you, "Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of men?" If the answer is "Yes" I am going to ask you a second question, "Have you ever asked Jesus to save your soul and to keep you out of hell?" If the answer is "No" then I am going to ask you one more question. "Are you ready right now to get this matter settled with God?" Come now and call on the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask Him to save you. Put your faith in Him. If you are saved, then I am going to ask you if there is some move that you need to make in this service to get in the will of God for your life?