Luke 9:18 - 27
18 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?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 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.”
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 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. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why did Jesus ask about what the crowd thought?
2. Why did Jesus want them to keep it secret that He was the Christ?
3. Why did Jesus choose this time to tell them of His coming crucifixion?
4. Why does following Christ have to be carrying a cross? Jesus did it, why do we have to also?
5. What does it mean that we will lose or save our lives depending on whether we lose our lives for Jesus sake? And why must we lose the world to gain Christ?
6. What does it mean to be ashamed of Jesus?
7. What will it mean for Jesus to be ashamed of us in His kingdom?
8. What did Jesus mean that there were some there who wouldn't taste death until they saw the kingdom of God?
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-827-30-27-jesus-and-his-disciples.html says:
ReplyDeleteIn fact the disciples followed Jesus, believing that He was the Messiah. But their understanding of what Messiah was to do was still weak. What made Peter’s confession so important was the fact that it came against the backdrop of all the confusion and false teachings about Jesus. His confession of faith was so strong that Jesus could begin talking about His death on the cross.
---
Why does Jesus ask for their thoughts about His identity, instead of just telling them who He is? (Jesus often used questions in His teaching to stir up faith in his students. He seemed less interested in pounding in knowledge as He was in stimulating thought and belief.)
Instead of only asking His disciples what they thought, why does Jesus first ask what others are saying? (To draw out a contrast.)
What does it mean that Jesus is "the Christ"? ("Christ" is the Greek translation of the Hebrew "Messiah", which means "Annointed One". This term was used in Old Testament times of kings, priests and prophets which were chosen and empowered by God for a particular task. The Jews came to expect an ultimate Messiah who would deliver them and establish his righteous kingdom.)
How does Jesus respond to Peter's confession and why? (In warning them "not to tell anyone about Him", Jesus acknowledged the truth of Peter's statement, but made it clear that it was not time for their public proclamation of His identity. The reason could be to prevent the crowds from acting on their nationalistic conception of the Messiah by forcing a political coronation of Him. Also, Jesus may have wanted to improve on His disciples' defective view of His Messiahship before allowing them to share it with others. A teacher has got to know his subject, and the disciples grasped Christ's identity more fully only after His Passion and Pentecost. Only then did Jesus send them as his "witnesses…to the ends of the earth.")
---
The messianic secret is not an attempt on the part of Jesus to keep people from knowing, believing in, and following him. But Jesus did seem to be careful throughout the Gospel of Mark to keep his identity as divine Son of God/Messiah from spreading. There are at least two reasons for this that I can see.
First, though Jesus is identified early in the Gospels as a miraculous healer and exorcist, early in his ministry is not yet time for his identity to be revealed. The fullness of time has simply not come. Perhaps Jesus had certain ministry objectives that needed to be accomplished before his crucifixion? He knew, either way, that as his fame spread, he would be tried and crucified for it. But this could only happen in due time.
Second, Jesus may have been cautious that a misunderstanding of the title “Messiah” would result if people were to say things like, “Here is the Messiah!” He was not the military insurrectionist and ruler than many Jews were expecting and he wanted to prevent title confusion, I suspect. So he often warned the evil spirits and those who received healing (and, as above, even the disciples!) not to tell anyone about him.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-827-30-27-jesus-and-his-disciples.html continued:
ReplyDeleteFor Peter (and the Twelve), the title “Messiah” is about royal/political/religious/earthly power — not the apparent weakness/defeat/death Jesus is talking about enduring in 8:31. This focus on earthly power may not be obvious at this stage in Gospel... but it soon will be. In Mark 9:34, the disciples pass their time on the road by arguing about who among them (the disciples) was the greatest.
Clearly, Peter’s understanding of “Messiah” differs from how Jesus understands “Messiah.” If this is true, then we can say that neither Peter nor the disciples really know who Jesus is (at least at this juncture in the story).
Later, in Mark 14:61, Jesus is being questioned by the high priest before an assembly of chief priests, elders, and scribes. The high priest asks him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” When pointedly asked, Jesus does not equivocate but answers, “I am” (14:62).
Thus, we can say that no human being understands Jesus’ true identity in the Gospel of Mark, neither friend, nor foe.
---
My 2 cents:
Based on the above, I think the answers to the questions are likely:
1. Did no one really think that Jesus might be the Messiah, since all Israel was supposedly eagerly awaiting the Messiah?
Virtually all of Israel had the idea that the Messiah would be a king who conquered the nations around them. Jesus didn't fit that at all. The people attempted to force Jesus to be their Messiah a number of times, but Jesus shut them down. At that point, they rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
Peter and the disciples had the exact same thought, but were confused about Jesus. They believed that He was the Messiah, but just biding His time until He would rise up as the Messiah.
2. Did this occur to Peter right now? If not, how long was he aware?
This is all speculation. It probably didn't matter, since Peter totally misunderstood what the Messiah was all about and why He came.
3. Why did Jesus not want them to tell?
Jesus didn't want them to tell because of the misunderstanding of who and what the Messiah was. The people only wanted and expected a Messiah on their own terms. Misunderstanding about what and who the Messiah was made it impossible for them to accept the Messiah. Until Jesus' death and resurrection, no one could understand who the Messiah was and what He was about. Our ignorance can be so powerful that the truth can do nothing but hurt us. Our ignorance can be so powerful that the only thing the truth can do is hide from us.
The hope is that our ignorance can be cured by the Holy Spirit teaching us (through the Bible, through each other, and, occasionally, directly). Are we listening?
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html says:
ReplyDeleteLet’s begin with what Jesus didn’t mean. Many people interpret “cross” as some burden they must carry in their lives: a strained relationship, a thankless job, a physical illness. With self-pitying pride, they say, “That’s my cross I have to carry.” Such an interpretation is not what Jesus meant when He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.”
Two thousand years later, Christians view the cross as a cherished symbol of atonement, forgiveness, grace, and love. But in Jesus’ day, the cross represented nothing but torturous death. Because the Romans forced convicted criminals to carry their own crosses to the place of crucifixion, bearing a cross meant carrying their own execution device while facing ridicule along the way to death.
Therefore, “Take up your cross and follow Me” means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender.
Discipleship demands sacrifice, and Jesus never hid that cost.
----
Denying self requires us to give up anything that we would want or seek that would hinder our doing the will of God. It means we must take our wants and desires down from the throne and place Jesus and His will as the governing power in our lives.
Hence, "taking up your cross" refers to giving your whole life to God, as Jesus was about to give His life for us. This involves bearing burdens, but it is deeper than that. It is a total dedication of life. Our whole life is given to His service in anything He says. This will lead us to willingly deny self. Following Him then requires us to live as He lived His life (I Pet. 2:21; Matt. 10:34,35; I Cor. 11:1).
Whatever He wants with my life is what must be done with it. What I want no longer matters, but I give myself for Him, just as He gave Himself for us despite the fact His human nature did not want to have to do it.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteJesus' prophetic utterances about His upcoming death were given to provide certainty that when these events transpired, the disciples would look back and know that this was God's plan all along.
We all have ideas of how we think God should act. We believe that every prayer we pray should be answered in the affirmative by God—every disease healed, every job restored, every baby live, and those who suffer in old age should just pass away peacefully. Peter had his own ideas and plans for Jesus. But God's ways are rarely our ways. We must beware of our view of how God should act versus how God has determined to act. Our views are oftentimes satanic—just like Peter's. This is painfully remedied through a reading of and a submission to the revealed word of God found in the Bible. We as Christians must let it mold us and our theology rather than forging our ideas about God onto the text of Scripture. It's right; we're wrong. And every time we go outside of God's will for our lives, disregarding the clear teachings of Scripture, we act like Satan.
----
“Unlike some contemporary peddlers of the gospel, Jesus does not offer His
disciples varieties of self-fulfillment, intoxicating spiritual experiences, or constant intellectual stimulation.” He presents them with a cross. He does not invite them to try the cross on for size, to see if they like it. He does not ask for volunteers to carry one for extra credit. Disciples must do more than survey the cross, glory in the cross of Christ, and love the old rugged cross, as beloved humans have it. They must become like Jesus in obedience and live the cross.”
-----
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
This takes everything we’ve been talking about – to another level – of gravity. Removing the modifiers for a closer look: Jesus says – if you are ashamed of Me, I will be ashamed of you, when I come in glory. You cannot back away from Jesus now, then expect Him to be close to Him later!
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteit raises the question that many ask: Can you be a Christian and not be a disciple? -- Is discipleship a second stage of Christianity? -- Are there many Christians, but only a relatively few disciples?
he gives us the process of discipleship. There are three steps, he says: First, "If any man [anyone] would come after me, let him deny himself. He is not asking us to deny our basic humanity, our personhood. And he is not telling us that we are to abandon ourselves. So we must understand what he does mean by this phrase, "deny himself," which is the first step of discipleship.
The word "deny" means to "disavow any connection with something, to state that you are not connected in any way with whatever is in view."
It is important also to understand that he does not mean what we usually mean by "self-denial." By this we usually mean that we are giving up something. But Jesus is not talking about this kind of "self-denial." He is never concerned about what we do so much as with what we are. Therefore he is not talking about giving up luxuries, or even necessities, but about denying self, which is entirely different.
Denying self means that we repudiate our natural feelings about ourselves, i.e., our right to ourselves, our right to run our own lives. We are to deny that we own ourselves. We do not have the final right to decide what we are going to do, or where we are going to go.
It strikes right at the heart of our very existence, because the one thing that we, as human beings, value and covet and protect above anything else is the right to make ultimate decisions for ourselves. This is what Jesus is talking about. He is not talking about giving up this or that, but about giving up our selves. He has ultimate rights; he has Lordship of your life. So you no longer belong to yourself; he must make those final decisions when the great issues of your life hang in the balance. This is what Jesus means by, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself" -- deny our self-trust, deny our self-sufficiency, deny our feeling that we are able to handle life by ourselves and run everything to suit ourselves.
The second step immediately follows: "Let him deny himself, and take up his cross..." What does "take up his cross" mean? But many people think that a cross is any kind of trial or hardship you are going through, or any kind of handicap you must endure. But that is not what Jesus means. So it is not merely handicap or difficulty or trial. The cross was something different. The cross stood for something in the life of Jesus connected with shame and humiliation. It was a criminal's cross on which he was hung. It was a place of degradation, where he was demeaned and debased.
And so the cross stands forever as a symbol of those circumstances and events in our experience which humble us, expose us, offend our pride, shame us, and reveal our basic evil. It is the cross which brings this out. That is his meaning. "Take up your cross, accept it, glory in it, cling to it, because it is something good for you. It will reduce you to the place where you will be ready to receive the gift of the grace of God." That is why the cross is so valuable to us.
This does not mean only the big things in our life; it is the little things as well. Do you feel hurt when someone forgets your name? Do you get upset when a cashier will not cash your check? Does criticism hurt, even when you know it is justified? Are you rankled when you lose at tennis or golf? All these are minor forms of the cross at work in our lives. The Lord's word is that if we are going to be a disciple, we are not to be offended by these things, we are not to get upset about them; we are to welcome them.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteThen the third step is, "Follow me." This really means, "Obey me." It involves following him. It means choosing to do or say what Jesus commands us to do or say, and what he himself did, and looking to him for the power to carry it through.
When we do not feel like obeying or forgiving or praying, he tells us to do it anyway. Discipleship is denying your right to yourself, and taking up the cross, accepting these incidents and circumstances which expose our pride and conceit, welcoming them, and then following him, doing what he says to do, looking to him for the power.
Deep down within us, every one of us has a hunger for life and a desire to find it, to the full extent of what it was designed to be. This is what Jesus is talking about. "If this is what you want," he says, "I'll tell you how to acquire it." There are two attitudes toward life which are possible, and you can have only one or the other: One is: save your life now, i.e., hoard it, clutch it, cling to it, grasp it, try to get hold of it for yourself, take care of yourself, trust yourself, see that in every situation your first and major concern is, "What's in it for me?" That is one way to live, and millions are living that way today. All of us, at one time or another, do this. The other attitude is: lose it, i.e., fling it away, disregard what advantage there may be for you in a situation, and move out in dependence upon God, careless of what may happen to you.
And he says there are only two results which can follow. If you save your life, if you cling to it, hoard it, get all you can for yourself, then, without a doubt, Jesus says, you will lose it. This is not a mere platitude, a truism; he is stating a fundamental law of life. It is absolutely unbreakable. Nobody can break this law. If you save your life, says Jesus, you will lose it. You will find that you have everything you want, but you will not want anything you have. You will find that all of the life you tried to grasp has slipped through your fingers, and you have ended up with a handful of cobwebs and ashes, dissatisfied, hollow and empty, mocked by what you hoped to get.
"But lose your life for my sake and the gospel's," says Jesus, "lose your life by means of giving yourself away in the cause of Christ, giving up your right to yourself, taking up your cross and following me, and you will save it." You will not waste it, but you will save it. You will find and contentment and satisfaction, an inner peace, and a sense of worth about your living. You will discover, not just in heaven some day but right now, that even though you may not have all the things others have, your life will be rich and rewarding and satisfying.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteJesus did not come to call us to ultimate barrenness, weakness, darkness, and death. He called us to life, to richness, to enjoyment, to fulfillment. But he has told us that the way there means death. Discipleship ends in life, not in death. It ends in fulfillment and satisfaction. But the only way that we can find it is by means of a cross.
"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:38 RSV)
What does it mean, to be ashamed of Jesus? What our Lord is talking about here is a settled way of life which outwardly expresses conformity to Christian truth, but inwardly adopts and follows and conforms to the values of the world. This, he says, is what will be revealed in that day. Remember that at the close of the Sermon on the Mount he said, "Many shall come to me in that day, and say, 'Have we not done many mighty works in your name? Have we not cast out devils, and preached in your name?' And I shall say, 'Depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity,'" (Matthew 7:22-23).
So there is the answer to the question we asked at the beginning: Can a person be a Christian, and not a disciple? But it is clear that unless you take up the work of discipleship, this life is given in vain. Paul calls this "accepting the grace of God in vain," (2 Corinthians 6:1b). Only those who are disciples enter into an abundant life.
Now we are not all good disciples at all times; there is much of failure. And our Lord has made provision for failure in our lives. But he is talking about the heart: What is your aim? What do you really want of your life? Do you want to live it for yourself, or do you want to live it for him? That is really the question.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDelete----
Though we can identify many different areas we are called upon to die to, I think that the primary implication is that we die to our perceived rights.
Your spouse offends you by a comment, so you have the right to secure vengeance with angry words or the cold shoulder; the government takes more than their share, so you have the right to cheat on your income tax return; someone cuts in front of you in the traffic line, so you have a right to flip them the bird or blurt out obscenities; you are a teenager and you think that you have the right to fill your weekend with entertainment your parent corrects you so you think that you have the right to be sullen and display passive anger. Think about how often we've nursed our rights when something happens to us. Jesus Christ says, Take up your cross, die to your rights, receive My teaching, demonstrate grace, kindness, and service toward those that you think have trampled your rights.
In our day, we think if somebody has to carry some burdens through life, that means they have to carry their cross. That is not what it meant in Jesus' time. In Jesus' time, a person carrying their cross was going to their death. Here is the call for those who would follow Jesus, like you and like me, to die--to die to our own interests and to give our life over to Jesus Christ. Once you have denied yourself, and taken up your cross, now you are ready to follow Christ!
And in our context He is not talking about eternal life, He is talking about quality of physical life.
The word "life" and the word "soul" in these verses are the exact same Greek word; psuche. Why the translators chose to translate some of them as "life" and some as "soul" is beyond me. I think they should all be translated "life."
The Greek phrase "sozen ten psuche" is a standard and normal way of saying, "to save your life." There is no text in the Greek Bible where it can be shown to have the meaning: "to save the soul from hell."
Here is what Jesus said: Do you really want to live? Do you really want to max out on life? Then you need to die to self. Dying to self to follow Christ is the way of total freedom and complete fulfillment. It is the greatest paradox in life. We live by dying. We want to squeeze all we can out of this life and get every drop out of it. Jesus said: You need to let go of your desires and wishes and follow Me.
"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose," (Jim Elliot).
If you save your life, if you cling to it, hoard it, get all you can for yourself, then, without a doubt, Jesus says, you will lose it. This is not a mere platitude, but a truism; He is stating a fundamental law of life. It is absolutely unbreakable.
We are created for His pleasure and purpose to love and serve and worship Him forever. He has so created us that even though we pursue all the glittering toys of the world, we can never know true happiness apart from a relationship with our Creator.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteWe have to understand Jesus' use of "ashamed." The dictionary defines "ashamed" as being "affected by shame," and shame is defined as a painful emotion excited by a consciousness of guilt, disgrace, or dishonor.
But this is not the biblical definition of "shame." The biblical understanding has to do with disappointment. According to Scripture, the person who is not ashamed is the person whose trust is not misplaced, and who, therefore, is never disillusioned. The Greek word "ashamed" is aischuno. It is best translated "disappoint."
The life of a disciple is not one of health/wealth; it is a life of self denial, sacrifice and suffering. If you are disappointed in this Christ, He will be disappointed in you, because this is what He has called you to.
Believers, if you choose this path laid out in Mark 8:34-38, I am telling you, you are making a good choice. You are making God's way the choice of life. But make no mistake; you are going to feel the pull to go back to self. Day by day, moment by moment, you are going to be faced with choices. The natural tendency is that I want to gratify myself. I want to do what is right for me. And God's call is to die to those desires and follow Him. I know it is a tough challenge to go from the love of self to the love of God.
If our response to this challenge is to say, "I am going to double my effort; I am really going to work; I am going to be committed to dying to self and following God; I am just going to write myself a note right here that I am going to do it"-- we will fail by the time we get to the parking lot. It is too hard. It is not in ourselves to live for God. This passage should bring us to a more desperate dependence on God: God, I can't do life unless You do a work in my heart, in my inner being.
If we are going to be disciples, we must be focused on the Rabbi Jesus Christ. We must be with him in His Word, we must follow Him even if we are not sure of where He is taking us, we must live by His teaching (which means we must know those teachings well), and we must imitate Him whenever we can. In other words everything becomes secondary in life to being like Him.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/06/mark-831-38-31-he-then-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDelete-----
My 2 cents:
Summarizing the answers that I found to the questions:
1. Did the disciples even hear the part about the resurrection?
I don't know, but it did seem like they focused and were saddened by Jesus announcing that He wasn't going to be the kind of Messiah they were expecting. And, until Jesus actually died, they hung onto those expectation despite anything Jesus said (such as repeating that He was going to die a few more times yet).
2. Why was Jesus so harsh with Peter?
Those Messiah expectations were deeply ingrained into all Jews. They were also incorrect. Furthermore, like so many things, Satan has taken those expectations and turned them into an idol. Jesus had to attempt to shock Peter and the disciples out of that Messiah idolatry. We can speculate that if Jesus wasn't so harsh, the disciples would have never given up those expectations even after Jesus' death. They would have just started looking for a new Messiah.
3. What does it mean to take up our cross and follow Him?
4. What does it mean to lose our lives for Him?
The above two questions are related. To lose our lives means to put to death all our expectations and idols - to give up mastery over our own lives. Taking up our cross is walk the road of giving up our control of our lives. The first has to do with our hearts, the second with our actions. Taking up our cross is a choice we have to make every day. Taking up our cross is also a spectacle before the world. The world will think a lot of negative thoughts towards us. However, to those whom the Holy Spirit is reaching, they will see the glory of God in us.
5. What does Jesus mean when He talks about the soul?
This appears to be a mis-translation. I looks like it should say "what does it gain you to gain the world but lose your life?". I believe that it refers to our eternal life, but that it also means to that eternal life that we are beginning to live on earth. Most people think this means salvation, and some have said that it just means our life here on earth. I think that it means both. If we love this world we will miss out on Jesus' Life in us on this earth - and we will miss out on His Life in heaven.
6. What does it look like to be ashamed of Jesus and His words?
7. What does it mean that Jesus will be ashamed of those who were ashamed of Him?
Some have said that this has to do with lack of evangelism on our parts. I think that is only a small part. I think the above article that said this translates to disappointment in Jesus probably has it right. Disappointment is because of lack of belief. When we lack belief, we become ineffective in our lives for Jesus. When we are disappointed in the face of Christ's overwhelming grace and provision, Jesus is going to be disappointed in us. We can have so much if we only receive it from Jesus.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary says:
ReplyDeleteConstable comments on Jesus' praying - Jesus' exemplary dependence on His Father is one of Luke's unique emphases (cf. Lk 3:21; 6:12; 11:1; et al.). He showed Jesus praying before many important events in His ministry. He was evidently praying privately, though the disciples were with Him.
John MacArthur - After all that they had seen and heard, the Lord’s question to them in this passage amounted to their final exam. The setting for this incident was Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13; Mark 8:27), located north of the Sea of Galilee on the slopes of Mt. Hermon, about forty to fifty miles southwest of Damascus. It was near the extreme northern boundary of Old Testament Israel, not far from the city of Dan. It was originally named Panion, after the god Pan, whom Greek settlers, who entered the region after the death of Alexander the Great, worshiped in a nearby cave. Herod the Great built a temple there, and dedicated it to Rome and Augustus Caesar. Herod’s son Philip the Tetrarch renamed the city Caesarea and appended his own name to it to distinguish it from the other Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. At more than one thousand feet in elevation, this scenic region offered Jesus and the apostles some relief from the crowds in the lowlands. It was also farther from Jerusalem and the hostility of the Jewish leaders, and the threat of Herod Antipas. The apostles’ “final exam” consisted of two questions. The answer to the first one expressed human opinion concerning Jesus; the answer to the second one expressed divine revelation of His true identity.
According to the answers of the disciples, the crowds did not think that Jesus was the Messiah! This is an amazing and sad commentary on the hearts of those in the crowds! After all they had seen and heard of this man, to still refuse to acknowledge that He was the long expected Messiah!
MacArthur goes on to explain why the crowd failed to recognize Jesus as their Messiah - John 12 reveals two significant reasons for the crowd’s perplexing inability to correctly identify Jesus. The people knew the truth and rejected it, and as a result God judicially abandoned them: But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.” (John 12:37-40) Tragically, their persistent rejection of the truth eventually brought God’s judicial hardening so that they could not believe. Another statement in John 12 reveals the second major reason that people fail to affirm Christ’s true identity: “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God” (John 12:42-43). Here is a sobering illustration of the power of false religion—they knew the truth, but refused to act on it. Maintaining their façade of self-righteousness, being accepted by the Jewish religious authorities, and avoiding the trauma of being put out of the synagogue was more important to them than the truth. Like the fickle crowd, because they would not believe they eventually could not believe.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeletePeter’s answer is correct, even revealed to him by God (Mt 16:17). But the disciples had the notion of Messiah as the reigning King. They did not yet understand the suffering and sacrificial death of Messiah.
Thus Jesus immediately mentions His impending death and resurrection (Lu 9:22) and the cost of discipleship for His followers (Lu 9:23-26, Lu 9:57-62). Suffering has been hinted at before (Lu 2:35; Lu 5:35), but this is the first explicit mention of it. It will become a frequent theme as Jesus sets His face to go to Jerusalem and the cross (Lu 9:51; see Lu 9:44; Lu 17:25; Lu 18:31-33; Lu 24:7, Lu 24:46-47). But the disciples didn’t really comprehend it until after the resurrection (Lu 9:45; Lu 18:34; Lu 24:25-26, Lu 24:45-46). It was their full understanding of the matter, that “the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead,” that enabled them to go forth as bold witnesses, proclaiming repentance for forgiveness of sins in His name (Lu 24:46-48).
I want to explore with you several ramifications of Jesus’ crucial question, “Who do you say I am?”
1. The question has an objectively correct answer.
Jesus isn’t whatever you want Him to be. How you feel about Jesus doesn’t change who He is. There is a single correct answer to the question that is not based on feelings or personal opinions, but on objective revealed truth.
2. The question divides people.
But the disciples insisted, “No, Jesus is the only Lord!” That narrow view cost many of them their lives. If you take your stand with the disciples in proclaiming Jesus as the only way to God, you will have to go against the pagan culture of our day. People don’t mind if you hold your personal beliefs in Jesus, just so that you don’t contend that He is the only way!
You will often have to join the disciples in pitting your view of Jesus against the religious scholars of our day. Even some who call themselves evangelical deny the trustworthy nature of all Scripture. They interpret Jesus in light of the most recent “scholarship,” which invariably comes from men with an anti-supernaturalistic bias.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDelete3. The question has deepening levels of correct understanding.
Peter’s answer, “the Christ of God,” is certainly correct. But, Peter had a different conception of what that meant than Jesus did. Peter meant, “You are the promised Anointed One who will sit on David’s throne, ruling the nations with a rod of iron.” That is quite correct when understood of Messiah’s second coming. But, in regard to His first coming, the more correct answer was, “You are the One Anointed by God to be crucified as our sin-bearer and raised from the dead by the power of God.” Jesus had to fulfill Is 53 and other Scriptures which point to Messiah’s bearing the sins of His people before He would reign on David’s throne. Peter was correct, but he needed to come to a deeper level of correct understanding.
One of the beautiful things about the Christian life is that you grow into deeper and deeper levels of understanding about the infinite, unfathomable, sovereign person of Jesus Christ. Do you know Him as your Savior? That’s great! You start there. But don’t stop there! There’s much more! Jesus tells us how we can know more of Him: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him” (Jn 14:21). Jesus promises to reveal more of Himself to those who obey Him.
So, begin with knowing Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the Savior. But go on discovering all that He is as the Sovereign Lord of the universe. The joy of the Christian life is growing to know the Lord Jesus more intimately.
4. The question requires a personal response of faith and obedience.
Jesus wasn’t sent by the Father to make everyone happy, so that they could go on living self-centered lives with God’s help. He came to deal with the fundamental problem of the human race: sin. The essence of sin is our stubborn self-will that says, “I’ll run my own life, God. Just help me feel good when I need You.” The cross, where the Lord of Glory took the penalty we deserved, was the only divine solution for our sin problem. If you haven’t come as a sinner to the crucified Christ and trusted Him as God’s provision for your sin, you have not responded correctly to Jesus’ crucial question.
But God’s sovereign plan was the way of the cross, both for Jesus (Lu 9:22) and for those who follow Him (Lu 9:23). To follow a crucified Savior and to live a crucified life requires faith and obedience. It goes against the mentality of our day that says, “You’re worthy; feel good; use God for your own happiness.” But, clearly, it is the only response for those who see who Jesus really is.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteConstable - It is not difficult to know just what Peter's concept of the Messiah was when he made this confession of faith. When Peter's brother first invited him to come and see Jesus, Andrew referred to Jesus as the Messiah (John 1:41). However, most of the Jews of Peter's day believed that the Messiah would be a descendant of David who would overthrow the Romans and establish the kingdom of God on earth. They did not view Him as deity. Matthew recorded Peter's full confession including, "the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). This is a clear statement of Jesus' deity. Why did Luke not include that phrase since it would have clarified what Peter meant? Probably he did not see that as necessary since the title "Christ" had become synonymous with a divine Messiah among Gentiles to whom Luke (and Mark) wrote (cf. 1 John 5:1). Thus Luke appears to have assumed that his readers would understand Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah as a confession of His deity.
The importance of this momentous confession can hardly be exaggerated. It implies that The Twelve here acknowledge Jesus to be no less than the long-awaited One, God's Anointed, the Messiah. What the confession does not imply, however, is that The Twelve, or even Peter himself, understood in what sense Jesus was the Christ. It would take these men a very long time to learn this.
No explanation for the command not to tell this to anyone is given, but the central section of Luke 9:1-19:48, appears to reveal a reason. The disciples needed to understand Who the Messiah really was and exactly what he would do before they were ready to proclaim Jesus as such. But they and the people had an expectation that needed some instruction to be correct.
What the Bible teaches - The command to tell no man His identity has resulted in many speculations. John tells us that the aftermath of the feeding of the five thousand was that the people planned to take Him by force and make Him a king. He withdrew from the crowd and departed alone into a mountain (John 6:15). This was reason enough for the Lord's strong command that His disciples should not tell the people that He was the Christ.
Robert Stein interprets Jesus' "command for silence was given not because Peter’s confession was false but precisely because it was true. The confession was not inappropriate, but its proclamation was dangerous. Such a proclamation would have had disastrous consequences; for to Jesus, “Christ/Messiah” meant suffering and death as God’s Anointed, whereas among the people it signified the Anointed King who would throw off the Roman yoke, smite the Gentiles, and bring political independence and greatness to Israel. Jesus had rejected such a nationalistic conception of messiahship at the beginning of his ministry (see 4:1–15, “Context”). Because of this popular misconception, the public proclamation of Jesus as the Christ would have brought about an immediate confrontation between Jesus and Rome.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteLuke 9:22 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 up on the third day."
In sum, Jesus' prophecy of His rejection, death and resurrection must have shocked the 12 disciples who were already surely somewhat confused by His warning to not tell ANYONE that He was the Messiah (cf Lk 9:45, Lk 18:34). At this time they did not yet understand that indeed they would tell EVERYONE about Him, but that their declaration was not to occur until after His resurrection and after their reception of the Holy Spirit from on high Who would enable them to be His supernaturally empowered witnesses (Lk 24:49-note, Acts 1:8-note).
Comment: As I meditated on this passage with a critical spirit against those "builders" who rejected Jesus, the Spirit applied this truth to my heart and reminded me that EVERY TIME I willfully, wantonly sin, it is a sin against God and it is tantamount to rejecting Jesus! Woe!
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteLuke 9:23 And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
What Jesus was describing for most of His followers was a figurative death, a death to that selfish tendency in every human heart, a selfish tendency that is prompted and "empowered" by the Sin principle or propensity that indwells every believer. . . Mortification of sin is not easy, but requires me daily to jettison self-reliance and to rely wholly on the Holy Spirit.
John Stott: The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so-called “nominal Christianity.” In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent, but thin, veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved; enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable. Their religion is a great, soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism.
Daniel Akin - The Self-Centered Life Must Be Put to Death (Mark 8:34) Jesus lays out the essence of “the normal Christian life,” the basics of discipleship, which sadly in our day looks like “the radical Christian life.” Being Jesus’ disciple requires three essentials. First, deny yourself. Give up the right to self-determination. Live as Christ directs. Treasure and value Jesus more than yourself, your comforts, your aspirations. Put to death the idol of I! Say no to you and yes to Jesus. Second, take up your cross. Die! Luke 9:23 adds the word “daily” because that is what we must do. This is not normal or natural, but it is necessary to be Christ’s disciple. And it is a slow, painful death. Finally, follow Me! Are we willing to believe and obey Jesus? It will be radical, not comfortable, because it involves a death to the self-centered life.
In his commentary on Luke Hughes expands on crosses asking "What are our crosses? They are not simply trials or hardships. Some think of a nutty boss or an unfair teacher or a bossy mother-in-law as a "cross." But they are not. Neither can we properly call an illness or a handicap a cross. A cross results from specifically walking in Christ's steps, embracing his life. It comes from bearing disdain because we are following the narrow way of Jesus Christ, "the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6)....Our crosses come from and are proportionate to our dedication to Christ. Difficulties do not indicate cross-bearing, though difficulties for Christ's sake do. Do we have any difficulties because we are closely following Christ?
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteAvery Will in Master Life says "We learn from Jesus' example that a Christian's cross has two characteristics: It is a voluntary commitment, and it is an act of obedience.
John Piper on "deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.” In other words, treasure me more than your own comfort and your own safety. The opposite of self-denial is the idol of self-gratification, and the opposite of cross-bearing is the idol of self-preservation.....if you would save your life, you must lose it, and if you would follow Jesus, you must take up your cross daily.
Adrian Rogers - Somebody asked Tozer, "What does it mean to take up your cross?" He's facing one direction. He's not going back. He said goodbye. And he has no further plans of his own.
Akoloutheo has a variety of meanings which are all quite similar: 1) a soldier following his king; 2) a slave following his master; 3) a citizen following the law of the state; 4) a scholar following his teacher; 5) a young man following the wisdom of an elder. All imply that we must follow Jesus without question anywhere, at any time, at any cost.
James Earley - Jesus did not say, "Follow a set of rules" or "Follow a series of rituals." He said, "Follow Me." Discipleship is an intensely personal pursuit. Make no mistake about it. Being a disciple of Jesus is more than adding a new set of activities to your already busy life. Being a disciple of Jesus is first and foremost a response to His call to pursue Him passionately.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteWhat Did Jesus Mean When He Said, “Take up Your Cross and Follow Me”
Let’s begin with what Jesus didn’t mean. Many people interpret “cross” as some burden they must carry in their lives: a strained relationship, a thankless job, a physical illness. With self-pitying pride, they say, “That’s my cross I have to carry.” Such an interpretation is not what Jesus meant when He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” When Jesus carried His cross up Golgotha to be crucified, no one was thinking of the cross as symbolic of a burden to carry. To a person in the first-century, the cross meant one thing and one thing only: death by the most painful and humiliating means human beings could develop.
Therefore, “Take up your cross and follow Me” means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender. After each time Jesus commanded cross bearing, He said, “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?” (Luke 9:24–25). Although the call is tough, the reward is matchless.
Wherever Jesus went, He drew crowds. Although these multitudes often followed Him as Messiah, their view of who the Messiah really was—and what He would do—was distorted. They thought the Christ would usher in the restored kingdom. They believed He would free them from the oppressive rule of their Roman occupiers. Even Christ’s own inner circle of disciples thought the kingdom was coming soon (Luke 19:11). When Jesus began teaching that He was going to die at the hands of the Jewish leaders and their Gentile overlords (Luke 9:22), His popularity sank. Many of the shocked followers rejected Him. Truly, they were not able to put to death their own ideas, plans, and desires, and exchange them for His.
Therefore, Jesus appeared to dissuade them. How different from the typical Gospel presentation! How many people would respond to an altar call that went, “Come follow Jesus, and you may face the loss of friends, family, reputation, career, and possibly even your life”? The number of false converts would likely decrease! Such a call is what Jesus meant when He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.”
Commitment to Christ means taking up your cross daily, giving up your hopes, dreams, possessions, even your very life if need be for the cause of Christ. Only if you willingly take up your cross may you be called His disciple (Luke 14:27). The reward is worth the price. Jesus followed His call of death to self (“Take up your cross and follow Me”) with the gift of life in Christ: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25–26).
Alan Carr on taking up your cross - When Jesus says that we are to take up our cross, He is saying that we are to live as dead men! You see, to take up ones cross was to start upon a “death march”. Their walk under that cross always ended up with them on that cross. They began a process from which there was no retreating and no turning back. To take up your cross was to embrace the death of self!
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteRay Pritchard paraphrases the words of Jesus - Now that you know who I am, are you ready to take up your cross and follow me? Before you answer, let me warn you that to follow me will seem, in the eyes of the world, as if you are wasting your life. The people of the world will never understand what you are doing. It will seem to them that by following me, you are throwing your life away.
You always have another option. You can try to save your life by following your own desires. Lots of people do that. They live as if their careers were all that mattered. But the people who live only for this life in the end will find that they wasted it on things that don’t really matter. They tried to save it by living for themselves, but in the end they will lose it. They have wasted their lives on trivial pursuits.
After all, what good will it do if you become the richest man in the world, or climb to the top of the corporate ladder, or rise to the highest salary level in your company, or win the applause of the world? What good will all that do if in the end you find out it was all wasted? What good will that shiny new sports car do for you then? Will you be able to trade it in for another life? No, you won’t. But if you want to live that way, go ahead. Millions of people do. In the end they will be sorry, but by then it will be too late to do anything about it.
So what will it be, men? The way of the cross or the way of the world? You’ve got to invest your life somewhere. What’s the best deal you can make?
The martyred missionary Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
If you live for your career, what difference will it make ten seconds after you die? If you spend your life in the service of the kingdom of God, the road may not be easy, but 10,000 years from now you’ll never regret your decision.
Lord Jesus, you have called me to follow you, and now I must give an answer. Clear the cobwebs of confusion from my heart so that I might answer your call gladly, freely, completely, immediately, and say, “Here am I, Lord, ready to do your will.” Amen.
“Temptation always tests whether you love God more than the temptation. Let me give you a tip about temptation. When you’re tempted, don’t resist it. Because as you’re resisting it, guess what you’re doing? You’re just thinking about the temptation! You’re getting into a spiritual tug-of-war with Satan, and he always wins. You don’t resist it, you just drop the rope and walk a different direction and you think about something different. This is a verse that I’ve used literally hundreds and hundreds of times in my life [Philippians 4:8: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”] When I’m tempted it’s my favorite verse to use to turn my thoughts from what’s wrong to what’s right, so I’ve memorized it very well, because I have been tempted a lot. If you’ll take a verse like this and let it turn your mind from what’s wrong to what’s right, you’ll find the temptation starts to drop away.”
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteBefore we examine this important verse, let me clear up another common misconception, namely, that discipleship is an option for the super-committed, but it is not mandatory for all believers.
The other track, for the rest of us “normal” people, is the more sensible plan. You can pursue your dreams for success and personal fulfillment, live in increasing levels of luxury, and generally enjoy the good life in the fellowship of a good evangelical church. Every once in a while you need to drop something in the offering plate. But don’t worry about sacrifice, cross-bearing, or self-denial. Remember, we’re under grace, and all that sacrifice stuff is just for those on the discipleship track.
I contend that Jesus taught that there is only one track for those who believe in Him, namely, the discipleship track. While we’re all at differing levels of growth in the process of following Jesus, if you’re not His disciple, you are not a Christian.
Every believer is called to be completely yielded to Jesus as Lord and completely dedicated to furthering His kingdom in accordance with the various gifts He has entrusted to you. If self is at the center of your life and you’re just using Jesus to fulfill self, you are not a Christian. Christians follow Jesus, which is diametrically opposed to living for self. In Lu 9:23, Jesus sets forth three requirements for following Him:
1. To follow Jesus requires repudiating a self-centered life.
Then, just as we received Christ, so we walk in Him (Col 2:6-note). We renounce self-exaltation (pride) and live to exalt God. We renounce self-will (directing our own lives) and live to do God’s will. We renounce self-seeking (living for our goals and desires, apart from God) and live instead to seek God and His kingdom and righteousness. Those who follow Jesus repudiate a self-centered life at every level. As Alexander Maclaren observes, “Flagrant vice is not needed to kill the real life. Clean, respectable selfishness does the work effectually”.
Thus because of who Jesus is, receiving Him is not a matter of deciding that your life is lacking something and that Jesus will fill that void and give you the happy life you’ve always wanted. Jesus isn’t just one spoke in the wheel of your life. If that’s all He is, you have never dethroned self. To be a Christian is to deny self as both Savior and Lord and to enthrone Jesus in that place. This begins at the moment of salvation and continues throughout your Christian life. But if it has not begun, you have not become a Christian, since Jesus puts this requirement at the outset of a decision to follow Him.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDelete2. To follow Jesus requires daily death to self.
Taking up your cross is not an unavoidable trial that you passively submit to. Jesus says that it must be a daily thing that we actively choose to embrace.
Jesus’ hearers knew that a man who took up his cross was, for all practical purposes, a dead man. A man bearing his cross gave up all hope and interest in the things of this world, including self-fulfillment. He knew he would be leaving this world in a very short time. He was dead to self.
A. T. Pierson said, “Getting rid of the ‘self-life’ is like peeling an onion: layer upon layer—and a tearful process!”
What we lack and don’t want to develop (because it’s not easy) is spiritual discipline. Paul told Timothy, “Discipline (command calling for this to be our lifestyle) yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1Ti 4:7-note). Discipline isn’t miraculous or instantaneous and it’s not easy. No top athlete gets in shape by eating a dose of some wonder-food, like Popeye’s spinach. Nor does he work out for a few days and declare, “I’m in shape now!” It takes weeks, months, and even years. Neither does he finally get in shape and then kick back and say, “I’ve arrived! I’m in shape now, so I don’t need to work out any more.” The minute you stop working at it, you start getting flabby. It’s no different spiritually. Just as flabby muscles set in the day an athlete stops working out, so self asserts itself the day the Christian stops putting it to death.
It starts on the thought level: you must deny and forsake sinful thoughts and attitudes, and replace them with godly thoughts and attitudes as revealed in Scripture (cf Ro 12:1-2). If you deal with sin on the thought level, then it never gets any further (cf Ro 6:11). When greedy thoughts invade your mind, you instantly judge them and pray, “Lord, I don’t want to desire the things of this world that is passing away, but to seek first Your kingdom.” When sexual lust tempts you, you yank out your eye (to use Jesus’ words, Mt 5:27-29) and pray, “O God, fill my vision with the purity of Jesus and His righteousness!” When selfish thoughts (“I have my rights! I don’t have to take this!”) crowd your mind, you nail them to the cross by praying, “Lord Jesus, You gave up all Your rights, took on the form of a servant and became obedient to death on the cross for me. Help me to display that same attitude right now” (Php 2:5-8). That’s how Jesus’ disciples live, not for self, but daily dying to self in order to follow Jesus.
3. To follow Jesus requires ongoing submission to Jesus as Lord.
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him ... follow Me” (Lu 9:23). It’s a present imperative, pointing to a continual process of walking behind Jesus, going where He goes, doing what He does. It means not calling our own shots or doing our own thing, but submitting to Jesus’ commands and doing His thing. As Godet remarks, “The chart of the true disciple directs him to renounce every path of his own choosing, that he may put his feet into the print of his leader’s footsteps”
But we need to remember that obedience ought always to be connected to the personal relationship we enjoy with our Savior and Lord (Ed: And daily dependence on the Spirit of Jesus for His adequacy to accomplish supernaturally what I cannot accomplish naturally).
Conclusion
The doctrine of self-love or self-esteem is not compatible with Jesus’ teaching on self-denial.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteThe only person who would willingly lose his life for Jesus is a person who has been born again by the Spirit of Jesus. He then has the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Who gives him supernatural desire to die to self and his innate selfishness (e.g., by serving others, giving to others, spending time with Jesus in His Word and prayer, etc). No man would die to self by himself! In other words the natural tendency of our flesh is to survive and to pamper self. But in our day to day life we encounter many opportunities to die to self interests (enabled by the Spirit) and to put the interests of God and others before our interests.
Cornerstone Biblical Commentary on losing temporarily paradoxically means gaining eternally – Perhaps this is what Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China, meant when, after a life of tremendous sacrifice, he solemnly declared, “I never made a sacrifice.” He had truly lost all for Christ but in return found his all in Christ. Like Paul, he could say, “I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him” (Phil 3:8-9).
He is the one who will save it - This refers to salvation by grace through faith. (Spirit energized) Self-sacrifice is the only way to self-discovery. Dying is the doorway to living. Giving is the key to receiving. However beware of the deceptive thought that your DOING in any way contributes to your salvation but to the contrary is the fruit of your salvation.
Jesus is explaining why it is essential to live in the difficult manner He has just outlined in verse Lu 9:23. To put it in the first person:
I should deny myself and take up my cross daily because I live in view of eternity. Jesus shows us that to live wisely in the here and now, we must keep our focus on eternity.
1. The disciple daily crucifies self because he wants ultimately to be saved (Lk 9:24).
But the principle of Lu 9:24 also applies to all of the Christian life. It applies to our money, which is not ours, but the Lord’s.
The principle of losing our life to gain it applies to our service to others.
The principle also applies to your family life.
The principle also applies to your relationship with the Lord.
2. The disciple daily crucifies self because he recognizes that this world is insignificant and fleeting in light of eternity (Lk 9:25).
3. The disciple daily crucifies self because he lives in the light of the second coming of Jesus to judge the world (Lk 9:26).
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteLuke 9:26 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
John MacArthur - Jesus identifies those who will not repent and believe in Him as those who are ashamed of Him and His words (cf. Matt. 10:32-33). To be ashamed in this context means to reject, despise, and find unacceptable. Such people are proud of what they should be ashamed of; their “glory is in their shame” (Phil. 3:19).
J C Ryle - The wickedness of being ashamed of Christ is very great. It is a proof of unbelief. It shows that we care more for the praise of men whom we can see, than that of God whom we cannot see. It is a proof of ingratitude. It shows that we fear confessing Him before man who was not ashamed to die for us upon the cross. Wretched indeed are they who give way to this sin. Here, in this world, they are always miserable. A bad conscience robs them of peace. In the world to come they can look for no comfort. In the day of judgment they must expect to be disowned by Christ to all eternity, if they will not confess Christ for a few years upon earth. Let us resolve never to be ashamed of Christ. Of sin and worldliness we may well be ashamed. Of Christ and His cause we have no right to be ashamed at all. Boldness in Christ's service always brings its own reward.
John Piper - What’s the opposite of being ashamed of somebody? Being proud of them. Admiring them. Not being embarrassed to be seen with them. Loving to be identified with them. So Jesus is saying, “If you are embarrassed by Me and the price I paid for you (and He’s not referring to lapses of courage when you don’t share your faith, but a settled state of your heart toward him)—if you’re not proud of Me and you don’t cherish Me and what I did for you—if you want to put yourself with the goats that value their reputation in the goat herd more than they value Me, then that’s the way I will view you when I come. I will be ashamed of you, and you will perish with the people who consider Me an embarrassment.”
Luke 12:8-9 “And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; 9but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
Me and My words - Jesus is clearly saying you cannot divide His words from His Person. To disown one is to disown the other.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteLuke 9:27 "But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God."
First we do well to acknowledge that this is a difficult statement to interpret with any degree of dogmatism.
Steven Cole: There are various interpretations of what Jesus meant by this. Some liberals say that it was a mistaken prediction that Jesus would come back before some of the apostles died. We can dismiss this as the stupid ramblings of irreverent men. Others relate it to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but it is difficult to see why that event represented the coming of God’s kingdom. Others interpret it as a reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the rule of Christ through His church. But it seems to me that Jesus is referring to something more spectacular than that. I agree with many of the early church fathers who believed that Jesus was referring to the event that immediately follows, namely, His transfiguration. Three of the disciples there got a glimpse of what Jesus will be like in that coming kingdom, when He comes in the glory of the Father and His holy angels (Lk 9:26).
But I say to you - He has just described individuals who will be ashamed "when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." (Lk 9:26) This coming in context is a reference to His Second Coming in power and glory as He described in Mt 24:30 when all "will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory."
There are some of those standing here - The "some" is identified specifically in Lk 9:28 as Peter, John, and James.
The meaning of the statement that some will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God is clear at one level, harder at another. Jesus predicts some will experience the kingdom before they die. When does this happen? (1) An initial fulfillment is the next event, the transfiguration. (2) It is also possible in Luke's understanding that all but Judas experience the initial fulfillment of the coming of God's presence and rule in the work of Acts 2. In either case, the "kingdom of God" referred to here would be the initial rather than the final phase.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-9-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteWhat the Bible Teaches - The difficulty of this verse is the meaning of the words, "till they see the kingdom of God". Matthew says "till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Mt 16:28). Mark says, "till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power" (Mk 9:1). Any interpretation must satisfy all these expressions. In the many interpretations that have been given to this verse, differing views on the course of future events are evident. Amillennialists, who do not distinguish between Israel and the church, interpret the coming of the kingdom of God as the day of Pentecost or the spread of the gospel throughout the world. Others say that the Lord is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70, and use Luke 21:5-20 to support this view. It is very difficult to see how the destruction of Jerusalem was "the Son of man coming in his kingdom". Some teach that the Lord is not referring to the actual disciples who heard Him that day, but that He is viewing them as being representative of the faithful remnant at the close of the tribulation. Still others say it refers to the resurrection and ascension of the Lord, but the problem with this latter interpretation is that He called His death, resurrection and ascension His going away, not His coming back. In all three synoptic Gospels these words immediately precede the display of the glory of the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration; therefore the immediate context is the glory that was seen by Peter, James and John. These three men correspond to "some standing here", but was this "the Son of man coming in his kingdom" with power? Peter believed that it was, for this is the very language he used about his experience on the mount, "we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Pet 1:16-note). He then describes the glory that he and the two others saw on the mount, linking it to the "power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ", of which it was a preview.
Questions and findings:
ReplyDelete1. Why did Jesus ask about what the crowd thought?
I think He was teaching the disciples how lost the crowd was. The crowd had their own idea of what the Messiah was, and was unwilling to adjust their view. Because of their wrong belief in Jesus, and their unwillingness to change over to believing in who Jesus really was, they were lost. The disciples also had a wrong view of Jesus, but they trusted and believed in Jesus (which eventually led them to have a correct view of who Jesus was). Because of this, they were saved. However, they needed to realize that their current view (shared by the crowd) was the wrong view.
2. Why did Jesus want them to keep it secret that He was the Christ?
Since the crowd stubbornly held to their wrong view of who the Christ was, telling them Jesus was the Christ was tantamount to a lie (because Jesus was not "their" Christ).
It's something to think about today. If someone is holding on to incorrect views, we cannot tell them anything. We first have to address the wrong beliefs.
3. Why did Jesus choose this time to tell them of His coming crucifixion?
Because this is who the Christ really is. Christ came to this world as a sacrifice for it before God. The disciples needed to have this understanding of who the Christ is.
4. Why does following Christ have to be carrying a cross? Jesus did it, why do we have to also?
Our sin nature is death to us. Carrying our cross is denying (and killing) our sin nature. Jesus died so that we can die to our sin nature. Our sin nature must die for us to ultimately commune with God. God, who is the only source of life, will not accept us if our sin nature is alive in us.
5. What does it mean that we will lose or save our lives depending on whether we lose our lives for Jesus sake? And why must we lose the world to gain Christ?
We carry our cross throughout our lives on our way to our own (physical) death. We have a choice in this life - dying with Jesus or hanging on to our sin nature. At the end of our lives, if we our carrying our cross, Jesus will reward us with the final death of our sin nature and life in Him. If we come before Him without His cross, all that is left is our sin nature - and all that is us will die before Him.
6. What does it mean to be ashamed of Jesus?
It doesn't necessarily mean to be ashamed before other people (although that very well could be a sign of it). I think it means holding back from Jesus in our hearts.
7. What will it mean for Jesus to be ashamed of us in His kingdom?
If we hold back from Him and hold on to our sin nature, Jesus will (by His very nature) hold back from us - and we will die in our sins.
8. What did Jesus mean that there were some there who wouldn't taste death until they saw the kingdom of God?
This most likely refers to what happens immediate after (in Luke) - the transfiguration. Peter, James and John witness Jesus' transfiguration, along with Elijah and Moses. I admit, I don't understand the significance of the transfiguration (I hope that I will when studying the next section), but it is obviously very significant. It's very likely the inauguration ceremony of the kingdom of God.
Very thought provoking, especially in regards to carrying the cross and dying to self.
ReplyDelete