The Jesus We Preach – Part 1
Luke 9:21-22
October 7, 2018
The last time we met we came to the climax
Of a very important theme in Luke’s gospel.
Luke definitively answered the question: “Who is Jesus?”
We’d seen it asked several times, and we’d seen it answered several times, but never so definitively as Peter answered it in Luke 9:20
Luke 9:18-20 “And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.” And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”
While THE PEOPLE certainly recognized Jesus
As a servant of God with supernatural power,
The disciples understood the role of Jesus even better.
The crowd saw Jesus as a powerful man to be recognized,
The disciples understood Him as God’s King to be obeyed.
The obvious difference in their confessions was
The element of submission.
And when you take all the confessions listed in all the gospel accounts
It becomes clear that Jesus is God’s Son, God’s King, and God’s Savior.
• He is to be worshipped as God’s Son
• He is to be obeyed as God’s King
• He is to be trusted as God’s Savior
Luke has been driving to this point since he began his gospel.
And now this morning Luke DRIVES THAT POINT EVEN DEEPER
As he opens a new segment in his gospel.
We might call it “Messianic Misconceptions”
The disciples have accurately identified Jesus as God’s Messiah,
The problem is that their ideas of who the Messiah would be
And what He would do, were way off.
They needed their theology on the Messiah corrected.
They were right about who Jesus was,
But until they understood the true work of the Messiah,
They still would not be accurate regarding what He came to do.
Jesus is about correct those misconceptions.
I can’t stress enough how important this section is
To our understanding of Jesus and the salvation He provides.
No different than the disciples,
• We are also prone to misunderstand the work of Christ,
• And when we do, we then become preachers of a less than accurate gospel.
It is our ambition to listen closely as the Lord corrects the disciples
So that we can find if any of our doctrine needs correction as well.
Let’s look at our text this morning.
It all begins in verse 21
“But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone,”
• I don’t know if you feel this way when you read the gospel, but I am often caught off guard by the responses of our Lord.
• It seems that just when I think I’m tracking and see where we’re headed, Jesus takes a step and it’s in the exact opposite direction of where I thought He was headed.
Verse 21 is no different.
Think about the recent events here in Luke’s gospel.
• Chapter 9 began with Jesus empowering the 12 to go out and preach the kingdom while healing and casting out demons, even raising the dead.
• He appointed them as ambassadors…missionaries.
• They were sent out before they came to this great confession about the Lord.
So it only stands to reason that
Now that they’ve come to this great epiphany regarding Jesus,
That the missionary efforts would really increase.
It seems to me that now that they know who Jesus is,
That they’d really want to ramp up the evangelistic efforts.
I’m thinking the proper response to Peter’s confession would have gone something like this:
• “Well done Peter! My Father revealed this to you, you know it’s the truth, now go and share what you’ve learned of Me with the world.”
• “Hurry up and get out there, the world thinks I’m John the Baptist, you’ve got to go and correct that.”
More or less a, “Well, what are you waiting for?” type moment.
That seems to fit…
That seems to flow…
And that’s what makes this command of the Lord seem so strange.
“But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone”
The fact that Luke includes “warned” and “instructed”
Indicates that JESUS WAS EMPHATIC about this point.
• This wasn’t a suggestion that they might want to keep it on the down-low.
• This wasn’t a backseat command to be careful.
• This wasn’t false humility where-by Jesus didn’t want to sound like He was tooting His own horn.
No, this was an emphatic command from the Lord that
They should NOT “tell this to anyone”
In fact, that command came with a WARNING.
“I’m warning you, don’t say a word about this to anyone”
WHAT?!?
THE OBVIOUS QUESTION on our minds, and it must have been the question on the disciple’s minds is: WHY?
God Himself just revealed to us that
• You are the Christ,
• The Son of the Living God,
• The One who has words of eternal life,
And now You’re telling us to keep this news quiet…WHY?
AND HERE’S THE REASON.
If the disciples had gone out at this point to preach about Jesus,
They would have preached the wrong message.
Can you preach the wrong message about Jesus?
Absolutely you can, and had the disciples gone right here, they most certainly would have.
FOR A MOMENT, forget what you know about the work of Christ,
And imagine all you knew is what the disciples had seen.
(there’s nothing beyond Luke 9:20)
AND NOW THE DISCIPLES KNOW THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH.
What do you think they’re going to go preach?
“We found the King!” – certainly
And what did they believe the King would do? – usher Israel back into world prominence.
• He’s going to eradicate disease
• He’s going to remove all demonic oppression
• He’s going to overthrow every oppressor; namely Rome
• He’s going to restore national prominence
• He’s going to usher in that land flowing with milk and honey
Why would they preach those things?
Because those are Messianic promises.
TURN TO: Isaiah 9 Let me just walk you through some of these promises
(READ Isaiah 9:6-7)
(READ Isaiah 11:1-9)
(READ Isaiah 25:6-26:6)
And there are many more that we don’t have time to get to.
They all represent the peace and the glory
Which will be revealed when God’s king reigns upon the earth.
It is what Israel was waiting for.
It is what Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph and those Shepherds and Simeon and Anna and were all waiting for.
• A day of peace
• A day of prosperity
• A day of glory
• A day of preeminence
And if the disciples go now,
I can all but guarantee you that this is what they’ll be preaching.
“Our hardship is over, we’ve found God’s king!”
“Our suffering is ended, our sickness if gone – God’s king is here!”
“Good-bye Rome!”
“There’s a new King in town.”
THAT’S WHAT THEY’D PREACH.
And is that true about Jesus? YES
(someday He will return and set up His earthly kingdom and all that will come to pass)
That is true about Jesus.
But listen to me closely…
THAT’S NOT THE MESSAGE
And if you’ve ever been confused about whether we should be preaching more of a prosperity message to the world like so many have grown fond of doing, then let this statement from Jesus clarify your thinking.
Jesus knows the message they’d go out and preach about Him
And He emphatically stops them in their tracks
And tells them not to go and preach it.
And this text here in Luke makes that abundantly clear.
“But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone, 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.”
Jesus gives the explanation as to why
They should not go around telling everyone that He is the Messiah.
And the reason is because proclaiming Him as the King
And promising earthly prosperity through Him
IS THE WRONG MESSAGE
.
He had NOT come to rule and to reign upon this earth (yet),
He had come to suffer and die and rise.
And just to make sure we are clear, let me emphatically tell you.
THIS IS THE MESSAGE WE PREACH
1 Corinthians 1:17 “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.”
1 Corinthians 1:23 “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,”
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
There is a message about Jesus that this world wants to hear.
• It is a message that is well-received
• It is a message that is easy to proclaim
• And many have learned that it is a message which can even greatly benefit the one who preaches it.
WHAT IS THAT MESSAGE?
That Jesus is the King who came to end your suffering.
In Jesus’ day,
It equated to overthrowing Rome and eradicating all sickness, disease, death, hardship, poverty and suffering.
In our day, it’s not much different.
It is a Jesus that will end people’s suffering, heal all their sicknesses, restore all their finances, and give them their best life now.
Our world loves the message of Jesus the conquering King
Who lifts all life’s burdens and makes all your troubles disappear.
Our world loves the message about receiving life abundant from Jesus.
(they misconstrue that message, but they love their interpretation of it)
BUT THAT’S NOT THE MESSAGE
And if you go out and preach that message you are going to make a mess of everything Jesus came to accomplish.
Will He one day return and be the conquering King who will totally eradicate all the effects of sin and the curse? ABSOLUTELY HE WILL.
But that’s not what He came for the first time.
See, there was a much bigger issue
There is a much bigger problem plaguing this world than just their sickness and poverty, and Jesus came to handle THAT problem.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM JESUS CAME TO ADDRESS?
SPIRITUAL DEATH
That men, by reason of their sin and rebellion, are estranged from God and abide under His wrath, having no hope of eternal life, but a certain expectation of judgment.
Since the day God said “Let there be light”
There has been an abiding expectation from God
That everything He created would be “good”.
We understand that as righteous or holy or perfect.
GOD DEMANDS THIS PERFECTION.
Listen even to Jesus:
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
And anything less than God’s absolute perfection
Causes a man to abide under God’s wrath
And as His enemy for all eternity.
IN SHORT, IT IS OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE
• If Jesus heals all men of their sickness to only make them healthy enemies of
God.
• If is of little consequence if Jesus releases all men from their poverty to only
make them wealthy enemies of God.
• It is of little consequence if Jesus releases all men from their oppressors to
only make them liberated enemies of God.
What good is that?
THAT’S WHY WE DON’T PREACH THAT MESSAGE!
WE PREACH A DIFFERENT MESSAGE.
What message do we preach?
Here it is:
(22) “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.”
And, by the way, Jesus never fully or permanently commissioned the disciples to go out and preach UNTIL they had this message.
And if we had time I could take you through the book of Acts and show you that when they did go, this is what they preached.
(I wish we had time, but if you’re curious go read Acts 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 8 and 10 and see if their message is about anything other than this.)
I can take you and show you the point in Luke’s gospel when Jesus would prepare them to permanently go and preach:
Luke 24:45-48 “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. “You are witnesses of these things.”
Not until they knew the right message
Where they ever permanently commissioned.
Had the disciples gone now,
They would have preached the wrong Jesus
And the wrong message.
DO YOU HEAR THE WARNING THERE CHURCH?
It is possible to be Christ’s church and still go broadcast the wrong message to the world. DON’T DO IT.
The message we are to preach is
• The message of His suffering,
• Of His rejection by the religious establishment,
• Of His death on the cross,
• And of His resurrection.
This is the Jesus we preach
Let’s look at those and I’ll explain why.
4 aspects here that Jesus outlines, let’s look at them and see why we preach them.
#1 HIS SUFFERING
Luke 9:22a
“The Son of Man must suffer many things”
Don’t miss the word “must” there.
This isn’t optional.
It indicates the divine sovereign plan of the Father.
What are we talking about here then when we talk about His suffering?
Well certainly we could include the cross in this,
But we’ll talk about that one in a moment.
Let’s, at least for the time being, just speak of His pre-cross suffering.
• Even before His death Jesus was appointed by the Father to suffer.
• It had to happen.
So let’s talk about suffering here, before the cross.
(His pre-death suffering)
And in that list, there is no doubt that the greatest suffering He faced was THE INCARNATION.
Philippians 2:5-7 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
I don’t know if you’ve ever been asked to do something in life
Which you felt like was beneath you,
But I can promise you never dropped further
Than Christ did at His incarnation.
This is Jesus, enjoying all the benefits and privileges and glory of being regarded by all of creation as God,
And in a moment relinquished that glory so that He could be treated like a human, even a human slave.
If today you were told to
• Move out of your house into a cardboard box
• Leave your position at work to become someone’s slave
• Lose your reputation of glory and accept one of ridicule and shame
• And give up your comforts for a life of pain and struggle
Would you say that you were suffering?
Well (to an infinitely greater extent) that’s what Christ did at the incarnation.
And the Bible says it had to happen.
It “must” happen.
WHY?
On one hand it was so that He might become a merciful Savior and High Priest.
• He was going to fulfill the role as Advocate for us before the Father.
• He had to understand our position if He were to be sympathetic to our plight.
Hebrews 2:17-18 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”
Hebrews 5:7-10 “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Call it His training.
He had to sympathize with us and so suffering was necessary.
Had He stepped from a throne in heaven to a throne on earth,
Then He would have never related to 99% of the world He came to save.
He had to suffer.
But not just for sympathy. His suffering was also to VINDICATE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Many times we see O.T. picture who represent a “type” of Jesus.
• We are familiar with the ram Abraham sacrificed instead of Isaac
• We know about the “Passover Lamb” or even Moses as a “type” of prophet
• We know about Melchizedek or even David in many cases
One that is often overlooked is “Job”
Job in many ways is a “foreshadow” of Christ.
Job was a righteous man whose righteousness was severely tested by the devil, in order to try and cause him to stumble from that his upright state.
And all Job’s suffering did was validate that he would not curse God.
This is also why Jesus had to suffer: TO VALIDATE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
It is the other side of that precious DOCTRINE OF IMPUTATION.
• On one hand our sin is imputed to Christ
• On the other hand His righteousness is imputed to us
We certainly have no problem believing we are sinful,
Christ’s suffering is what proves to us that He is righteous.
• He never succumbed to the temptation…
• He never took the bait…
• He maintained His perfection at all times…
• Even while suffering.
And because of His suffering we are confident that
We trust a Righteous Savior and a Sympathetic High Priest.
So when we preach His Suffering
• We are preaching that this Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest for sinners.
• And we are preaching that even though He dwelled among us in our sin infested world, He remained holy and righteous and pure.
We preach His suffering to demonstrate that He alone is our source of righteousness, and He is merciful and willing to give it.
His suffering was a must
#2 HIS REJECTION
Luke 9:22b
“The Son of Man must…be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes”
Now this is an interesting one to consider.
On one hand we say that He had to be rejected by them because they are the ones who would ultimately conspire for His death.
(I mean somebody had to kill Him)
But that is only part of the reason.
There is another reason why He had to “be rejected” by the reigning religious establishment.
It was done to expose that His message and their message
WHERE NOT COMPATIBLE AT ALL.
One thing you must see when you read the gospels
Is that there is not one single shred of the Pharisee’s message
That Jesus was willing to keep.
He categorically rejected every aspect of it.
AND THIS HAD TO HAPPEN.
There had to be a complete rejection by both sides.
WHY?
Because the only message the people had was that of the chief priests.
Their gospel was a false gospel.
It was bound up in legalism and pride and hypocrisy and tradition.
Jesus had to put Himself at total odds with these people
To expose that their message was not God’s truth.
There was no way for Jesus to come and make allies of these men.
There was no way for Him to come and say, “Well we don’t agree on everything, but we can still fellowship together.”
They couldn’t.
There is no fellowship between light and darkness.
Consider for a moment what these men preached.
It’s not hard to spot, for Jesus routinely exposes it.
Take for example the Sermon on the Mount.
Do you remember all those “You have heard…but I say” sermons?
Things like murder or adultery or divorce or taking an oath or an eye for an eye.
In every one of those cases Jesus exposed how the teaching that the people had heard was wrong.
• It was wrong because those commands had been externalized.
• Jesus accurately applied those commands to the heart.
Even though both may have taught that murder was wrong,
The message the people had heard was only that physical and outward murder was wrong, and that wasn’t true.
Now, who do you think they “heard” that from?
It was the religious leaders.
Or consider Matthew 6 where Jesus has to confront the crowd because the pattern of religion they had been given was wrong.
They had seen Pharisaical prayer, Pharisaical Giving, and Pharisaical Fasting.
It was all wrong, the people had been taught wrong and Jesus had to totally abolish it.
Consider this one
Matthew 15:1-9 “Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? “For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'”
• The Pharisees made everything about tradition.
• They had totally invalidated God’s word for their own preferences.
• Their worship was total futility. It was ineffective.
• Jesus could not condone or tolerate that even a little.
Consider this
Matthew 16:5-12 “And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? “Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? “Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? “How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
There is a staunch warning from the Lord about their hypocrisy.
TURN TO: Matthew 21:28
Here Jesus confronts these religions leaders again.
Read the parable (28-32)
Now what was Jesus’ point?
That knowing the truth is pointless if you don’t obey it.
This was the religious leader’s theology that Jesus was confronting.
They had turned their religion into nothing more than
Lip-service and outward appearance.
And Jesus had to expose that.
If you continue in the chapter (33-46)
You learn another parable about them, and their flaws.
• Namely that they actually resisted and hated and killed God’s prophets,
God’s servants and God’s Son.
Their theology appeared orthodox and it was actually damning.
And Jesus really brings this confrontation to a head in Matthew 23.
Matthew 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”
Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
Matthew 23:25-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Do you understand their problem?
• These men were the chief leaders of the nation.
• These men set the theology of the nation.
• These men were the teachers.
JESUS HAD TO COME AND EXPOSE THEM.
He had to be at such odds with them
To make it abundantly clear that they were not on the same side.
This was actually prophesied back in Zechariah 11.
(This is a preincarnate conversation between the Father and the Son)
Zechariah 11:4-8 “Thus says the LORD my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter. “Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no pity on them. “For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their power.” So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.”
Isn’t that true?
Jesus Himself came and said that the false shepherds were fleecing the flock and they had to be stopped.
I HOPE YOU GET THE POINT.
(When I set out to start writing this sermon I had intended to make it all the way through this verse, but we’ll have to stop here)
WHEN WE PREACH THE REJECTION OF CHRIST
We are making it known that the religious systems of legalism and tradition and outward compliance are NOT what Jesus taught.
WE PREACH A JESUS
• Who demands heart righteousness not simply adherence to external religious systems.
• Who would not accept religious involvement as an adequate substitute for righteousness.
IN SHORT,
We preach a Jesus who was righteous
As revealed by His suffering.
And we preach a Jesus who demanded righteousness
As revealed by His rejection.
TO PREACH ANYTHING ELSE
IS TO PREACH THE WRONG MESSAGE ABOUT JESUS.
The world does not need to hear about a Jesus
Who could take away all their sickness and all their poverty
And all their oppressors and make their life wonderful.
The world needs to hear about the Jesus
Who came to fulfill God’s righteous requirement, expose self-righteousness, suffer the condemnation of sinners, and deliver victory over death.
The world doesn’t need to hear about a Jesus
Who can deliver them from their discontentment.
The world needs to hear about the Jesus
Who can deliver from the wrath of God.
AND UNTIL THE DISCIPLES UNDERSTOOD THAT,
Jesus emphatically told them not to preach.
Don’t go and preach the wrong message.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
We’ll have to finish this in a couple of weeks when we return to Luke.
