Who Is He – this Jesus?

Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost                                                    July14, 2019
Text: Luke 9:18-24                             ILCW Series C                                   19:2141
Theme: Who Is He – this Jesus?

Who am I? Before I was born, nobody knew the answer to that. My parents did not know if I would be a boy or a girl. Would I have hazel-colored eyes, like my Mom, or blue-colored eyes like my Dad? Would I have blond-colored hair? Brown? Red? Would I be a policeman, a fireman, a doctor, a musician, a pastor? No one knew before I was born – except God, my Creator. He decided things.
He even decided ahead of time the kind of person I would be and what I would do in life. He knew me before I was formed in my mother’s womb. He set me apart before I was born and called me to be a pastor (Jer.1:4f). He determined it, not me, nor my parents. He matched me to my person and my work. He determined who I am as His own. When you think of it, how He determines such things with each of us who are His is all very strange, but it is also most exciting. Who will He make you young people to be if you don’t resist Him?

I. He is the Christ of God.
In Biblical times when a new baby was born, it was even more exciting. God had promised to send some Jewish mother a very special child. That baby would be the Christ, sent by God to help His people and free them from their oppression. Who would He be?
When Christ was born, the Jewish people did not live in a free country like we do. They had been conquered by the Romans. They had to obey Roman laws and pay Roman taxes. They hated their Roman masters. They hoped that the expected Messiah would be a great general who would drive out the Roman forces and restore Israel to a Golden Age like had been in the times of Kings David and Solomon. They hoped and prayed and waited. Many Jewish mothers wondered whether their baby might be that long-expected One.
But when at last the appointed Baby came, He was not born like a king in a king’s palace. Instead, He was born in a stable. When He grew up, He did not wear a king’s golden crown and jeweled garments. He didn’t ride a big, white stallion and He didn’t lead an army of thousands of soldiers behind Him. Indeed, that promised Baby looked like an ordinary person, one who was poor and powerless. For 30 years he worked in a humble carpenter’s shop.
When He began to reveal Himself, great crowds followed Him
everywhere. He could heal any disease; He could raise people from the dead. He preached sermons like no one had ever been able to do. Some people became angry at Him for He said some strange things, talking about giving His flesh and blood to feed His followers. Others were offended when He healed the sick on the Sabbath. Many did not like it when He told them to pray for their enemies, turn the other cheek to those who abused them, and give Caesar the taxes that he demanded from them. Many did not understand what He said, but others were becoming more and more convinced who Jesus was.
One day, after praying, He asked His 12 closest friends who followed Him as students: “Who do the crowds say I am?” Jesus knew the answer before He even asked the question because He is the Christ of God. He was more than just the son of Mary, the Jewish mother who was privileged to give Him birth. As God, He knows all things. He didn’t ask the question for His benefit. He asked it for his friends’ benefit, to help them identify with Him.
They replied, “Some say that You are John the Baptist (come back to life again); but others say that You are Elijah (probably because it was prophesied “Elijah” would return – Malachi 4). And others say You are one of the ancient prophets come back to life.”
Note what such answers do in order to get at the question who is He? They compare Jesus with other people. But you will never figure out who Jesus is by comparing Him with other people for people are sinful and they do not see God or understand His ways without God showing it to them. Jesus once said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws Him” (Jn.6:44). Only the Father can reveal to someone who Jesus is.
You did not come to that on your own. Your faith is not of you; it is of the Father who sent His Spirit to reveal it. Thank God for that grace He has shown you, for human beings will never be able to answer the question on their own. They go about it the wrong way.
Jesus turned to His disciples and asked the question for their sakes: “Who do you say I am?” How could they have answered? “Oh, Jesus, You are a terrific person! You are so kind, generous, and receptive of everyone. You do many good things. And You are a great teacher for us. We think You are a wonderful person!”
Is that whom you would say Jesus is? I sure hope that you say more than that! Although all those things are true, that is not the essence of Jesus’ identity. Peter got it right when he said, “You are the Christ of God!” Only when God teaches us about Jesus can we recognize who Jesus is. Jesus made that perfectly clear when He told Peter, as Matthew tells us: “Blessed are you, Simon, for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in heaven” (Mt.16:17).
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared…but God reveals it to us by His Spirit” (1Co.2:6).
Thank God, dear friend, if you answer like Peter! Thank God and don’t take it lightly if you say: “Who is Jesus? Why, He is the Christ of God – from God Himself!” If you say that, then God’s grace has flooded your heart and entire life, and you can be grateful a thousand times over for the mercy He has shown to you because many do not know Him. If a person does not identify with Him that way, then they don’t know Him.

II. He is the Savior who must die.
That may seem odd to us. How can a person miss who He is? How could the people of Jesus day not understand? They had seen and heard so much. But look at their answers about who He was. They only wanted to see Him in the way they wanted Him to be – someone to do good, someone to free them from earthly tyranny, someone to set up a grand kingdom here. So it was that Jesus next told His disciples: “Don’t proclaim (parhggeilen) this to anyone.”
What? Don’t tell anyone! Why would He say that? One would think He wants everyone to know that He is the Christ. But people had wrong ideas about the Messiah. Perhaps their wrong ideas would interfere with the rest of Jesus’ ministry. Perhaps it would cause problems for his disciples, for even they, in spite of Peter’s grand confession, didn’t fully understand the kind of Messiah He was.
For that reason Jesus plainly told them that He had come to suffer many things; that He would be rejected by His own people and their leaders; that He would be killed, but also that He would rise from the dead on the third day. That was the way God planned to save people eternally. God’s way to salvation was through the cross. As the Savior, Jesus must die. Why was it necessary (dei) that Jesus die?
Did you ever wonder that? Why must Jesus die? He must die because of the love of God. God was so greatly concerned for us when we turned away from Him that His Son willingly came into our world to die in our place, to pay for our sins. One cannot love others fully unless he is willing to sacrifice all for their sake. You know that for sure because you have seen how terrible a sacrifice Jesus made for those whom He loved. It was necessary that He die. And if you and I love our Savior in return, we must be willing to walk in His footsteps, making sacrifices for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. He said, “If any would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

III. He is the One we follow to the cross.
Stand up for Jesus! Pick up the cross like He did. It will be the kind of cross that is worthy of the name, the kind that grips and hurts, the kind that weighs down hard upon you. Otherwise, how could it be a cross? It is more than sickness and hardship. It is a cross, the kind of suffering that you have not chosen for yourself and of which you would gladly be rid of. It comes because you identified yourself with Christ, the Savior. Jesus was crucified for whom He said He was. Caiaphas condemned Him for being the Son of God. Likewise, God’s people will be condemned by the world for being who they are – believers who look only to Jesus as the Savior. When you have identified yourself that way, you have not denied Him, but you have denied yourself.
Have you denied yourself – said “no” to yourself and your own wishes and desires? Have you said “no” to what the devil and the world want you to be? We are tempted to not fully deny ourselves. But without denial of self, one can’t take up the cross to follow Him.
The story is told of a missionary who watched peddlers in Jerusalem going about the streets selling miniature crosses. As they passed tourists on the streets, the peddlers called out: “Cheap cross! Cheap cross! Who would like to buy a cheap cross!”
There is no such thing for any who follow Christ. Sacrifice of self and denial of human desires must be made if we are to identify with Him, our Savior. He is the One we follow to the cross. It’s not easy, but it’s not nearly as hard as what Jesus did for us. As we follow Him in and love for His sacrificial love to us, the glorious wonder is that we never lose our lives but gain so much more in eternity.
So, who is He? It actually is quite simple. Jesus is the Christ of God, the Savior who had to die for us. He is the One we follow even to the cross. God grant it to us in faith for Jesus’ sake. Amen.