Untitled Sermon (4)

Title: Who do people say that Jesus is?

Introduction

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The

Christ of God.” (Luke 9:20)

Anyone who desires to become a follower of Jesus Christ, must know who He is, the

identity of the Christ has eternal consequences, and believing in the wrong Jesus can

and will send someone to eternal hell, but believing in the Biblical Jesus has an

eternal reward, a relationship with Almighty God Himself that will never be

separated. Knowing the identify of Jesus also involves comprehending the value of His

sacrifice, and know what it really means to commit your life to Him, and what does it

mean to make Him Lord of your life.

There was a picture that I saw that said: "We often treat Jesus, the way Saul treated

David; we want Him to slay giants and sing evil spirits away, but we don't want Him

to be King."

What this internet meme is saying is that, for many people Jesus acts like our

boyfriend or girlfriend, but He is not our Lord.

"And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He

asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

Luke 9:18 NKJV

We read here that while Jesus was praying, His disciples joined him. I think the

mention of the word "disciples" here is important, as not all disciples really

understood what it truly meant to be a "disciple". According to gotquestions.org, on

their article on this topic ( https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-disciple.html) a

disciple was a term that referred to one following Jesus Christ and learning from Jesus

Christ. It refers to one who is in the process of learning rather than teaching. The

disciples would later be changed to Apostles, which means those who are sent into

ministry after their training is completed. For majority of professing Christians, this

transition never happens, and they are forever stuck in their relationship to Christ that

is of a beginner level. The Bible calls this being "infants in Christ"

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you

again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for

everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a

child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of

discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

Jesus was quite clear about the cost of following Him. Discipleship requires a totally

committed life: “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my

disciple” (Luke 14:33). Sacrifice is expected: “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone

would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’”

(Matthew 16:24).

Not all of Jesus’ followers were able to make such a commitment. There were many

who left Jesus after a while. “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no

longer followed him” (John 6:66).

Jesus truly defined what Lordship Salvation means: "whoever does not hate his own

father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his

own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come

after me cannot be my disciple."

So many Christians do not realize what they say when they speak "I make Jesus the

Lord of my life." Because of their ignorance, they redefine Lordship, and their King

of Kings is nothing more than a good luck charm, which is what King Saul made his

God into.

Saul wanted David to sing songs, and many Christians today only go to church for

their worship services, which look like modern day secular concerts.

Worship and music have always been important to the Christian church. The fact that

we have 150 Psalms in Scripture really says something. Truly we were created by

God to love and enjoy Him (by implication worship and adore Him) forever. That

being said, "some in the modern church movement have gone a step further and made

the performing of worship music the central point in their Sunday services.

Some popular movements have even branded their name more on their worship than

their preaching and teaching. In one respect, this is nothing new, as I found out

15 years ago that many churches put more priority into funding a choir leader than a

youth pastor; and many churches are more known by their gospel choir than by any

other component of their congregation or movement."

(https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/the-pulse/68487-10-unsettlingcharacteristics-of-a-concert-driven-church)

Saul also wanted for David to slay his giants. A relationship with Jesus Christ does not

deliver us from our trouble, but there is a promise that Jesus will be with us IN the

troubles of life. The giants of life can represent the giant problems that surround every

person on this planet. Sin has really made the world a cursed place. Our Giants are our

private sins that we fail to confess, the false teachers that we indulge on TV and in all

of our entertainment, and the demonic and satanic forces of hell that attack us because

we failed to put on the Armor of God!

But King Saul did not want David to be King. The Bible says: "So the last will be

first, and the first last.”

In his lust for power, Saul wanted his will be done, and God's will undone. Sadly, he

realized too late that this will never happen.

Back to our verse again: “Who do the crowds say that I am?

The disciples had grown up in the area, they went to all the religious gatherings all

their life, they had heard what the Jews were saying about Jesus Christ, so Jesus asks

them to give Him a report.

Famous Preacher and Missionary pastor once said he did the exact same thing here,

he went door to door asking people about their faith:

"Do you realize if I dismissed us right now and told everyone to go knock on every

door in this city, do you know what we would find out? Ninety-nine percent of the

people, at least, in this city believe themselves to be believers. If you go back to your

hometown and knock on every door…because I went back to my hometown after I

got saved and knocked on every door, and you know what I found out? Everyone in

my town is a Christian. Eighty-five percent of them do not go to church, and those

who do go to church are not concerned about holiness. They’re not concerned about

serving. They’re not concerned about being separate from the world. They’re not

concerned about the Gospel being preached among the nations. But, bless God,

they’re saved.

Why are they saved? Because some evangelist who should have spent less time

preaching and more time studying his Bible told them they were saved, and he did it

so that he could brag about how many people came forward in his next revival."

In verse 19 the disciples said well the vast majority of people said Jesus is a great

prophet.

So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that

one of the old prophets has risen again.”

Luke 9:19 NKJV

Some say you are John the Baptist who has come back to life, some say Elijah who is

the predicted future prophet to come and some say you are some other prophet from

the O.T. who has been raised up. We know from Matthew 16:14 that some were

saying He was Jeremiah.

Now it is clear from this that the people respected Christ and had a high view of Him.

But their view was wrong. What is absolutely clear is that the vast majority of people

were not saying this is our God, this is our Savior, this is our Messiah and this is our

King who can deliver us and save us from our sins. Even though many of these people

were following Christ, the vast majority of people have no clue as to the true identity

of Jesus Christ and they have no sense of their need to be saved from their sins. They

respected Jesus Christ, but they had no idea as to His real identity.

He was not their King. I'm looking at the internet meme again, and it does paint a

similiar picture, we want Jesus to be our Genie, grant us our wishes, save us from our

pains and sufferings, but we don't want Him to be our Lord and King. We want to use

Jesus to make our plans, and don't care about God's plans. To our shame and doom.

If you are in such a situation, just remember that where sin abounds, grace abounds

more. I'm reminded of Samson, another giant of the Bible, who did everything he

could resist God's will, and when all seemed lost, here is what he said:

"Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray!

Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance

on the Philistines for my two eyes!”

Judges 16:28 NKJV

There was another wicked person who also asked God to remember him in his last

hour:

Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And

Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Luke 23:42‭-‬43 NKJV

It is never too late to change your mind about Christ. If you failed to make Him your

Lord and Savior, if you failed to count the cost of being a Christian, go and pray that

God would accept your repentant heart, and start you new life again in light of

eternity.