Disciples of Jesus

Scripture Reading

Luke 9:12–27 NKJV

When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. 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?” So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, 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 the third day.” Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

To be a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean being a super-Christian; a disciple of Jesus is just a Christian. We have today a focus on Jesus’ disciples as they grow in the service for Jesus and understanding of who he is. What does it take to be a disciple?

I. Trusting the Lord to Enable

The miracle of the feeding of the 5000 is told in all four gospels. But while it’s the same story all four times, they do not all have the same point. John, for instance, focuses on the reaction of the crowds. Luke, on the other hand, does not even mention what the crowds thought. He spends most of his time on what the disciples thought. The main problem for the disciples is that they lack the ability to do as Jesus asks. They cannot provide that much food for people.

The impossible request

Now they are in a field outside Bethsaida. the crowds won’t die if they don’t eat, but they do need food. The disciples are thinking practically - the crowds should be responsible for their own food, so send them away so they can go buy it. Luke does not dwell on why Jesus wants this done. Matthew states Jesus told them “they do not need to depart.” That is Jesus has a bit more teaching he wants them to get, but it is late and they do need food. But Luke does not mention that, so Luke’s point is that the request itself is impossible. They are supposed to give 5,000 men food? It simply cannot be done by normal means.

Genuine spiritual life and growth is similarly impossible. No human can by themselves bring revival to another, to say nothing of that spark of spiritual life that makes revival possible in the first place. Your pastor doesn’t just have a difficult task, he has a frankly impossible one. I can’t give you spiritual life; I can’t make you grow in Christ once you have life. I’m just a man. Yet our task - the task of the church, not just of the pastor - is to evangelize the world and build each other up in the faith.

The act of service

Yet even though only Jesus himself can accomplish the task, he still asks the disciples to do something - how much food do the crowds have. Well, not much because most everyone that brought food has eaten it by now. Again, it’s the other gospels that mention the food was from a little boy’s lunch. Luke doesn’t provide that detail, because it wasn’t what he wanted to focus on. The point is that the disciples found a pitiful quantity of food. It’s only enough for one, not enough for 5000. Yet Jesus doesn’t need even that much, so he asks them to find food because he asks them to do what they are able to do.

Then it is the disciples who organize everyone into groups of roughly 50, and it is the disciples who pass out the food for everyone. Jesus, of course, does what only he can do - he blessed the food and multiplied it thousands of times over. It’s the disciples who then gather the food simply to avoid wastage, but the point is that they end up with more food than they started with - 12 baskets, because each disciples took a basket and filled it full with leftovers.

The Lord has left his disciples still with the task of service. For any of it to amount to anything, Jesus still must do what only he can do. And when he does amazing things can happen. In the church, our task is the Great Commission, and the way that is implemented, is by making the church happen. We are supposed to make disciples, teaching them to observe everything Jesus commanded. But true discipleship requires spiritual life, something only Jesus can give; true discipleship means observing all Jesus commanded; and part of what he commanded is the church exists to edify each other to build up each other so we all become better Christians, more faithful in service, more zealous, more grounded in the faith. There are many gifts, many roles in the church that all have to exist or IBC just does not happen, but the primary mission is something only Jesus can do.

II. Confessing Jesus

We know from Matthew that Peter’s great confession took place in a completely different location, in Caesarea-Phillipi. Luke doesn’t mention that, again because he wants to connect the act of servicing as a disciple with the confession of a disciple. The act of serving, by itself, doesn’t make a disciple of Jesus. The heart of Christianity is the confession of who Jesus is, and without that, no matter how faithfully a person does good, they aren’t one of Jesus’ disciples.

Luke does mention that Jesus was alone praying. If Jesus needed to spend time praying regularly, then what do the rest of us need?

Who am I, really?

The focus of this conversation is who Jesus truly is. This is the second time this chapter Luke has mentioned the opinions of the crowds (Luke 9:7-9) - remember that when a Biblical author repeats himself, it’s because it’s particularly important. What’s important is that the crowds are trying to be neutral with Jesus. They all want to recognize that Jesus is some kind of important prophet - they don’t hate Jesus, they adore him. But they are confused because they do not truly accept his message. They can’t agree on which old prophet, but they all think he is a prophet. That’s true, Jesus is a prophet; but it is not adequate because he is more than that. You cannot be neutral with Jesus. He will not be just another good teacher; he will not be just another important historical figure. He demands more. The crowds aren’t Jesus’ disciples because they don’t confess Jesus as the Christ of God.

It’s not enough to listen to Jesus’ words. It’s not enough to just like Jesus. To be his disciple you must confess that Jesus is the Christ of God. Similarly, it’s not enough to come to church; to hear God’s Word. It’s not enough even to enjoy the preaching of God’s Word. You must believe to be Jesus’ disciple.

Now this confession has two parts - Peter bears witness that Jesus is the Christ - that is he is the anointed King of Israel, the one God has chosen to rule the world, and therefore the one to whom you must submit. The one who will be your judge. But he is also God. He is more than just a man, he is God in the flesh. Thus, Jesus demands not just your obedience, but your worship.

Tell no one? Why?!

But if so, then why on earth does Jesus command them to tell no one? Tell no one that he is the Christ, the Son of God. Why, that’s exactly what we are supposed to be doing right here; it’s exactly what I’m doing right now. Telling everyone who will listen that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. First of all, Jesus did later tell them to tell the world (Acts 1:8), so whatever he is doing, it’s only for during his lifetime.

But remember that Jesus’ fame is increasing rapidly. That’s why he had to send the twelve out. To say openly in Judea, “I’m the Messiah” was a very good way of ending up very dead.” Jesus now reveals for the first time that he is going to be killed. He is on a collision course with the religious authorities, a course he already knows will end up with him dead. This clash cannot come too early, before he has had time to reach all Israel; so Jesus has to be careful, so that Israel will be able to choose him as their Messiah. This was no longer a problem after Jesus died and rose again, so then they could tell everyone.

III. Take up your cross

Jesus them moves to teach the disciples what it takes to be a true follower of Jesus - not like the crowds who don’t really believe Jesus and just come to be entertained. He puts the demands in the starkest way possible - take up your cross.

This phrase has sometimes become almost trite - any little irritation or hardship and its “it’s my cross to bear, I suppose.” But to carry a cross wasn’t an inconvenience; a cross was a method of execution. If you’re carrying a cross, you’re going to die, painfully and horribly. Lest we think Jesus was joking, he adds to it.

Whoever desires to save his life - avoid execution - will lose it; whoever loses his life - dies a martyr - will save it. That is, Jesus demands everything, up to and including your own life. What would make you stop trying to live as a Christian? Would you stop because some people are mean? Would you stop because life is hard? Jesus asks, well, are you dead yet? No? then follow me.

And why would you follow Jesus to the death? Because nothing is more important than your soul. To “gain the world” means to have everything you could ever imagine wanting, but to be eternally lost yourself, obviously means that the “gain” is useless. All the money in the world; every honor you could ever have; every friend or family member; none of it is worth a thing if you yourself are destroyed, because you wouldn’t be able to use it.

But why would you think that failure to follow Jesus would mean losing your soul? Because Jesus declares that if you are ashamed of Jesus and his words in this age, when it costs you something to follow him, then Jesus will be ashamed of you when he returns, and it will cost you everything. Being ashamed means not putting enough faith in him to live as he commands. To be ashamed of Jesus is to count the cost of being a Christian, and to decide that it’s too costly; it’s not worth it so I’ll go along with the world; I’ll do what the world tells me, so I won’t get in trouble; I’ll think the way the world tells me to think, so no one will get mad at me. It’s not worth it to follow Jesus.

But this would be the worst thing you could ever do. In this life it will cost you something to be a Christian. Some have paid the ultimate price for being a Christian; but no one gets through the Christian life without it costing them something.