Our Confession of the Christ & His Cross

I’ve decided to open this message today with something in the text here that I want us to be sure we’re applying in our current climate, and it’s an essential and important truth for us, even while it is not by itself the ‘big idea’ of this group of verses.

The setting for this training conversation between Jesus and his disciples is Jesus’ prayerfulness. Luke emphasizes prayer at the crux of crucial moments in Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Through prayer, Jesus demonstrates dependence on the Father. Surely we must follow his example. (v. 18a)

Prayer is dependence upon God. If God the Son depended on the Father in prayer, then certainly we must do the same. - Christians, especially here in the USA, it is critical that we depend upon the Father in prayer at this crucial crossroads. We do not know nor control the outcome of the coming elections (plural). … We do not know nor control the impact of Covid19 nor the policies in place bc of it (and we certainly don’t control the narrative ;-)). But we know the One who shapes nations and raises leaders (and who allows viruses and hurricanes), and we trust in his goodness and his sovereign purposes. We demonstrate our trust, our dependence, by calling upon him in prayer. In prayer we align our hearts and our wills to his character and his will.

So we need not fear, and we need not change course, except to become MORE in tune with our King’s commission for his people on this earth. Be like Jesus, and pray like God is good and his will is best. Pray like spiritual life, growth, faithfulness, victory over sin, and wisdom… all come from God through Jesus Christ and his Spirit whom he has given us. Pray like it is God who changes hearts, and pray like you know that he is doing what he knows is best. In other words, pray in faith. There is no need to doubt God’s faithfulness. In this crucial moment in your life, and in our lives, pray in dependence on God.

And if we are praying in dependence on God, we do so precisely because we have access to draw near to him through Jesus Christ. Those who confess Jesus as Lord are restored to a relationship with God. And it’s this issue of confessing Christ that is central to the meaning of our text for today.

Confession, by the way, is used two ways in the Bible. One meaning of confession is to verbally admit sin. (Agreement with God that what he has called sin is sin, and admission of our guilt for sinning… and we confess in order to seek his forgiveness and be restored to fellowship—1 Jn 1:9.)

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Another meaning, and the way we are using it here, is when you say with your mouth what you believe in your heart. It’s similar, then, but without an emphasis on the negative admission of sin, but rather a positive statement of truth. So, used this way, confession is an important declaration of belief. - That’s what we mean as we talk in this context of Peter’s confessing Jesus as the Christ. (which is the same as saying he’s the Messiah, but Christ is the Gk word… both of them meaning “anointed one”)

With Peter’s confession and Jesus’ response then we see that...

Confessing Christ means verbally expressing a clear understanding of who Jesus is and why he came.

All of this comes up in the context of a major question:

Is Jesus a Great Prophet, or the Messiah? (vv. 18b-20)

Jesus asks the first question to set up the second one. It’s like he’s saying, “I sent you out to preach the kingdom and to heal, so you’ve certainly been having lots of conversations with people about me. And I performed the miracle of feeding a huge crowd, and no doubt as you served people, you overhead commentary about that miraculous provision.... So, who do people, the crowds, say that I am?”

They answer: You know, the usual these days. (which came up only a few verses back, 7-9, in Luke’s explanation of even Herod’s head-scratching about Jesus...) The current trending idea seems to be that you are John the Baptist come back to life. (Apparently if John were raised he’d be doing miracles that he wasn’t doing before.) But others postulate you’re the returning Elijah of prophecy, others think Jeremiah or Moses or some other great prophet of old has returned.

Again, that was a setup for the next question. Clearly, such answers to the question of who Jesus is are insufficient.

Who do you say that I am? - His question is plural, to the disciples. You guys who’ve been closest to me and have seen everything and heard all my teaching and received even further insight… what’s your answer?

Peter answers as spokesman for the group.

*ding, ding, ding* *give that man a ribbon*

“The Christ of God” is the correct answer. (v. 20)

Of course, there’s more to it than what they now realize, as we see from Jesus’ response in v. 22, and from all that Luke must continue to explore right up until these predicted events actually take place.

But we shouldn’t diminish this right answer, even with their limited understanding. They confess that Jesus is the Messiah, and that’s a massive step in the right direction! (One small step for Peter, one giant leap for humanity.)

Nonetheless, their understanding is limited.

Taken broadly, the following seems to be what they (the disciples) get and don’t get:

They seem to clearly understand that Jesus is unique, greater than any prophet who has come before him, and he is the promised Messiah who was to come. The Messiah is now here.

But they don’t yet get that Jesus is Sovereign Lord of everything, and even Luke takes the full scope of Jesus’ life and mission to drive home this point. But eventually they will come to understand, for who else could predict his own death and resurrection and then make it happen according to God’s will? Who else could use the designation Son of Man for himself, which on first glance sounds just like saying “human being,” but actually references prophecy from Daniel 7 of the one who himself is God and whose kingdom shall have no end?

The Apostle John will later write his gospel with Christ’s deity as the main point at the front end, stating that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...” (1:14)

John refers to Christ as the Word because God the Son is the full revelation of divine wisdom (the very mind of God), the truth made manifest… the Word was not only with God in the beginning but he in fact IS God:

John 1:1–4 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And then v. 17 provides the final nail of whom exactly John is speaking: “… grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (Jn 1:17b)

They do not yet, but his disciples will eventually come to understand that this Messiah is the Sovereign Lord. And if he his sovereign Lord, then he is God.

Secondly, the disciples don’t get that in order to fulfill his messianic purpose, he must die for sin and be raised to life in power. Even though Jesus will repeat this message in their training process, they won’t understand it until Luke 24, when Jesus actually rises from the dead and appears to them, describing his fulfillment of OT prophecy in detail.

Darrell Bock explains, “The disciples’ understanding had not yet been stretched to its limit with regard to Jesus. Only his resurrection will bring them decisively across that threshold. Nevertheless, Peter sees that Jesus is the Christ. This represents a fundamental starting point in seeing who Jesus is.”

Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. So from our more complete view, we can see how confessing Christ means verbally expressing both who he is and what he accomplished (by his death and resurrection… which we’ll continue discussing now in vv. 21-22).

Partly due to their own limited understanding, but for other reasons as well…

Jesus instructs the disciples to keep “Jesus is the Messiah!” on the down low because he has yet to fulfill his mission for coming, and people are clearly prone to misunderstanding. (vv. 21-22)

Let’s take that second part of that statement first. In John chapter 6 we learn that after this miracle of the feeding the 5,000, Jesus had to hide himself because he knew that, having seen such power, they would want to make him king.

By the way, in the defense of the Jews, their expectations for the Messiah to be a political ruler were not unfounded from OT texts they rightly understood as messianic prophecies. Regal Messiah was plain to them in prophecy (that Messiah would be a king to not only restore Israel but righteously rule over all the nations and peoples of the earth). Suffering servant Messiah was less obvious. It was less clear to many if not most that Isaiah 53, for example, was also a messianic text.

Now almost 2,000 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, you are much more familiar with this aspect of Christ’s ministry. Here’s part of Is. 53 you may know by heart:

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

As Isaiah 53 shows, and as Jesus himself begins teaching his disciples, there’s more to the Christ and his mission than initially meets the eye.

Jesus is more than a political Messiah. The King came to die for the sins of his people (the very ones who have rejected him [and God]… and not just Israel, but all of us), and he rose again in power, offering the necessary forgiveness and spiritual life for restoration to God. This King does reign, and he will reign… only he reigns over much more than the Jews anticipated.

To understand Jesus’ messianic mission is to comprehend his suffering and resurrection. (v. 22)

(Steve Cole offers a helpful summary.)

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 Isaiah 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.

What deeper understanding do we now have then of what it means to confess Jesus as the Christ?

Confessing Christ means verbally expressing Jesus as the Sovereign Lord who died for my sin and rose again so that in him I can be made alive to God.

(I can have a relationship with God.)

Paul explains in his letter to the Romans, the “word of faith that we proclaim” is this:

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Everyone must answer this pointed question from Jesus: “Who do you say that I am?”

Is it enough to verbally confess Jesus? The verbal confession of Jesus as Lord must arise from a belief that he is the God-Man who came to be the sinless Adam and give himself as an atonement for your sin and rose again to grant you spiritual life. The verbal assent of Jesus as Lord must come from a sincere heart.

And if we confess him as Lord from a sincere heart, then we are “in Christ.”

Next the question becomes, what does Jesus call us to if we confess him as Lord, claiming to be his disciple? (vv. 23-26)

Following Jesus is the highest and hardest calling… the most difficult but most worthwhile thing you will ever do. It is the most costly way to live, with the greatest reward.

Soooo many people, and undoubtedly even some of us here, don’t seem to understand this truth about the Christian life.

The hardest and highest thing you will ever do is follow Jesus. He gave his life for you, and you respond by giving your life to him. The Christian life is an adventurous and perilous journey of growing in conformity to Jesus’ call for us to deny ourselves, take up our cross (prepare to suffer for the good of others), and follow him (conforming our whole lives to his example and teaching).

Let’s pray and sing one more song in preparation for taking the Lord’s Table together.

COMMUNION

Jesus died so that I can live. Communion is a solemn reminder of that truth and my response to him. We respond in several ways: 1. confessing him as Lord, 2. with thankfulness and admiration, 3. by obedience to this calling, and 4. confessing sin to maintain fellowship with our Lord who bought us at the price of his own life.