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2010 Luke’s Gospel

The Christ of God

Luke 9:18-27

Key Verse: 9:20 “‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’”

In today’s passage, we are going to learn about the Kingdom of God and how to enter and live in it. And also we will learn how to live in the Kingdom of God practically in our lives through the passage. Let us pray that God may grant us his mercy and grace through the message and his words abundantly in this worship time.

Part I. The Christ of God (18-20)

Look at verses 18-20. “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”” Here we see Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ of God. Before we talk about Peter’s confession, let us remind ourselves of the message of the kingdom of God in order to understand Peter’s confession more deeply.

Last three weeks we’ve learned that Jesus sent out his disciples with power and authority to preach and he fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish in chapter 9 of Luke’s gospel. With power and authority Jesus’ disciples could drive out evils and heal the sick and preach. After they returned from the missionary journey, Jesus welcomed many people and performed a miracle in the middle of a break. Even though the author Luke has showed us many things so far, he wants us not to miss one thing among many.  What is it? It is the kingdom of God.

I heard a funny story about the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, all are fed well and stay healthy whereas in the kingdom of evil all are always starving to death and become skin and bones even though there are a lot of delicious food alike. Why is it? It goes like this. God allows them to use chopsticks and spoons long as their arms for food. In the kingdom of God, people are helping each other for food with long chopsticks and spoons, and yet in the kingdom of evil people never help each other and try to eat by themselves with long chopsticks and spoons. They never think of others but think about themselves only. This story explains very well about the kingdom of God, in which Jesus says that it is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)  When we give, we become rich, healthy and happy. When we do not give, but want to receive more and more selfishly, we become poor, ill and miserable. Are we live in the kingdom of God that is full of love and warm fellowship, or live in the kingdom of evil that is full of selfishness and self-indulgence? 

Again let me ask you the same question as I asked two week ago? What is the kingdom of God? Actually it is not easy to answer that question. However, somehow it can be both physically and spiritually understood. Spiritually speaking it is the reign of the king Jesus Son of God. Physically speaking, it is the kingdom to come along with the second coming of Jesus. And also it can be understood in a sense simply by observing what Jesus said and did and comparing them to those of his disciples. The reason why I said “in a sense” as the foregoing is that nobody knows the kingdom of God perfectly. Even though someone sees the kingdom of God in his eyes physically, he cannot describe it perfectly because of the limit of descriptive vocabulary in human language. For example, even though you describe well the taste of T-bone steak you had last night to your friend with your own language, your friend never knows the exact taste of the steak you had in your mouth unless he or she tastes it with his or her own mouth. Therefore it is safe to say that we can know only some part or image of the kingdom of God through what Jesus said and did in the Bible, and yet that’s the best way to know about the kingdom of God while we live on earth. On the other hand, if the kingdom of God could be understood fully with our own knowledge or intellectual power, it cannot be the kingdom of God. It could be a wonder land or Disney land. The point is that the kingdom of God is beyond our reason and common sense.

Why did Jesus give his disciples power and authority to drive out demons and cure diseases? Why did Jesus send them out? Why did Jesus heal who needed healing? Why did Jesus say, “You give them something to eat?” Why did Jesus perform a miracle feeding five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish? It’s all about the kingdom of God. For instance, when Jesus said to his disciples, “You give them something to eat,” it means as we have learned over and over again that we should have a sense of responsibility and a giving spirit. If those are all Jesus wants us to know, they could be mere principles that pushes us to become an altruist or perfectionist. The kingdom of God is more than that and it should be. It’s beyond our sense, knowledge, and experience. The reason why a runner endures all kinds of hard trainings is to win the gold medal. To win the race is his final goal not to endure the tough trainings that lead to the gold medal. When the crowd more than five thousand was hungry, the disciple thought the crowd should find something to eat for themselves. That’s how the reasonable and sensible people in this world think and that’s how this world works. Actually what the disciples were thinking was not wrong at all. They had no money, no place to buy something to eat, most of all, the number of the crowd was beyond their control. Five thousand people are a lot indeed. Accordingly it was right for the disciples to think like that from the point of this world. But from the point of the kingdom of God, they can change their limited mind and thoughts and open their spiritually closed eyes that they can feed all of them. They must open their spiritually blinded eyes to see the King right next to them who owns and rules over the kingdom of God. He is the God Almighty who created the heaven and earth with his words and even the whole universe. Nothing is impossible with the King. When the King ordered his servants, “You give them something to eat” it simply means that they would just deliver food from the King’s storage to needy people. When we see that the entire crowd was fed well and even there was leftover, we realize that the kingdom of God is the world of abundance and overflowing of everything-food, clothes, houses, love, fellowship and all. The kingdom of God is to overcome our limited thoughts and even our doubts. The kingdom of God is to expect greater things than we do. Because of the kingdom of God, our NJ ministry can prays to raise up 1000 professor shepherds from Princeton and send out 6000 from NJ as missionaries.  Because of the kingdom of God we can prepare 2nd five loaves and two fish orchestra concert. 

I talked with M. Challenge last week about his prayer topic. As we know all, one of his prayer topics is to feed M. Faith Kim with the monthly income of $2000.00. “You support M. Faith with $2000 every month,” not “Let her go out to make money for her own.” How is it possible? Actually for most of people in this world making $2000.00 a month is not easy at all. When he thinks he himself will make money on his own, it is impossible because of some of his limitations in many ways. But when he sees the King and his kingdom and changes his mind and believes that the King will make a way for him to make money, it is possible for him to have and experience the Kingdom of God in his heart. This may apply to all our JBF members, too for their school study. When they live in the kingdom of God, they will experience the glory of the Kingdom of God and can be an outstanding student by overcoming their limited abilities and some past failures. Let us pray that we may see the King right next to us and live in the Kingdom of God full of abundance every day so that we may overcome all our limited human thoughts and reason to see God’s glory in our lives. In Hebrews 3:1-3, if we replace the word faith with the kingdom of God, we understand a little more about it. “Now the Kingdom of God is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By the kingdom of God we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Look at verses 18-20 again. “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.””  According to Matthew 16:13 and Mark 8:27, Jesus and his disciples were in the region of Caesarea Philippi at the moment when Jesus was praying in private and asked his disciples very important questions. The time when Jesus would be arrested and crucified to death was just around the corner. At this critical moment Jesus prayed in private for many things. Among them was to help his disciples confess who Jesus is. At the critical moment and out of so many prayer topics such as to have nice house with enough food and clothes or to live with a lot of money, or to get a secure job for his followers, Jesus prayed for them to know and confess who Jesus is most of all. Through the mouths of the disciples we see that the ordinary people in those days thought Jesus was John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets of long ago. Actually Jesus did not much care about other’s response. He was eager to listen to the answer of his disciples indeed. “What about you? Who do you say I am?” Perhaps each one of them had their own answer that might be the same with the ordinary people or something else, but they all were silent for a while because they were not sure about their own answer. In the midst of silence, Peter broke the silence and answered the question very boldly and triumphantly regardless of what it was right or wrong, but in confidence. What was his answer? It was the Christ of God.  The "Christ" is a Greek word and it is "Messiah" in Hebrew. It means "Anointed One." In the Old Testament, special people were anointed by God with the Holy Spirit. Their anointing was the source of power and wisdom to deliver God's people from oppression. Jesus was specially anointed by God as he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus and equipped him to deliver his people. By the power of that anointing, Jesus defeated the devil and began to preach the kingdom of God.

Peter confessed Jesus is the Christ of God. This is very important because confession that Jesus is the Christ of God establishes personal relationship with Jesus the King who rules over the kingdom of God. This is kind of making a connection. Making connection in this world is very important because it decides the path of life. So, people do that through face-book, twitter, and all other internet community. Since your parents have some connection with M. John or M. Grace Park through another people in UBF, you have come here. People in this world through networking or connection with other people from friends, family, school, or company they get a job or better positions in the society. That’s why people try hard to take a good care of their connections with other people and want to go to good colleges to have a better connection with the higher ranking people for their bright future. Likewise, even though we know the kingdom of God is good and we long for it, we cannot enter it or stay there unless we have a good, strong, and personal relationship with the King Jesus. How can you enter and live in the kingdom of God without making a good connection with the owner the king Jesus?  It is impossible. So we better make a good, strong and personal relationship or connection with the King for the Kingdom of God by confessing that Jesus is the Christ of God. In Matthew 16, after Peter made a personal connection with Jesus by confessing that Jesus is the Christ of God, Jesus said that he would give him the keys of the kingdom of God. Therefore, how do we get the key of the kingdom of God? Let us pray that we may make and build a strong connection or what we call relationship with the King Jesus by confessing Jesus is the Christ of God to enter and live in the kingdom of God.

Part II. The Son of Man must suffer, die and rise to life (21-22)

After Jesus promised Peter the key of the kingdom of God through his confession, Jesus told his disciples about how Jesus would become the Christ of God actually. On their part, all they had to do for the kingdom of God was just to make a personal relationship with Jesus by confession. But on Jesus’ part, there were so many things to do for him for his kingdom. Look at verse 22. “And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priest and teachers of the law and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Does it really how Jesus was supposed to do to become a king? It should be something like this. “The Son of Man must enjoy many things of this world, and be welcomed by the elders, chief priest and teachers of the law and he must kill all his enemies to keep his throne safe forever and die honorably.” This was what the worldly kings were supposed to do. Actually the Roman emperors were like that in those days. But Jesus was not like that. How come Jesus suffered, was rejected, and even killed? It’s because he does not want his people to suffer, be rejected and killed by the power of sin and death. He wants them all to live in his glorious kingdom forever. He is the king of kings and the only king whom we serve because he sacrificed his own life for sinners like us. After his death, he rose from the dead in three days. He defeated the power of death and sin and proved that he is the Christ of God the king and the Messiah indeed. He rules over the kingdom of God forever and ever. Let us praise our king Jesus who gave up his life for our salvation and eternal life in his kingdom.  

Part III. Deny yourself (23-27)

So far we have been thinking about a little bit of the kingdom of God and how to enter and live in it. Now what? What is the next? The next thing is to live a life of a citizen of the kingdom of God and experience heavenly joy and peace in our daily life. How do we do that? There are just two things to remember and put them into practice. It sounds easy, but requires some efforts and it takes time for us to master them. What are they? Look at verse 23. “Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” First, we have to deny ourselves. Second, we have to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. In other words, we should deny ourselves and be humble to obey whatever Jesus tells us to do.  Actually in order to deny ourselves and to be humble in spirit, we should have broken heart, the one that King David had when he realized he was a terrible sinner because of his adultery. When we have broken heart we can deny ourselves and be humble enough to take up our cross and follow Jesus in our daily life. The reason why we do not have joy and peace of the kingdom of God is that we do not have broken heart even though we know well how great it is to live in the kingdom of God.

In 2 Kings Naaman the commander of the army of the king of Aram who had leprosy listened to what his young slave girl said. “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” Naaman denied himself and humbled himself to listen to a girl slave even though he was the master and a high ranking officer in the country. Usually masters despise their slaves and think their slaves do not know any better than they do. So they say to their slave, “Shut up!” But he was different because he had broken heart due to his leprosy. When Naaman came to Elisha to be healed, he got angry because Elisha did not come out to see him in person, but only gave him an instruction of how he would be healed. Naanman felt humiliated by an unknown country man. But when he was advised by his servants to follow Elisha’s instruction, he amazingly listened to his servants humbly again even though the servants were nothing but one of his many possessions. He could say to them, “Shut up! How dare you tell me what to do!” But he was not like that. He listened with his broken heart and he was healed of his leprosy by the power of the kingdom of God.    

When Rain the famous Hollywood movie star and singer had broken heart because of his extreme poverty in his youth, he listened to whatever his producer and promoter Park, Jin-Young told him to do. One time Park was surprised when he visited Rain’s house. In Rain’s room Park saw his comments he made for Rain written on Post-It on the wall. Park gave Rain so many comments and Rain wrote them down on Post-It and put them on the wall. It could be a tough time for Rain when Park told Rain to do this and that from small to big things. Even though Rain had his own desires and ideas he denied them all and took up his daily cross given by Park and followed him absolutely with broken heart. This is how Rain became world famous star.

Look at verses 24-25. "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" Our bodies and this world, and everything in it, will perish in the course of time. Human achievements will fade away, wealth will be consumed, relationships with others will end, and pleasures will be completely forgotten. Those who blindly pursue the treasures and pleasures of the world will perish. But those who accept Christ, deny themselves, and take up their crosses, gain everlasting life and eternal blessing in his kingdom.

Look at verse 26. "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Jesus will come again in glory. He will have all power and authority, and his majesty will be displayed fully. He will appear as King of kings. He will bless those who believed in him and curse those who opposed him. Then, those who were ashamed of him will feel greatly ashamed. But those who confessed him will share in his heavenly glory forever. This is not just a distant future hope. We can see the kingdom even now. Look at verse 27. "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."

Today we have learned about how to enter and live in the kingdom of God in our daily life. For that, making a relationship with Christ is very essential. Jesus wants us to confess him as the Christ, receive his salvation, and follow him by denying ourselves and taking up our crosses daily. Let's pray we may live a life of a citizen of the kingdom of God from today and forever.