Death Reveals Christ • Luke 9:10-22

1:10:51 Teaching begins

Notes

What makes Jesus the Messiah? Is it because He always knows what to do? Is it because He works miracles and heals?

Remember that Messiah is the Servant of the Lord. He is completely obedient to the Father because He is completely dead to His own wishes and desires.

Death and resurrection makes Him the Messiah. Therefore death and resurrection makes His followers Christians.

Death reveals Christ in us.

I’m reading in Luke 9 from verse 10 (to 17).

1. The apostles get a break, then they don’t get a break.

A. They went out on their first preaching tour. They went in pairs, they took nothing extra, they preached the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and they healed people.

B. Other gospels go into more detail about what they said to Jesus and what He replied. Luke passes over this incident pretty quickly.

C. After traveling and hard work, Jesus says let’s go and have a break. Jesus Himself also went preaching and healing. The gospels note that this is so busy with coming and going that they barely have time to eat. So they get in a boat and come to a desolate place near Bethsaida, where Philip the disciple is from.

D. The crowds see where they are going and run to the other side. They’re all there waiting when the boat pulls up. It’s not desolate anymore. There are all the people they wanted to get away from, with all their needs and wants.

E. Jesus gets out of the boat and welcomes them. He receives them. He’s just come from hard work without any rest, and He goes directly into hard work. He teaches them, and He heals them.

2. You can see that Jesus is better than the apostles.

A. It’s really disappointing to be so tired and think you’re going to get a break, the Boss said so! And then it all melts away, and look at Him! He’s an outreach maniac! He never takes a break! They know He gets tired, they saw Him sleep through a storm that was about to drown them all. But still… Does He ever turn it off?

B. Jesus gives of Himself because it’s who He is.

1. He is compassionate and gracious. He looked out on this great, noisy, complicated crowd with all their sick and hurting people. To Him they looked like sheep without a shepherd.

2. So it doesn’t matter that He is beat and really wanted a break and doesn’t get one. He teaches them anyway. For Jesus life is not a nine-to-five job, forty hours a week and then time for My hobbies, the things that really make Me tick. Shepherding is who He really is as a person.

C. But the apostles are burnt.

1. They come to Jesus at the end of the day when you reasonably expect to stop, for crying out loud, and they have a humanitarian reason to stop: It’s desolate. (never mind it’s our desolate, this was supposed to be for us). Let these people get a place to stay somewhere else, and something to eat. They need to eat, ya know. Food. It’s good for ya. You’ve had it before. You remember, don’tcha?

2. I say this because of the way they express this to Jesus. It’s a little short. It’s the command form. Send these guys away. You have to stop now, it’s the end of the day. Not even You can keep going.

D. That’s when Jesus comes back with an equally short command: You feed them.

E. Do you hear that? Explosion. Jesus just blew up twelve minds.

1. Unreasonable. Unfair. What are we supposed to do, go out and spend a year’s wage to get everyone a little bit of food? What do You want from us?

2. Here’s a little kid’s lunch. That is all we have. We are limited.

E. Here is a sharp contrast between the disciples who are tired and feel put upon, and Jesus, who is just as tired, but is patient, kind, welcoming, persevering, and, evidently, wants to give where there is nothing. Let’s give anyway!

3. Jesus gives with wisdom and peace and the multitudes receive in peace.

A. Jesus gives food with genius.

1. He has everyone sit down in groups of about fifty. That keeps people stationary and calm. What if they were all standing and decided to crowd closer in case they didn’t get anything? No one wants to be the last one and they say, oops, sorry, we ran out. Not me, pal. Devil take the hindmost. Stampede. No, everyone is sitting down. You just wait right there. Take ‘er easy.

2. The other genius part about this is calculating later how many people they’re going to end up feeding. You go by fifties and it goes faster and more accurately. You can count quickly to 100 and think, my goodness, there were more than I thought. All the disciples can work it out for themselves.

3. There’s a third part that is genius: these disciples go around telling people what to expect: just recline in an eating pose please, and we’ll be back with food. You’re all going to get fed, and there’ll be plenty for everyone. Holy cow, there better be. The genius is the twelve disciples have all their hope on Jesus right now. “I hope He knows what He’s doing. He probably does, or else we’re dead.” This is biblical faith: if I die, I die. It’s God or nothing.

B. Jesus looks up to the Father, blesses, and breaks the bread and the fish. The disciples share it out. Jesus breaks enough bread to feed the crowd until they cannot eat any more. They would want to, but they can’t. They can’t even get up.

C. Jesus says, “Go get the leftovers.” Each disciple picks up a full basket of food. That’s way more than was needed, but there’s a purpose. It shows each disciple there’s more where that came from. You are limited. I am not limited.

4. This all begs the question: who is Jesus? Luke directly takes us to the answer (read 18-22).

A. From this feeding the multitudes Luke cuts to a new scene. Jesus is praying and His disciples are with Him, and He brings up the question: who does the crowd say that I am? What does that great, noisy, disorganised, really lost herd of people say?

B. The disciples have heard lots of ideas and rumours swirling around out there, and the disciples know every one of them is all wrong.

1. I tell ya, He’s John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets of old.

2. Notice that what the possible answers have in common is resurrection. The crowd knew that John was dead. Elijah went to heaven in a chariot of fire, but that was a long time ago. The prophets were all dead. So they say, Jesus is somebody raised from the dead, that’s why this power is at work in Him. This is what Herod Antipas thought. The power of God in this because He’s somebody raised from the dead.

C. Jesus lets them discuss the opinions of others, then asks them: who do you say I am?

1. From this we understand that Jesus hasn’t been saying bluntly, “I am the Messiah.” Anyone could say, “I am the Messiah.” He is letting the Scriptures speak for Him, He’s letting the miracles and the healing speak for Him.  He’s letting His whole life speak for Him. He’s letting people come to their own conclusion at this point.

2. Do His disciples understand this?

D. Peter says, “You are the Messiah of God.” You’re greater than John, greater than Elijah, greater than the prophets of old. You are God, the Son of God.

5. Jesus explains about Messiah, that He dies and rises from the dead.

A. He says, “Don’t tell anyone this.” Jesus isn’t talking about this, He doesn’t want them to talk about it, yet.

B. The reason is, He must suffer many things, be rejected by leaders and priests, be killed, and be raised from the dead on the third day.

C. This hasn’t happened yet, therefore it’s not yet time to talk about it.

D. The people have a different emphasis on who Jesus is. They focus on the supernatural part of it. The power, the rising from the dead. That’s attractive, that’s cool.

E. Jesus emphasises the death He is going to die. You have to die before you can be raised from the dead. People begin with the power, the resurrection, Jesus begins with the death.

F. That’s because His whole life on earth is dying.

1. He is God, the Son of God. He has always been. In the beginning He was with God and He is God. He is the Creator, the Lawgiver, the Judge of the living and the dead.

2. He came down from His position as the Most High to become the Most Low, and the servant of all. He is your servant, and your servant, and your servant.

3. Everyday He is dying to His will, His wishes, His wants. He says to the Father, ”Not My will but Yours be done.”

G. He’s dead to Himself. That’s why He can say, “Let’s go on a break, guys,” and then when the crowd shows up He doesn’t say, “Back in the boat, guys, we have to lose these people somehow.” The disciples would have said, “Yeah! We follow you, Lord!” Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.” He means it, because He is a living and holy sacrifice. His whole life on earth is dying.

6. So what? Being a Christian means dying with Jesus and rising with Him. The dying comes first.

A. As Jesus dies to Himself He reveals the Father in Himself. That’s what it means to be the Messiah.

B. We reveal Jesus in us by dying to ourselves and living to God. This is what it means to be a Christian.

1. Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

2. Christianity is a continual process of dying with Jesus and living with Jesus.

C. It would be nice to be resurrected and have no suffering, no sickness, no problems. Everything is smooth sailing, we have no sorrows.

1. The Apostle Paul actually corrected believers who were imagining that somehow they were living a glorified life. He says, it’s not that way with me.

2. 1 Corinthians 4:8-16. You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

D. It’s when you surrender to death for Jesus’ sake that He reveals Himself in you. 2 Corinthians 4:11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

E. The encouragement today is that the resurrection hasn’t happened yet. So the present time is about dying and obeying, saying, “Whatever You want from me, Lord.”

F. Jesus can command you to do some pretty demanding things. “Don’t send the crowds away, you feed them.”

1. You could say what the disciples wished they could say: “No! You’re crazy. This is unreasonable! I’ve given all I have and I’m tired and I just don’t have any more!” But they couldn’t disobey Jesus to His face. So they did what He said, and they kept breaking and giving bread, just like He did. You say, “That’s unreasonable to demand that of me.” When you say “no” to Jesus, you show that you don’t believe that you are baptised into His death. You can walk away and ignore Him. He is not revealed in your actions, and you are acting like an unbeliever.

2. If you say, “Not my will but Yours be done,” then you can say, “If you command me to do this, then You provide what I need.” I need a welcoming attitude. I need patience, I need perseverance. I need generosity. I haven’t got these, and I’m sorry. I’m a sinner. Please wash and cleanse me.” Then He comes through and provides His love so you can lay your life down for others. Christ is visible in you.

G. This is a reminder and an encouragement. The dying comes first, then the resurrection. Accept His death to yourself. Let Christ be revealed in you.

Let’s pray.