18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?" 19 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.” 20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” 21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” ~ Luke 9:18-22
The heart of today's text is in v.20, “Who do you say that I am?” This is the most critical question of all questions. Getting this question right is critical to our eternal destiny. Heaven or hell is the result of our answer to this one question.
It is really a very easy question to answer. It's only hard if we reject the Bible. So anybody who comes up with the wrong answer about who Jesus is has rejected the clear testimony of Scripture.
God has provided in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, an unambiguous answer to this most important question. According to the Bible, Jesus is the Christ who died on the cross to bare the penalty for the sinfulness of mankind. If we believe in Him and receive His free gift of forgiveness of sin, we will have eternal life.
In Luke 9:18, the Lord Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do the crowds say I am?" In v.19 we read, "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." The crowds never questioned the miracles of the Lord Jesus. The healed people, the people who had been freed from demons were everywhere and their testimonies were available to anybody who asked any questions. But the crowds came up with conclusions that were short of reality. They understood He had to be a supernatural person, but they fell short of the right answer.
Then in v.20, the Lord Jesus asked, "Who do you say I am?'" Peter, on behalf of all the disciples, answered, "God’s Messiah."
To Peter's response, in v.21, "Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone." He is giving His disciples this warning because their answer could be dangerous. It could result in this crowd starting a revolt against Herod and the Romans. Also, the crowd had already tried to make him a king by force. And He will be the King one day, but this wasn't the time for Him to wear a crown, this was the time for Him to bear a cross.
So, in v.22 we read, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Here the Lord Jesus gives these guys who had left everything to follow Him, an announcement of His death. They did not sign up for this. They expected Him to rise to a throne and exert His power with them at His side. Yet, when He did rise from the dead, with surprising transparency, the Gospels reveal that initially the disciples themselves refused to believe the resurrection.
Evidently, the disciple were not aware of such passages as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, that predicted His death on the cross. They had just reached the pinnacle of their affirmation that He's the Messiah, and now He tells them to not tell anybody about it and He is going to be killed by the religious leaders. In Mark 10:45 we read, "The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many." He came to bear in His own body the punishment for our sins on the cross.
But, after the Lord Jesus died on the cross, then, according to v.22, "on the third day be raised to life." He had to die to pay the penalty of that which separated us from God in the first place. But once He was buried, God raised Him from the dead, indicating He overcame sin and death for us. Not only are our sins cleared out, we now can have a personal relationship with God with whom we will spend eternity in heaven.
In Romans 10:9-10 we read, "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."
Our eternity hung on just three words, "He is risen!" If He has not risen, Christianity is found to be a sham. Yet, if He did, God has turned our story on a dime. He has risen! The bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus kicked death in the teeth and left it toothless.
