Yesterday
we lost a mighty giant of the faith in the evangelical Christian world. Chuck
Colson died at age 80. Between 1969 and 1973, Chuck Colson had gained the
world. He was perhaps the most powerful attorney in America, serving as special
counsel to President Nixon. Then the Watergate scandal shook the White House,
and his carefully constructed life collapsed in a miserable heap. Colson was
tried, convicted, and placed in prison within a year.
Just
prior to his conviction, though, Colson gave his life to Christ. God would use
prison, the lowest point in his life, as his turning point. Because of the
things he saw while incarcerated, he would later form Prison Fellowship, a
ministry for inmates worldwide, and the Colson Center for Worldview.
Colson
suffered from intracerebral hemorrhage, which resulted in him undergoing
surgery about two weeks ago to remove the blood clot on his brain. Initially,
his condition improved and he was able to talk to his wife and children. But
late Tuesday, his condition took a turn for the worse and doctors had advised
the Colson family to gather by his bedside in preparation for his departure. He
passed away Saturday afternoon.[1]
Contextual Notes:
From the words prophesied by the
angel Gabriel about Jesus (Luke 1:33-35) and what his miracles have revealed is
now recognized and proclaimed by Peter. Herod had asked, “Who is this?” (Luke
9:7-9). Here is the answer.
This is a key turning point in
Luke’s narrative as Jesus makes radically clear the role of the Messiah. He did
not come to conquer the Roman oppressors. He came to suffer and die for his
people (Luke 9:21-22). In light of his own suffering role, Jesus calls his
followers to the discipleship of bearing the cross as well (Luke 9:23-26).
Key Truth: Luke
wrote Luke 9:18-27 to demonstrate that there is a question each person
must answer, and there is a calling each disciple must accept.
Key Application: Today I
want to show you what God’s Word says about discipleship.
Pray and Read:
Luke 9:18-27
Sermon Points:
1. There
is a question each person must answer (Luke 9:18-21)
2. There
is a calling each disciple must accept (Luke 9:22-27)
Exposition: Note
well,
1.
THERE IS A QUESTION EACH PERSON MUST
ANSWER (Luke 9:18-20)
a.
Luke
begins this passage with Jesus at prayer (Luke 9:18) what Jesus is always doing
at significant points in Luke’s Gospel, and this one is one of the most
significant. The other Gospels tell us that Jesus and his disciples are on
their way away from the excitement of the Feeding of the 5000 to Caesarea
Philippi (||Matt 16:13-28; Mark 8:27-38). The great confession of Peter at
Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is indeed the long awaited Messiah is the
watershed, the climax of Luke’s Gospel. It is the first stage of Jesus’
revelation of himself. From this point forward, the shadow of the Cross will
dominate the whole story. Jesus has set his face to go to Jerusalem, there to
suffer.
b.
Luke 9:18-19 – Notice that those who did not
belong to Christ could only think of him in terms of something old. The
disciples can perceive him as something new and unprecedented – The Christ of
God. Many Jews believed that OT-style prophets had ceased, so calling Jesus a
prophet was pretty radical, but it was not radical enough to be accurate about
Jesus’ real identity. Jesus puts the partly clouded belief into a master truth
with his question. “With the mouth confession is made” (Rom 10:9-10).
c.
Luke 9:20-21 – Christ is not Jesus’ last name.
Christ is his title. Here’s how it works. The word Christ (christos) is simply
a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah
(mashiach), meaning “anointed one.”
Kings, priests, and prophets were anointed with oil as a sign that they were
consecrated to God and set apart for his work. Luke’s phrase, the Christ of God
recalls the OT’s “the Lord’s Anointed,” a designation of Israel’s king,
especially David (Luke 2:26). It later became rightly understood as a title for
the Messiah, the coming deliverer from David’s line (Luke 1:32-33). Not since
the birth of Jesus has Luke has used this Christ title (Luke 2:11). Now Peter
calls Jesus the Christ of God. Luke will not use this title again until Luke
20:41, and again, Luke relates this title to Jesus’ lineal connection with
David (Psalm 110:1).
d.
APPLICATION: Who do you say that Jesus is? Is He
the Man Upstairs whom you call when you need something, like a little house
boy? Or are you the servant in His house? Do you do His bidding? Is He your
Lord?
2.
THERE IS A CALLING EACH DISCIPLE
MUST ACCEPT (Luke 9:22-27)
a.
Luke 9:22 – The Son of Man must
suffer many things:
For the first time in Luke’s Gospel, we have an explicit note that Jesus will
suffer death as the Messiah of God (Luke 9:43b-45; 8:31-34). Jesus’ ministry
has already been rejected (Luke 4:24; 7:31-35; cf. Psalm 118:22). The role of
the Suffering Servant is laid out in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. The Jews, however,
expected a powerful and triumphant warrior king to overthrow the Gentile
oppressors and reign on David’s throne in righteousness. Jesus’ reference to
the third day alludes to Hosea 6:2, a reference to Israel’s restoration by the
Lord. Jesus is restoring God’s people, but not the way they may expect. Luke
will take up that same phraseology in Luke 24:20-21 on the Road to Emmaus the
two men said, “The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced
to death, and they crucified him,” and then they add, “but we had hoped that he
was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”
b.
Luke 9:23 – Take up his cross daily: Jesus is not speaking merely of
self-denial, but of violent death by execution. The cross (stauros) was an upright stake driven in the ground to humiliate,
shame, and execute people. The Romans made an art of crucifixion. The condemned
had to carry the 110lb. cross beam on his shoulders to the place of execution
(Luke 23:26), and it was affixed to the upright pole. Taking up one’s cross
meant to carry the beam to the site of execution past a jeering mob. Jesus is
speaking in strong rhetoric to make his point.
c.
APPLICATION: Jesus is referring to a life of
total commitment to him, even to the point of suffering and martyrdom. He says
that if one chooses to follow him that he or she must be a true disciple must
be ready for ready to face literal scorn on the road to eventual martyrdom,
following Jesus to the cross. Jesus is saying that from the moment of your
faith in Him, you must count your life forfeit for the kingdom. Jesus called it
“denying yourself.” It is called obedience. We must die to selfishness,
self-centeredness. Let me be painfully specific. Is it God’s will for us to
amass and cling to so many things that are going to burn one day, things we
really cannot afford, things we have to spend the days of our lives paying off?
Or would the Lord have us investing our energies in things that last – like the
well-being of our marriages, the emotional health of our children?
d.
ILLUSTRATION: Jim was a pilot and had a burning
desire to share Christ with those who had never heard the Gospel. With four
other friends, Jim made a multi-year commitment to move his family to another
country, pray for a particular unreached, unengaged people group, and plant
Gospel seeds among them on the frontier of Christ’s Kingdom to see that
primitive tribe come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. He and his four friends
would eventually all die together one day on the beach of a river in the South
American rainforest, killed by the spears of the very people he wanted to see
come to Christ. The miracle is that their families stayed there, committed to
forgiveness and the task of making Christ known in the Amazon among the
Huaoroni (aka Auca) Indians. Today those people are sending missionaries out
themselves. The words of the martyred Jim Elliott exemplify the call of Jesus
in the passage we have before us this morning: “He is no fool who gives what he
cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”[2]
e.
APPLICATION: The path to life, true life, does
not come through self-preservation, watching out for Number One. True life
comes through a daily willingness to sacrifice one’s life for Jesus. Those who
are not ashamed of the Son of Man in the present age will be given life and
glory in the age to come. The great Scot Baptist expositor Alexander Maclaren
offers this explanation of Jesus’ illustration of the cross: Discipleship is
imitation. Imitation is self-crucifixion.
f. ILLUSTRATION:
Chuck Colson’s
testimony reminds us of Jesus words in our passage today, “For what good is it
for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his very soul?” (Luke 9:25).
Colson later related this verse of Scripture to his own life: “All my
achievements meant nothing in God’s economy. No, the real legacy of my life was
my biggest failure – that I was an ex-convict. My greatest humiliation – being sent
to prison – was the beginning of God’s greatest use of my life. He chose the
one experience in which I could not glory for His glory. Confronted with this
staggering truth, I discovered that my world was turned upside down. I understood
with a jolt that I had been looking at life backward. But now I could see: only
when I lost everything I thought made Chuck Colson a great guy had I found the
true self God intended me to be and the true purpose of my life. It is not what
we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God
doesn’t want our success; He wants us. He doesn’t demand our achievements. He
demands our obedience.”[3]
g.
Brothers
and sisters, Jesus calls each one of us to utter abandonment of self. He calls
you to pronounce death over your own plans and desires. That Could any choice
be as wonderful as embracing His will? Could any place be safer than the center
of His will? Could anything be more deliriously delightful than knowing that is
the place where you live? Today the Lord is calling you to lay everything at
His nail-scarred feet. Will you lay life or death there? Will you lay your
health or illness there? Will you lay appreciation by others there? Will you
lay misunderstandings there? Will you lay your success and your failures there?
Only that which is of Christ matters. Will you lay everything that hinders your
getting to Christ and growing with Christ there?[4]
h.
Luke 9:26 – The Son of Man in his
glory: Jesus is
alluding to Daniel 7:13-14 where an exalted Messiah is like a son of man who
comes on the clouds of heaven and is given authority, glory, and an eternal
kingdom. Daniel identifies him with the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:18,
27) and as an individual Messiah (Daniel 7:13-14). Isaiah did something similar
in his Servant of the Lord passages (Isaiah 40-55) as Israel (Isaiah 44:1; 29:3)
and an individual (Isaiah 42:1). What do we make of this? The Messiah is the
representative of his people Israel.
i.
Luke 9:27 – Some will not taste
death: Because
Messiah had already come, the future kingdom is already present. Jesus cannot
be referring to the Second Coming, because he did not return within the
lifetimes of the disciples. Most say he is referring to the Transfiguration in
the next passage (Luke 9:32-35). Alexander Maclaren said Jesus was speaking of
AD 70 and the Fall of Jerusalem.
Invitation:
Following Christ means more than
believing Him. It means obedience. Where have you been disobedient?
Living in obedience means more than
accepting the truth. It means ‘tasting death’, the death of self and selfish
desire.
Tasting death means more than being
unselfish. It means dying daily. Pride bellows, “I want what I want when I want
it.” Christ says, “Whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will
save it.”
He lays the choice before us. Will
be give up our agendas for his perfect plan? Will we give up our idols of
self-worship? Will we follow Him?[5]
[1] http://www.christianpost.com/news/chuck-colson-dies-at-80-remembered-for-dramatic-faith-conversion-life-73496/
[2] Jim Elliot, quoted by Elisabeth
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life
and Testament of Jim Elliot (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958), 15.
[3] Charles W. Colson, Loving God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1987), 24-25.
[4] V. Raymond Edman quoted in World Shapers: A Treasury of Quotes from
Great Missionaries, comp. Vinita Hampton and Carol Plueddeman (Wheaton:
Harold Shaw, 1991), 17.
[5] Chuck Swindoll, The Continuation of Something Great: Luke
7:1-10:37, 94-95.
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