Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Luke. And we're in
chapter nine. And we finally get to this important
question that we've been saying, we'll
probably get there next week for the last three or four weeks. And we're going to be in Luke
chapter nine. We're gonna be concerned with
the verses 18 through 22 today, and we'll read those here before
we begin. And it came to pass, as he was
alone, that's Christ, was alone praying, his disciples were with
him, and he asked them, saying, whom say the people that I am? And they answering said, John
the Baptist, but some say Elias. And others say one of the old
prophets has risen again. And he said unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? And Peter answering said, Christ,
the Son of God. And he straightly charged them
and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, the Son
of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders
and the chief priests and the scribes and be slain and be raised
again the third day. He wasn't really ready for them
to, his time had not yet come, so it wasn't the correct time
for that to be revealed, which would be kind of the final straw
in causing them to delivering him up. So, anyway, as we look
at this today, last time we were looking at the miracle of the
loaves and the fish, We noted in that lesson that,
and we noted in that lesson it was all four gospels contained
that miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 with the five loaves
and the two fishes. And we drew a little bit on each
one of them in that lesson. And one of the things that we
came away with in our previous lesson was he asked Philip, whence
shall we buy bread that these may eat? And he asked him not because he didn't know, he said
it to prove him because he already knew what he would do. But he
asked it to prove Philip. And we looked at that word and
we noted that that word gave us the idea to pierce through.
And we looked at it as piercing through the physical to the spiritual
because they were looking at things in the spiritual way.
Well, we don't have enough money to feed all these people. And
yet they were with the Lord God Almighty who who was the bread
of life that rained manna from heaven down in the wilderness
and those things. He was through the spirit bringing
Philip to a point where he had to look beyond the physical and
look to the spiritual. And I think we have that question
here, the same kind of a style of a question that the Lord,
every time we deal with the Lord asking questions and saying things,
it's always on a much broader, deeper spiritual plane than just
what meets the eye on the paper. Whom say ye that I am? He knew, the scripture says everything
is naked and open with him with whom we have to do. There's no
secrets from the Lord. So he knew exactly what Peter
thought, but he brings us out again to prove him, to cause
him to look through the physical and look at things through the
spiritual eyes. And so we have this most important
question here that anyone will be faced with. And you know the
answer, the right answer magnifies the grace of God. And without
it, we'll never know Christ because it says flesh and blood cannot
reveal this to you, but my father, which is in heaven. That's as
we, as we look at the same thing that happens, that's what, what,
what Peter says. Whom say ye that I am?" And Peter
said, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he says, Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood. did not reveal
that to you, but my father, which is in heaven. And that's what
must happen. And so this context, as we're
going through this, it's always important to kind of keep the
context, the flow of what's going on. And sometimes when we spend
so much time on just one or two verses, we kind of lose the flow
of the whole picture. And this kind of takes us all
the way back to the parable of the sower and even before that,
but we're just going to go back that far, because it gives us
the sense of what's going on. He's got these disciples and
he's bringing them along and he's piercing through their view
of the physical to the spiritual. And he tells them, he knows that
he's getting ready to send them out in the field and preach the
gospel. And he tells them the parable
of the sower. And he says, when you go out
preaching the gospel, it's like the word is the seed of God.
And some of that's going to fall on ground that's packed hard
and it's not going to take root. Some of it's going to be eaten
by fowl. Some of it's going to fall on the thorn. He says, but
some of it is going to fall on good ground that the spirit has
prepared and it's going to bear fruit. But as we know, Out of
the four or five places where the seed can fall, only one of
them is going to be fruitful. And so he says, you know, here's
kind of what you can expect. You know, a lot of the places
where you go, it's not going to be accepted. It's going to
fall on ground that's not suitable. And he says, go there and throw
that seed out and leave it up to the spirit. And so we have
this allegory that's in preparation for them preaching the Kingdom
of God and the displays of His almighty power in public and
in the presence of His disciples. healing so many, and the raising
of the dead of that young girl, and the total reliance on Christ. He says, okay, I'm sending you
out now, don't take a stave, don't take shoes, extra shoes,
don't take two coats, don't take any food, don't take a script,
a bag to carry anything in. I'll take care of you. Trust
me, I'll take care of you. And then we found in Luke 23,
he said, well, when I sent you out, lacking? No. Nothing. So they had to pierce
through their own physical reliance on, and that's just a lesson
for the church. We're always so self-reliant.
We're always planning in advance and trying to resolve our own
issues and take care of ourselves, and it's a hard thing to totally
rely on Christ for things that are out of our control. And so he came to the time when
he fed the 5,000. I mean, after they just witnessed
all these miracles, and he feeds 5,000 people with
this small amount, and he just creates, food out of nothing
and takes care of all these people and, and all these evidences of his almightiness
who, who loved us from, from eternity and came and dwelt among
us, who was God and took on himself the flesh according to the scripture
and, and And we can go back in the Old Testament and read about
that in Genesis 3 and Psalm 8, Psalm 22, Isaiah chapter 8, Isaiah
41, 53, all these Scriptures. You know, there's just no end
to them. I'm just listing four or five here. But as we've learned
throughout Leviticus, the rest of the scriptures that
Norm's been going through, and now we're gonna beginning in
the book of Numbers. The gospel as recorded in Numbers. That's what that is, the gospel
of Christ. So all these things that we see
about the Lord revealed to us in the Old Testament, evidences
of who he was, what he did, and yet he says, whom say ye that
I am? And we're going to get to the
point of this here in a moment. Let's turn over to Hebrews, the
second chapter, and read a couple of verses there. In Hebrews chapter
2, verse 9, Hebrews 2, 9, it says, but we
see Jesus. We see him spiritually. not just as a physical, historical
person. To the church, he says, we see
Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, the gospel, crowned with glory and honor that he,
by the grace of God, should taste death for every man, for it became
him. for whom are all things and by whom are all things in
bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. for both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren." You know, he's just had that
since the covenant of grace from before the foundation of the
world. Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in
the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee. And
again, and he's just repeating the Old Testament here and all
these scriptures in Hebrews. This is not new material. They're
just declaring the gospel from the Old Testament and saying
that's what it says. And again, I will put my trust
in him, and again, behold I and the children which God hath given
me. So he quotes three, four scriptures right in a row there.
and just prefaces them with the, and again, and again, and again,
and again, and again. And we can start in Genesis 1.1
and just say, and again, and again, and again. It says, for
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. We're in this bondage
of the physical. We're in this bondage of the
fallen nature that we inherited from Adam and the sin that we
managed to do on our own. He said, for verily took not
on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. the seed of flesh, that he could
come and satisfy the law, satisfy the Father, and not only be just,
but the justifier of them that believe. And so we have to see
him in that capacity. We have to see Jesus. in that
spiritual capacity. And, you know, many people had
observed the mighty works which Jesus did and they're recorded
for us in God's holy word. We've observed how many of these
works were presented in types and shadows and figures in the
Old Testament. and accomplished in time by Christ
in the New Testament. Pastor just the other day was
telling when he was in Hebrews chapter three and four. And I
think we mentioned that in our last thing about the loaves and
fishes. The gospel was preached unto
them the same as unto us, but it didn't profit them. All those
people that came out of Egypt that ate that manna, that drank
that water from that spiritual rock, whose shoes didn't wear
out, that had the fire by night and the cloud by day, and all
those miracles that got them out of Egypt, all the plagues
and the things that he used to deliver them out of Egypt. with
a mighty hand, crossing the Red Sea and then drowning all the
Egyptians and all those displays. And yet, they believe not. So kind of
the point being here is we're in this kind of the same position
here in Luke. Whom say ye that I am? Do you
see beyond the physical feeding of the 5,000? Do you see the
physical people or all the miracles that He did? All the displays
of His Almighty? Those of themselves are never
going to cause anyone to see Him as the Son of God, the Christ. it takes a divine revelation.
It's like Peter said, like he told Peter, flesh and blood didn't
reveal that to you, but my father, which is in heaven. So that's
what we just unfailingly find time after time after time after
time in the scriptures. We say, well, we have records
of all those. They're written down for us in
God's holy word. And yet people can read those
and not see Christ. They'll say, well, we see Jesus
as, well, a historical figure. We see him as a wise man that
gave us more rules to keep. And he was a good moral compass
for us. But many more see him as, man,
he's messing up my life, I wish he'd go away. So we find that not many were
converted by being in circles and seeing Christ in the flesh. Did
that result in many being born again? Only the ones that he
said, follow me, come with me, I must go to your place, I must
need to go here, I must need to go there, I must dwell in
your house. Many saw him and believed not.
And he says that very thing. We find that scripture in John,
as we look at the same scenario in the different Gospels, you
know, it just takes grace. That's just what it boils down
to. You know, if you want to look over in Jeremiah 24, verse
7, it says, I'll give them a heart to know Me. And that's what has
to happen. He says, I'll give them a heart
to know Me that I am the Lord. And when He says, Whom say ye
that I am? It's just so much deeper than
just the physical aspect a historical Jesus. Just the fact that he
says that I am, that brings a picture of him in the eternal grace and
in the covenant of grace. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And
so the Lord poses this question to his disciples, whom say the
people that I am? And they had the answer just
like that. I was just noticing that while
I was drawing up this outline for this class. He asked me,
who do the people say I am? Well, they said, oh, that's easy.
Some say you're Elias. Some say you're John the Baptist.
Some say, some of them even say that you're another old prophet
that's risen. None of them were saying, this
is the Messiah. This is the one. that was talked about in the
Old Testament that would be born of a virgin, that would, I'll
give you a sign, the virgin shall conceive, bring forth a child,
and shall call his name Emmanuel, that is God with us. They didn't
see that. The disciples, they knew the
views of the people regarding Jesus, and the people They seem
to be forced to agree that Jesus was no ordinary person, but was not believing. Whom say
ye that I am? Well, John the Baptist. John the Baptist had his head
chopped off by this time, and they thought, well, maybe he's
a resurrection of that. It's interesting that they can
say, well, he's Elias. They would expect, they kind
of expected that, Elias coming back, or one of the other old
prophets would come back. They could kind of, they were
kind of indoctrinated into that kind of thinking that that was
to be expected in that Jewish religion of these old, but to
think that here was indeed the Christ, the Messiah. And they agreed that he must
have some connection with God. In John chapter three, verse
two, we find Nicodemus, this ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. So some of them recognized that
he had some kind of divine connection, but not who he was. And after feeding the 5,000,
the people had eaten of the miracle that was coming out of Egypt.
He fed them to the full. He fed them flesh by night and
morning bread to the full, the scripture said in Exodus. In
John chapter six, verse 41, so the Jews murmured at him because
he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven. And they
said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? How is it that he saith I came
down from heaven? So without a divine occurrence,
that link can't be made. Some seem to believe that after
witnessing the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, they seem
to believe, because the scripture says that some saw that miracle and believed,
it said in the scriptures. And yet some, in spite of the
miracle, were still at enmity with the Lord. And in fact, we
find out they even tried to kill Lazarus again. And I thought,
that is just dumb to the max. Here's a guy that just got raised
from the dead. They said, oh, let's kill him again. What could
go wrong with that? He'd probably be dead again.
Then it'd be a miracle. It's just craziness. But that's
just how blind we are. That's just how we're, one of
the effects of the fall is we're able to rationalize things to
our own detriment, we're able to say, well, we don't like how
that turned out, let's kill him. And things will work out
the way we want them to that way. It's just part of the fall. In John chapter 11, verse 45
through 48, we'll just read that real quick. John chapter 11,
verse 45, many of the Jews, which came to Mary and had seen the
things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of them went
their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had
done. This stark dividing line about the two results of intersecting
with the Lord. Some believed and some went to
the enemy. And then they gathered the chief
priests and the Pharisees, a council, and they're like old Herod. They're perplexed. And there's
no way out. That was the name of our lesson
on that situation that Herod found himself in. Well, if I
believe on him, then what? The chief priests and the Pharisees
gathered in a council and said, what do we do? For this man doeth
many miracles. There's no denying. that a lot
of people saw him raise that girl from the dead. There's no
denying that a lot of people saw him feed the 5,000 with just
nothing. There's a lot of people saw him
make the blind guy see, and the deaf hear, and the lame walk,
and the lepers cleansed, and they leave off that part about
the gospel being preached to the poor. But they said, a lot
of people have seen him do stuff. And what do we do? If we let
him alone, all men will believe on him. And the Romans will come
and take our place and take away our place and nation. If we let
this guy usurp authority and cause a commotion, the Romans
are going to come here and kill us all. It's a no-win situation
for them. Let's move ahead a little bit
to John chapter 12 and read a few verses there regarding this whom say ye that
I am. In John verse 31, now into this
world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to me. This he said signifying what
death he should die. That gets translated into, they
just quit, don't read the rest of that, they just focus on the
universal aspect of it that's incorrect. But it was all about
him being lifted up. on the cross to die. And the
people answered him, we've heard out of the law that Christ abideth
forever. How sayest thou the son of man
must be lifted up? They understood this concept. Christ is eternal. How is it
that he's going to be lifted up? They understood that, the
context of that. Who is this Son of Man? Then
Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is light with you. Walk
while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he
that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye
have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be children
of light. And these things spake Jesus,
and departed, and did hide himself from them. So he gives them some
spiritual truths that's kind of right over their heads. They
didn't have a heart understanding. In verse 37 it says, but though
he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him. It's just, that's just how bad
the, that's just the hint of how desperate the, heart is in
wickedness and the results of the fall. How pernicious, how
destructive to us is the sin and the fall. It says, though
he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him that the saying of Isaiah is the prophet might be
fulfilled, which he spake saying, Lord, who had believed on report.
That's what Isaiah said back in his day. He says, man, I told
about all these miracles that Jesus did. I told about him coming
to take away the sin of his people. I told them the gospel. And I
have all these proofs of who he is. Who's believed our report? And
he's insinuating that in his view, it's not many. Not many
are believing in spite of all these things. To whom has the
arm of the Lord been revealed? There's the key. He says to whom
has the arm of the Lord been revealed? It has to be revealed. It can't be seen with the physical
eye and believed. Therefore, they could not believe
because Isaiah said again, he blinded their eyes and hardened
their heart that they should not see with their eyes or understand
with their heart and be converted that I should heal them. And
these things saith Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of
him. And in each case, the truth is
declared unequivocally, and here in John 1238 from the Old Testament, there
must be a revealing. To whom is the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Who has believed our report?
The ones that believe the report are those to whom the arm of
the Lord has been revealed. That's just the answer there.
These two questions posed to the disciples and to Peter in
particular as a type of the Lord's church are distinctly answered. To most people, it's, you have
seen me and believe not because it hasn't been revealed to you.
You believe not because you're not of my sheep. And he's not obliged to reveal
anything to people that are at enmity with Him that are not
in covenant with Him in the covenant of grace. Those people that the
Lord talked about, John 17, thine they were in His prayer to God,
He said, and thou gavest them Me. Those are the ones whom He
is obliged to reveal Himself to. And it's especially true
when a physical miracle is combined or coupled with a divine spiritual
truth. Boy, we see the evidence of that.
People are saying, well, I like, that was cool. Did you see him
feed those people? That's happened in John chapter
six about this feeding of the 5,000. that we studied in our
last lesson on the loaves and the fishes. John 6, verse 36
says, that I said unto you, you've seen me, and believe not. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And he that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. And then in verse 44 of
that chapter, John 6, he says, no man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. And I will raise him up
at the last day. And it's written in the Prophets. They shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father that's been taught by
the Father cometh unto me. Those to whom the arm of the
Lord has been revealed, those are coming to me." They're all
coming. Not one will be left out. And
the result, the key is found in the sovereign will of purpose
of God the Father. In verse 63 of John chapter six,
he says, it's the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you
that believe not. They just saw the, They just
saw Jesus, the physical Jesus, that had some supernatural capacity
that they didn't understand and that they didn't really believe
in, even though they saw it. Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not. He knew. It's not like it was
a surprise. It's not like he didn't know.
And he knew who should betray him.
all according to his purpose. He said, I have not, I chose
you 12 and one of you is the devil. Is it I? Is it I? Is it I? Is
it I? Even the one that knew that it
was him said, is it I? And from then, verse 65, John six, chapter six,
he said, and therefore, Because of that, because of these things
that I've said, it's the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing,
therefore said I unto you, no man can, no man is able to come
to me except it were given unto him of my father. Revealed, revealed
by the father. And that, from that time, We
have our famous verse in John 6, 6, 6 that we always kind of
make light of. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They went from seeing
him feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two little fishes
and all these other miracles to, ooh, that's a hard saying. Who could know that? And they
walked with him no more. They saw the physical, but they
couldn't deal with the divine. What do you mean no man can come
unless? I can come if I want to. I have
a free will. I have a free will that is totally
corrupted. The will is like every other
aspect of us, of our nature. It's just, it's ruined. It's
free to do what it can and will, in its corrupt mode. But you
know what happens when you put corrupted fuel in your car? You're free to put all the corrupted
fuel in there you want, but it isn't going to run. It's no good. So the same question is posed
in these Gospels. And the answer by Christ is,
it's really applicable and true in all of them. Whom say ye? that Peter answered and said,
as we look at all these different gospels that bring this block
of scripture to us, in Luke he says, you're the Christ of God. That means he was the sent one,
and that has so many implications. Sent for what? He's sent because
of the fall to overcome sin, death, and hell. And in Mark
8, verse 29, whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered, thou
art the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. And Matthew 16, verse 15, he
saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
He pierced through the physical to the spiritual. He already knew But he had to
get him to look at things in a little different light. There
must be almighty intervention to move people from the condition
of unbelief. Paul wrote a lot about that because
he experienced it firsthand. I was just kind of doing a little
research on that this morning and we're almost to the close
of the lesson here. It's about 202 miles from Jerusalem
to Damascus by road. Kind of makes it a little jog
up to the north and then cross over above the Syrian area where
Damascus is. And back in those days, Walking
was the most common form of transportation. And a man can walk about, if
he pays attention and focuses and he's in good shape, can cover
about 30 miles, 25, 30 miles in a day if he has to. So it's about a week's worth
of walking to go up to Damascus. And there's not many places or
things that I would walk seven days. I'd have to be pretty interested
in what was at the other end for me to walk 200 miles. And his view of Jesus was he
was an interferer. Whom say ye that I am? You're
the interferer that's messing up with our Jewish religion.
You are the troublemaker that's causing me not to enjoy life. You're a blasphemer. against
God, the God that he had created in his mind, how he envisioned
God based on what he'd been taught by the tradition of the elders
and a total misunderstanding of the Old Testament. That's
how he saw God. That's who Jesus was. Whom say
ye that I am? Well, he was to Damascus to arrest
those that saw Jesus as thou art the Christ, the son of the
living God. He was on His way to arrest them
and tie them up and bind them and bring them back to Jerusalem.
Another seven day walk back to have them tried and convicted
and probably executed if He could swing it. That's how He saw Jesus. But on that road, the Lord revealed
himself, that's what he says, when it pleased God to reveal
his son in me, that's who did the revealing, and that's who
was revealed. He revealed God, revealed Christ
unto him, and then he says, Lord. He saw, he said, whom say ye
that I am now? And he says, Lord. No man can
say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. That's what Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians 12, 3. And he can confirm that to those
Corinthians because that happened to him. And we read that part
about Galatians where, when it pleased God to reveal His Son
in me, that I conferred not with flesh and blood, because flesh
and blood does not reveal Christ. Blessed art thou, Simon, because
flesh and blood hath not revealed it, but my Father which is in
heaven. In John, that Gospel in John
chapter 6, you've seen me physically, but believe not. He told Nicodemus,
unless a man be born again, he can't see the Kingdom of God.
He can't even see it. I mean, Jesus said, you see me,
but you believe not. You can't see the kingdom of
God. I'm standing right here. You cannot see me. And so he charged them and told
them not to tell anyone that thing because it wasn't yet his
time. Whom say ye that I am? The son of man, the son of God,
sent to save his people from their sins. And that's what he
wrote in the Galatians chapter four. He says, when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law that
we might receive the adoption of sins. Thou shalt bring forth a Son,
and call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins." So, all this to answer that question, Whom say
ye that I am? Is He your Savior? Is He the
Lord God Almighty? The Son of Man? The Son of God?
Or is He just that interferer? That troublemaker? that historical
figure that just gave us, well, here's some more rules for you
to go by. Or is he the one that came and died in your place? So we'll stop there. Till next
time, be free, my friends.