Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
Tom Shrader walks through the feeding of the five thousand using all four Gospel accounts, showing how Jesus tested the disciples by commanding them to feed the crowd with nothing adequate in hand. From this miracle, Shrader draws seven lessons including that Jesus cares for people, that we can do nothing apart from Him, and that God works through ordinary, broken people to accomplish extraordinary things. The teaching closes by turning to Peter's confession in Luke 9:20, pressing listeners with the question Jesus asked His disciples: who do you say that He is?
“Apart from Him, there's nothing you can do — and that's the very basic of the Christian faith, starting with the acknowledgement that there's nothing I can do about my sin.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2005)
Recorded: 2005 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 51 min
Themes: miracles, trust, provision, faith, service, identity of jesus, dependence on god, ordinary people, feeling inadequate, new believer, struggling with doubt, servant, feeling unworthy, seeker questioning faith, young adult, searching for purpose
Scripture: Luke 9:1-20, Luke 9:22-23, John 6:1-14, Matthew 14:1-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, 1 Peter 5:7, John 15:5, Colossians 1, 1 Corinthians 1
Theological Themes: christology, who is jesus, divine provision, sanctification, new creation, gospel proclamation, incarnation, discipleship
Full Transcript
Introduction: Working Through the Life of Christ
Please turn to Luke chapter 9. We are working our way through a study in the life of Christ, moving chronologically from one gospel to another. Today we are going to look at Luke chapter 9, verses 1 through 20. We will spend most of our time on what is tucked in the middle — if you look at your Bible, you will see a heading that says "The Feeding of the Five Thousand." That will occupy the majority of our time.
Luke chapter 9, verses 1 through 6 is really what we looked at last week and where we left off. Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons to cure diseases, and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He gave them marching orders in verse 3: "Take nothing for your journey, no staff nor bag, no bread nor money, do not have two tunics." We do not want anyone to get hung up and conclude this is what Jesus says every time. We see Him later sending them out and acknowledging that before, He had told them to take nothing — but now He wants them to take the resources they have. At this point, Jesus is graphically making a singular point to these men: you can trust Me. God will provide for you as you go.
They departed, as verse 6 tells us, went throughout the villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere, and they had an extraordinary response. On their return, the apostles told Him all that they had done. Tucked in the middle of this account is a parenthetical insert about Herod, but I want to pick up right where we left off last week.
A New Creature in Christ
I am going to do this in a somewhat unusual way. Keep your place in Luke 9 and turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. As Jesus sends His disciples out, He prays a little later in John's gospel, "Just as You, Father, sent Me into the world, now I am sending them into the world." You have a charge. You have a responsibility, as do I, to go and carry this gospel to the world.
Here is what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17: "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature, and the old things have passed away. Behold, the new has come." For me — and I will assume for you as well — that is great news. He did not just remodel me. He did not simply do an extreme makeover. I am a new creature, and the old things have passed away. That is who you are in Christ.
I am still in the same earth suit. I am still here, and there is still a residual from the previous life. If there was sin and disobedience in there, there will still be consequences — those consequences are not necessarily gone. But I am a new creature. Doesn't that sound wonderful — just to start over?
I was talking to somebody the other day who was planting a church. I said, "I think I'd love to be where you are — I'd trade places with you." The more I thought about it, though, I realized that was a lot of work. What I was really saying was that I wouldn't mind starting with a clean slate and being able to avoid the pitfalls and the mistakes you inevitably make. Then the more I contemplated it, the more I thought I would have just found some other way to go wrong.
We used to teach a Sunday school class, and there was a man who worked at the door — a great guy, but a perky guy. He was one of those "how are you doing — great, any better and there'd have to be two of me" kind of people. You wanted to smack him sometimes, he was so cheerful. I came in one morning and said good morning, and he said, "It's going to be a great day." Then he told me there was a woman here who said she went to high school with me and hadn't seen me since. I said, "It is not going to be a great day. This is going to be a lousy day." What I was responding to was really thirty years of sin. I became a Christian at age thirty, and in those first thirty years, if you are any kind of normal person, there is all sorts of things in there you are not happy with or proud of — sin, broken relationships, hurt feelings, just all sorts of things. I am not saying any of that can be undone, and I am not saying there are no consequences. What I am saying is that I am a new creature, and that is entirely a work of God.
Salvation Is Entirely God's Work
Verse 18 says, "All this is from God." He is the one who did it. He is the one who opened our eyes to see the truth. He is the one who, through Christ, reconciled us to Himself. Our salvation is utterly dependent upon God. I am in a relationship with Christ today. I have the right relationship with God today. I can pray and say "Father" to Him — a word that connotes intimacy, even family. I am in that relationship today because of the work He did.
God saves us. That is fundamental, basic Christianity. God saves sinners. God did it all from beginning to end. God initiated our salvation. He saved you in spite of you, not because of you. We hear testimonies all the time from people saying they were just minding their own business when, all of a sudden, God saved them. Look at the Apostle Paul — that is exactly what happens to him. Paul is not looking for God. He is already convinced he is on God's team, convinced he is going to defend God's honor by wiping out the church. And then, all at once — God saves him. It is a graphic picture.
Called to a Ministry of Reconciliation
God wants something more for you than just salvation. If all God wanted to do was get you to heaven, He'd save you and then take you to heaven. But He obviously left you here. Why? The answer is right here in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18: "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us a ministry of reconciliation." That's what God has done for you. Just like Jesus sends the twelve out, now He sends you out with a ministry of reconciliation. That's the message you take.
God has called you to something specific. Because you're unique, because He's given you a different background and different characteristics, none of you are the same. You have different quirks and personalities, and He's made you different and placed you in a unique place. It troubles me when we talk about missions as though it's something separate from ordinary life. You're a missionary right here, in this place — you don't need a passport, a visa, or shots to do what you're doing.
He left you here so we can equip one another and encourage one another, but ultimately to proclaim this message to the world. We'll come back to that a little bit later.
Herod and a Turning Point in Jesus' Ministry
Back in Luke chapter 9, after Jesus sends out the twelve, there is this passage inserted: "Now Herod the Tetrarch heard about all that was happening. He was perplexed because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen. And Herod said, John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things? And he sought to see Him."
This moment sits near a significant turning point in Jesus' ministry. In Matthew's account, in chapter 14 verse 1, Matthew says "at that time," using a word that describes a season or period rather than a specific hour or moment. Jesus has been on the scene for over a year — healing, preaching — and His crowds have never been larger than at this point. But something is changing.
Two things in particular are shifting. First, the focus of Jesus' teaching is changing. He has spoken to the multitudes and will continue to do so periodically, but the focus of His teaching and ministry is now centered on this group of men, on those who are going to follow Him. Second, Jesus is now revealing the mystery of who He is, why He's here, and what that means to those who would follow Him.
Look ahead to Luke chapter 9 verse 22: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day rise. And if anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life, he will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will save it. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"
All of a sudden Jesus is saying, listen, there is more here than just healing. The crowds are gathering and they are large — one of the other gospel writers tells us why: because Jesus is healing, and they are attracted to the sign. But it is a sign, not the message. It is meant to point you in another direction, to demonstrate that Jesus is who He said He was. He is verifying who He is. It is against this backdrop that this miracle takes place.
Herod and John the Baptist
Herod was a tetrarch — a word that literally means a ruler over a fourth of a kingdom, though by this time it had come simply to denote a lesser prince or ruler. Several weeks ago we spoke at length about Herod, but since many of you have been traveling over the summer, here is the background.
Herod had been married, then visited his brother, fell in love or lust with his brother's wife Herodias, divorced his own wife, took Herodias, and married her. One night at a birthday party, she brought out her daughter — who would have been Herod's niece, the daughter of his brother. The secular historian Josephus tells us her name was Salome. She performed a dance for the guests.
By this point, Herod had John the Baptist imprisoned because John had been speaking out against him. Matthew chapter 14 verse 4 tells us John was saying, "This is unlawful" — and the tense of the word indicates he was continually saying it. He didn't simply say it once; he said it again and again and again. John was a righteous man, a bold and outspoken man. Herod, by contrast, was a coward. He wanted to kill John but he wouldn't, because he was afraid of the people. John did not back off.
Colson writes about a very similar phenomenon he observed when he worked for the president. He writes: "It was always the same. In the reception room, they would rehearse their angry lines and reassure one another, 'I'll tell him what's—'"
The Miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand
It is the only miracle recorded by all four of the Gospel writers, and that in itself would lead us to believe it is significant. It is the feeding of the five thousand.
Here is the backdrop from verse 10: "On the return, the apostles told Jesus all they had done, and He took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed Him, and He welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who were needing healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to Him, 'Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provision, for we are here in a desolate place.'"
The Apostles Return
The apostles are coming back and telling Jesus what has happened. Some of the other Gospel writers fill it in a little further. They are explaining all they have done, what they have taught, the reaction they received, and the healings that took place. Remember, He sent them out two by two. They did not have cell phones. They were not calling one another along the way. They are coming back together, and we have no real sense of the timing involved.
I like to imagine what that scene must have been like. One group is saying, "Here is what happened — we did this," and another jumps in, "Let me tell you what happened over here," and a third says, "I said this and the whole place responded." These men must have been beside themselves. This had to be a euphoric high like they had never experienced in their lives.
Being Used by God
The same thing will happen to you as God begins to work through you. Once He uses you, once you submit to Him and are obedient to Him, and He uses you in a significant way to touch people's hearts, it will be addicting. You cannot get enough of it. When it comes to meaning and purpose in life, there is nothing like being part of something truly significant.
The only truly significant thing on this planet is the body of Christ and what Jesus is doing. The other things we do during the week are important, and I am not putting them down, but they do not ultimately carry eternal value. This does.
I think I understand how students think, because I remember how I thought when I was there, and I believe it is still largely the same. We want to do something significant. We want to make a difference. When I was in college in the late sixties and early seventies, we were radical, we were individuals — so to prove we were individuals, we all dressed alike, smelled alike, and looked alike. But we wanted to do something. I remember once seeing a Bible with a military camouflage cover and thinking how meaningful that was — the idea that we are engaged in something real, something that matters, a true battle worth fighting. We were drawn to the idea of being part of something truly significant.
in the Greek, this is emphatic. He said to them, **you** — you give them something to eat. This is directed specifically at the disciples.
The Disciples Return and the Crowd Gathers
They came back and were sharing what was going on. The people were coming, they were gathered, and now we are in the English Standard Version at the twelfth verse, in a desolate place. Some of the other translations call it a quiet place, a remote place, a solitary place. The New King James calls it a deserted place, an isolated location.
There they are, and the day is wearing away. This was probably mid-May, springtime, when sunset would be around six o'clock. It was probably around four in the afternoon. We are told in a moment that there were five thousand men — five thousand men plus women plus children, so approximately twenty-five thousand people.
The Disciples Offer Jesus Advice
The disciples give Jesus some advice. Did you catch that? "Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get provisions." They may have been feeling their oats a little bit. They had been casting out demons and healing people. They had seen all sorts of success, and they were thinking, maybe we ought to help out here. Why not send the people away?
The humanity of it is understandable. Here are twenty-five thousand people, and we have nothing to feed them. It is the end of the day, and they do not have a place to sleep. So the suggestion is: Jesus, send them away.
"You Give Them Something to Eat"
Look at verse thirteen. I want to read through Luke's account and then come back to John's account to fill in some of the gaps. Here is what Jesus said: "He said to them, 'You give them something to eat.' They said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.' For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, 'Have them sit down in groups of fifty.' And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied."
Now, the word "satisfied" here is worth pausing on. You can be at a restaurant and say you are full, meaning you are simply not hungry anymore — but that is not this word. The way to describe it is Thanksgiving full. This is when you eat and then you roll onto the floor, unbutton your pants, and cannot move. That is what this word means. They were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up — twelve baskets of broken pieces.
John's Account Fills in the Gaps
That is Luke's account. Now let us go to John's account in John chapter six, because John fills in a few of the gaps. What is important to understand about the four Gospel writers is that you are getting four slightly different versions of the same event. Every once in a while, a critic will say that because one account says this and another says that, the event must never have happened. But consider the State of the Union address. When the president delivers the State of the Union, you pick up four newspapers and you have four different spins, four different insights. One writer focuses on this detail, another on that one. Nobody concludes that the president obviously never gave the address simply because the accounts differ. It is like a prism — each writer is simply presenting the event from a slightly different angle, and when we put them together we get a more complete picture.
Here is how John writes it, beginning at John chapter six, verse one: "After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is called the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick." So when you wonder why there is such a large crowd, they are seeing these signs. Signs and miracles will always draw a crowd. "Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?' He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do."
We did not get that detail from Luke's account — there is a testing taking place here. "Philip answered him, 'Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.' One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 'There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?'" Then Jesus tells them to sit down.
The Crowd's Response
In John's account, when it is all over, look at verse fourteen: "When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, 'This indeed is the Prophet who is to come into the world!' Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew." John tells us that; Luke does not.
Seven Lessons from the Text
So, back to Luke's gospel. There is a testing going on, and something significant is about to take place. I want to stay focused on one point and draw out seven lessons we can pull from this passage. Return to verse thirteen. In the English, the text does not fully communicate what the Greek is expressing, because in the Greek this is emphatic: **you** — you give them something to eat. It is directed specifically at the disciples.
You Cannot Do It Without Him
The emphasis in the Greek is on what we translate as the first word: *you*. To read it as it would appear in Greek, it would go, "You — you give them something to eat." They have presented the problem, and Jesus is saying, "You go do something about it. You feed them." Their response is predictable: there is nothing we can do. We have no place to go. Even if we had the money, it is not as though we can run to a store and get this food. We only have this many resources — a boy here with five loaves and two fish — and that is not going to do anything.
What Jesus is doing is putting it right in their face: you are absolutely inadequate without Me. If you do not have Me in this situation, you do not have a chance. It is a magnificent picture, a microcosm of the macrocosm of our lives — without Him, we do not have anything. And then you know the miracle, the only miracle recorded by all four Gospel writers.
Seven Lessons from the Feeding of the Five Thousand
Let me give you seven lessons here, and then I want to touch on the next few verses.
**First, Jesus cares about people.** We see that throughout this passage. Jesus is moved with compassion. He sees the people who are hurting, and He heals them. As we saw last week, He sees the sheep without a shepherd and is moved with compassion. He weeps when He sees the sin in Jerusalem. Jesus cares about people. That is why Peter writes in 1 Peter 5, "Cast all your cares, all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."
Jesus is not indifferent. We can run the risk of thinking, yes, God is sovereign, but perhaps He is indifferent — that He may be sovereign, but He does not care. I was rereading James Boice's comments to his church when he was telling them he had cancer. He died eight weeks after speaking to his church that day. He said, "For me to tell you that God is sovereign is not novel — we talk about that all the time. But you may think that He is indifferent. It may be that He is sovereign, but He doesn't care." Boice's answer was clear: He cares deeply. Jesus cares.
**Second, we should never ignore somebody's physical needs.** Sometimes we can become so focused on presenting the gospel that we overlook the fact that people are hungry, people are hurting, and people's lives are in such disarray that they cannot even begin to hear what we are saying. People have physical needs, and we cannot ignore them. If we want to be like Christ, we need to care about people, and when we see hurting, we should be about alleviating that hurt the best we can.
**Third, we can do nothing apart from Jesus.** John 15:5 records Jesus saying, "If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do absolutely nothing." That is the whole point. When we harmonize the four Gospels and bring them together, Jesus is saying, "You go do something. You figure it out." Philip answers: we have no money, we cannot go get food, we have five loaves and a couple of fish, and none of that is going to make any difference. There is nothing we can do.
That acknowledgement, by the way, is the very foundation of the Christian faith. It begins with recognizing that there is nothing I can do about my sin — that I have sinned, my sin has separated me from God, and there is nothing I can do to make it right. My efforts to make it right are what we call religion, and God hates religion. There is no formula. There is nothing. Apart from Him, I can do nothing. With Him, extraordinary things begin to happen, not the least of which is that someone who is dead spiritually comes to life. Spurgeon wrote this autobiographically toward the end of his ministry: "Truly he who writes this comment has often felt that he had neither a loaf nor a fish, and yet for some forty years and more he has been a full-handed waiter at the king's great banquet table."
Sufficiency Found in Him Alone
**Fourth, Jesus is where we find our sufficiency.** If you go to the world and ask what you need to do to be successful, to prepare for life, the answer you will receive is: go to this school, learn this skill, get the right relationship, buy this car, acquire this thing — and now you have it made. We have all seen the advertisements — the man sitting on the beach, everything perfect around him, this is really living. They never show you how those days end up. They never show you the relationships broken along the way.
Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly." Real life is found in Him. We sing it: Jesus, You're all I need, more than enough. Sufficiency is found in Him and Him alone. In John's account of the feeding of the five thousand, John notes that it was right around Passover time, and then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life" — hearkening them all the way back to
Bread of Life
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. If you eat from Me, you'll never hunger again. If you drink from Me, you'll never thirst again." Obviously, He is not speaking on a physical plane. He is speaking on a spiritual plane. You have a need. You have an emptiness, and all sorts of people describe it in all different ways.
It is always instructive to listen to athletes, movie stars, successful people, and entertainers as they talk about how empty life is. There was an interview with Eddie Murphy where he said there is just something missing in his life — something not there, something not present. He thought certain things would make him happy, and they did not.
Most people today know Freddie Prinze Jr., but his father's story is worth telling. His father appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was absolutely hilarious. He went from nothing to a weekly series and a great deal of money almost overnight — then went home one day after taping, walked into his living room, and took his own life. He had everything. Somewhere in his mind he had told himself that if he acquired all of that, he would finally be happy. Those things are never going to produce happiness. True joy — not merely happiness, but joy — is found in Christ and Christ alone.
Trust in the Lord
Here is the fifth lesson: trust in the Lord. John MacArthur calls this the supreme lesson for the disciples in this passage. We can bring all our gifts and all our talents, but they are nothing when we face the true difficulties of life. We must trust in Him. Scripture says do not lean on your own understanding. There is a way that seems right to man, but that way is foreign to what God intends.
God Works Through People
Two more things remain, and they tie directly together. The first is that God works through people. Jesus could have told all twenty-five thousand people to reach into their pockets and find a loaf and a fish there. He could have simply declared their bellies full without using food at all. He could have sent an angel to declare the gospel to each person individually — but He did not do any of these things. He works through people.
Furthermore, He works through broken, weak vessels. Paul looks at the church in Corinth and observes that there were not many rich, not many smart, not many powerful among them. God uses broken vessels. Every so often a speaker comes along who is tall, articulate, poised, fiery, and never stutters or stammers. When it is all done and people are having a cup of coffee, they say he was incredible, so bright, so sharp. And God's response, in effect, is: that is precisely why He does not use those men. They get in the way. Everyone ends up talking about the messenger instead of the message.
On the other hand, there was a time when someone picked up from the airport after telling him over the phone how incredible his teaching was. Once they were in the car, the man grew noticeably uncomfortable. When pressed, he finally admitted the problem: "You're short." The response was simply that nothing said was going to hurt his feelings. That, in fact, is the point. When the message is done and the vessel is unimpressive, people walk away saying, "God is good." That is exactly what should happen, and that is something to be at peace with.
Look at the top business leaders, the prominent politicians, the PhDs — you generally do not find them deeply and actively engaged. Politicians appear around election time, then disappear. It all gets in the way. God is not saying He wants poor, ignorant, or unattractive people, but the principle stands: He works through people, and He is not hindered by the absence of worldly credentials.
He Will Work Through You
That brings us to the seventh point: He will work through you. The Great Commission is addressed to you. The main verb is "make disciples." Whether you are going to work, to school, to an Intel plant, to the dairy, to the golf course, or to the store — wherever you are going, you make disciples as you go.
At this point the common objection arises: "I don't know very much." The answer to that is straightforward — then learn. If you do not know anything after years of sitting under teaching, that is not anyone else's fault. It is not your pastor's fault, not your parents' fault. It is yours.
Overcoming Obstacles and Embracing God's Dream for You
If you don't know anything, that is really a comment on you — and probably not on your capacity, just on your desire. There is one book in our bookstore called *The Foundations of the Christian Faith* by James Boyce. That book is about 800 pages, so you are not going to read it all at once. But if you said, over the next year, I am going to read three pages of that a day, at the end of that year you would be in the top 10% of the Christian community in terms of knowledge — just from that one book. So get rid of those obstacles.
Personalize this thing. Get a vision for how God is going to use you, because God will use you in some marvelous ways. Here is what I have discovered about dreams. We tend to have dreams when we are kids, and then we get to college, and as we get toward the end of college, somebody who is doing you no favor at all comes to you and says, "You are about to go into the real world." The real world does not mean you give up dreaming.
God gives you a dream. It is that thing you do not even want to say out loud. You do not even want to say it to anybody because you are afraid that once they hear it, they will say, "Oh, you are so stupid. You will never do that. Look at you. You would never accomplish that." But it is in there. And here is what I have experienced: as we age, our dreams get smaller, more defined, boring. Don't waste your life, and the way you waste your life is to give up that dream.
Now, you may have a dream to be a certain athlete, or make a certain amount of money, or accomplish something specific. Go after it — knock yourself out. But I am talking about a bigger dream than that. I am talking about dreaming that God may use you to touch another person's heart and change not just their destination but their destiny as well. You may be in there teaching third grade, thinking, "If I am faithful in the little things, He will give me big things" — but He may just give you ten more third graders. Do not get hung up on that. He is going to use you. God uses people. You are a person. He will use you. That is the miracle.
Who Do You Say That He Is?
Look at verse 18. "Now it happened that He was praying alone, and the disciples were with Him." I have always struggled with that — how is He alone, and they are with Him? "And He asked them, 'Who did the crowd say that I am?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and others say you are one of the prophets.'"
This is exactly what we saw earlier with Herod. Herod was hearing these things — they were saying John the Baptist — and Herod said He cannot be John the Baptist because he had killed John the Baptist. And so they were saying Elijah, which was the big story from the Old Testament, that Elijah would return and herald the coming of the Lord. Others were saying that one of the prophets had returned. Jesus listens to the results of this survey, and then He asks in verse 20, "But who do you say that I am?"
That is the most important question you are ever going to have to deal with: who is Jesus Christ? There are all sorts of answers. Some say He is just an imaginary figure, akin to Pinocchio or some other fictional character — but I am finding fewer and fewer people say that. Some go down the line of saying He is a prophet. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet, probably the greatest of prophets, but not God. Some say He was a great teacher. I hear that a lot. But He cannot simply be a great teacher — that is not really an option for us. No great teacher would claim to be God unless He really was.
That is why Josh McDowell and C.S. Lewis and others have driven us to this point: Jesus either has to be a liar — someone who said He was something He knew He was not — or He is out of His mind, claiming to be God when He is not, or He is exactly who He said He was. Jesus makes claims. He says, "Before Abraham was, I am." Before Abraham was around, that was Him — He was there. Paul tells us in Colossians 1 that He created all things. "I and the Father are one. I am God." That is what He says.
Peter responds — and again, there are subtleties here. Jesus asked them what they thought, and Peter answers on their behalf.
Who Do You Say He Is?
Peter responds with a declaration: "You are the Christ of God" — literally, "You are the Christ, the Son of the God, the Living One." A little later in the other Gospels, as they record it, Jesus says to Peter: "You're right. I am the Christ. I am the Messiah. And let me tell you something — you didn't figure it out. God opened your eyes to see that, because you'd never get it otherwise."
This question leads right into where we're going next week. If I say He is the Son of the Living God, do I see it in my life? How then am I supposed to live? But first: who do you say that He is?
In a group this size, between the worship center and the conference center, my suspicion is that some of you are going to have what the Bible says is the right answer — that Jesus is who He said He was, God come in the flesh to die for your sin and mine. But some of you are not going to have the right answer. Some of you would say Jesus was around and He was a good guy, but not any big thing. You might even say He was God come in the flesh, but no big deal — and that is exactly what we saw last week. That is what the demons recognized: who Jesus was.
How you answer this question determines where you spend eternity, and it determines the quality of your life here and now. It is a huge question.
The Extraordinary Life of a Committed Follower
When we say Jesus is my Lord, Jesus is my Savior, God is ready to work in our lives. There was a man by the name of D.L. Moody, and the story goes that one day he heard a man speak who said, "The world is yet to see what God would do with one person whose life was completely committed to Him." That night Moody was praying and writing and thinking about this. He reflected that the man hadn't talked about education, background, status, or money — he talked about willingness and desire. And Moody said, "By the grace of God, I'll be that man." Moody went on to become a major figure in American Christian history.
So there are two things at work. First, I have to answer that question rightly. Second, what difference does it make in the way I live? God has called you to live an extraordinary life. The last thing the Christian life should be is boring — there should be something happening all the time.
It is about people. It is about who God is bringing into your sphere of influence. You are a missionary. He has not called you to go save the world; He has called you to preach the gospel to your world. Whether anybody gets saved or not is utterly a work of His. All you are is a broken-down vessel, a clay pot that He uses to preach this message and to live this message.
God does extraordinary things in your life and mine. From personal experience, there is nothing more exciting than seeing Him start to work in somebody's life and being the vehicle He uses to instigate that change. You are hooked. You understand the power of the risen God — you see it first in your own life as it is transformed, and then you see Him use you in other people's lives.
The One Right Answer
Here is the question you are walking out the door with: who do you say that He is? There are many wrong answers and one right answer — that He is God come in the flesh to die on the cross to save His people from their sin. But it is not enough to say that is what you know intellectually. You have to embrace it. You have to trust that truth for the rest of your life. You have to repent — turn from your own ways, your own agenda, your own thought processes, your own selfishness, your own sin — and embrace Him and Him alone as the solution to that sin. And it transforms the way you live.
Look at what He says after that. Verse 22, which we saw earlier: "Similarly, the Son of Man must suffer." And verse 23: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." That is exactly where we are going next week — what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
Father, thank You for this lesson, for this truth. I pray for those who are here who, when we ask the question "Who do you say Jesus is?" answer, "I don't know. I haven't got a clue. I never really thought about it" — or who had an answer but are not sure it was the right one. God, thank You for working in that person's life. I pray that You would make every person here who doesn't know the answer to this question as miserable as they can be until You touch their heart and open their eyes. God, there are all sorts of things that You can and will do through us as we are obedient to You as Your followers. We pray that You would open our eyes, bring us to a point of salvation, and then work in our lives to continue to conform us to the image of Your Son, Jesus Christ. God, don't let these words just hang out there — take them and touch our hearts. We pray this to You in Jesus' name, amen.