Jesus the Suffering Savior

What Does It Mean to Be a Christian?

We'll begin with a simple question. What does it mean to be a Christian? It's a simple question, and I hope for a simple sermon this morning. Some might say a Christian is someone who believes Scripture — a Bible person, someone who understands and reads Scripture. Someone might say a Christian is someone who goes to church. Someone else might say it's someone who follows the golden rule, or something similar to that.

But we're not called Scripturians, right? We're not called churchians or gold rulers. We're Christians. And for the sake of being oversimplistic, I think it's easy to understand it this way: in order to understand what a Christian is, we have to understand what Christ means. What does it mean when we say we follow Christ? Jesus Christ — what does that mean? Because a Christian is a Christ follower, a disciple of Christ. Christian.

And so that's where we need to start, and that's where Luke has been going really this entire time as we've been moving through the Gospel of Luke. If you didn't bring a Bible, I'd encourage you to turn on your phone or get to a Bible app, because I want you to follow along with the journey that Luke is taking us on. We find ourselves in chapter nine — kind of in the middle of chapter nine — and Luke is moving toward, he's been inviting the reader toward the answer to that question.

Who do you think Jesus is? As we know, Christ is not Jesus' last name — like Judas Iscariot, Jesus Christ. That is not to differentiate him from Jesus down the street. It's not a surname, it's not his dad's name. Christ is a title. So it's more accurate to say — and you'll hear me say it sometimes — Jesus the Christ. The one who is the Christ.

And if you remember last week, Herod was asking, "Who is this guy? " Some people came to Herod and said, "Hey, I think he's got to be John the Baptist back from the dead. " Others said, "No, I think he's Elijah. Elijah is back. " Others said, "Well, I don't think it's Elijah. I think it's someone else — someone maybe more powerful or different. "

Then Jesus answers it — or we could say Luke answers Herod's question — by taking us to the feeding of the five thousand, remember? As I pointed out, Elisha had fed a large crowd with about twenty loaves of bread, and Jesus feeds a way larger crowd with way less food. It's Jesus one-upping the prophets that came before him. Elijah, Elisha had double the portion of Elijah's spirit, and Jesus way blew that miracle out of the water — like, I supersede all of the prophets, because I'm not just a prophet. I'm beyond that.

And so now we get the answer a little more plainly, because Jesus pulls his disciples aside and says, "I don't want to know what Herod thinks. I want to know what you think. Not what the crowds think — who do you say that I am? " We need to understand that answer, because if we don't understand who Jesus is, we don't understand what it means to be a Christian. We don't understand what it even means to be saved. So Luke invites us right to it — verse 18.

Peter's Confession: Jesus Is the Christ

I'm not sure why John the Baptist was such a popular answer, but John was the most recent prophet on the scene. And this is what everybody was saying — it's out there on Twitter and on Insta, right? These are the top Google hits, if they'd had such things back then. So the disciples are just recounting what people are saying when you're in the restaurants, when you're in the streets, when you're in the marketplace.

"Have you heard of this Jesus guy? " "Yeah, I think he's John the Baptist. " "Weird. I think he's Elijah who's come back. " Some say it's one of the prophets of old who has risen.

The way Jesus poses the question, it has a built-in separation. He asks first what the crowd says, gets that answer, and then goes, "But who do you say? " In other words, you're not the crowds. And what separates the disciple from the normal person out there in the crowd — what makes the in versus the out — is your answer to this question. Who is Jesus? A religious figure? Someone who taught the golden rule? Someone who taught us to share? For many, that's the point of the feeding of the five thousand: share your loaves of bread, guys. Jesus taught us to share. Is he a moral instructor? Peter gets right to it.

"You're the Christ of God. There is none like you. There's one Christ. You're not a prophet. You're the Christ of God. "

And his answer is correct. Christ is Christos in the Greek — the Greek word for the old Hebrew word throughout the Old Testament for Messiah, which means anointed one. So technically, when Peter says, "You are the Christ of God, " he's saying, "You are the anointed one of God. You are the Messiah. " That's another word we use a lot — Messiah — but what does it mean? It means anointed one.

In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and especially kings would be anointed with oil as a sign that God is choosing this person, appointing them to that role. God is appointing this prophet, this priest, this king for a special role. And then over time, the prophets spoke of a coming anointed king from David's line who would establish God's kingdom. He would be the final king, the ultimate king. His reign would rule forever. He would be the shepherd of God's people. He would save them from their sins.

So when the New Testament calls Jesus the Christ, it's declaring that this long-awaited Savior — the one you've been reading about throughout the Old Testament — is not just a prophet, because prophets can't save, and not just any king, because kings were mostly mixed bags of good and evil. This long-awaited Savior promised throughout the Old Testament is the Christ, the anointed one.

So Peter is saying, "You fulfill the Old Testament, man. God's promise from Genesis to bring through the woman a seed who will defeat the serpent — you're him. God's promise in Daniel to bring a Son of Man who will stand over all kings, all kingdoms, all tribes — you're him. God's promise through Psalm 2 that one anointed king will crush all those who rebel, but be a refuge for those who kiss the Son — you're him. "

There's a lot that Peter is saying when he says, "You're the Christ of God. " You haven't established yourself. God has set you up and appointed you as the one to fulfill all of God's plan to rescue humanity from sin. You're it.

And Jesus is making sure the disciples understand that. It's easy to get distracted by all the miracle working, and that's what the crowds were missing. The crowds loved his miracles. They loved that Jesus could really get them out of a jam — like needing dinner that night, or more significantly, a reversal of paralysis or disease, as we've seen him do. The crowds know he's of God, but they treat him like any prophet. He's good so long as they benefit from what he's doing for them. But as soon as the prophets in the Old Testament stopped benefiting Israel, Israel would kill them.

This was a repeating pattern. Rather than saying, "Man, I guess God doesn't want me to do this, " they would just kill that prophet and ask some false prophet to take his place. And the false prophet, to keep his job, would just tell the king what the king wanted to hear.

That's how crowds handle Jesus. And Jesus says, "Is that how you see me? Am I here to suit your needs? Am I here to conform to what your agenda already is? " Peter says, "No. We know you're different. You are the Savior promised in the Old Testament. "

Phase One — The Christ Must Suffer

Now here's where the problem comes in. The disciples knew the Sunday school answer, right? They knew the fill-in-the-blank. Jesus gave them a sheet with one question on it, and the fill in the blank was "Jesus the what?" — and Peter got it right: the Christ. But they didn't understand the role. They didn't understand the function of the Christ.

Yes, Jesus is the Christ who comes to save us from our sins — they understood that. But what does the Christ need to do in order to accomplish that? They didn't get that. Christ is not to come immediately riding on his white horse, putting down evil. He will do that — still future, from our perspective, I believe. But we don't want him to fast-forward to that, because if Jesus came down immediately not as the suffering servant but as the conquering king, that means we would all fall under his sword. That's not how he saves — that's how he puts wickedness down. But if we're still wicked and not saved and we fast-forwarded to that, we'd all be in trouble. So Jesus has to roll this out in phases. He's got to be the Christ who saves first, then the Christ who deals with wickedness. And what the disciples weren't getting was that first phase.

"You're the Christ" — and they're thinking white horse, sword. They're thinking Son of Man, Daniel 7. They're thinking, take out this empire. "Caesar thinks he's hot stuff. Man, wait till Jesus is on the scene. He just said 'shh' and a whole storm stopped. What can he do with armies? If we run out of food, he'll just multiply it. If we get injured, he'll just touch us. Arrow in the eye — he'll pluck it out, put some mud and spit on it, and I can see again. We cannot be defeated with this guy. "

And Jesus says, "Yeah, you're missing phase one. You're missing the saving part — not me conquering all wickedness, but you're missing what it takes to be transferred from the wicked group to the blessed group, the righteous group. To be pulled from the crowds and understand what it means to actually follow me. It's not just knowing that the answer is that I'm the Christ. It's understanding the mission of the Christ. And the first mission of the Christ is to live, suffer, and die — then be raised — then later, phase two. But we want to skip the suffering part, right? "

Those of you around my age, you remember the famous tracts we were supposed to pass out — "God created you and has a wonderful plan for your life. " Four steps of the gospel. Do you remember any of those steps saying, "You're a sinner, you deserve God's wrath"? What happened to that? What is the person repenting of? Why does Jesus have to die? Why does he have to get punched, beard plucked, back whipped? It's because of my sin, man. My sin has to get dealt with before he gets to ride the white horse with me behind him cheering him on. Otherwise I'm trampled by said horse. He has to do phase one. We can't skip the suffering part.

And that's what the disciples were missing. Verse 21.

Don't tell anyone he's the Christ. That seems counterintuitive — I'll explain that in a second. But notice what he says: the Son of Man — there he's channeling Daniel 7 — must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes. The very people who teach about the coming Messiah. They tell everyone the Messiah is coming. They prove it from Scripture. Those experts are the ones who are going to reject him, and that's why he is going to be killed — and on the third day, be raised.

As you continue to read through the Gospel of Luke, or any of the Gospels, you can tell the disciples just don't quite land on this. He's saying it, they're hearing it, but it doesn't compute — based on how they behave later. When they're surprised that he's arrested. When they're surprised that he's killed. When they're surprised he's resurrected. He taught them all of this. But they just can't — it's like when you're leaving your kids instructions before you leave the house, and you can tell they are just not getting it. They're looking at you, but it's not there. That's how the disciples are with Jesus. Be patient with your children — we are like that with God.

And that's why he tells them in verse 21 not to tell anyone. He's got to get to the cross. He's actually keeping it quiet that he's the Christ — understanding that the crowds see him as kind of a miracle-worker guy, and eventually they're going to have their fill of him. The scribes, the religious leaders, are going to hate his sermons. They're going to hate that his sermons are so well attended. They're going to feel threatened by him calling out their hypocrisy and for fleecing people in the middle of the temple — making money off the poor instead of praying. They're going to hate that, and they're going to kill him.

So when Jesus tells those he healed to keep quiet — especially if they lived in that region — it's because people being ignorant of his role as the Christ is going to work in his favor for getting him to the cross. After that? After the deed is finished, people can and should spread the word all they want. We have no business keeping it quiet. This was a momentary thing to get to the cross. After that, shout it. That's Acts 1 and 2, right? It explodes and goes out. There's no keeping it quiet. But here, Jesus has to get to the cross. He's got to first suffer and die, and then be raised.

Why? Because he is our substitute. This is why John the Baptist announced him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world when Jesus came on the scene. He's the Messiah who comes as suffering servant first, before conquering king. God sends this anointed one — who is the God-man — and in his deity he lives a perfect life, resisting every temptation that can be thrown at him. And in his humanity, he does it in our stead. He steps into our shoes and walks the life that we couldn't walk, and then takes death for us. If he had sinned, he'd have had to take his own death and we'd all still be in trouble.

And then we become his disciples by trusting in that fact about him. Not because he's a good teacher, not because he promises to work miracles, not because you're tired of your life being out of control and you want to get it under control — go to a twelve-step program for that. Jesus is not that. Will he affect your life in those positive ways? Yes, but that's not why we come to him. We don't come to him to save us from our financial woes. We don't come to Jesus to make our physical bodies feel better. We come to Jesus because we need the refuge that can only be found in Christ to escape the trap of our own sins.

The Mission Shapes the Disciple

Now, we started this morning by asking what it means to be a Christian. And so far we've seen what it means that Jesus is the Christ. But that's where the answer lies, you see. To be a Christian means to follow Christ — so to understand Christ's mission is to understand our mission.

Not directly to victory and exaltation — but this phase we're in now, this side of the grave, is a life of self-sacrifice and dying to self. Then eventually we're raised. So the mission of the Christian follower of Christ is to suffer, die, and be raised with Christ. That's how he saves us. That's how we are saved. Look at verses 23 to 27 — just so you understand I'm not getting this from some class I had at seminary. It's right here in the text.

When Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, " he's establishing what he just said as a pattern to follow. "Coming after me" means following me — it doesn't mean after me there's another Christ. He's saying, I'm walking this way, come follow me, walk with me. A student models his or her life after the teacher. He goes left, I go left. He goes up, I follow him up. I follow Jesus' pattern.

And he's saying: if you're going to really follow me, it looks like this. It's not just learning theology — it's more than learning, it's living. It's more than respecting who Jesus is, it's serving him, honoring him. And we do that not just by admiring his life and his mission of sacrifice, but by adopting it. We adopt that posture of sacrifice. It's a pattern of sacrifice.

Verse 23: "Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. " We don't take up the cross by wearing it on a necklace. We don't take up the cross by tattooing it on a shoulder. And we don't take up the cross by putting it on a sticker on the back of the car.

If Jesus were saying this today, he'd say, "Take up your lethal injection syringe. Take up your electrocution chair. " It's a disgusting, violent form of execution. And he's telling them — not only am I going to my death on the cross, but that's what your life is supposed to look like. Take up your cross daily. Now, how can you be crucified daily? Only if it's a metaphor for pain. Some of these disciples are going to lose their lives for Christ. But he's not saying everyone who follows me is going to die for it. He's saying everyone who follows me has to put themselves last. I'm going to the cross not for myself but for others — and that's how you have to live. It's going to hurt you to sacrifice for other people who don't deserve it.

That's the pattern of a sacrificial life. It's denying yourself — that's how you take up your cross. And how do we do it? Daily. Don't let it be a fad. This is your new life now. As a Christian, you deny yourself. And this doesn't mean what some people in the past took it to mean — going to some tower, starving yourself, denying yourself of life's comforts, living alone. If you live by yourself, how are you affecting anybody else? No, it's not to retreat from life.

It's to live in the world, with messy people, broken people, and to sacrifice for them. That's hard, right? But isn't that what Jesus did? Jesus sacrificed himself for me, and I don't deserve it. That means I don't get to walk around doing nice things only for people who do nice things for me first — because everyone lives that way. What's hard about the Christian life is doing it when it hurts to do it. This pattern he's calling us to is the opposite of what we would do if we weren't in Christ.

Verse 24: "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. " You have these opposites. What we'd normally want to do is try to live by saving our lives all the time — protecting my life, enhancing my life wherever possible, making it better, thinking of my goals, getting obstacles out of my way to do my thing. That's a life that demands more for self. A life focused on taking, on having, on being as comfortable as possible.

But the life that Christ calls us to — modeled after him — is one of sacrifice. This is a life that demands less for self. A life focused on giving, sharing, and being willing to hurt for a greater good, to be hurt.

That sounds counterintuitive. It sounds backwards. I thought there's victory in Jesus. I thought blessed is the person who follows Jesus. Yes — ultimately, and in the end. So in the grand scheme of things, following Jesus is actually not a sacrifice. That's why in verse 25 he lays out the logic. Jesus is like, "I know this is hard and counterintuitive, but think of it this way. " You can almost tap into a selfish instinct to get on board with denying yourself — because who wins in the end, right?

"What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world? " He's saving, he's investing, he's networking, growing his career, climbing the ladder faster than everybody else. What's the point of all that if on the other side you lose all of it and yourself? He's talking about eternal separation from God. Now where's your house? Where's your yacht now? Does that make any sense?

Or does it make more sense to — you know what, maybe I can't have all of those things because I'm giving to kingdom work. Maybe I can't do all of those things because I have to invest time in my kids. I can't just have them running around the yard while I do more work. I have to actually shepherd my own children. That means less work. That means the younger guy with no kids might surpass me at work. And I have to take that hit if I'm going to be a dad at home.

And Jesus is saying, well, which one do you think is worth it in the end? When you look back on the life you lived on this earth, which one are you going to say was worth it? The second guy, not the first guy. So even if we wanted to put it in purely selfish terms — it's hard work now that pays off later versus easy stuff now that has no payoff later. And if ultimately what we're serving is our careers, or advancement, or comfort, then we're not serving Christ. It's a form of denying him, actually.

Because one way to advance yourself in this life is just to be quiet about the Christ stuff. But to be loud about Jesus, to talk to people about the fact that you're a Christian — that's going to cost us. What would be stopping anybody from living this way? I think it's shame. Shame is a big factor.

That's why Jesus points to it in verse 26. "Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. " You see how Jesus is mercifully painting the scene? Because in our minds we have our in-laws and our parents and the expectations of the boss. And he's like, "Okay, I grant there's some pressure there. But one day you're going to have a different audience surrounding you asking, 'What did you do? ' — the Father in all his glory, the Son of Man in all his glory, surrounded by the holy angels. "

We have to visualize that cloud of witnesses to go, man, I feel pressure to go a certain way right now, but I'd rather do the right thing and be hated for it and lose half my Facebook friends than get a disappointed look from the holy angels on a day when they're like, "Man, you didn't do it. Like, you went to church, but it wasn't for him. In the end, it was for yourself. "

The Father, the Son of Man, and the holy angels will hold us all to account one day as we stand before Jesus as judge. It's a theme of now for later. Sacrificing now for later. What it means to stand before the Father in a way that is protected by his grace and covered by the righteousness of Christ — it means the life we live now wasn't for me, it was for Christ. Whatever that means and whatever it takes: to not be ashamed of Jesus in conversations, to not be ashamed of Jesus when we're in the workplace, at home, or around a table. We sacrifice comfort now to stand in God's glory later. Now verse 27 — I'm saving some of that for next week.

"I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. " People debate what that means. These guys died, and he didn't bring the kingdom. We're still waiting on the stuff in Revelation to happen. Some people say the stuff in Revelation already happened and they did see it. Some people say it's the transfiguration that happens in the next paragraph. We'll tackle that next week.

But here's what I think gets missed in that argument. We debate when Jesus is talking about, and we miss why he's talking about it. The reason Jesus brings up the kingdom being revealed is because he's saying, "I know this is really hard. It's hard to give everything for something you can't see. But some of you will see it. Not everyone, but some of you will. " And whatever that is — that glimpse of the kingdom — it proves to them: this kingdom is real. This kingdom is here. This kingdom is coming. This kingdom is actual. It's not a fairy tale. You're not sacrificing your life for a wishy-washy, halfway hopeful thing that might happen someday. It's real. Some of you will even see it before you die.

And the reason he's doing that is because you need to understand the reality of what's coming later in order to endure the difficulty now. I mean, if you told your kid, "Hey, I know I'm asking you to be patient — just wait for me, I'm gonna come back, and when I come back, I'll give you a dragon. You can ride the dragon around and it's gonna be fantastic, but for now I just need you to do your chores" — that's not motivating. You'd be like, "What, a dragon? " You might start half-believing, and then your sibling makes fun of you: "Dad's just saying that, right? "

I think that's what Jesus is doing here. If you understand the kingdom is real, then when you see him suffer, you survive the temptation to think, "This isn't real. God wouldn't do that. God wouldn't let us suffer. We're the king's kids. " Jesus is saying, "No, no — you have to understand there's a now for later. And the later ushers in all the perfection: new heaven, new earth, lack of sin, no more struggling with it, no more temptations taking us over or defeating us. I know it's hard for you to see it now, but you have to trust me that it's there. Some of you will even get to see it before you die. "

And as you understand the reality of what's coming later, you'll have the fortitude to lean into sacrifice now. If your dad told you, "I know it's really difficult right now, but when I come back I'm going to give you a million dollars" — and you're skeptical — and then he shows you the bank statement. Now you know we're not in fairytale land, right? Jesus does it not only by going to the cross, but by doing what he said — rising on the third day. That proves the kingdom.

Living by Him, Not Just for Him

So the message of this passage is what it means to be a Christ follower, to be a Christian. It means that your life is mission-shaped, and that mission is to live out the gospel till your last breath. It looks like suffering, dying, and being raised with Christ. It's self-denial. It's dying to self. And by dying — in the sense of sacrificing what you want for the sake of the gospel, the kingdom — we do what the Lord wishes.

For some, following Jesus is still another way to assert oneself. We can follow Jesus in a way where he's still not the Christ for us — he's something else. Jesus is a way to stay grounded. He's a way to motivate charity, and that makes us feel good. Or maybe Jesus is a way to ease our conscience about whether we end up in heaven or hell. But it's got to be more than that. Jesus isn't our servant — we're his.

And so this is a life that costs something. It's costly to follow Jesus the Christ. You get saved and your spouse hasn't been — that might cost you your marriage. You get saved and your children don't get saved — that might cost you a comfortable relationship with your children. It might cost you your job if you're outspoken about your faith. But more than that, Christianity just calls us to get uncomfortable in general.

There's all these sins you're not allowed to do. And then there's this whole category of things that aren't sins, but it's just imprudent — not wise. And we're supposed to understand it's best to avoid those things too. And then there's all these things we're supposed to do, right? So you have your list of things you can't do, your list of things you're supposed to do, and then a category of things you don't have to do but it's really wise to do. And when you look at all of that — aside from "I might get fired, " your girlfriend might break up with you, your kids may not like your decision, you're not liked on social media, whatever — there's just living the life of righteousness. That right there is self-denial. I want to do this, but I'm not supposed to.

I may not even always understand why God made that a rule. It feels unfair. All of my natural instincts want to do that thing. Why'd you make me this way? But the Bible says God will give us what we need to avoid the temptation of doing what's wrong and to put our feet on the right path to do what's right — even if we don't always understand it or feel like we have the power to do it.

And there's the great hope. Everything so far in this message sounds like the weight is being put on your shoulders: live a life of sacrifice, man. Sacrifice your stuff. Give more. Think about other people first. And none of us can shoulder that burden. If we just said, "You know what, I'm gonna be more self-sacrificial" — that's still really not it.

The great hope we have is that Jesus has paved the way not just for us to also do what he did, but to do it in him. What I mean is, Jesus doesn't say, "Hey, I did it. They beat me up and I still obeyed. I was sweating blood in the garden. I didn't want to go to the cross, but I did it — and if I did it, so can you, man. " No. I'm not the Son of Man. I'm not Jesus the Christ. I don't have his power, right?

But then remember all the times that Jesus talked about abiding in him — being like a branch to his vine? He's communicating: "I'm not asking you to also be a vine. I'm asking you to be a branch in me. I'll be the vine that gets the life from the Father and, through the Spirit, dispenses it to you so you can do it. " So Jesus saved us from our past sins — that's true — but he also empowers us to not sin anymore. And so we lean on him for it.

So rather than leaving here praying, "Lord, you know what? I got this now. I got the sermon. Luke 9. Check. I get what it means — you're the Christ, self-sacrifice, I've got to do it" — instead of praying that, say, "Lord, I can't do that. Would you do it in me? Would you supply me the strength to do it? Would you give me the wisdom to see that door number two is the wrong one? Door number one is the righteous path — give me the energy to walk through the door I know I'm supposed to walk through, because left to myself I can't do it. Would you feed me and give me the grace I need to walk worthy of the calling I've received? "