Jesus, God's Messiah (Luke 9b)

Jesus, God’s Messiah

Luke 9:10-20*

Key verse 20

Introduction: Jesus fed more than 5,000 people in a remote place. This miracle is very different from all the miracles he had performed before. Soon after this, Jesus asked His disciples this question: “Who do you say I am?” There are many who professed to be Christians. What would be their answers to this question? The majority of the people of Jesus’ time failed to recognize his true identity. I would say that, even today, many, even among professed Christians, have failed to know Jesus’ true identity. Whatever their answers might be, their answers determine their relationship with Jesus. The blessing of Jesus may not be afforded fully to them.

About forty years ago, Rebekah and I went hiking on a mountain. There, while we were all alone, I confessed my love to her. That confession sealed our relationship and led to our marriage. Confession is sharing something genuine from the inmost of our hearts with others.

Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say I am?” Without any hesitation, Peter answered “God’s Messiah.” It was genuine and from his inmost heart. This confession sealed Peter’s relationship with Jesus,  and set off a new beginning in his life.

I will ask the same question to each of you. Who do you say Jesus is? What you know and believe about Jesus and how you confess that faith will seal your relationship with Him.

We will explore the meaning of Peter’s answer of God’s Messiah. This will help us to remove all human ideas about this title and lead us to the faith that God called us for. I pray that at the end of this message, you may be sure that Jesus is God’s Messiah for your life.

A.    Jesus fed more than five thousand people.

Just before that event, Jesus’ disciples had gone  out and preached the kingdom of God. This mission journey gave them a totally different experience with Jesus. They each personally exercised His power. When they preached the kingdom of God, people welcomed them and accepted their message. When they commanded healing, many sick people were healed. When they commanded demon-possessed men, the demonic forces came out of them. This was a living experience of Jesus’ authority and power. After such experiences, they knew and believed Jesus by heart, particularly his authority and power over all the ill-effects of sin and death.

As they came back from this mission trip, Jesus wanted to have a private time with his disciples.

V10.

So not telling anyone about where he was going, Jesus took his disciples and got on a boat to the other side of the lake Galilee. He did not want anyone to follow him or to find out where he was because he wanted to spend time with his disciples alone. So Jesus and his disciples went to Bethsaida, a village across the lake. This was a town located on the northern tip of the lake, Galilee, where the stream from Mountain Hermon flowed down into the lake. As soon as they landed on the shore of Bethsaida, there were thousands of people waiting for Jesus’ arrival. It was a big surprise because they had not told anyone about where they were going. But the crowds ran and ran in order to meet Jesus at the other shore of the lake.

So, as soon as he and his disciples landed on the shore, they were surrounded by more than 5,000 people. How and why could the crowds run so quickly to meet them? There was only one reason: they had great needs and believed that Jesus could meet their needs  for healing, love, sense of direction, truth, and life. Do you have a need? Surely we all have some needs. How do you handle that need?

V11.

The Gospel of Mark says that when Jesus saw the crowds,  He had compassion on them. In this compassion, Jesus welcomed them and taught them about the kingdom of God.  When God’s kingdom came, all their needs would be met and there wouldn’t be any pain, sorrow or hardships in life. So having the hope of entering into that kingdom was the most important. In order to plant this hope, Jesus taught them for hours, and  healed all the sick. It took a long time to care for the needs of possibly more than 10,000 people. After hours of teaching and healing, the sun disappeared behind the ridges of the mountains and the bright blue sky had turned red and dusky. During the long hours of Jesus’ teaching and healing, his disciples remained calm, but, as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, they came to realize it was a remote place and it would take hours for them to get back to town. Also, the crowd was not just few, and they were not all strong men; there were women and children as well. Such a large crowd needed ample time to move from this mountainous area to their town.

V12

Let’s read carefully. These disciples were not saying that the crowds were to go back to their homes; they had come from far away and it was already too late for them to go home! They had to find food and lodging in the surrounding villages. The disciples said this to Jesus out of their concern and care for this crowd, which was so large that no one could handle their needs all at once, especially the need for food.

In looking back, until that time, Jesus had taken care of many that had come to him for healing. He cared for them one by one for each of their needs. In this way, Jesus took care of many, possibly hundreds. But here the need was the need of more than 5,000 people all at once. How could anyone serve such a large number of people? But Jesus said something surprising, even shocking to his disciples:

13a “He replied, "You give them something to eat."

Jesus told the disciples that they were to get food for this crowd; they had never dealt with such a large crowd and they had never thought of supplying such a large quantity of food all at once. How could this be possible for them? They said this to Jesus:

13b “They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish--unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." 14 (About five thousand men were there.)”

They did not see how anything else was possible. All they knew to do was to somehow buy food for the crowd in this remote place. The grocery store, Giant, is really big and, every day, hundreds of people go to this store to buy food. But even if we robbed the entire stock of food from a Giant store, it may not have been sufficient to feed 5,000 people. Truly, Jesus was asking his disciples to do an impossible thing.

Why then did Jesus ask them to do this?

It is good to look back on what happened just before this event: Jesus had given his disciples the authority to drive out demons and heal the sick. So, they had proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God, healed many sick, and driven away demons. They had personally experienced the amazing power of God working through them. In this way, the disciples came to know and feel an inseparable bond between God, Jesus, and themselves. The disciples’ mission was not just to preach the kingdom of God to many villages, but also to let them know and experience God’s power and trust in them. God was with them, Jesus was with them, in power. The bond of God, Jesus, and the disciples was solidified through their mission journey. Out of this bond, they had to think and reason. The problem that Jesus presented to them was to let them find themselves in His will. But did they see themselves in this periscope? Did they have this understanding of God’s will and Jesus’ trust in them?

Second, Jesus was demanding that they learn to see beyond their own need, i.e. to the need of the people, even such a large crowd. How could the disciples, hillbillies of the country, think of such a thing? But, by this demand, Jesus opened their minds to see and to meet the needs of others.

Knowing well of all of this, Jesus told them to have the crowds sit down in groups of fifty. At a glance, they could see how many were there. Just counting the men only, there were 5,000. If women and children were included, then the total would have been 10,000, or even more.

For this large crowd, there were only five loaves of bread and two fish. But as usual, Jesus took the five loaves and two fish and prayed to God, then began to break the bread.  There were only five loaves of bread, but it became more and more and more. It did not run out.  Jesus did the same with the two fish. So, all of them had a good fish burger! Little boys, girls, Mom and Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, all were happy and smiling. What was the result of this feeding?

V17

They all ate to their satisfaction. There were 12 basketfuls of bread and fish left. This was an abundance of food; nothing lacked. Literally, there was no one in need! The hope of the kingdom was high in their mind, all the sick were healed and happy, and the most important thing was that they ate as many delicious fish burgers as they wanted, and their bodies were rejuvenated and strengthened. This was life, ’fully satisfied’.  

They had worked extra hard, running in order to catch Jesus before he disappeared from them, and, in the end, all the tiredness and hunger was fully satisfied, and the people were refreshed and strengthened. Their needs were met fully; none of them was unfulfilled or unsatisfied. It was all worth the extra labor to meet Jesus.

The feeling of satisfaction is what we yearn for, although it is seldom found in the life we live now. But this is the blessing guaranteed in the kingdom of God. Such a glimpse of the kingdom was there among the crowd. There was love and care for everyone and every need was met. Actually, Jesus’ disciples and many among the crowd might have felt like they were living in the kingdom of God. Jesus was their king and he took care of  all their needs. What else did they need?

If there had been more people, then Jesus could have fed  them as well. How many more? If Jesus could feed tens of thousands with such a small amount, was there any difficulty in feeding thousands of thousands? What does this event tell us about Jesus' will and power for people?  Jesus is the king and all the people of his kingdom will one day have joy with such a powerful, loving and caring King!

Jesus began this miracle by telling them, “You give them something to eat”. This showed Jesus' will to take care of thousands; this is also a demonstration of Jesus’ kingly compassion and will for God's Kingdom.

B.    Jesus, God’s Messiah

Soon the crowd went home, and Jesus and his disciples were left alone. As Jesus had originally planned, in order to have a private moment with his disciples, he took them farther north, about 20 miles, to the city of Caesarea Philippi. It was built by King Herod in  honor of Caesar Augustus. This city was far away from the cities of Galilee, which meant that there were very few Jews.

In this remote place, away from any crowds, Jesus prayed and prayed. After this long prayer, Jesus asked his disciples a probing question:

V18

They knew what went into peoples’ mouth and answered immediately:

V19. “They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."”

The entire crowd honored Jesus as one of God’s greatest servants from the past, like Elijah, John the Baptist, Moses, or Elisha. There was no question in their mind that Jesus was sent by God, and there was no question that Jesus was one of the greatest prophets of them all. Receiving such credit from the entire crowd was a great honor in itself, but Jesus did not make any comment on this. It seems that he was not much impressed by such recognition from people.

Then Jesus asked his disciples:

V20

“What about you?” What did they know or believe about Jesus? It was important because it was to them that Jesus had revealed all of the authority and power that God had entrusted to him. If they failed to know him, then it would be a great problem and he would have to show them something more. In addition to this, they were to be the ones Jesus took with him to help fulfill the work of God.

Without any hesitation or lingering doubts, Peter, the most prominent leader of the 12, answered, “God’s Messiah”; this was his expression of belief and conviction.

What did Peter believe about Jesus? What was his conviction about him? How is God’s Messiah different from the greatest prophets of long ago?

First, what did he mean by “Messiah”?

“Messiah” is a Hebrew word meaning 'to anoint'. In order to find the exact meaning, we have to go back to Israel’s history. When God established the kingdom Israel, it had two offices that were essential in order for God to bless them. One was the king and the other was the priest. Kings were to be anointed because they had to uphold the will of God for His people. Priests also had to be anointed because they were to mediate between God and Israel, according to His requirements. The focus of this mediation was offering sacrifices on behalf of Israel, a process of redeeming their sins. In order to be a king or a priest, they had to be, without exception, anointed in God’s name. Also, a man of priestly lineage could not be a king and kings could not take the role of a priest. The anointing of these two offices in God’s name was an essential requirement for the kingdom to be under God’s blessing. Here is the significance of anointing. The Hebrew word for ‘to anoint’ is ‘Messiah’. So we can say that priests and kings had to be messiah-ed.

As the kingdom aged, the kings and priests failed to do what God called and ordained them to do, so God determined to take the kingdom away from them. At the brink of Israel’s fall, God gave them promises on what He would do, despite the sins of the nation. One promise was to redeem them from their sins. Simply, God would take care of their sins and consequences. Second, He promised to send a king who would serve the nation with justice and love. Like this, God’s promise was in two-fold: 1) He, like the priests who mediated, would redeem His people from sin and death, and 2) God would send a King that would rule the nation in justice and goodness.

These two hopes were combined into one- the promise of the Anointed One. This is revealed in one of Daniel’s prophecies.

Daniel 9:25 "Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble”.

So, out of the verb anoint (messiah), a word “the Anointed one (the Messiah)” came out as a name for the coming Savior. When one was the Messiah, he would do two things: redeem the people from their sins, and be the king of God’s kingdom. As he confessed, did Peter see these two hopes fulfilled in Jesus?

What Peter saw, understood, and confessed without hesitation or doubt, was that Jesus was God’s Messiah. In order to find out what he saw and knew, let's go back to the events we studied just before this.

From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he preached the kingdom of God. We studied the mainstay of Jesus miracles, i.e. his healing of the sick and driving out of demonic forces throughout the last several chapters of Luke. The peak of these miracles was his raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Through these events, it became evident that Jesus was the One who could undo all the ill-effect of sin, even death; this was the demonstration of Jesus’ power, authority and will to redeem people from their sin-stricken ailments.

What about his kingship? Did Jesus have the power and will to govern the entire nation? As Peter and the other disciples were helping to feed the crowd, it became obvious that Jesus indeed had the will and power to care for the crowds of more than 10 thousand of people, including women and children. His care was not only for the sick and helpless, but for the needs of the entire crowd. Who would do such a thing, other than a king!

Feeding the five thousand was only one miracle that is recorded in the four gospels. In the Gospel of Mark, there was another feeding of four thousand people. It was recorded before Peter’s confession and this implicates the significance of feeding multitude in regard to disciples’ understanding of Jesus’ kingly role.  At the end of this feeding, all were happy and satisfied. This feeding of such a large crowd was the signature event for the coming king.

To his disciples, it was clear who Jesus was by these two aspects of the Messiah’s mission: Jesus would redeem the sins of the nation and he would be the king of the new Kingdom. This was what Peter believed.  With deep conviction and without any trace of doubt,  Peter said Jesus was God’s Messiah.

	Works of Jesus	Disciples’ direct experiences ( as King’s subjects)	Works of the Messiah
Luke 8:22-25	Saved from the storm	Luke 9:1-9 preaching the kingdom of God	Priest’s Undoing with the ill-effects of sin
Luke 8:26-39	Saved from  demonic forces
Luke 8:40-48	Saved from the bleeding disease
Luke 8:49-56	Saved from death
Luke 9:10-17	Feeding more than 5,000 people	“You give them something to eat”: serving a large number of people as the king’s subjects	King’s Servant King rules with love and justice

As we noted in this chart, in both undoing all the ill-effects of sins and feeding the multitudes, the disciples were acting as the primary agents of Jesus’ work. So, it was not just an idea but a real truth, felt in the depth of their hearts. The confession was clear: “Jesus was God's Messiah!” “Jesus is the redeemer and Jesus is the king!”

Second, Jesus is God’s Messiah.

Peter said “God’s Messiah”. Matthew records it in this way: “Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”" (Matthew 16:16).

Jesus was not just a man with great power and authority from God; Jesus is the Son of the living God. He is divine!  All the kings and priests were ordained by the hands of men, though it was by God’s ordinances or commands. But Jesus was ‘anointed’ (Messiah-ed) by God himself through the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not one of the greatest men on earth. He was the Son of God. Peter and other disciple saw this through Jesus’ miracles! So did he say, you are God’s Messiah

C.   We are to confess Jesus is God’s Messiah

Jesus did not ask Peter, “Do you believe in me?”, but rather “Who do you say I am?” Jesus is asking about what a our deep conviction is. At the same time, he is asking if our conviction is good enough to uphold him as king and redeemer. Peter, without hesitation, said, “You are God’s Messiah.” To Jesus and the others, Peter admitted that Jesus was his king and the one God sent to redeem mankind.  

Do you accept that Jesus can and will redeem you from your sins, no matter how large or small they might be? Do you accept and honor Jesus as your King and only Lord? If you do, then Jesus is your Messiah. Do you believe that Jesus is the King of God’s Kingdom? Are you willing to honor him as the absolute king over your life? Then you too can say “Yes, Jesus is God’s Messiah.”

Paul said this with precision in Romans;

Romans 10:9 - “If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”.

Here three things we can note: 1) Jesus is the Lord (i.e. He is our King); 2) Jesus was raised from the dead in order to redeem our sins; and 3) we have to confess these two things with our mouth. The moment we declare with our mouth that Jesus is “God’s Messiah”, we are saved and our journey with God begins.

When Jesus asks you who he is, confess with your mouth “You are God’s Messiah! You are my redeemer and you are my king!” Say it loud and clear!

When we open our mouths and declare our faith, we know what we believe, people know what we are, and Jesus is happy to be honored through our lips. Believing in Jesus should not be a private matter that happens in our mind only; it should be open and public. Jesus addressed the importance of this confession and warned his disciples:

Luke 9:26 - “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels”.

Paul also saw such weakness in himself.

Philippians 1:20 – “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death”.

We tend to believe that we have to do something out of ordinary in order to show our love for Jesus. But this is somewhat of an erroneous idea. As long as we make our confession clear in all situations and circumstances, God will be extremely happy and we will have done almost 90% of our work as His children. Practically, we don’t have to do many extraordinary things to please God. Today, I pray that you dare to confess your faith in Jesus to your classmates, friends, coworkers, and  families. When we confess that Jesus is God’s Messiah to these people, we are actually saying this to Jesus as well.

Jesus is God’s Messiah!