Jesus Praying and Teaching Luke 9:18-27 Personal and private prayer cannot always be physically distant from other people. That is why it is so good to know our heavenly Father knows not only what we mean when we can’t put words together in the way we want; He also knows “the thoughts and intents of our heart.” There is a fellowship with God that defies description. Words expressed would limit the attitude and desires of expression we want to communicate to Him. Occasionally, this can happen with our spouse of many years, who knows us as well as we know ourselves. Perhaps a “kindred spirit” in one with whom we labored may leave us with a connection that can’t really be defined.
Our Lord Jesus Christ had a union with His Father that was impossible for anyone else to have. Equal Persons from eternity to eternity can’t be described, nor can any words that seek to give a definition to what they have in common. He was sinless, and that set Him apart from everyone, even forgiven sinners. We still fail people because of the effects of our flesh, the world, and the devil.
Living in this world in a frail mortal body that is affected by all that goes on around us keeps us from such communion as two absolutely holy Persons have. Therefore, the Lord prayed alone. Jesus lived and moved among all kinds of people without being responsive to any sins afflicting and affecting people. The sinful influences of those who are born in sin and shaped in iniquity did not have any effect upon the sinless, holy Christ, who was the Son of God and became the Son of Man that He might save us.
Every place in scripture where we read of our Lord Jesus Christ praying is a special place of holy ground upon which we dare not intrude, not even in our minds. An example is the time just before His death when He prayed in Gethsemane. Peter, James, and John came a little further than the other disciples, but even there, Jesus withdrew from them and prayed alone. An infinite Person who has infinite love and was about to suffer an infinite amount of suffering so every person could be saved cannot share that with mere mortals. It was in a similar situation when He prayed in Galilee. He had come to the place in His public ministry where His popularity made the people want to make Him their king. However, He had come to seek and save the lost, and the time had come for Him to go to Jerusalem. His prayer would have prepared Him to face what He knew was ahead when He would offer Himself up to God as a sacrifice for our sins.
Other believers can be affected in a positive way when they know we are praying for them. People have things going on in their lives over which they have no control and that scares them. To know other people care for them is a comfort and a personal blessing because a burden is being shared. Those who are sick or are taking medical treatment for an ongoing problem may ask for prayer that the Great Physician will guide doctors and, if it is God’s will, heal them or empower them to live with the problem.
Almost everyone who asks for prayer wants things to return to normal or how they were before the problem came. It is important that intercessors realize that will seldom happen, so we need to pray for acceptance on the part of those who have a whole new kind of life to face. Any matter can be the subject and object of prayer. The purpose of prayer is often that we will accept what God has allowed to come to pass without complaining or trying to second-guess the reason for the change. An intercessor will hopefully direct their prayer to God so that those they pray will recognize His sovereign will in the matter.
That time of prayer in which the Lord prayed apart from His disciples opened up a significant teaching moment for Him to make a major point. They joined Him coming from whatever they had previously been doing and He asked them a simple question, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” He was popular among the people who came to Him in Galilee, but a fundamental point must be made to His disciples because they would face this in the future. The people only looked at Jesus as a special man whom they wanted to be their king.
The question, “Who do you say I am?” takes us beyond knowing what others believe or even what we may have been taught to where we must articulate our beliefs. This personal question is first faced when we are convicted of our sins and are called upon by the Spirit of God and the word of God to answer. When we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, we acknowledge who He is and His authority over us. When we believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead and have accepted Him as the One who died for our sins and rose again, making our faith to be in a living Person, it is then God saves us from sin and hell and saves us for heaven.
After we are brought into God’s family by the new birth, that same question has to be faced when serious choices have to be made. “Who do you say I am?” when determining a career, a place to live, a person to marry? How about when faced with the command to be baptized and to go forward in faith to live an openly Christian life? Do I really believe my Lord has supreme authority over every aspect of my life? If I do, am I willing to submit to that authority with glad obedience?
We have died with Christ, and He intends for us to live with Him and live this new life as true disciples. A true disciple bears fruit for the glory of God. A true disciple obeys the commands of our Lord and acts upon them without complaint or equivocation. A true disciple loves other believers in the family of God without partiality. They love other people in a way that lets unbelievers know they are valued and we want the best for them. As believers, we love one another in unique family ways because we have the same Father and the same new nature with the same objectives. We know we will share the same future in God’s family. As a result of that love, “all men” will know that we are followers and learners of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter’s confession was revealed to him by the Father, not by flesh and blood. His understanding of who Jesus is came from God the Father. “The Christ of God” is the same as the Messiah, the Anointed One sent to Israel to bless God’s chosen earthly people. But they did not accept Him as the Messiah because He didn’t come the way they thought the Messiah would come. They wanted a Messiah who would give them political freedom and personal prosperity.
The Lord Jesus Christ came for the first time to deal with the fundamental problem of sin. Instead of coming as the Mighty Conqueror, He conquered sin, death, and hell by suffering on our behalf. The Jews didn’t want a suffering Messiah, so they despised and rejected the Man of Sorrows, who was “acquainted” with our griefs and sorrows. His grace has extended far beyond the borders of Israel to Gentiles in every part of the world. Luke’s Gospel message made that plain. It was those who were “lost.” He came to save.
Even the disciples didn’t understand this until what He told them that day actually happened. It was too early in God’s calendar for the Lord Jesus to take power because His earthly people were still unbelieving. They were in the same condition of the soul as every person who “loves darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.” The kingdom of God begins in people's hearts, not in their victory over other people.
This is the first of several times in which the Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples of the necessity of His suffering for sin and His death and resurrection after three days in the tomb. Some things don’t seem real until we see them happen. Then, as eyewitnesses of such important events, we can effectively witness that event to other people. That is one of the many roles God’s people today have during this day of grace. We have experienced Christ's death, burial, and resurrection as a personal act of His for us. Now, we who have died in Christ live in Him. When we tell other people, even though they may reject what we say, they cannot discount what we have experienced and say it never happened. We know the difference.
It is our privilege to follow Christ. He didn’t say we were to deny ourselves some “thing or things.” He intends that we deny “ourselves,” including our ambitions and self-interests. I am not to make my own plans for life without having the mind of God about them because He already has plans for me. To try to save my life for my own purposes means I will lose it. Trying to save it to “get ahead” in life and glory in what I have done will mean I will lose what I could have given to the Lord and what could have been given to me in heaven. What we give to our Lord here has been well spent.
As we evaluate our relationship with God, we must ask ourselves, “Am I trying to get all I can out of this relationship, or am I giving all I can to Him?” True discipleship goes beyond hearing and following to giving and laboring for God’s glory and the benefit of those in His kingdom. “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus! Life’s trials will all be o’er when we see Him. One look at His dear face and all sorrows will be erased. So gladly run the race till we see Him!”