LUKE 9: MORE ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS
© Rosemary Bardsley 2025
Having reported Jesus’ appointment of the twelve ‘apostles’ in Luke 6:12 – 16, Luke now reports that Jesus sent them out (9:1 – 6). About this mission Luke tells us:
That Jesus gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases – verse 1.
That he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick – verse 2.
That he commanded that they take nothing for the journey – verse 3.
That he told them what to do if welcomed –verse 4, and what to do if not welcomed – verse 5.
So they went.
Note that these instructions were for this mission. Only one of them was also included in Jesus’ final instructions.
Read Matthew 28:18 – 20.
List the differences between these instructions and those Jesus gave in Luke 9.
Why do you think these two sets of instructions are different?
Which of these instructions apply to all believers?
Note: In chapter 10 Luke reports Jesus’ sending out ‘seventy-two others’ with a longer list of similar instructions.
A. THE STARVING MULTITUDE – Luke 9:10 – 17 (also in Matthew 14:13 – 21; Mark 6:30 – 44 and John 6:1 – 15)
Common sense said ‘Send this huge crowd away! There’s thousands of people here, we cannot possibly feed them; it would take over eight months wages to buy enough bread!’
Compassion said: ‘Feed them!’
Feed them? There is nothing more here than five small barley loaves and two little fish!
Nothing more?
Was not he who had commanded obedience from wind and waves also here? Was not he before whom demons cringed also here? Was not he who brought life from death also here?
He who in the beginning created all that exists from nothing does not need even these five small loaves and two small fish. At his original creative word nothing was suddenly everything.
Now, here in the Galilean countryside, at his touch, at his word, this small boy’s lunch is suddenly more than enough for over five thousand people (the ‘five thousand’ were ‘men’, not counting women and children).
The truth about Jesus is uncovered here: that hidden behind the veil of his humanity is the Creator, by whom and for whom everything exists. He speaks and it is done.
Neither Matthew, Mark nor Luke record anything about the people’s response. John reports that, thinking Jesus was the promised Prophet, they intended to make him king. That was as far as their minds could reach: to a human hero, a man blessed and favoured, even chosen, by God.
The thought that Jesus was God himself in human flesh did not enter their minds, could not enter their minds. Their hardened hearts could not see what was right before their eyes. They simply did not understand the real meaning of what Jesus did with the loaves and the fishes.
Even the disciples were hard to convince: Later, after two further demonstrations of his divine power and two further failures to believe, Mark tells us that Jesus challenged the disciples: ‘Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand …? Do you still not understand?’ – Read Mark 6:52; 8:17 – 21.
This question, this challenge, comes also to us: do we see, do we understand, do we believe, that this Jesus is the Almighty Creator, the Lord of all?
Reflection:
Suggest why it would have been so difficult for even the disciples to come to the conclusion that Jesus was God?
Think about your own understanding of who Jesus is. Are you really relating to him as God? Do you realize that everything that exists, exists only because of his creative and sustaining work?
Read John 6:14, 15. The crowd was so impressed by this miracle, they were ready to make him King there and then. Why would this have been wrong for Jesus?
B. PETER – Luke 9:18 – 20. Also in Matthew 16:13 – 17 and Mark 8:27 – 30
The question was on everyone’s lips: ‘Who is this man?’ Is he a prophet? Is he Elijah? Is he the Messiah? Is he a blasphemer? Is he a madman? Is he John the Baptist come back to life? Is he an agent of the devil? Even king Herod was asking these questions (Luke 9:7 – 9).
Jesus was not someone you could just ignore. His teaching was impactive. His miracles were impactive. His claims about himself were shocking. The size of the crowds attracted to him were astounding. Everything about him demanded a verdict.
In a private confrontation Jesus pressed his disciples to give an answer. ‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’
It was a critical question. A vital question. If he is just a man, and they say he is just a man, then all is well. If he is just a man, and they ascribe deity to him, then they would be guilty of blasphemy. But, if he really is divine, if he really has come from above, and they say he is just a man, that too would be blasphemy, but it would also be a denial of God. To fail at this point is to fail for eternity.
On the surface it seemed far safer not to answer this question. But here even silence is sin if this man really is God.
Only Peter dared to answer: ‘You are the Christ. The Messiah. The Son of the Living God’ (Matthew 16:16).
No dreaded bolt came from heaven. No corrective denial from Jesus. Only affirmation. Only agreement. ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.’
This faith, this knowledge, which Peter expressed, was not something he had worked out for himself. And, as later events demonstrated, it was not at this point something that he really understood. It was God-given knowledge planted in his mind by God himself.
Reflection:
This same challenge, this same question confronts each one of us. The Jesus of the incarnation, the Jesus of the miracles, the Jesus of authoritative teaching, the Jesus who claimed equality with God, the Jesus of the crucifixion and resurrection, stands before us and asks: ‘What about you? Who do you say I am?’
Do we dare to affirm that he is the Lord?
Indeed, do we dare not to?
B.1 The critical importance of this question
It is only to those who believe in the name of Jesus Christ – who believe that he is God, the Lord – that the promise of salvation is given. He himself is the focus and object of Christian faith.
What do these verses teach about this critical belief in the person of Christ?
John 3:18
John 5:23
John 8:24
Acts 4:12
Romans 10:9
1John 2:23
1John 5:9 – 12
B.2 Jesus’ warnings – Luke 9:21 – 27
The crowd of five thousand had wanted to make Jesus king (John 6:14, 15). And Peter’s confession ‘You are the Christ of God’, rightly identified Jesus as ‘the Messiah’, which, in the popular theology of the day translated into a conquering hero who would liberate the Jews from Roman domination. But Jesus knew that that was not how it would be – that neither the crowd’s desire to make him king, nor the popular understanding of ‘the Christ’, were correct.
Jesus’ warning contains three parts:
[1] Don’t tell anyone that he is the Christ, the Messiah – Luke 9:21.
[2] That, rather than being a mighty, military king who would deliver them from Rome, he, the Christ, the Son of Man, would be rejected and killed, and would be raised to life on the third day – 9:22.
[3] That those who choose to follow him are in that choice also, like him, choosing self-denial rather than personal gain and glory – 9:23 – 27.
Matthew and Mark tell us that after Jesus told them that he would be rejected and killed, Simon Peter rebuked Jesus, saying that such a fate would never happen to him (Matthew 16:21 – 23; Mark 9:32). Jesus’ rebuked Peter, calling him out for his alignment with both the agenda of Satan and the mindset of men.
Read Luke 9:23 – 27. Answer these questions:
List all the phrases that draw our attention to the truth that it is Jesus, not us, who is at the centre.
List all the phrases that in some way demand our self-denial.
Read Luke 9:46. How is this contrary to what Jesus taught in 9:23 – 26?
How did Jesus correct this focus on personal glory? (verse 47)
Read verse 26. How does this contrast with our human desire for personal glory?
Read Luke 14:25 – 35; note especially verses 27 and 33. How does this passage reinforce what Jesus taught in 9:23 – 27?
How does Jesus’ teaching here help you to stop seeing yourself as the centre of everything?
Suggest how this demand for our self-denial is connected to the truth that Jesus Christ actually is the Son of God?
When people were observed carrying a cross, everyone knew that it was a one-way journey, a journey that meant death. There was no opting out. When Jesus spoke of taking up our ‘cross’ he was not talking about some life-burden that we have to personally carry – such as a chronic disability or an undesirable social or economic status, or an unfair employer or an abusive partner. It is the ‘cross’ of submission to the will and priorities of Jesus Christ, which, at times, will cut right across our own personal will and priorities, and the desires and priorities of those close to us, and the whole mindset of the culture in which we live.
B.3 Additional information – 9:26, 27
In his instructions about denying self, Jesus referred to [1] his return in glory (verse 26), and [2] the coming of the kingdom of God.
When he returns (which assumes the reality of his resurrection – verse 22), Jesus comes in threefold glory – his own glory, his Father’s glory and the glory of the holy angels. ‘Glory’ is often included in reference to Christ’s return, and to the judgement that he will implement at that time. [See for example Matthew 24:30; 25:31; Luke 21:27.]
About verse 27: people, including Bible scholars, are puzzled by Jesus’ statement. What does he mean by ‘the kingdom of God’? There are various suggestions, including the Transfiguration (which happened eight days later), the crucifixion/resurrection/ascension, the out-pouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, the spread of the Gospel and the establishment of the Church. Each of these is in some way the coming of ‘the kingdom of God’, and it is true that some of the people standing there, indeed most of them, did see each of these; but which one Jesus was referring to is not clear.
C. PETER, JAMES AND JOHN ON THE MOUNTAIN – Luke 9:28 – 36
A few days after he made his daring confession that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, Peter, along with James and John was given a brief glimpse of Jesus’ eternal glory – the glory he had just spoken of in 9:26.
There on a mountain top the brilliant, blinding glory that accompanied God’s revelation of himself in the Old Testament shone out from Jesus. He was joined by Moses and Elijah, and as he spoke with them a dense cloud hid them (Matthew 17:5), and a voice spoke from within the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” Then the cloud dispersed and the disciples saw only Jesus.
Why did Jesus take the three disciples up the mountain to witness this? Peter’s thoughtless suggestion that they build shelters for Jesus, Moses and Elijah is instructive. The disciples had not yet understood the significance of Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter’s suggestion ranked Jesus as equal with Moses and Elijah.
But the voice of God says ‘This is my Son.’ The voice of God says: ‘Listen to him!’ Do not focus any more on Moses, the Lawgiver. Do not focus any more on Elijah, the Prophet, or any of the prophets. This is my Son.
All that the Law has ever told you finds its fulfilment in my Son. All that the Prophets ever told you finds its fulfilment in my Son – Luke 24: 27, 44, 45. All that in the Law and the Prophets is veiled in mystery is here in my Son revealed – 1Corinthians 2:6 – 15; Colossians 1:25, 26. All that they ever told you in symbol, in shadow, in expectation, is here in my Son out in the open, is here in my Son brought to fulfilment – Matthew 5:17.
The cloud lifts. Jesus stands alone. The whole significance of the Law and the Prophets is all in this one man, Jesus, the Son whom God loves. In him all the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge of God are revealed – Colossians 2:3. Of him the prophet said: ‘Here is your God!’ – Isaiah 40:9.
The dark cloud of ignorance of God is lifted. Light now shines an answer to the question: who is God? What is he like? Here, in this man, Jesus, we see God – John 12:44 - 46. Here in this man we are robbed of our final excuse for not believing.
C.1 What they talked about on the mountain
Luke uses only one sentence to tell us what Moses, Elijah and Jesus talked about, but it is packed with meaning.
Read 9:28 – 36. Answer these questions:
Why did Jesus go up the mountain?
What did Jesus, Moses and Elijah talk about?
What do you think that means?
How does it tie in with what Jesus has told them in Luke 9:22?
The Greek word translated ‘departure’ is exodus. It literally means the ‘way out’. This takes us back to the book of Exodus, which reports how God, through Moses, redeemed the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. From this point on God was known as the ‘Redeemer’ – the one who set his people free. That massive historical event was a prophetic physical picture of the spiritual redemption, the spiritual liberation/freedom, purchased by the death of Jesus Christ for those who believe in him. When Luke reports that they ‘spoke about his departure’ they were talking about his crucifixion – his substitutionary death in which he gave his life as a ransom (the redemption price) for us.
How do these verses link redemption with the death of Christ?
Mark 10:45
Romans 3:24,25
Galatians 3:13
Ephesians 1:7
Hebrews 9:12
1Peter 1:18, 19
Revelation 5:9
Note also the phrase ‘he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem’. The word ‘fulfilment’ links the death of Christ with all of the Old Testament anticipations/predictions of that death – both verbal prophecies such as Isaiah 53, and symbolic prophecies such as the rituals centred on the Tabernacle/Temple. All that the Old Testament said in expectation of and preparation for the coming and the death of Christ would be accomplished by Jesus in Jerusalem.
But it is not only the Old Testament that is fulfilled. The eternal purpose of God that was behind the Old Testament, and because of which the Old Testament was written, would be fulfilled by Jesus at Jerusalem.
When did God’s purpose to save us through the death of his Son originate?
Matthew 25:34
1Corinthians 2:7
2Timothy 1:9
Titus 1:2
1Peter 1:20
Revelation 13:8
For the three disciples, it was an overwhelming experience – the presence of Moses and Elijah, the radiant, divine glory of Jesus, the deep and troubling topic of the conversation, and the voice of God affirming the Son. [According to Matthew 17:9 Jesus told them not to speak of it to anyone.]