Luke 9:27-36

I want to introduce our text this morning by reading a passage of Scripture from 2 Peter:

2 Peter 1:16-21 – For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

I think we can all agree that it would be a great understate-ment to say that Peter’s eyewitness account of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ made a profound impact on Peter.  Try to imagine for just a moment what it must have been like for Peter, James, and John when they saw first hand the glory of the Lord such as they had never seen before… a glory that no one else on earth had ever seen and a glory that disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. 

Luke 9:23-26

Our text today is a very familiar one, but I am afraid it is a text that is not well understood by a large portion of the professing church. One of the main responsibilities of a pastor is to preach the Word, and that includes taking the time to unpack what the Bible says and give sense to it. I think the following text illustrates well what I want to attempt to do this morning:

Nehemiah 8:1-8 – Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel.

Luke 9:18-22

Last week we studied the feeding of the 5,000. Do you remember the main point of that passage? It was this… to underscore our inadequacy on the one hand while underscoring the sufficiency of Christ on the other.

16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
17 So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

Let’s make this personal. Jesus is asking you, “What do you have?” You reply, “Lord, we have 5,000 men in addition to many, many women and children. Jesus says, “Feed them.” You reply, “But Lord, we can’t.

Luke 9:10-17

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle performed by our Lord (other than His resurrection from the grave) that is recorded in all four Gospels… and we need to remember that the number 5,000 refers to men only… when you include the number of women and children the total number could easily have exceeded 15,000 people.

Luke 9:10-17 – And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

Luke 9:1-9

Before we look at our text today I want to review the major events of chapter 8…. Here our Lord not only told the Parable of the Sower… He also explained it. Do you remember why Jesus spoke in parables? The purpose was 3 fold:

1. To reveal truth
2. To conceal truth
3. To fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy

The Lord spoke in parables to reveal truth… the Lord is always eager to satisfy the hungry heart that is earnestly and nobly (Luke 8:15) seeking the truth.