Perplexed

Luke 9:7 – 9

 

Intro – Have you ever looked at a situation and just couldn’t understand how this happened? Growing up around cows has given me many situations to ask myself this question.

 

Many people like to talk about how dumb sheep are, when they do I like to counter with the jersey heifer. No matter how adorable they may be, and let me tell you that they are pretty adorable, they somehow find themselves in the most perplexing situations.

 

I could tell you a number of stories of their mind boggling behavior, and stubbornness, but I think this one is enough. Jersey heifer inexplicably trapped in the feed box.

 

While a jersey’s behavior on the whole can be quite perplexing, it doesn’t hold a candle to the perplexing question of who exactly Jesus of Nazareth is.

 

Answering that question is one of the main purposes and themes throughout all the Gospel’s. My boys were blown away when I shared with them that even though the Gospel’s are placed first in the NT, they weren’t written first.

 

Beginning in the 40’s, within ten – fifteen years of Christ’s crucifixion, James, Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and 1 Corinthians were all written. These come before Mark wrote the first Gospel.

 

So the main purpose of the Gospel’s, as Luke himself wrote in the opening of his, is to answer the question of who is this Jesus that is being preached and taught about by His disciples.

 

In our passage today, we see the highest ranking official so far to ask the question, who is Jesus. Let’s look at it together as we read God’s Word, beginning with Luke 9:7.

 

Body – To this point in Luke, Jesus Himself had already done many miracles and taught many with an authority never before seen in Judea. The question of who Jesus is has been repeatedly asked/answered.

The twelve had departed on their short-term mission and had been doing their share of miraculous healing and driving out demons and preaching with authority about the kingdom of God.

 

While this is all happening, Herod the Tetrarch had heard about all the stuff Jesus had been doing and was perplexed by who the crowds said He was.

 

Herod the Tetrarch was the son of Herod the Great, you know the one from the stories of Jesus’ birth. The one who was so threatened by the birth of a baby that he sought to have Him killed.

 

Herod the Great had several sons, three of which he even had killed because he feared his own sons would assassinate him and take his throne.

 

Herod the Great eventually died, and since he was held up as king by Rome, Rome divided his territory among his remaining sons, Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. Antipas was given Galilee and Perea to rule, so he was the ruler of Galilee during all of Jesus’ ministry.

 

Herod Antipas thought he had it all figured out, he thought he knew “who was who,” and he certainly knew who he himself had executed, John the Baptist. But how many of us ourselves believe wholeheartedly that we have it all figured out in our lives?

 

There’s an old story about a man who thinks his wife is losing her hearing. A doctor suggests a simple at-home test he should try: stand behind her, ask her a question from a distance, and see from when she can hear it.

 

The man goes home, sees his wife in the kitchen facing the stove, and asks her from the door, “What’s for dinner tonight?” No answer. Ten feet behind her, repeats the question, “What’s for dinner tonight?” Still no answer.

 

Finally, standing right behind her he asks again, “What’s for dinner tonight?” His wife turns around and says, “For the third time—chicken.”

 

Clearly her hearing wasn’t the issue, his was. My wife can relate.

It’s easy to look around and point out others as proud and arrogant because they believe they have it all figured out.

 

But looking in the mirror, looking within ourselves, and admitting that in many areas of our own lives we sit on our own thrones and think we have it all together is much, much harder.

 

But you have to. You have to humble yourself before you can accept the truth of the gospel and who Jesus is.

 

When things don’t go as we, in our not so infinite wisdom, expect them to we get confused, puzzled, uncertain, and often times we’re left at a loss. We get perplexed.

 

Herod Antipas had heard about Jesus and all the miraculous works He had been doing in Galilee, and Herod had also heard about the preaching and miracles of the Twelve. The power of the gospel had even reached the ears of a ruler, and he was perplexed.

 

The word perplexed here is diaporeo which means to be thoroughly perplexed or confused, or else at a loss. In this form it appears roughly four or five times in the NT. It’s used to express something stronger than basic confusion, but less than a confusion that intensifies into despair.

 

Herod was perplexed, he was confused, because the crowds were saying that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead. Still others said that Elijah had come back, and still yet some said that in Jesus one of the old prophets had risen.

 

This is exactly the same answer the twelve give Jesus later in this chapter when He asks them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” This question of Jesus’ identity as the Christ, the Messiah, has been a perplexing one, and crowds rarely get anything right.

 

All three of these suggested answers to Jesus’ identity are religious theories. The crowds are sure that Jesus is a prophet of some sort.

 

All three of the possibilities given by the crowds are supernatural.

 

Either John the Baptist or one of the prophets of the OT have risen from the dead, or it’s the miraculous return of Elijah who went to heaven, very much alive, in a chariot of fire and was prophesied to return before the Messiah.

 

But each theory is absolutely wrong. Jesus Himself pointed to John the Baptist as the coming of Elijah in the last days as prophesied in Malachi 4:5. Moses himself pointed to Jesus in Deut. 18:15. And as we’ll see later in the chapter, Jesus is indeed greater than Moses.

 

These are all distorted and incomplete views of who Jesus is, and that is exactly the point being made here in our text. On its own, the sinful human heart and mind cannot comprehend who Jesus is. Only through the revelation of God’s Word and the power of His Spirit can we begin to grasp who Jesus is.

 

Here’s the thing, when you reject the truth that’s in front of you, we come up with many alternate theories to explain it away. To those who refuse to believe who Christ is, they’ll point to anything and anyone except the truth, including the consensus of crowds.

 

Crowds rarely answer important questions right. Crowds are almost always divided, Just look at the three different theories. Following the crowd is almost always a bad idea.

 

It’s way too easy to follow the crowd in today’s world. The number of social media trends and challenges our young people are exposed to is astronomical.

 

Sure there’s harmless ones for good causes, the ice bucket challenge for ALS awareness or the push-up challenge for veteran’s suicide awareness. There’s even funny ones like the tortilla slap.

 

But then there’s the cinnamon challenge where people tried to swallow a spoonful of ground cinnamon quickly without water and the tide pod challenge where teens ate or bit into tide laundry detergent pods, these led to a big jump in calls to poison control.

 

Then there’s the blackout challenge where people intentionally choked themselves to the point of nearly blacking out to experience a high, with several resulting in hospitalization and some even in death.

You really shouldn’t ever put your trust in the opinions and ideas of crowds for anything, including answering the question of who Jesus is. Rather, you ought to seek Jesus for yourself in God’s Word. Don’t just trust the crowd out of hand, seek Jesus for yourself as well.

 

In today’s culture of everyone has their own truth, it’s even more important and urgent that we root ourselves in the only real truth that is God’s Word. God’s Word is eternally enduring truth, and humbly recognizing that truth comes from God means we find the answer of who Jesus is in Scripture.

 

Not in our feelings, not in who the world says He is, but in who the Bible reveals Jesus to be. His power and authority are seen in the miracles and teaching he did on earth as recorded in Scripture.

 

Herod heard about all of this, and he questions who Jesus is because He can’t possibly be John the Baptist because Herod had him beheaded. Look at how Herod doesn’t even blink when admitting to killing a prophet.

 

Herod is wicked man. Herod stole his brother Phillip’s wife Herodias, and John called them both out for it. Herodias asked for John’s head on a platter, and Herod Antipas delivered. It’s chilling how he so matter-of-factly says, “John, I beheaded.”

 

That right there should cause us to evaluate Herod’s motive for seeking out Jesus. At its worst, Herod wanted to kill Jesus. If He indeed was John the Baptist resurrected, or at least his spirit within Jesus, then Herod would most certainly want Him gone again.

 

At best he was curious and wanted to witness a miracle. You should regularly evaluate your view of Jesus and your motive for seeking Him.

 

Are you looking for wealth and health, the prosperity gospel of Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and others like them? Are you looking for the supernatural power of the apostles like in some other more charismatic movements?

 

Or are you a sinner, dead in your sins, desperately looking for a Savior to bring you into a right relationship with God and eternal life?

In 1741, during the Great Awakening in America led by George Whitefield, the Wesley Brothers, and Jonathan Edwards, Edwards preached his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

 

In it, he warned unrepentant sinners of the fiery horrors of hell awaiting them if they do not turn to Christ. He was trying to wake up his congregation, to shake them out of spiritual complacency and religious indifference.

 

He urged his hearers to recognize their desperate condition as sinners in desperate need of a savior, to experience true conversion and truly surrender to Jesus Christ before it’s too late.

 

How about you? Do you recognize your need for Jesus? Do you seek out Jesus when life doesn’t go your way? When life has you confused and perplexed, do you look to the world and its crowds for your answers, or do you turn to God’s Word and look for Jesus?

 

That’s the truth in our passage here, Jesus is the complete and sufficient revelation of God to mankind. How you view Him, impacts how you receive Him.

 

Today, I’m asking you to check your view of Jesus and your motive in coming to Him. Salvation is there, forgiveness for sins is in Him, but you must see Jesus clearly as He is revealed in Scripture.

 

Look at the end of our passage, Herod sought to see Him. He tried to see Jesus. We don’t know why he didn’t succeed, but he tried. You don’t get any points, praise, or rewards for asking about Jesus while never going to see or getting to know Jesus for yourself.

 

It’s a tragic mistake leaving the question of who Jesus is unanswered. We must all answer that question, and we shouldn’t rest until we answer that question biblically, factually, and clearly.

 

Our Scripture doesn’t answer the question today, but the whole counsel of God’s Word does. Jesus is the Christ, God the Son, who came to seek and save the lost, to reconcile us to God.

 

Christ came down, lived among us, and gave Himself to death on the cross to pay the price for your sin in accordance with the Scriptures.

He was buried, and on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures, God raised Him from the dead, and then He ascended into heaven where He sits at the right of the Father.

 

So seek Him earnestly, seek Him out in Scripture, humbly accept the truth of the gospel, and fully give your life to Him.

 

If you’ve already done that, great, but keep running to Him. Don’t neglect your ongoing need for forgiveness, your need for the gospel never goes away. Always continue seeking Jesus.

 

Conclusion – When life is smooth sailing and everything is going well; you must seek Jesus.

 

When life is perplexing and nothing makes any sense whatsoever, you must seek Jesus.