seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Luke 9:18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19 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.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”
21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 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.
27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
This Gospel was written by Dr. Luke. It took place in a time when doctors were "guided by God". God did the healing. If someone was sicker than the local doctor could heal, then they were sinners and only God could heal them. Doctors were there to sew up the shepherd when the wolves got in. Doctors were there to pull teeth. Dr. Luke told us about the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and he told us of the thieving doctors who took all her money and left her bleeding [like the doc who took all my money and left me with one eye]. Dr. Luke made a point of telling us they could not stop the bleeding.
Jesus told them about His Mission. He was there to conquer death. He said he was going to suffer, be rejected, killed, and then He planned to raise back to life!!! If those priests and elders and teachers of the law knew that He was on His way to the tombs so He could conquer death, they would have done everything in their power to stop Him. He didn't want them to lead Him to the cliffs again. They might have even chained Him out in the tombs like a crazy man possessed by demons. That's how they dealt with lunacy, they chained the victim up and called him a sinner. It was better to keep the plan to the inner circle. The only way Jesus could maneuver towards completing a successful mission was to keep it quiet long enough to get to the Cross. That's why Jesus told His Inner Circle to keep the Mission Plan to themselves.
It not easy being Christian. Not only are we working on "faith", but there are a lot of people claiming to be Christians who are really only donning the name to get into the church and destroy the Message. Oh, they think they are doing the right thing. They truly believe all the garbage they hear on the radio and TV. They truly believe they are right, Satan's been very, very, very busy over the centuries.
Verse 27 is the one that confuses me. What does it mean? He was talking to His Disciples. Weren't they all Believers?
Jesus says if we Believe we will never die. We will have a home in Heaven. We will be His Brothers and Sisters in Heaven. When we die, we will only be dying here, but we will continue to live in Heaven. If we die, we actually only sleep, until Jesus comes back, then we'll have eternity to get to know Him personally. BUT, in verse 27 He uses the word "some".
Not all of His Disciples were going to stay with the Mission. Some of them are going to think the Mission failed when they put Him on the Cross. No one could do what He did. No one will be there to bring Him back to life, like the little girl or the widow's son or Lazarus. Some of them will figure death is death and only Jesus could bring people back. Since Jesus was the one dead, they figured He was really dead. There was no one to bring Him back.
Some will get to Heaven. Not all.... that person who sat in the pew next to you may not really Believe. Heck.... you may not Believe! Believing someone can die, really die, stinky in the grave, three days dead... and then just get up and cook a fish dinner is admittedly hard to understand. I'm not talking Hillman dead, brought back to life a couple times and then put on a ventilator to give the heart time to heal. I'm talking stone cold, stinky, three days bloated, dead. It's really hard to fathom someone coming back from that. Jesus proved it could be done when He raised Lazarus. But who would be there to raise Jesus? That's what requires "faith". That's why only some will live forever.
On top of that, Satan is really good at spinning tales humans just fall for hook line and sinker.
Some of us will live forever and some of us are just fooling ourselves.
Some... not all.... Some!
