1. The turning of the calendar from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000 marks one of the most memorable moments in human history. It is amazing how differently the importance of that moment is perceived by different people.

Just recently two people talked to me about the year 2000. Both of them brought up the subject. Both are Christians. One is from America and one is from another country.

The American was focused on the potential problems of the failure of computer chips which are unable to read the new century’s date - - and worries about everything from gas pumps to water supplies to electrical generating plants. The other person told me that in her country the big excitement is celebrating the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.

I was stunned by the contrast of what is most important. And, I was reminded that 2000 years of history have not changed the key question - - who is Jesus and how important is he in your life?

2. This was the first formal evangelistic and missions thrust of Jesus. It revealed his strategy for making Christians:

#1 Work through others.

He never intended to do everything directly himself. He planned to use representatives who were themselves Christians. Then it was his closest followers, twelve of them. Today it is us.

#2 Care for the whole person

Jesus was primarily concerned about people’s salvation - - their eternal relationship to God. But he was also concerned about their immediate needs, whether they were afflicted by demons or needed to be healed of diseases. Jesus cares for every part of us.

#3 Use word of mouth

The primary means of spreading the gospel was and is word-of-mouth - - not miracles or radio or television or literature. In those days even books of the Bible were exceptionally rare and expensive because they were all copied by hand. The strategy of Jesus was and is for one person to tell another.

At Wooddale Church we ask how people first came. The #2 reason is that they saw the steeple. But, overwhelmingly, the #1 reason is the influence and invitation of a friend. It is even more that way when asking how people came to Christian faith - - it is from the words and influence of a parent, spouse, relative, friend, neighbor, co-worker or stranger. Word-of-mouth was and is Jesus’ strategy for evangelism.

3. It worked! Jesus’ disciples were highly effective - - - "they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere." (Luke 9:7)

1. Herod was worried. He couldn’t figure out who was behind this great spiritual awakening that was capturing the attention and souls of the citizens of his kingdom.

What really worried him was the rumor that the leader of the spiritual awakening was John the Baptist. You see, King Herod had John the Baptist beheaded. The rumors were that John the Baptist had come back to life - - -that he was re-headed! That enough to scare any king!

2. Others said it was Elijah. Elijah had been taken to heaven without dying, but that was centuries earlier. Maybe he had come back to earth again.

Others said it wasn’t John the Baptist or Elijah but some other prophet from long ago that had returned to lead a spiritual revolution.

3. The King wanted to meet this leader for himself. He would make his own evaluation. But, Jesus wasn’t going to meet with the king that had killed John. It was a royal request that never was met.

4. Frankly, Jesus was more concerned about what his closest followers thought than what the king wanted. He led into the subject with a question for his followers about the rumors that were rampant: "Who do the crowds say I am?"

5. Jesus followers reported the rumors: "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."

6. They gave a standard academic, journalistic type reply. Sort of like taking a test in college where your only responsibility to report what you’ve read but not to accept or reject it. Jesus’ followers gave the answers everyone else gave . . . but that wasn’t good enough for Jesus.

7. Jesus asked one of the most important questions of human history and eternity:

"But what about you? Who do you say I am?"

8. Jesus called for a personal conclusion and commitment, not an academic answer. You can read every book that has ever been written about Christianity and not be a Christian. You can learn the Bible’s original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek - - plus memorize the Bible in English - - and still not be a Christian. You can be baptized, join a church, give money and go to every activity and still not be a Christian.

9. The question for them then is the same question for us now. Jesus still wants a personal answer: "Who do you say I am?" How do you answer?

10. It is interesting how St. Paul answered this question in II Timothy 1:12.

"I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." Paul didn’t emphasis what he believed but who he believed. Christianity isn’t so much about a list of doctrines; it is about a personal faith in Jesus Christ.

1. When Jesus asked his question it was Peter who blurted out the answer: "The Christ of God!" It was a stunning statement!

2. "Christ" is a Greek word. The Hebrew word is "Messiah." The English word is "Anointed." Whatever the language everyone knew what Peter meant. Jesus was the one chosen by God to be the Savior - - to save people from sin and death.

3. Jesus is the Christ. Not a Christ, but the Christ. In similar statements at other times Jesus talked about who he was and there was no doubt that he was claiming to come directly from God and to be God himself.

Since then some critics and people from other religions have insisted that Jesus didn’t mean that he was anything special or that later Christians have added unintended meanings. Not so! In those days people who disagreed picked up stones to kill Jesus for claiming to be The Christ and God. They knew perfectly well what Jesus meant.

4. Who Jesus is divides Christianity from every other religion of the world and from every non-Christian cult. Modern Jews say he was just another Rabbi. Muslims say that he was just one of a long list of prophets. Hindus and Buddhists think of him as a teacher.

5. To be a Christian is to believe that Jesus is the Christ of God. He is the one and only savior of the world. With Jesus it is all or nothing. By the way, that’s one of the reasons some people reject Jesus and Christianity - - -it seems so exclusive and even arrogant.

6. To the contrary, it is not arrogant to believe something is true if it is true.

If a diabetic says that insulin is my only way to live instead of die, that is not arrogant. To the contrary, it is stupidity to think that aspirin, Tylenol, or Vitamin C are just as good for treating diabetes as long as you sincerely believe they will work.

If God sent his one and only Son to earth to save us from sin and death, of course he won’t accept alternate inadequate solutions. Jesus is the Christ of God!

7. For some then and for some now, it can be hard to fully believe in Jesus. It is like putting all your investments in one stock or all your eggs in one basket.

Keep in mind that Jesus acknowledged that he was the Christ of God. He elsewhere said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Jesus was either totally delusional (crazy) or totally deceptional (lying) - - or he was telling the truth. I believe the evidence supports his truthfulness. Jesus was too good to be a liar and too credible to be crazy.

8. I agree with Peter when he said "You are the Christ of God!"

But, I don’t think Peter or his friends fully understood at that time all that this meant.

So, Jesus explained.

1. Jesus first warned them to keep this quiet for a little longer. He didn’t want people petitioning to elect him general or king. He was concerned that misunderstanding would spread. Most of them were more interested in a political Messiah than a Savior Messiah.

2. Jesus told them what to expect: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

3. Jesus knew what he had come to do. God had sent him to die on the cross to take the full suffering for all human sin - - and then to rise back to life again as proof of his victory over sin and death. It would be indescribably awful, but that’s what it would take to save people from sin and hell.

There is good historical evidence that Jesus knew what crucifixion would be like. When Jesus was about eleven years old a man named Judas the Galilaean led an insurrection against the Roman rule of Palestine. He attacked the imperial armory at Sepphoris which was only four miles from where Jesus lived in Nazareth.

The Roman response was swift and severe. The town of Sepphoris was burned to the ground. All of its people were sold into slavery. The two thousand rebels were all crucified at the same time on crosses which lined the road near Nazareth.

Jesus’ boyhood memory must have been etched with the horror of crucifixion. Yet, that’s where he was headed by choice because of human sin and God’s call.

4. To be a Christian is to believe in Jesus and what Jesus came to do - - suffering, resurrection and eternal life.

1. And to be a Christian means fully following Jesus the Christ as Lord:

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

2. Jesus insisted on nothing less than a 100% commitment to him - - -that Jesus be absolutely #1 in a Christian’s life.

3. There’s an interesting story about the line in Luke 9:25.

Charles the Great, better known as Charlemagne, was the great European medieval emperor of Europe until his death in A.D. 814. Legend has it that he was buried sitting upright on a throne with his hand holding up his head and a Bible randomly opened on his lap. Years later when his tomb was opened and his body was reduced to a skeleton, the hand had fallen so that his finger pointed to the words of Luke 9:25 - - - "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"

4. Jesus was saying that a Christian must put Jesus first. It is saying "I’m not important. Jesus is. Possessions are not important. Jesus is. Comfort is not important. Jesus is. Nothing else is really important in my life. Jesus is."

5. One way Jesus expressed this was for Christians to be cross bearers - -

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." That means a willingness to suffer the worst thing that can happen if that’s what it takes to follow Jesus. Not that we seek pain or suffering, but that we count Jesus to be so important in our lives that nothing else really matters.

6. Let me tell you about where I have recently seen what Jesus was talking about.

Clyde and Lee McDowell are former Wooddalers. Clyde was an associate pastor of Wooddale Church in the early 1980s. Now in his late 40s he is the President of Denver Seminary.

Several months ago he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor that has caused waves of speech problems, seizures, headaches and the threat of an early death. Over recent months he has undergone aggressive treatment with two major brain surgeries, seven weeks of daily radiation therapy and massive chemotherapy. So far, nothing has really worked.

I have talked often with Clyde and Lee. Charleen and I went to Denver a few weeks ago to spend the day with them.

What I have seen and heard lives out what Jesus talked about in Luke 9. The McDowells’ cross is a life-threatening brain tumor. They have picked up that cross and carried it with faith. Their allegiance to Jesus Christ has not wavered. There is not a hint of complaint. During surgery he shared the Christian message with those in the operating room. They repeatedly say that God is sovereign and God is good and if Clyde lives that is for God’s glory and if Clyde dies that is God’s perfect will. They have told me that one of the proofs of the greatness and goodness of God is that treatments have failed, proving that God is in charge not physicians.

When we talk there isn’t much said about money or possessions or success or any of the other temporary things that fill so many American lives. I hear a Christian couple who are fully following Jesus Christ and who evidence a joy that should be the envy of us all.

8. Let us all hear what Jesus is saying here - - those who live for themselves and the best they can get always lose. Those who live for the Christ of God always win.

1. One of the wonders of modern computers and digital photography is the way you can switch people in pictures. In fact, there are services that can add, subtract and switch faces. If you miss the photo-taking at the family reunion they can add you into the photo. If your brother gets mad at you for smashing up his car, he can have you taken out of the photo.

2. Picture the conversation between Jesus and his followers in Luke 9. Take Peter out of the picture. Put yourself into the picture.

5. What about you? Who do you say Jesus is?