Thoughts on Luke. Luke chapter 9, verses 21 and 22. Jesus' response, part one. You remember Christ has asked the disciples about what people are saying about him and what do they think. And remember Peter has said, quite bluntly, you are the Messiah. Now we look at Jesus' response. Chapter 9, verses 21 to 22. It's not recorded, but clearly it's implied. Jesus' answer would be, colloquially today, dead right, spot on, you got it. I am the Messiah. But don't tell anybody, that's what he says. And then he goes further. Yes, he is the Messiah, but he picks up another reference from the Old Covenant, the book of Daniel. I am, he says, the Son of Man. This is what he's saying to them. He's going back. to the old covenant with the Messiah promise, and he's going back now to Daniel about the Son of Man. He's speaking of his power, of his authority, that he is the king, that he is the coming, promised, prophesied Messiah. And then, the staggering point that he makes. This would cut right across their thinking. The Messiah, the Son of Man, the King, the Power, is going to be a tremendous kingdom being brought in. And he goes on with this staggering point. I must suffer. I must suffer many things. I must be rejected by the elders, by the teachers, the disputers, the elders, the teachers of the law. All of them will reject me. The Messiah, the Son of Man. Rejected? Rejected by the Jews, by the professionals? Yes. The people who should know, who knew their scriptures, who searched the scriptures, they thought they had the understanding of the scriptures, and when the Messiah, the Son of Man comes, they reject him. They dispute with him. The priests, the teachers of the law. It's an amazing point. The top brass, the professionals, the theologians, the teachers, they reject Christ. That's how it was 2,000 years ago, and that's how it is today, my friend. The professionals prefer their systems to Jesus. They'd rather have their systems than what Jesus taught and by his Spirit through the apostles taught and recorded in scriptures. They would rather turn away from Christ and the apostles and the Spirit's teaching and go to their own ideas and reject the Christ. You say that's too strong. The evidence is all around us, my friend. People are rather believing their systems, their confessions, their history, their traditions. Whatever it may be, they'll reject Christ. What does it mean to reject Christ? It leads to his death. it leads to his crucifixion. What a statement. What a messiah. What a savior is this. He Though he were the Son of God, became the Messiah, he was the Son of Man, rejected by the Jews in his suffering and his weakness and his death. He atoned for the sins of his people and rose again in triumphant power and brought in the kingdom, but it's all very different to what the Jews expected. Well, my friend, what is it saying to us? Will you come to Christ and take Him as He is, the Son of Man, the Messiah? Will you go to His cross and believe upon Him and trust in Him? Will you look to His resurrection? Will you be a member of His kingdom, His kingdom, not the kingdom of the so-called professionals, but the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Messiah? That's what I see here.