Daily Bible Reading 4th August 2026 // Luke 9:18-27
18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
But more: when Jesus had elicited the confession of His Messiahship from Peter, He straightway began to teach them something further and deeper. Having convinced them about His Person, He now proceeded to teach them about His Work (in the parallel passage in Mark 8:31, it says 'He began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer'). This is the second stage, the second strand, in His teaching ministry. And it was only when the first had been established that He could go on to the second. Briefly, we can put it this way: the earthly ministry of Jesus was occupied with two things - first, to establish that He was the Messiah, and second, that the Messiah must suffer in order to reign. It is impressive to see the new and deeper note in Christ's teaching from this point onwards. It is as if we are seeing the shadow of the cross touching the pass of the disciple band right on to Calvary. It was a note the disciples were slow to understand (as we see from Matthew's and Mark's account of Peter's reaction to that teaching), and it filled them with a great foreboding. From this point onwards there was a chill and dread on them. In thus teaching, Jesus was simply following the Old Testament pattern laid out for Him in His Father's Word. For, in fact, the teaching of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah is in two strands. There are many prophecies which speak of the Messiah as the glorious King that was to come, the Prince of Peace, of whom it was said that the government would be upon his shoulder, the one who in the fullness of the time was to be the King of the Jews.