Tell No One

Luke 9:18-22
In this day and age we are so caught up in the Great Commission and "showing" Christ to others, and being the hands and feet of Christ, as we call it.  But, in reading through scripture, there is a dangerous tendency and possibility that we must, absolutely must, be weary of.  We find it here in Luke 9:21 specifically.  There are several times in the gospels when Jesus will perform a miracle and then tell the recipient not to tell anyone- cleansing the leper, healing the deaf mute, the mount of transfiguration, Peter's confession of Christ that we see here.  And he always shut the mouths of demons who were confessing who he was.  This seems so strange to us, for these people to witness such power and truth, but then to be commanded not to tell anyone.  Numerous times he performs a miracle or forgives sin, and then simply tells them to go their way, with no further instructions.  Perhaps we could assume they went and told everyone, perhaps they did not, we don't know for sure, but if they did it was not because he commanded them to.  Either way, there is not an issued command to go and tell.  The answer is easy: the Holy Spirit, the one who is the key to conviction and repentance, has not yet come (John 15:7-15).  If in that day these people had gone out, sharing Christ with others without the Holy Spirit within to do the work of salvation, would they not have simply relayed their own personal encounter and nothing more?  Would it not have only been intellectual knowledge and not spiritual truth?  Because only in Jesus is truth found (John 14:6), and the yet to come Holy Spirit, and they would have only been relaying a personal encounter with Jesus without the Holy Spirit to make it personal for others.  It was not until the Spirit had come upon Jesus that he then began to preach the kingdom of heaven (Luke 3:21-22).  And it was not until Jesus personally gave the disciples authority and sent them out that they began to preach the kingdom also (Luke 9:1-6), and it is the same with the seventy-two (Luke 10:1-12), and again with the disciples before Pentecost (Acts 1:4, 8).  Jesus called them to himself, granted them authority, then sent them out.  Since they did not have the Holy Spirit they had to receive authority from Jesus first, in order to preach the gospel, otherwise it would be flesh relaying truth, and this is simply mental knowledge, which seems to be more deceptive than complete lack of knowledge.  Simply mentally believing in Jesus and that he is the Son of God and died for sins and we are sinners does not save anyone, for even demons know and believe this (James 2:19) and confess Jesus is the Son of God (Mark 5:7).  So we see here that Peter has confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah and he is told that God has revealed that to him (Matthew 16:17), but then he is told to tell no one about this.  It was only twenty verses earlier that Christ gave them authority and told them to go out and proclaim the gospel, receiving power from Jesus to do so, and now he instructs them to not do it.  If Peter had gone out anyways, telling all that Jesus is the Messiah, would people have had that revealed to them by God or by Peter?  And this is a major distinction.  God, through the Holy Spirit, or Jesus in this case, must be the one to reveal who he is, flesh and blood cannot (John 6:63), authority to share must be received from him.  But we would say that today, now that we have received the Holy Spirit, anytime, anywhere, all of our sharing is Holy Spirit inspired and directed.  I very much hope so, but can we be sure?  Paul, with the Holy Spirit, desired to share the gospel further into Asia, but the Holy Spirit twice prevented him from doing so (Acts 16:6-7), instead directing him to Macedonia.  The Holy Spirit, preventing them from sharing the gospel?  Unheard of!  Ridiculous!  Preposterous!  And yet Biblical!  What would have happened if Paul had ventured on into Asia anyways?  He would have the Holy Spirit, and be sharing the gospel, but would it be real, actual spiritual truth he would be conveying at that point, or simply head-knowledge?  What makes us so sure that we are hearing the Holy Spirit?  Simply because we have him inside us?  We can still choose to disobey him and follow our own ways in other areas of our lives, what makes us think differently in regards to sharing the gospel?  Simply because it has the appearance of godliness?  That is never a guarantee, in fact it is a danger (II Timothy 3:4-5).  Why else warn us that apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5), unless it is a distinct possibility that we will try?  Have we sought his guidance and leadership, spending significant time with him in prayer, desperate to have him lead us, or have we simply made the decisions ourselves, without ever whole-heartedly seeking him in it?  It is only in whole-hearted seeking that he will be found (Jeremiah 29:13), not in casual, formality prayer.  We must ask ourselves, are we relaying head-born, intellectual, dead, non-saving "Jesus is Lord" information?  Or a Holy Spirit bred, heart led "Jesus is everything" call to die (Luke 9:23-26)?  An intellectual knowledge and "belief" that Jesus is the Messiah is very, very dangerous, and shame on us for spreading it everywhere.  We are not to stop sharing what God has done to his glory, but we must be sure of what it is we are doing, as Peter tells us in I Peter 1:3-21.  God have mercy on us and revive us by your Holy Spirit.  Make us desperate for him and him alone and your glory, not just works or conversions to try and prove our own salvation (how selfish is that?).