Luke 9:18-25

Living Bible

¹⁸ One day as he was alone, praying, with his disciples nearby, he came over and asked them, “Who are the people saying I am?”

¹⁹ “John the Baptist,” they told him, “or perhaps Elijah or one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead.”

²⁰ Then he asked them, “Who do you think I am?”

Peter replied, “The Messiah—the Christ of God!”

²¹ He gave them strict orders not to speak of this to anyone. ²² “For I, the Messiah,^[a] must suffer much,” he said, “and be rejected by the Jewish leaders—the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the Law—and be killed; and three days later I will come back to life again!”

²³ Then he said to all, “Anyone who wants to follow me must put aside his own desires and conveniences and carry his cross with him every day and keep close to me! ²⁴ Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it, but whoever insists on keeping his life will lose it; ²⁵ and what profit is there in gaining the whole world when it means forfeiting one’s self?