Preparing for Easter

Introduction

Week 6 of our series in Mark. We’ve seen the humility it takes to follow Christ, the work He does and that we are apart of, and today we are going to examine our own hearts in light of Christ.

Written by John mark who is mentioned in Acts, the one that Paul and Barnabas separated over. They were the first two missionaries.

Believed to be a written record from Peters memory. Written around AD 50-60 AD to Roman/Gentile believers and portrays Christ as the suffering Servant.

We are jumping ahead a bit to Mark 8 today. This is because I got a call from some of our friends in the Send Network, a church planting network we are apart of, and they asked if we wanted to have a pro-life apologist come speak next week. I said that sounds great.

So we will be joined next week by Josh Brahm. You can fined a link for his bio in our worrship guide

https://equalrightsinstitute.com/leadership-team/josh-brahm/

So today I want us to prepare our hearts for Easter a week early. Is that ok withe veyrone? Can you keep your heart prepped for Easter for 2 weeks?

Go to Mark 8:27

Have you ever had an identity Crisis? Do you knwo what that is?

It’s descriibed as a developmental event that invovles a person quetionniing theri ense of self or placce in the world.

As believers in Jesus, this can happen anytime we open the bible or sit in a church.

If your here and your not a believer, this can happent o you at athe same time.

My goal for today is to make you have an identity Crisis. Aren’t a lovinig pastor?

Why though? Why do we have an identitiy Crisis whenw e approach Jesus. Let’s see

Mark 8:27-30 “27 And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? 28 And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. 29 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. 30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.”

Exegete:

Ok, let’s fill in some peieces hre.

Jesus and His diciples have been traveling and are now in an region called Cexxarea Philippi. It’s in Israel and a place where on the side of thee mountain there were many false God statues erected andpeople woudl worhsip there.

It is with this backdrop that he looks to his disciples and asks them, Who do people say that I am.

He is asking a question he knows the anweer to, for their benefit. This is for them to determine His identitity.

The disciples respond to him and tell him: some say you are John the Baptist, some Elijah, or another one of the prophets.

These people mentniioned are ones that fortoledd the coming of the Messiah. They were not the Messiah.

And just as it is with us, Jesus basically turns from that question and brings it home. While it’s not recorded ini scripture I see this conversation going like this “who do they say I am…ok…great…listen what they say right now..that’s not impotant. What’s important is..who do you say I am.”

And then Peter, who is known for opeening his mouth and speaking when he shouldn’t, gets it right this time. He says “You are the Christ.”

Now, as I’ve said we can fill in here a bit from the other gospels.

Matthew 16:17-20 “17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.”

Jesus responds that peter is blessed for knowing andunderstanding this becuase it has come from God and not him witnessing the resurrection.

He tells Peter…That’s right..and you are Peter (Greek for small rock, petra, important)

and upon this rock (petros, big rock, cluster of rocks, foundation) I will build my church.

Illstrate:

Jesus is using a parable to teach a truth here.

He is saying upon the name of Jesus, upon the truth of Him being the Messiah, the church will be built.

Why is this a parable and not the establishment of Peter as the pope?

Rememeber when he said you are Peter? The greek word for Peters nameis petra, which means small rock.

It’s a different word than rock in vs 18

The word for Rock implies a foundation. It could be said and understood

I am Jesus the Messiah (Son of God), title given to me by God, you are Peter, small rock, a name given by God to you, and upon this foundation of the title God has given to me I will build my assembly.

You see if Peter was established as the first pope at this point, he was a terrible pope. He slashed a guys ear after this, he deserted his faith, he tried to get people to follow Jewish customs as followers of Jesus...

Apply:

What does it mean fo rus that Peeter isn’t the first pope and Jesus is the Messiah?

This is where your identity crisis begins. This is the quetion you have to face…Who is Jesus? Not just to you…but who is He?

Jesus is the MEssiaht he Son of God.

I. When you accept who Jesus is, you accept who you are.

When Peter acknolwedged Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus told Him who He was.

We find fulfillment when our identity is in Jesus. We find faithlessness when our identity is in ourselves.

After this revealing conversation with the disciples Jesus then expounded on His death.

Mark 8:31-33 “31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. 33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”

Exegete:

He lays out plainly what will happen to Him. Scribes and chief priests will orchestrate his death. Then, 3 days later, He will rise again.

Remember, these are his 12 closest disciples. They have given theirr lives up to follow after Him. He just revcealed to them that He is the prophesied Messiah for Israel. Now He is telling them that He is goinig to die.

Peter does what I think any of us would in our flesh, he tells him to stop talking that way.

Jesus then rebukes Peter, he gets on to him and in a way of correction makes the statement “Get the behind me Satan.”

Wow…he just called what I could consider a close friend of his Satan. Why such strong words?

What could Peter have said to Him “Master, don’t talk that way. That’s not how a rabbi should speak. If you die you can’t rise again. Then all of this is over. Your scaring the guys.”

I don’t know exactly what Peter said but I do know his hearrt is revealed in that last sentence.

That last sentence can be read this way as well

“You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”

Woah…He called Him Satan becausee he wa more concerned about human concerns than God’s concerns.

Illustrate:

I love coaching. I enjoy coaching in sports, I enjoy coaching in leadership, it’s just something I get energy from.

Coaching kids sports is a lot of fun. There is something I’ve learned though, they don’t know how to play on a team yet.

Basketball is the perfect example of this. Some of them are really good at shooting or maybe defense…dribbling is always a challenge though. Can I tell you the one skill that you have to teach every young person that plays basketball? Passing the ball.

I’ve watched kids be surrounded and 10 ft from the goal, they are only 3-4 ft tall, and try to take the shot.

I’ve also seen the same kids, two feet away from another kid arms out…oass, pass, pass

Why is it that passing the ball is such a hard thing to do for the kid that has it and the one thing all the others want the kid with the ball to do?

beccuase they are conceerned about what they want to do and not what is best for the team.

Apply:

As followers of Jesus we are on the same team as Jesus, sereving to the glory of God. While on this eeaarth that was what Jesus was conceerned about. Even the death of the cross, while we greatly benefited from it, were on His mind, and His death made our salvation possible, that doesn’t change the fact that His death was the satisfaction of God’s own wrath for God to be glorified in and through His death.

Peter is so concerned with human matters he has missedd the bigger picture.

Are you missing the bigger picture this morning? Are you consumed with the human concerns that are taking place and you are neglecting the concerns of God?

Do you consider God with decisions you make? Do you consider the impact on the kingdom of God?

a very simplistic way to put this, is this way: Jesus wants you on His team and He wants you concerned with what is best for the team overall and not jusst yourself.

Stop being concerned with how many points you can score if you do things your self your way, and see how much more you and others can do when you let Him lead and guide your path. That starts with

II. When you accept God’s plan, you expect God’s result.

What would have been the result if Jesus had listenend to Peter. If he stopped talkling about the resurrection. If he took on the mantle of the militaristic Messiah that the Jeews had been expecting?

no cross, no tomb, no salvation, right?

Now…what if God started listening to you and your plans. What would happen?

We close out this passage with Jesus transition the conversation to a crowd. He seems to build off of the two truths we have seen already: He is the messiah and His death is part of God’s plan.

mark 8:34-38 “34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Exegete:

Alright, whoever follows Jesus must deny themselves, take up a cross, and follow Him.

Not this not speaking of literally rtaking up an instrument of death adn carrying it around. However, it is representing the shame, humiliation, and even death a person that carries a literal cross would facce for nothing more than following after Jesus.

It’s represenative of the self saccrifice and self denial that a believer should live out.

When wee give our lifes up, our dreeam, our desirees over to Jesus, is when we truly live for what’s important.

Now this doesn’t mean a life of poverty or a life without ambition. This does mean that all amitious desires are submitted to the will of the Father.

Maybe God would have you to be a millionaire…maybee not.

Maybe God wants you to have a better job, maybe not.

For some reason we read

James 1:17 “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

and think that God could never want something for us we would not deem good.

here i the problem folks…Just likee peeter deemed the death of the cross for Jesus as not good, we look at some of the situations and things ini life that God puts us through as not good. And expecct God to remove it from us.

The Lord told us to pray to be delivered fropm temptation not from trials.

You ccouldl be going through a bad situation right now as a means of refinement.

Have we forgotten or never heard of Job

JOb 23:10 “10 But he knoweth the way that I take: When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

When He, God has tried mee, I will come forth as God.

Preparing our hearts for Easter isn’t just preparing for the Celeebration of the Resurrectioin, it’s preeparing u to live a resurrected life.

One that undersstands for the resurrection ot happen, their had to have been a crucifixioin.

Living iin lighht of the reurrection is more than livin in the grace and freedom in Cchrist, it’s living submitted to the God that put His Son on the cross so that you could Be saved. It’s living submitted to the God that said it’s better for you to gain your soul than the whole world.

Which are you more concerned about though? Your soul, or the world?

Illustrate:

The problem with us as humans is if we can’t see it, we can’t believe it.

Even more, if its different than what we expect we have a hard time being appreciative of it.

We are like the little girl in this image you may have seeen circulating online.

She has this bear in her hands and Jesus is asking for her to give it up so that he can give her a bigger bear.

She says she loves the little bear.

What Jesus is asking you to trade isn’t somethiing bad. It’s something good that he is going to make betterr.

But you have to give up. You have to be willing to sacrifice, you have to be willing to deny yourself and follow Him.

Apply:

What are you holding onto? What is keeping you from living for Jesus the way He has called you to?

Why wont’ you give that up?

Maybe it’s not sinful. Maybe it’s not even bad, but your holding onto with a white knuckled grip.

Jesus is telling them, you can’t follow me if you aren’t willing to give those up. Maybe God doesn’t taake theem. Maybye God says, Thank for being willinig, let me addd on.

III. Accepting who you are and expecting God’s result requires your sacrifice.

Time of Response