A Call to Deny Ourselves

Call to Worship

To all who are weary and in need of rest

To all who are mourning and longing for comfort

To all who fail and desire strength

To all who sin and need a Savior

We, Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church, open wide our arms

With a welcome from Jesus Christ.

He is the ally to the guilty and failing

He is the comfort to those who are mourning

He is the joy of our hearts

And He is the friend of sinners

So Come, worship Him with us.

Scripture Reading & Reader

Scripture Reader, Brandon Morrow

Mark 8:31–38 NIV

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Post-Scripture Prayer

Pray.

Introduction to Sermon

Good morning, my name is Brandon Morrow and I serve as one of the Pastors here at Moraga Valley! So glad that you’re here with us, — if you haven’t already, please go ahead and open your Bible to the Book of Mark and this week we’re starting a new series that we’ve called, “The Suffering Servant.” This series is about the courage and sacrifice required to be disciples of Jesus. One of the key questions we’re asking about this series, and we should be asking as followers of Jesus, is...

Do we understand what’s at stake in following Jesus?

To give a short recap, Dave gave a phenomenal sermon last week, and what we learned last week is that He is the King that the world has been waiting in anticipation of, He has come to draw all the nations of the world into the Kingdom of God, and He alone can...

But as we start in Mark 8:31 today — let me make a comment about Jesus, and what I’ve learned about following Him, and something that I think will be helpful to us in studying Mark 8 —

Just when we think we have Jesus figured out, we learn that we don’t...

Just when I think I’ve pushed the limits on understanding His grace, His affection for me, the depths of His desire for sinners — just when I think I’ve heard it all — and I’ve heard a good bit of it — I learn that I’ve peeled back another layer, and its like I’m introducing myself to Jesus anew for the first time. It almost always makes me think that I’m closer and closer to discovering what’s at stake in following Jesus...

Let’s look at verse 31, and I’ll show you what I mean, but from the perspective of Peter

Mark 8:31 NIV

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Mark 8:31 begins one of three, what we call, Passion Predictions, where Jesus speaks about His death and resurrection — which is new, to say the least — but it’s the way that Jesus speaks about Himself that is so surprising and Peter doesn’t get it...

In verse 31, Jesus brings up two key ideas from two different Old Testament prophets

The first is: The Son of Man, mentioned by Daniel

The second is: The Suffering Servant, mentioned by Isaiah

What I wanna do, is take a look at both of those, first we’ll look to Daniel and the Son of Man...

Son of Man is a title that Jesus uses for Himself in Mark, but it’s the title for a mysterious figure in Daniel 7:13-14

Daniel 7:13–14 (NIV)

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

According to Hebrew scholar, Tim Mackie, Daniel has a dream about a succession of beasts that are hellbent on destroying everything. In his vision he sees thrones that are used for ruling over the world, but only one of them is filled.

It’s filled by the Ancient of Days, which is Daniel’s phrase for God/Yahweh. But there’s an empty throne, and a figure called the Son of Man rides up on a cloud to the Ancient of Days, and Daniel 7 relays it to us that the Son of Man is presented to the Ancient of Days, God, and then is given dominion — or control and power over the world, like a King. And then Daniel’s vision really takes shape for us, because what He sees is the Son of Man then sitting down on the empty throne.

Every time Jesus uses the phrase, “Son of Man,” this is the kind of picture you would have, God’s King, ruling over the earth, and you’d expect Him to be victorious, tactful, powerful, full of wisdom...

There are other places in scripture where we get pictures of this, I want to read you an Aramaic translation of Genesis 49:11 that paints a little better of a picture of what people expect when Jesus says He is the Son of Man

Mark (Jesus as the Messiah (8:27–33))

How fine is the King, the Messiah, who will arise from those of the house of Judah! He girds his loins and goes forth and sets up the ranks of battle against his enemies and kills the kings together with their commanders and no king and commander can stand before him. He reddens the mountains with the blood of their slain and his garments are dipped in blood … .

When the Son of Man is used, it builds a sense of anticipation… Isn’t this the one who Has said He alone has the authority to forgive sins? Isn’t this the One who says that He is Lord over the Sabbath?

Then why does He say in verse 31, Mark 8:31

Mark 8:31 (NIV)

...that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

This is the whole basis of why Peter rebukes Jesus in verse 32. Look there with me...

Mark 8:32 (NIV)

He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

This doesn’t fit Peter’s understanding of Jesus…

Whether it’s the first century in Jesus’ time, or Lamorinda today, there’s a cultural perception that rejection is failure, and that suffering seems contradictory to victory...

Kings that redeem God’s people aren’t supposed to suffer and die. That’s not the way every story in the history of the world goes. We all know how every story goes, “Once upon a time,...” “and they all lived happily ever after.”

Peter’s wrong though. Look with me at verse 33, notice that He doesn’t rebuke Peter, it’s a rebuke against the work of Satan, who wants to try and blind us to the work of the gospel, —

This is where the Suffering Servant from the prophet Isaiah comes in, and I want to read you chunks of Isaiah 53 to help paint a picture for you.

Isaiah 53 (NIV)

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted...

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth...

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities...

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Peter’s view of Jesus was too narrow, and likely our view of Jesus is too narrow. Satan wants to hold at bay, the truth of the gospel, that the victorious King and the Suffering Servant who comes to relieve us of our sins — are the same person.

Last week Dave’s sermon was titled, “Do you see?” Peter did not see… Whatever preconceived notions he had about Jesus blurred his vision about Jesus.

And one way to have blurred vision about the Christian life is to think of following Jesus in human terms -- which is the indictment Jesus makes of Peter at the end of verse 33 (Mark 8:33

Mark 8:33 (NIV)

“You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

So in verse 34, He explains what the concerns of God are, look with me there.

Mark 8:34 NIV

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

The English Standard Version puts verse 34 a little better, I think… Instead of whoever wants to be my disciple, the ESV says, “If anyone would come after me...” Jesus’ words are for everyone who follows Him, and He gives a clear picture of what it means to follow Him:

What we do, who we are, who we hope to become — is patterned after the life of Jesus.

For Jesus there’s only one kind of discipleship posited here, — and scholar David Garland puts it beautifully:

Jesus tells his disciples to follow the way he has chosen, not the way they would choose for themselves.

David E. Garland

He tells them the two things He has chosen: to deny self, and to take up the cross.

Pastor Robin Sydserff says, “To deny self means a radical reversal in the way that I live. It is a radical renunciation of ‘me’ as the center of my life; instead, making God and others the center of my life.”

He says, “This is a shift away from self-serving, self-advancement, self-satisfaction,” and now a movement towards, “total submission to God.”

Total submission is a risky move, it means we’ve gotta do a deep dive into what actually serves us, advances us, and satisfies us.

We go back to that initial question about our discipleship to Jesus. Do I have the courage and the sacrifice needed to reject “me” as the center of my life, and to make Jesus the center of my life? Of course total submission is going to be risky, look at verse 35, because it require sacrifice.

Mark 8:35 NIV

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

One writer (Jason Meyer) wrote about the sacrificial nature of following Jesus this way, “We deny lesser things to get greater things.”

Jesus has said to deny self, and to carry the cross. The greater thing is the cross. I have been called to say no to myself, and yes to the cross.

Being Jesus’ disciple is really about the cross. You don’t get fellowship with Jesus, without first encountering a crucified and risen Jesus.

We get the greater thing in what theologian Hugh Anderson says that is “only in and through his death on the cross can it be known who Jesus truly is, the one in whom God seeks out men to save them.”

The whole picture of Mark’s gospel is coming full circle for us… Jesus has come to forgive sins, and the way that He does it is by suffering, dying, and rising from the dead.

The way that Jesus has chosen, and it’s not the way we would have chosen for ourselves, is for us to live for Jesus and the gospel, which is what verse 35 says, and to follow in His example, even if it means losing our lives.

Following a Crucified King isn’t for everyone. I wish it were, I hope it is, but when you read verses 36-38, you get the idea that not everyone will deny the lesser things to get the greater thing.

Look with me at verses 36-38, Mark 8:36-38

Mark 8:36–38 NIV

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

There is a reality at play here in which something else is placed at the center of our lives, which means we need to exercise that denial of self. David Garland has this list, that makes me pause and think about what I need to deny:

For some, it may mean leaving job and family as the disciples have done. For the proud, it means renouncing the desire for status and honor. For the greedy, it means renouncing an appetite for wealth. The complacent will have to renounce the love of ease. The fainthearted will have to abandon the craving for security. The violent will have to repudiate the desire for revenge.

and still… one day, before we know it, we’re left standing face to face with Jesus… Verse 38 says He’s going to come, so we can expect as much, — what will we say to Him when He does come? When He calls us by name? He’ll come looking for you, and He’ll be able to see if He’s the center, and verse 37 is illuminating, what will we try to give in exchange?

Will you offer Him your reputation? The possessions you amassed?

Will you tell him how put together you are?

Will you try and get in on the coattails of someone else who has a relationship with Him?

In verse 38, Jesus mentions this line that we’re probably familiar with, a line used in Mark, Matthew, and Luke, and it’s all got the same gist — if we deny Jesus, He will deny us — the word used in Mark is the word “ashamed” and the real shame here is that something lesser can be chosen.

Mark (Contemporary Significance)

In David Lodge’s novel Therapy, the main character’s therapist asks him to make a list of all the good things about his life in one column and all the bad things in another. Under the good column he wrote: “professionally successful, well off, good health, stable marriage, kids successfully launched in adult life, nice house, great car, as many holidays as I want.” Under the bad column he wrote just one thing: “feel unhappy most of the time.”

Jesus’ words ring truer than ever for a generation of people who have been trying to follow Him on their own terms, “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

It’s all we’ve got — nothing else seems to be working.