Mark 8-9

Intro

How was your week last week

Continuing through the book of Mark

Theme: Who is Jesus

Theme Statement: Jesus calls us to be disciples through a relationship with Him

This week we will be talking about how Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.

What does this mean?

The human desire that has been since the garden of eden until today has been that our greatest desire is to exalt ourselves above God.

Eve ate the fruit in the Garden because the serpent told her it would make her like God

Genesis 3:5 ESV

5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So when we Christ says that we should deny ourselves He is telling us to say no to our pride and obey God who is Lord of our life.

We see this further explained when He says take up your cross and follow Him.

In Rome where crucifixion was created the Romans used to make criminals walk through the streets carrying their cross to symbolize their submission to Rome

So Jesus is not necessarily asking every believer to die for Him although many have.

Instead He is saying here that every believer should be able to humbly be obedient to the will of God and submit to His authority

PRAY

Mark 8:27–30 ESV

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

So as Jesus is walking from village to village He asks His disciples who people say that He is.

I won’t say much on this but there were some people that said Jesus was the prophet Elijah or John the Baptist

Which is clear by what the disciples say to Jesus

BUT THEN

Jesus turns to His disciples and asks them “who do YOU say that I am”

At the end of the day you cannot be saved by what other people think of Christ, He will ask you personally who you call Him.

Do you call Him your Lord or not?

Peter always gets a bad reputation in the Gospels for being the dumb one or the one that made a bunch of mistakes.

People like to focus on Peter doubting Jesus while walking on water, or Peter’s denial of Christ, or Peter cutting off a dudes ear but here in this moment Peter says something that will be the turning point for the whole book of Mark.

From this point on everything is going to change because Jesus begins His final journey towards Jerusalem where He is to be accused, convicted, killed and will Rise from the dead.

Peter says “You are the Christ.”

Now to us this doesn’t mean anything because many of you probably think that Jesus’ last name was Christ.

However this was not Jesus’ last name but rather it was His title.

Christos - Greek - Anointed One

In the Hebrew it would be meshiac where we get our modern name Messiah

Peter isn’t saying Jesus last name Peter is saying you are the Messiah

- You are the anointed one, the one prophesied about in the Old Testament that would come to Earth to put an end to evil once and for all.

At this moment in time Peter recognizes Jesus true nature and as soon as he does Jesus tell the disciples to not speak about it to anyone.

- This may be confusing but keep in mind that the Messiah was considered to be an Earthly king or ruler and the Jews would have defended this person with their lives down to the last man.

- Because it always was God’s plan to die on the cross it was necessary that the Jews not know of Jesus true identity because it would have caused them to place an Earthly faith in Jesus when Jesus instead is calling us to place a spiritual faith in Him.

So in order that He might die on the cross Jesus charges them not to tell anyone.

And then He begins to explain to them why they should be silent about Jesus true identity

So that Jesus may not be hindered by people so that He may be able to go to the cross and die for the sins of man

Mark 8:31–33 ESV

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

After Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ or the Anointed One Jesus tells them exactly what was going to happen to Him.

He would suffer

Be rejected by the Elders and chief priests

He would be killed and after three days He would rise again

In fact the bible even tells us in verse 32 that Jesus said this PLAINLY or so that it was easy to understand

But to Peter this did not fit his view of the Messiah

Peter saw the Messiah like most Jews do

As a conquering hero who would kick out any and all evil people and establish an Earthly kingdom that will never end.

So Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Him, starts telling Jesus that He is wrong

This is why Jesus tells Peter “get behind me Satan.”

He is not calling Peter Satan but rather that Peter was trying to stop Jesus from going to the cross because that didn’t fit into Peter’s idea of who Jesus was.

Application

Many times we can as believers try and fit God into a box of who we think that He should be.

Where are areas in your life that you try to fit God in a box?

That you try and tell God He has to behave and act a certain way because it’s what you think is best.

Jesus even tells Peter that He is thinking selfishly by saying that he is not thinking about the things of God but rather about the things of man.

As Jesus is telling Peter these things He begins to teach the crowd that is around Him

Mark 8:34–38 ESV

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Jesus rebukes Peter for thinking that His plan was better than God’s and then He says to everyone that if they desire to follow Him they better be ready to deny any and all selfish desire in themselves and pick up their cross or in other words SUBMIT to God and His rule and reign.

You can have it all here on this earth.

In fact many people do have it all.

But in the span of eternity and all the riches God has to offer Jesus tells us in verse 36 that you can gain the entire world and forfeit your soul

So after Jesus says all these things to His followers about His death and His resurrection we see Him take Peter James and John up to a mountain where He is transfigured into His heavenly presence

Mark 9:2–6 ESV

2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

So Jesus is meeting with Elijah and with Moses.

Many scholars believe that this was because Elijah represented the prophets and Moses represented the Law and Jesus was showing that He is the fulfillment of both the Law and the Prophets

He lived a perfect life and fulfilled every prophecy made about Him.

This scene was so intense and so overwhelming that Peter didn’t know what to say or do so he just suggests that they set up a camp there and hang out.

Then a cloud forms over them

Mark 9:7–10 ESV

7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. 9 And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean.

As God appears in this cloud He instructs the disciples to listen to Jesus.

Everything changes from here on out.

In fact the last time we see a moment like this is in Mark 1 when Jesus is baptized.

He comes out of the water and the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus and says this is my BELOVED son, in whom I am well pleased.

This scene launched Jesus into His earthly ministry

And here we have a scene very similar and after this Jesus will begin the journey to Jerusalem where He will be crucified and raised from the dead.

From this point on Jesus begins the final journey He will embark on, the journey that will save the world from their sins.

The disciples still didn’t understand this though.

We see that by their questioning in verse 10

Mark 9:10 ESV

10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean.

Why didn’t they understand what this meant?

Because they had never experienced someone rising from the dead before.

How is that possible that someone could rise from the dead?

But here’s the important thing I want us to understand tonight.

Jesus throughout these last two chapters had been encouraging the disciples to deny themselves and pick up their cross and follow Him.

Although at this moment in time they understood who Jesus was but had not yet understood fully what He was going to do there was coming a day that they would fully understand just who Jesus was and just exactly what He had come to do.

Like us there would come a day when the gospel would be made clear to them.

Jesus told them in verse 9 to tell no one about what they saw UNTIL the son of man was raised from the dead.

After Jesus is raised from the dead the disciples begin to tell everyone they meet!

They begin to live lives completely sold out to what God wanted them to do.

Even when their lives were threatened they understood that what they had seen and the relationship that they had with Jesus was far more important than anything that could happen to them here on this earth.