TEXT TO SERMON - Sermon - Mark 8:31–9:1

ENGAGE

Children share funny perspectives on many subjects, including their perspective on God.

Little Johnny asks - “Dear God, are you a ninja? Is that why I can’t ever see you even though you are always with me.”

Now Jane has a good point. She asks -

“Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you have now?”

and my favorite,

Andy says-

“Dear God, dad says you live up above, and since I am an American, does that mean you are Canadian?”

The perspectives of these kids are cute, but childish, or unrealistic perspectives and beliefs are not so cute when we are grown ups.

What we believe dictates the decisions that we make in our lives.

If our perspective and beliefs are faulty, then our choices will be faulty as well.

TENSION

Today we are going to be looking at the events just before last week’s passages.

Were going to look at what lead up to the Transfiguration of Jesus, and what can happen if we don't have the right concept of who Jesus is, and how we are to respond to Him once we understand and get the right concept.

You can turn with me to Mark chapter 8.

As you find it, I want to give you a little bit of a background on how we got to where we land in the bible today.

Were going to see Jesus yet again teaching to his disciples and a large crowd.

At this point, Jesus had gained many followers and had done many miracles.

The people of Isreal were looking for the Messiah that had been promised to come and free them from the Roman empire that had come in and taken them hostage in their own land.

Were going to be in chapter 8, and we will start with verse number 27.

TRUTH

Mark 8:27 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?”

You may remember from last week, we are starting Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.

We are wrapping up the teaching and healing part of Jesus’ ministry, and moving on to the endgame of his mission, the purpose of his time on earth, his death at the crucifixion and his resurrection on Easter morning.

The series of events that allow for us to be cleansed of our sins, and become children of God.

Jesus and the Disciples are heading to Jerusalem and they are coming up on Caesarea Philippi.

A town named after Herod Antipas’ brother, Phillip, and was a tribute city to the Caesar, thus the name, Caesarea Philippi.

Jesus asks a fairly general question - trying to get the temperature of the room - to see what the local gossip is about him was.

What have the disciples heard.

The disciples give him a pretty straightforward answer:

Mark 8:28 ESV

28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”

We learned last week that Elijah was important because he had a weird experience in that it is never told that he experienced a normal human death - so it makes sense for him to “come back”,.

John the baptist, he was just killed by Herod, so there's some concern about him coming back for revenge, and the Disciples just lump all the other prophets together.

Right away we have a few different ideas of who Jesus is, and essentially different ideas on what he is supposed to be doing.

Jesus then wants to know something personal.

He wants to know what the Disciples themselves think about who Jesus is.

Mark 8:29 ESV

29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

Peter answers for all of them.

Peter gives a really good answer.

We assume, that Peter gives THE answer that Jesus was looking for....

Then we get verse 30.

Mark 8:30 ESV

30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

Why, if Peter gives the right answer, does Jesus not want them to tell anyone?

We talked very briefly about this last week.

Peter has no clue what he is talking about.

He, and the other disciples have their own ideas about who Jesus is, and what his mission is on earth.

The problem is, even though they had the right answer, they didn't know what the answer meant.

They couldn't be farther from the truth of what Jesus was about to do.

So he tells them not to tell anyone, yet - and he goes on teaching them the role of the Christ.

He is going to help them understand who Jesus really is, and what he is going to be doing in Jerusalem.

Mark 8:31–32 ESV

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. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

And here we have Peter, the one with the right answers, speaking out for all the Disciples, this time to tell Jesus that he has it all wrong.

Peter lets Jesus know that if Jesus suffers and is rejected by the religious leaders, AND IS KILLED….. Then Peter’s vision of who Jesus is and what he was supposed to do falls apart.

Peter, and the elders, chief priests and scribes as well as Isreal as a whole were looking for the Messiah to come with military power.

They were expecting him to come in on a Tomahawk attack chopper with missles aimed at the Roman army - coming to set Israel free from their Rulers.

Peter was so focused on the first part, that he didnt even hear the part about rising from the dead three days later.

And Jesus even said it plainly. He didn’t use a fancy parable, he didn’t speak in riddles, he flat out told them exactly what would happen.

But that wasn’t want Peter wanted to hear. So Peter rebukes Jesus.

Peter had just confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the messiah, the one that all of Israel had been waiting for And now Peter is giving him orders, telling him how he is supposed to act as messiah.

Jesus of course knew that the Disciples didn’t have a clue about what it meant to be the Christ, even though they knew he was the Christ.

Suffering, rejection, death and resurrection are key elements of the Christ.

He wasn’t going to come in with guns blaring, he would come in with hands out, ready to be taken into custody and lead to his death.

So He has to give the Disciples some clarification.

Mark 8:33 ESV

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.”

Jesus here is speaking to Peter, but he is defiantly speaking to all the Disciples. Peter is not the only one who is clueless.

Jesus recognizes the thought that Peter is thinking, it’s the same thoughts that Satan himself is thinking.

It is the only way that Satan can win - if he stops Jesus from taking on our sin and sacrificing himself for us.

If Satan could tempt Jesus into saving himself, he would have the rest of the world and death, the grave and evil would not have been conquered.

Peter didn’t want Jesus to die, because what good is a dead king?

Again, Peter is not paying attention, he is focused on the things of earth - the freedom of Israel, and the fall of Roman control of Israel.

He wasn’t focusing on the eternal consequences if Jesus did not do what he was sent here to do.

Here Mark uses the same word, rebuke, now from Jesus to Peter.

Some have said that Satan was “in” Peter, but the verse right before it says “Peter took him aside.”

IT doesnt say “and then Satan entered Peter and Satan took Jesus aside” similar to what we see with Judas at his betrayal of Jesus..

So we have no reason to believe that this is anything more than Jesus saying that Peter’s words and beliefs were closer aligned to Satan’s than Jesus’.

The phrase “Get behind me, Satan” is a vivid reminder to Peter, the Disciples, and to us, that our rightful place is BEHIND JESUS, not taking him aside, or leading him.

Disciples are students who follow Jesus the teacher.

We cannot put the cart before the horse.

Peter sees what is right in front of him, the earthly things, the things of man, and he is totally missing the things of God, the things that actually matter and impact eternity.

We would never do that now, would we?

Mark 8:34 ESV

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.

Here we have more clarification on what it means to be a disciple. Once we “get behind him”, we have to know how to follow.

In order to follow, we must deny ourselves, and take up our own cross.

Just before a crucifixion, the one being killed was made to put the giant vertical cross bar on their shoulders, usually strapped to their arms, all the way to the place they were going to die.

Imagine the rough cut lumber digging into your neck and shoulders as you struggle to carry the heavy beam, to the place where you know that you will die.

Once they made it to the place of the crucifixion, they would hoist them up and attach the cross bar to the vertical post and finish by nailing their hands and feet to the cross, leading to their eventual death by suffocation and blood loss.

When Christ tells us to pick up our own cross, this does not mean that we are necessarily going to be crucified, or even that we would be killed for our faith in Jesus.

But it does mean that we align ourselves with a position that is in direct opposition of the outlook the world has, and that means that we are going to have conflict in our lives.

It’s in the midst of that conflict that Jesus tells us about the paradox of each disciple.

Mark 8:35–38 ESV

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? 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 is on his way to Jerusalem. He knows his time is coming soon.

He knows that he has a limited time to teach his disciples everything they need to know to spread the Gospel throughout the world.

In these verses, he sums up the essence of being a Christian- the one belief that makes a difference in eternity.

We can do everything of ourselves, we can make lots of money, we can have huge houses, fancy cars, power and fame -

But if we are so self-orientated that we cannot life for Christ, we have not made a decision based on the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the messiah, the Christ.

We have based our decision to follow the god of self. We are following the Created instead of the CreatOr.

IT is only when we make that decision to lay our self down, and stop thinking of ourselves as the center of the world, that we can embrace the love of Jesus that sets us free from the bondage of sin.

As long as we are stuck worshipping self, or anything other than God, we cannot be truly alive. We will lose our live to sin, death and the grave.

It is only when we surrender self to him, that we find true life, and we find the advocate we need to stand up for us in our final judgement before God.

If we were ashamed of Christ while we were living, Christ will be ashamed of us when we die.

APPLICATION

Why do you suppose that it was so easy for Peter to instinctively take JEsus aside and rebuke him for his thoughts on what he was supposed to do as the King of God’s kingdom?

Let’s take it a little closer to home now.

Why do you and I find it so easy to instinctively set Jesus aside and tell him that his way is not the best way, and that your way is better?

Last week, we got to see the Transfiguration, the glory of God shining out from within Jesus.

The passage we read today is only one verse away from this mountain-top event.

Peter will be up on that mountain, along with James and John, Jesus’ big three.

Today, Peter and the Disciples learned that Jesus is indeed THE CHRIST - the messiah, the holy Son of God who came to earth to be sacrificed as the perfect spotless lamb of God for our sin.

Not only that, but they learned more about what it means to be THE CHRIST - suffering, rejection, and death are all going to be part of the Christ’s job description, regardless if Peter approves or not.

His way, the way Peter sees Jesus coming in as a military leader wiping out the Romans who are holding the Israelites captive, is not God’s will for Jesus And Jesus lets him know that.

INSPIRATION/REFLECTION

We went back in time from last week - to take a look at what brought the Disciples and Jesus to the Transfiguration, the event that kicks off journey to Jerusalem for Jesus, literally its all down hill from there.

But today, we find out why he is going to Jerusalem - he is the Christ, and yes he is the king of God’s kingdom, but he is also the sacrifice that must be given in order for the people of the kingdom to be holy.

Jesus lets Peter and the Disciples know that they are not seeing the whole picture, they are only focused on what is literally right in front of their faces, when what they need to do is focus on the eternal vision.

In Mark 8:22-26, just a few verses earlier than today’s text, we find Jesus with a blind man in the town of Bethsaida, the home town of Philipp, Andrew, and you guessed it, Peter.

This blind man was healed, but he didn’t have 100% of his sight after the first time that Jesus touched him. He had to have another touch from him to clear up his vision and allow for him to see clearly.

For Peter and the Disciples, they know who Jesus was, The Christ, but they needed to find out exactly what that meant for him to be the Christ. They had to submit to God’s Will, instead of holding on to what they believed about Jesus and his mission.

Just like our kids who had some crazy ideas about who God is, Peter’s idea of what he wanted Jesus to be meant that Peter could tell him what to do and that Peter had as much if not more authority than Jesus did.

It’s this incorrect belief that leads Peter and many of the other Disciples, to deny Christ and fall away from following him.

That is why Jesus taught them on what it meant to be the Christ, and what that meant for Disciples.

We have to deny ourselves, free up our hands from holding on to the things of the world.

All the selfishness and earthly things that will eventually fall apart or rust, we have to allow our empty hands to pick up our own cross, our own pieces of the kingdom that we can put up on our shoulders and carry to our own deaths- because we are not already of death, we are not afraid of the grave, Because Jesus has defeated them and the control that Sin has on us.

We just have to understand who Jesus is, and what his mission did for us, giving us freedom and life through his sacrifice.

ACTION/NEXT STEPS

There is no more essential belief to a Disciple than clearly understanding who Jesus is and what he did for us, what he did for each one of us.

We need to have our eyes opened to spiritual things, we need to pay attention to our position to Christ, are we leading him around, taking him aside and telling him what to do?

Or are we taking the proper position behind him, allowing him to lead us?

Let’s Pray

Jesus, you are the Christ - the messiah, the king who rules and will continue to rule over all of creation - and you followed God’s will to get there. You suffered, you were betrayed, you were rejected by almost everyone. But Lord you gave each one of us the means to understand our position to you, and you give us your Holy Spirit to keep us behind you, checking us and making sure that we are truly a follower of you.

Thank you for your sacrifice for us.

Thank you for allowing our eyes to be opened to spiritual things, including the knowledge that you are the Christ, and the perfect, spotless lamb that was sacrificed on our behalf.

Lord be with us and lead us and guide us,

and all God’s people said,

Amen.