From Hero to Zero
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Liberty
Good morning Liberty
How can you tell a tree is a dogwood tree?
By the bark!!
I am looking forward to our Sunday night Christmas Fellowship next Sunday night. If anyone would like to volunteer to read the Christmas story, get with me or Carolyn.
Today we are going to be in Mark 8:27-33.
Last week we talked about Jesus using a healing to teach His disciples a lesson. He used two touches to heal this man’s eyes. He was telling them that they are not seeing Him clearly. They had been walking with Him for over 2 years and they still were not getting it. Their faith had not become sight. They were walking with the King and had seen all that He had done and all that He had taught and they still were blind. They saw Him feed over 40,000 people with barely enough food to feed them and they were still worried about only having one loaf of bread. I heard a pastor say “they just didn’t get it did we!” We do the same thing! We read and study about Jesus in the Bible. We know all that He has done for us, and we still are blind at times. We need Jesus to open our eyes so that we can see clearly.
Today we are going to see Jesus ask a question that we all will have to answer. Then He is going to clearly explain that He is going to die and be raised from the grave. This is the climax of the book of Mark. Everything up to this now, points to this moment and everything after is flows out of these verses and the answer to the question.
27 Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And He continued questioning them: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And He warned them to tell no one about Him.
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 from the dead. 32 And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but on man’s.”
Let’s pray
V27
Jesus takes the disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. This are is about 25 miles north of Bethsaida. This is at the foot of Mount Hermon. The town was named after Augustus Caesar and Herod Philip. It was the a major center for pagan worship. There was a temple to Augustus, there was a temple to the Greek god Pan. There was also a cave there that the people called the gates of hades. They thought that it was the entrance to hell. It was not an accident that Jesus brought the disciples here to ask them the most important question they will ever answer. He brought them to the center of pagan worship to reveal to them who He is. This area was dedicated to the glory of Rome. That glory has lone since faded, but the glory of Christ Jesus remains and is as bright today as it was then and will always be!
While they were walking Jesus asked them who people say He is. There answer was one of the prophets, John the Baptist? Really, John baptized Jesus and people thought He was him. I don’t understand that. They could not have been more different in ministry and personality. They were seen together publicly. John the baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah (luke 1:17). He had a ministry of judgement. Jesus came in a spirit of humility and service. John performed no miracles but Jesus was a miracle-worker. John even dressed like Elijah. I don’t see how anyone could have confused the two. Some said Elijah. All that Jesus had said and done, all the miracles, all the healings He had done and that is what people thought. !Jesus had given every evidence that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, and yet they didn’t get the message. They didn’t seek the truth! They listened to popular opinion and they followed it instead. They had opinions instead of convictions, and this is what led them astray. They had there own view of what the Messiah would be. They had the OT and all that it said about the Messiah, but they chose to follow popular opinion. We have the same problem today! We don’t see Jesus clearly. Some say that He was a good teacher, some say He was a prophet sent from God. Some say He was just a man. We are going to see in a couple of verses, that only through divine revelation can we answer the question right.
If we were to ask our friends what people say about us, they would take that as evidence of pride. What difference does it make what people say about or think about us? None! But how people answer the question about who Jesus is, now that is a matter of life and death.
V28
Finally Jesus asks them THE question. Who do you say that I am? Peter speaks up first as usual. He says that you are The Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16) Jesus Christ is no His name. Jesus is His name, Christ is His title. Christ means “the Anointed One, the promised Messiah.” Prophets, Kings, and priest were all anointed when installed into their offices. Our King holds all three offices.
Notice Peter’s answer. Jesus asked who do you say that I am. Peter didn’t say we say you are the Christ. He makes a statement, a confession. He says YOU ARE THE CHRIST! Up to this point, we have had more demons acknowledge this about Jesus than people! We need to take this one step farther! It is not until you confess Him to be YOUR CHRIST, YOUR LORD, that is when salvation comes. The demons say that he is the Christ, but He is not their Christ. We have to make Him our personal Lord. Christianity is all about relationships. Our relationship with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, each other. We serve a personal, relational God. He wants us to have an intimate relationship with Him. We have to make Him our Lord.
If we look at Matt 16:17
17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Peter’s confession, was not something he knew. It was revealed to him from God. This is not something that we can know without God revealing it to us. We can only know God when He reveals Himself to us. He does that through His word and through divine wisdom that He gives to us. There is no way we can know God, an omniscient, omnipresent being. We are a created being. We have a defined beginning and end. God has always been and will always be. We can not be anymore different from God. That is one of the reasons when we are saved we are a new creation. We can begin to understand who He is. The more we chase after Him, the more He reveals of Himself.
V30
Jesus tells them to not to tell anyone about who He is. Why would Jesus not want people to know who He is? One is because it would cause a huge uproar and the people would try and make Him King by force. Two is because His story was not finished yet. It is only with the whole story of Jesus, is the Gospel complete. If we only tell people about how Jesus was born or that He is the Son of God, all though it is true, it is not the whole story and it is not the saving truth of Christ. It is only with the whole story of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, that salvation can be had. It is only with a clear picture of who Jesus is, can we understand that it is through Him that we can be saved and have eternal life. Salvation can not come with only part of Jesus. We have to have all of Him. We have to know the whole truth about Him. With only His birth and life, He is just a good man. It is with His death and resurrection that He is our Saviour. The Good News is only good if it has all of Jesus in it. That is why Jesus didn’t want them to tell people who He is. He wasn’t done yet. The story wasn’t complete.
We all have to answer the question, who is Jesus. It is the most important question you will ever have to answer. Where you spend eternity hangs in your answer. Is He a prophet, a good teacher? Is He your Lord? Is He the Messiah that the Bible says He is? No one can answer for you. There is no grading on a curve. We are all on our own when it comes to who we say Jesus is. It doesn’t matter if you dad was Billy Graham, you still have to answer the question for yourself.
Unlike the verse 30, we are commanded to go and tell everyone about Jesus and who He is. This is our only job as Christians. We are to go and make disciples of all nations. We can only do this if we have answered this question correctly. If we can say that Jesus is MY Lord, then we must go and tell all. We must live like we believe that answer. In 2 weeks Jesus is going to tell the crowd is going to tell the crowd and His disciples what they must do if they are going to follow Him. Salvation is the most expensive free gift. It will cost you everything, but you gain so much more. If we answer the questions correctly, but are not living for Him, and we are not going and making disciples, do we truly believe what we have answered? If He is our Lord, how can we not obey Him? When we make Him Lord, we lose the right to say no! Our obedience is our sign of our love for Him. If we say He is Lord but don’t do what He tells us to, is He really Lord? If we are doing what we want, We are Lord of our life. We must be obedient to the commands of whoever we call Lord of our lives. We can’t just say Jesus is Lord and then go and live how we want. That doesn’t make sense. A slave in Biblical times would be put to death if he disobeyed his master. Obedience is a sign of true salvation. This is too serious of a matter to not get right. We can’t just give it lip service. We have to live what we say. If Jesus is King, we have to listen to what He is telling us to do. We must go and tell people about Him. We must go and make disciples. First we have to be a disciple. A disciple is a professed follower of Christ. We can’t make disciples if we are one to begin with.
We are going to sing a song and if you haven’t been doing what Jesus is commanding, or if you have answered that question, who is Jesus. Come and pray and get right with God. Eternity depends on your answer.
Let’s pray.
