Right Focus
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
Good Morning
How many presents can Santa fit into an empty bay? Just one. After that, it’s not empty anymore.
What does a gingerbread man use to make his bed? A cookie sheet.
We are going to be sharing in the Lord’s Supper today. We are going to be doing that at the end of the service. I pray that we all have a correct attitude and mindset as we par take. This is a wonderful part of being a follower of Jesus, but at the same time it is a very serious one also.
This Wednesday we are going to get to celebrate the birth of our King. What a wonderful time of year. Even though it has become very commercialized, it is amazing to me that for one day the world will be celebrating the birth of Jesus. God uses all things. I pray that every day we think about Jesus, but on Wednesday, I pray that we pause during all the present opening, food and fellowship with our friends and family, and think about what that day means. We celebrate the day that our Lord left everything, left the right hand of God and glory to come to a cursed earth and be born as a man, to bring salvation to a sinful world. His birth is the start of salvation coming to man! What a wonderful thing we get to celebrate. The birth of the Messiah!
Tonight at 5 we are going to meet back here and celebrate. We will sing carols, listen to the Christmas story, and eat some finger foods! I hope you can join us tonight!
Today we are going to be in Mark 8:31-33.
Last week we talked about the revelation that Peter gave when Jesus asked ”who do you say I am”. Peter said “you are the Christ”. Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord of all. He is our saviour. He paid the price that we owed and can never pay. He gave His life so we can live. That is such good news! I don’t have to try and be good enough! I could never be good enough! My good is like filthy rages to God. The only thing that God will accept from me, is the righteousness of Jesus that is given to me when I repented and believed in who Jesus is! That righteousness makes me acceptable to God, it makes me an adopted son to God.
Today we are going to look at Jesus revealing what was coming up. His rejection, death and resurrection. We are going to see Peter’s reaction to this news and Jesus’ reaction to Peter. Once again Peter will insert his foot into his mouth.
Please stand as we read God’s word.
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.”
V31
After Peter said that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus begins to teach them what He must go through. Jesus called Himself the Son of Man. This is the preferred title that Jesus used for Himself. It is used 81 times in the gospels. It was used in Daniel 7:13-14
13 “I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a son of man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.
14 “And to Him was given dominion,
Honor, and a kingdom,
So that all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.
He told them that He was going to have to suffer many things. He said that the Son of Man MUST suffer many things. We must not over look the word must. It has significant meaning. It shows that this is God’s will for His Son. This is the only way that sin’s price can be paid. Salvation can only come through God’s plan. There was no other option, no other plan, no plan B or C. It has always and will always be plan A. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. That is how salvation comes to man.
At my day job, I PM the install of low voltage systems. 95% of these systems are fire alarm installs. Also around 95% of these installs are government or military installs. There is a specific code for the installation of fire alarm systems and it is NFPA 72. There is also a specific code for Military fire alarm installation, it is called the UFC. The fun part about both of these codes is that they will reference one another and we get caught in an endless circle trying to figure out what to do. Typical government work. In these codes there are 2 very important word, should and shall.
Should means that it is best to do this but it is not required. Shall means that you will do this, it is required. There are specific mounting heights for fire alarm devices and equipment. These are shalls, we have to use these mounting heights. We have to use specific types of wire for different types of equipment. These also are shalls. If we don’t do the things that are shalls, we will not get the approval of the base inspectors and will have to redo all our work.
Must is like the shall in our codes. Jesus must suffer, die and be raised on the third day. There is no way around this. This is God’s will, this is His plan and this is how it is going to happen. We as humans, don’t get a say in it. God doesn’t need our approval before He can do things, as we are going to see soon. Jesus is telling them that He is going to suffer many things. We are going to look at those things when we get to the crucifixion. He said that He is going to have to be rejected by the religious leaders and the elders. It is not Rome that is going to reject Jesus, it is the Jewish leaders, His own people are going to reject Him. The very people who are teaching about the coming Messiah, are the ones that are going to reject Him. They are the ones that are going to put Him on that cross. We know that it is our sin that put Him there, these are the ones that God used to fulfill His will.
This next part, I don’t think that any of the disciples even heard! I think when they heard killed, I believe that they went into shock and their ears stopped working. Jesus told them that He was going to be raised from the dead after 3 days. Jesus is revealing God’s plan to them, but like most of the time, they just didn’t get it. Just like after watching Jesus feed the 4,000 men, they were worried about only having one loaf of bread to feed them. They couldn’t see Jesus clearly. They needed another touch from Him. Just like us, they needed multiple touches. They would see Jesus clearly for a short while, and then everything would fuzz up. Just like we get into a bind or things start to get bad, we usually try to fix it ourselves first. Then when that doesn’t work, we are like oh yeah, Jesus please help! When we should go to Him first!
V32
Says that Jesus was stating these things plainly. He wasn’t talking in parables or riddles. He was being upfront and open about what He was about to go through. He wasn’t trying to see if they got it or would get it. He was trying to prepare them for what was coming. He wanted them to be ready. But, they did not get it. When Jesus get’s arrested, the disciples scatter like bugs when the lights are turned on! They just didn’t get it did we!
Next we see Peter takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke Him. What! Peter just got through saying that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God! And now he is going to tell Jesus what is going to happen! Oh Peter! The word used for rebuke is the same word that is used when Jesus would rebuke the demons. This is not a gentle word. Peter was telling Jesus no, this is not going to happen. Peter went from being the spokes person of God 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.
to the spokes person for the devil! All in less than a few minutes! I can relate to this. I have said things before and sounded like a very professional and intelligent person, and then a couple of minutes later, open my mouth and remove all doubt. Peter was always putting his foot into his mouth, just like me. We have all been there. Some of us more than others, but we have all said something that later when we think about it, we are like I can’t believe that I said that! On this note, I want to point out that Mark was not there when all this happened. Mark got all his information for his book from Peter. This shows how much Peter had grown in the Lord that he told Mark about this part of this story. Most if not all of us, if we were Peter, we would leave this part out. This does not paint a good picture for Peter. In Peter’s humility, he wants us to know all of the story. Why would Peter even think to rebuke Jesus. It is because, he/they had a wrong view of who the Messiah was going to be. They had been taught all their lives that the Messiah was going to be a conquering King. The Messiah was going to be a powerful leader that would lead Isreal to their freedom and them becoming a powerful nation. The Messiah they were taught would not be arrested, suffer many beatings and then be killed. Where is the power in that? How is that going to get Rome out of Isreal? They did not have a clear picture of who Jesus was. They needed another touch to see Him rightly. They didn’t realize their greatest need was not freedom here on earth, but freedom from sin and it debt. They needed the Messiah that was standing in front of them, not the one that they were taught was coming. Today, our greatest need is not a better President, Congress! It is not for world peace. It is not for more money, a better house, a better marriage. These things are all good, but they are not our greatest NEED! Our greatest need is a Saviour. To have our sins paid for and our relationship with God restored! All those other things are temporary. They will not mean anything when we are standing before our King in glory. The only thing that will matter then is how we answer the question, who is Jesus.
We can see what Jesus tells Peter. Get behind Me, Satan! Now that is a strong statement. If you are looking for something that will soften this, it is not in the Bible. What Peter did was wrong and Jesus let him know. Jesus is not saying that Peter is the devil, or that Peter is possessed by a demon. He is saying that Peter acting like the devil. This is the same tactic that the devil used on Jesus when He was in the desert. The devil was trying to get Jesus to not rely on God. He was trying to get Him to rely on himself instead. To not trust in God’s plan. That is what Peter was doing. Peter believed in the man of Jesus, but not the plan of Jesus. It was not what Peter thought should happen. It is not what he thought the Messiah should be. Peter was acting on what little knowledge he had. He did not know God’s plan. Peter was concerned with earthly things not the things of God. We can see that in what Jesus told him. You are setting your mind on man’s purposes, not Gods. Peter did not have the Bible to know God’s plan, so I give him grace. We do have the Bible, and we do know God’s plan. We have no excuses. We have to stop thinking like the world and start to think on the things of God. The Bible says that we are to think on things that are true Philippians 4:8
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
We have to not only act differently, we have to think differently. If we do not think differently, we will not be on the same page as God. We will be rebuked by God. We will be disciplined by Him. This world is hard enough, we only make it harder when we are not in God’s will. God’s plan is best. Even though we do not know all the details, it is still best. We may not be the hero, or even a main character. His plan is best. We need to be focused on His way, His plan. Not on ours. His plan is for all believers to go and make disciples. We are told that. His plan is for us to not live like the world. His plan is the gospel is spread through the mouths of His children. We must be focused like we have never been before, if we are to reach the community around us. We can see the difference in Peter before and after Pentecost. I pray that we can see that kind of difference in us as well.
If you have not been focused on God’s plan, or if you have never heard God’s plan of salvation before, or if today God’s plan became clear to you, when we sing our song of invitation, pray to God. Pray that He refocuses you, or pray to Him and repent and believe today and become His adopted son! What ever God has put on your heart, pray as we sing.
Pray.
