Geography

Whether it is dark, whether it is light, always be found following Jesus

Of course you can’t follow Jesus if all you have is an idea about who Jesus is, you have to know Him.

We as a church, we started something this year to help us know who Jesus really is - we started the Big Bible Reading 2025.

A lot of you are participating and I’ve had a few folks tell me how much it’s meaning to them.

And that’s real cool.

Funny thing about reading the Bible through.

You can search for a plan to follow and you’ll find there are hundreds of them.

But really, the best method is, pick a place and start and commit to do it regularly.

Our Big Bible Reading 2025 plan has us reading 1 chapter a day, 5 days a week.

Your entire family could read their chapter every night when you put the kids to bed.

It’s just simple.

Oh and one other thing

If you didn’t start in January, you can start today.

Today is a great day to begin establishing a habit that will literally change your life.

So, we talked in staff meeting and decided it might be a good idea every now and then to take a little break from Hebrews for just a minute

And look at the Jesus that Hebrews is talking about.

And since we are doing the Big Bible Reading, maybe I should pick a scripture that we had very recently read.

So that’s what we’re doing.

Last week our first reading of the week was Mark 8,

So turn to Mark 8:27-38.

While you are turning, kids listen to me just a second.

This is a little hard to understand, but it’s something for you to simply think about every now and then.

Here it is: Why do we do what we do?

There’s always a reason - even if it was an accident, there was a reason for the accident.

You start realizing as you get older, that there is something inside of you that makes think what you think and do what you do.

And the hard part is, you get to choose what that thing is that tells you what to do.

That’s why it is so important to follow Jesus with everything you’ve got.

You want Jesus to be that something in you that makes you do what you do and think what you think

Today your worship guide has these three words you are listening for: Jesus, Life, Want

Everyone should be at Mark 8 now.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from Mark 8:27-38

Mark 8:27–38 ESV

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?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 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. 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.” 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. 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.”

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God.

Please pray with me:

Lord, our prayer is the same as the men who asked the disciples

“Sir, we want to see Jesus.

Holy Spirit, please open our eyes so we can see

We want to see Jesus.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Let’s start by looking at the geography

Mark 8:27 “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?””

(START VIDEO SLIDE) - Caesarea Philippi is in the northern part of Israel.

In fact, it’s about as far north as you can get and still be in Israel.

Keep walking long enough and you end up at the Gates of Hades.

Many of you will remember the pictures from this video.

This is that place where this river of water gushed out of this giant hole in the ground

And the ancients thought the gods went deep into this cave into the depths of the earth, into Hades

For the winter.

They also thought they had to do all kinds of things to get the gods to come out so they’d have rain and crops and such.

Beside the cave, Herod the Great built a temple and dedicated it to Caesar.

Someone built a temple to Pan another to Zeus.

They were beautiful

Ornate

Well cared for and used for all types of immoral, ungodly, heathen worship practices.

If a Jew was here, that Jew would be very, very uncomfortable.

It was as demonic as it was beautiful.

Think of how they felt like this.

Suppose you rode a bicycle to Atlanta.

You go up the Atlanta Highway until you get to Monticello.

Monticello and Gray are different, but not so much so that you’d be uncomfortable.

But you keep going and you end up in Jackson.

Jackson is way different from Gray.

You might be a little uncomfortable on your bike with all of the traffic and noise and people

But you’d still be ok.

But then you keep going until you get into the outskirts of Atlanta proper.

And you start noticing graffiti everywhere

And gang symbols.

And you notice a few people who look like you, but a whole lot that don’t

And even some of the ones who do, don’t.

And now you are really uncomfortable.

You are in a place that you know you don’t belong and you are not welcome.

That’s what the disciples felt.

We don’t belong here.

We aren’t safe here.

We ought to be leaving.

Now there is one little tidbit that we normally don’t think of about this place but it’s very important

Someone built all of this

People who were very powerful.

People who were either rich or had enough governmental power to get their hands on the wealth

People who were creative

And talented

And committed to their crafts and committed to their gods.

These temples didn’t fall out of the sky.

They took years and what would now be millions of dollars to construct

Right here at the gates of hades

The singular most enchantingly wicked place on the planet.

People built these desirable things - wonders of the world, as it were.

Why would Mark want us to know this took place right here in this most inhospitable place for a Christ follower?

Look at verse 38: Mark 8:38 “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.””

What better place for an object lesson right?

You want to see adultery with your own eyes?

Want to see sin all around you?

You are standing in the middle of it.

That’s exactly where Jesus took them and that’s exactly where Jesus told them they would need to take a stand.

That’s when He asked them the question

Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

After the disciples told him what folks were saying about Him

Peter gives the real answer - “You are the Christ.”

Christ is the greek version of the Hebrew word Messiah

They both mean the same thing - Savior, Deliverer, Rescuer.

Now what does the geography say?

There is a lot of rescuing that needs to be done and that Jesus and His followers are the ones who can rescue them.

There would have been people everywhere that were exploiting people

And being exploited by people

People thinking they were doing the right things

Trying so hard to live good, successful lives

All the while, demons were sucking the life out of them.

Whispering in their ears, “Just a little bit more and you’ll have everything you’ve always wanted.”

Until every ounce of life was sucked out of them.

If any place needed a rescuer, it was the gates of hades,

Peter misunderstood so badly

Peter is soaking all of this in and his passion is growing bigger and bigger.

He would be thinking, “This is a blight on our nation.

“This needs to be burned down to the ground and every person killed.”

“Jesus will do this,” he thought.

“Jesus will deliver all of this into our hands.

“Jesus will make Israel Great Again.”

While he is inflamed with national indignation and pride, Jesus says

Mark 8:31–32 “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.”

See the sentence - And he said this plainly?

That word means he said it with confidence.

He said it boldly - he wasn’t musing, he was declaring this is going to happen.

And Peter would have none of that.

There would be no defeat.

Jesus wasn’t about to be killed.

Why was Jesus talking like a loser?

We are going to wipe these folks out, tear this down, Jesus is going to lead the way.

“No, Jesus - you’ve said the Kingdom of God is at hand.

“This is going to be Your Kingdom.”

And Jesus deals Peter the harshest rebuke.

Mark 8:33 “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.””

Why so harsh?

You know Peter was stung.

That left a bruise that would be there for days.

Why did Jesus rip him like that?

He did it because Jesus had heard those same words once before

Peter said, “No Jesus, we won’t let you fail.

“We’ll fight by your side.

“All of this will be yours.”

Jesus heard that before.

Just from a different voice.

Matthew 4:8–10 ESV

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”

Do you remember hearing this from Hebrews 2:18 “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

There is one of Jesus’ temptations - you can be the Man.

It’s one of mine - You can be the man.

They are playing the Cadillac Lyriq commercial again.

I mentioned to you a long time ago.

I figured out what was so enticing about that commercial was the music.

I won’t go into details, but there was a time that kind of music was the theme song of success for me.

Hard to believe right that this old, gray headed poor dumb country boy from Austell, Georgia would be tempted by that?

But I was - it was truly a sirens’ song for me.

Now, let me ask you, what is your sirens’ song?

What desire gets your heart pumping?

Everyone has had one.

Everybody has a temple of YOU in you somewhere.

All have sinned.

I’m not the only one.

We all have a craving for this world.

If you say you never have, your veracity is suspect.

We all have a craving for this world.

That’s why Jesus said, Mark 8:34 “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.”

You can’t deny yourself unless there is something that you want that needs denying.

Let’s talk about denying ourselves.

Denying ourselves is not asceticism - living some kind of austere, monastic life.

Denying ourselves is not hating ourselves - that would be wrong.

How can you hate what Jesus found beautiful enough to die for?

Denying ourselves is not even singling out our particularly tempting sins and denying ourselves those pleasures.

Denying ourselves is us saying with commitment, what I want in this life are not the things of this life

What I want in this life is what Jesus wants for me.

Yes, I still love me.

I want me to be fed and watered every day.

I want friends and I want to be loved and to love.

But my goal is not to satisfy my every whim.

My goal is to follow Jesus.

To go where He says go

To do what He says do

Because I want what He wants more than I want what I want.

And what I want doesn’t die and stay dead.

Oh no, I wake up with it every morning.

The Lyriq commercial hits me every single time

No, I have to pick up my cross daily so my desires can be crucified.

By the way, your in-laws are not your cross to bear.

Your way-ward child is not your cross to bear.

Your husband’s snoring, your wife’s back seat driving is not your cross to bear.

You are your cross to bear.

Jesus calls on us to murder our self-centered desires every morning when we wake up.

Because we know that’s the only way to have life.

One last thing to see here.

Mark 8:35–36 “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?”

The ESV does something I consider a bit unfortunate here.

In verse 35, you see the word life 2 times.

In verse 36, you see the word soul, but it’s the same word.

It would be better if they translated it consistently so that it would read, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”

Now, here’s why.

Jesus says in John 17:3

John 17:3 ESV

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

We are either dead in our sins or we are eternally alive in Jesus.

No halfway point - dead or alive.

To be eternally alive, we must know Jesus

Now, let’s talk about the word know - this will be a refresher for the Young at Heart and the students

Remember in Genesis where Adam “Knew” his wife?

We know that he intellectually knew who she was, but that knowledge translated into action.

That same idea works right here.

There is no true knowledge of Jesus unless it is accompanied by action.

And that action is, murdering our self-centered desires every day to follow Jesus.

That does not mean we give up our careers, our friends, our boyfriend, our girlfriend, our spouses or our families

But it does me that we are willing to give those up should the Lord require it.

It means first and foremost, I’m going to follow Jesus.

I’m living life without a plan B.

So, back to Hebrews, if Jesus is the exact imprint of the nature of God

What does what we’ve just read tell us about God?

It tells me that God is high risk and high reward.

If I commit my life to following Him, He may require of me everything.

On the other hand, if I commit my life to following Him, He rescues me from the body of death and He transforms me to be like Jesus so I can live forever with Him.

Clearly we have only two choices.

We can strive to feed our passions and die

Or we can make our passion Jesus and live.

That’s the choice.

That’s your choice.

Let us pray.