The Gospel of Mark: Losers Keepers

Text: Mark 8:27-38

Theme: Discipleship. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

Date: 03/03/19 File name: GospelOfMark19.wpd ID Number:

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this about discipleship: “The first step which follows Christ's call cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. The call to follow at once produces a new situation. To stay in the old situation makes discipleship impossible.”

The New Testament is full of instructions about discipleship. Here in Mark's Gospel, we find one of the clearest statements that Jesus made on the topic. Jesus begins to teach the twelve just what discipleship is all about. They knew He had called them. But did they understand what it meant to follow Him? The call to follow Jesus is a call to discipleship. Sadly, in much of modern Evangelicalism, conversion and discipleship have been divorced. Conversion without discipleship is openly taught in much of Evangelicalism. It has become strangely possible to be Christ's without taking up the cross. This was not the gospel that Jesus preached.

It is important for us to understand just what we mean when we talk about discipleship. Far too many believers have a shallow view of what discipleship means in terms of their lives. Many claim to be followers of Christ who are only deceiving themselves and others. What they really have is only a sentimental fondness for spirituality. When it comes to following Jesus and denying self and laying down their lives, they pull up short. The world sees this, and it may be the reason they mock us.

So . . . just what does it mean to be a disciple? In this passage, Jesus unfolds a radical, counter-cultural teaching on being a disciple. We will see in our text today two vital characteristics of discipleship. Hopefully, we will come to understand what confessing Christ means and how that confession is lived out in our lives.

I. THE CONFESSION OF DISCIPLESHIP

1. coming to Christ is coming to a place where we confess Him as our Savior and Lord

a. that confession is an acknowledgment that we commit our lives to live for Him, and in Him, and through Him

2. this confession is the cornerstone of our Christian faith

a. the idea that you can take him as Savior, but not follow him as a disciple is absolutely alien to the teachings of the New Testament

3. in our text, Jesus is leading His disciples to make a good confession

b. He does so through A Probing Inquiry

A. A PROBING INQUIRY

"And 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?' And they told Him, saying, 'John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but still others, one of the prophets.' And He continued by questioning them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered and said to Him, 'Thou art the Christ.' And He warned them to tell no one about Him." (vv. 27-30)

1. Jesus was always asking his disciples questions as much as answering their questions

a. on their way to the area of Caesarea Philippi, He put a number of important questions to His disciples

2. He wanted to know, first, what people were saying about Him

a. the opinions varied

1) some thought He was John the Baptist risen from the dead

2) others felt He was the prophetic fulfillment of the coming Elijah

3) a few thought that he might me one of the other Old Testament prophets

3. while Jewish opinion is interesting, it is really irrelevant

a. Jesus knew that His disciples knew what the world was saying about Him

1) but He wanted to know what they thought about Him

b. so He challenged them with a very probing question

1) He asked, "But who do you say that I am?"

2) Jesus is saying, "The culture has its opinion about me, but I really don’t care about their opinions. I really want to know your opinion. Who do you say that I am?"

4. the question Jesus asked them is as pertinent and relevant now as it was then

a. unfortunately, many people really don't know who Jesus is

b. there has been a vast sea-change in this country over the last two generations

ILLUS. No longer is there a Christian consensus in America. Whereas, since the early days of our history up through the early 1960s, a large percentage of our population attended church regularly; today that is no longer the case. Years ago, even in the schools, children were taught from a Christian perspective. Now, admittedly they might not have believed, but at least they knew the facts. Unhappily, that is no longer the case. Today when the name of Jesus is mentioned, people's minds are clouded with various conflicting images. "Which Jesus are you talking about?" they might ask.

Are you speaking of the Jesus of Joel Osteen, and his prosperity theology? who is the believer’s means to an end, the end being wealth and stuff

Are you talking about the Jesus of the liberal church and liberation theology? who is a revolutionary seeking to overthrow power structures

Perhaps you mean the Jesus of the Alt-Right who a militant, racist, segregationist?

Are you talking about the Jesus of the social justice movement? who is more concerned about the redistribution of wealth, not the redemption of the sinner’s soul?

Just as in Jesus’ day, when you ask people “Who is Jesus?” you’re going to receive a multiplicity of answers — most of them wrong.

c. Jesus is more than a wise rabbi, a miracle-working sage, an extraordinary teacher, an inspirational leader, or a spiritual example

5. when people ask Who is Jesus? we need simply listen to the Scriptures

a. according to Peter, He is the Christ, the Son of the living God

1) he is God come in the flesh

b. why did he come?

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:15, NIV84)

B. A PERCEPTIVE INSIGHT

1. when Jesus asked His question, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter replied, "Thou art the Christ."

a. Peter understood who Jesus was

b. He had come to an amazing revelation

2. this is the fundamental experience that all men need

a. if the lost will simply examine the evidence of the Gospels, they are left with no other conclusion — Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God

ILLUS. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis make gives us a classic statement about the identity of Jesus. He writes, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

3. what comes next is left out of Mark's account

a. Matthew records for us a commendation given to Peter by the Lord Jesus based on Peter's revelation

“Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”” (Matthew 16:17–19, NIV84)

b. why did Mark not include this important part of the story?

c. one interesting speculation is that Peter himself wanted Mark not to include it

1) Mark, you recall, was not one of the twelve disciples; he came to Christ after the resurrection of Jesus and became one of Peter's traveling companions

2) the Gospel of Mark is, in reality, Peter's account of the life of Jesus that Mark wrote down

3) it’s possible that Peter did not want to include such a glowing testimony to himself in his own account –

a) by the time Peter shared his gospel with Mark, he had come to realize that Peter was nothing, but Christ everything

ILLUS. Ivor Powell, in his commentary on Peter says, "If Simon Peter could enter the cathedral bearing his name in the Vatican City today, he would probably have a heart attack. To see many thousands of sincere people kissing the big toe of his statue, would nauseate him. And his objections might earn an excommunication from the church in which he is so revered."

C. A PEDAGOGIC INTEREST

Mark 8:31-33 "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 was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 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 interests, but man's.'"

1. in these verses we see a pedagogic interest emerge when Jesus began to talk about His death on the Cross

a. Ok, Ok, I know that’s a highfalutin word

1) it comes from the word pedagogy

2) pedagogy refers to the act, process, or art of imparting knowledge and skill — in other words; teaching

3) we’re told in verse 31 that Jesus began to teach them

b. I needed to keep my alliteration intact

1) I’ve referred to a Probing Interrogative and a Perceptive Insight so I need to keep it going with a Pedagogic Interest

2. Jesus makes an alarming statement about his future that included rejection, humiliation, and death

a. Peter doesn’t want to hear it

b. he had other plans for Jesus, and these plans certainly did not include Jesus' death, and so Peter rebukes the Lord

c. but Jesus immediately perceives where this is coming from

1) he rebukes Peter, and in doing so, denies Satan’s temptation

3. here is the centrality of the text: our discipleship cannot be separated from the Cross of Christ

a. this is what Jesus was pointing out

b. a cross-less Christ has no power to save and a cross-less discipleship has no ability to change lives

c. Jesus was trying to reveal to them the pivotal truth of His sacrificial death for the sins of the Elect

1) the Gospel is not just the divine Son of God living out His life on this earth as a good example

2) the Gospel is about the sinless Son of God dying as the Lamb of God on the Cross for the sins of men that they might become the righteousness of Christ

4. Jesus cannot be understood apart from His Cross

a. His death for our sin cannot be left out of any Gospel message or it ceases to be Gospel

b. the message of the Gospel is the vicarious substitutionary atonement of Christ on at Calvary

1) by vicarious we mean that Jesus' death on the Cross for sin is our death — when He died there, we died with Him

2) by substitutionary we mean that Jesus took our place and paid our penalty for our sins

3) by atonement we mean that Jesus, in paying for our sins, has made us right with God

c. and when we receive Him, all that He did on the Cross will become effective for us

1) God credits the righteousness of Christ to us

5. without His death on the Cross, there is no forgiveness of sins

a. that is why Jesus came, and that is why He rebuked Peter

b. Jesus said, "Get behind Me Satan"

1) that is indeed a serious rebuke

2) it’s Peter’s words, but Jesus recognizes the true voice behind it

6. the believer’s discipleship cannot bypass the Cross of Christ

II. THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

1. we have seen the confession of discipleship made by Peter and some of its implications

2. Jesus moved now to an explanation of the cost of discipleship in terms of our lives

A. A POWERFUL IMPERATIVE

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34, NIV84)

1. we find in this powerful imperative the condition of discipleship

a. to be a disciple mean to join the death march

b. in most of Western culture the cross has been “prettied up”

1) we tend to forget that it was a hideous instrument of death; full of blood and gore

c. when Jesus told his disciples, take up your cross and follow me it was no light commitment — it meant more than ‘gett’n saved’ and attending a worship service once a week

ILLUS. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian I quoted at the beginning of my message, wrote “As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

2. the Cross is more than an event in history

a. the Cross is a way of life

b. it is a principle of life for every believer

c. Jesus talks about taking up our cross and following Him

1) what does that mean?

2) in Luke's Gospel, He adds the word "daily"

3. taking up your cross means that there must be a daily commitment to follow Jesus Christ — a daily commitment to live for Him

a. to take up our cross means to submit to His will for our lives and to allow Him to live His life through us

b. notice what Jesus says in verse 34: "If anyone wishes to come after Me . . ."

1) in other words, if you want to be Jesus' disciple, pay close attention to what follows — it’s a voluntary commitment, but it’s a commitment not for the faint-of-heart

c. Jesus then says: "Let him deny himself . . ."

1) notice it does not say "deny yourself something"

2) it simply says "deny yourself"

3) in other words, we are to quit living for self

4) we are to quit making our self # 1

d. the next injunction is: "And take up his cross . . ."

1) the cross we are to bear is the Cross Jesus bore

2) when Jesus died on the Cross, He laid down His life for us

3) when we bear the cross, we lay down our life for Him

4. this is what it means to follow Jesus

B. A PARADOXICAL INSTRUCTION

vv. 35-37 "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

1. Jesus continues to explain the cost of discipleship in what you might call a paradoxical instruction

a. it is paradoxical in that it's not the way the world thinks and it seems contradictory

b. but to those who have been trained in Kingdom thinking, the beauty of its logic will be apparent

2. what does Jesus mean when he says if we try to "save our life we will lose it; if we try to lose our life for His sake, we will save it?"

a. in our culture we are taught that we only go around once, and we need to grab for all the gusto we can get

1) but that is not the way of the Kingdom of God

b. to take up the Cross of Christ means renouncing my life and finding my life in the life of another — Jesus Christ

1) in other words, we must give up our right to ourselves

2) and in return, He will give us His life

3. consider the alternative

a. we can live in this life as grasping individuals, seeking to amass all the material and worldly possessions we think are necessary for a fulfilling life

1) that may be a sensible philosophy if indeed we only go around once

2) but “what if” we are eternal creatures?

3) what about the life to come? — "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?"

b. we can have everything this world has to offer, but when we die ...

1) we can’t take it with us, and

2) since we can’t take it with us, someone else is going to get it

4. we need to look to eternal things now if we would prepare for eternity

a. by living our lives for ourselves, we forfeit eternal life

b. but by living our lives for Jesus, we inherit eternal life

1) we may gain the whole world, but if we lose our soul, we haven't gained anything

2) only in Christ can we be satisfied

3) only in Christ can we find purpose

4) only in Christ can our lives have true meaning and true fulfillment

C. A PERPLEXING IMPLICATION

v. 38 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.'"

1. confessing Christ means more than lip service

a. it means living for Him, unashamedly before others

2. confessing Christ cannot be separated from living for Christ

a. Christianity is not secret service

b. God has called us to be His ambassadors

1) as such, we must boldly proclaim, unashamedly, our allegiance to Christ and the need the world has of Him

2) we must ask them the question Jesus posed to His disciples – "Who do you say that Jesus is?"

c. and then we must share with them the reality of who He is and what He can do in their lives

The word of God still has the power to liberate souls from the bondage to sin. We must boldly take our stand for Jesus and for His word. Confessing Christ means living out our confession before this watching world.