Sermon for 2/28/21 17 Minutes

Mark 8:31-38

This morning I'll be reading Mark chapter 8 verses 31 through 38.

And I'll be reading from the King James Version Bible.

Mark 8:31-38

After Peter declared that Jesus is the Messiah in verse 29,,, Jesus begins to teach them in these verses what this meant. This marked a turning point because He is trying to teach the disciples about events that will happen,,, and,,, what they will need to do after He is gone.

Mark 8:31–38 (KJV 1900) —

31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. 33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. 34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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We have just ended our first full week of Lent as we continue our journey to Easter.

And our focus should be intent on preparing our hearts for Easter.

As I said last week,,, we need to be looking forward to being right with God,,, as we should be all the time of course,,, but especially as we get closer to the celebration of our Lord and Savior's resurrection.

And that is what the whole focus of Lent is,,, to be sure that we are spending the time to stay in a right relationship with God,,, and to spend this time earnestly seeking God during the time that we would have usually reserved for other worldly things.

Hopefully we can use these verses to help us in our walk with God this week.

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Verse 31 says: 31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

The word began in this verse is significant.

It's a change in course in Jesus’ teaching.

Before this,,, Jesus had been dealing mainly with the people following Him,,, dealing with healing,,, teaching,,, and preaching.

From now on He would spend most of His time instructing His disciples,,, preparing them for the time when He must leave them and they would have to carry on the work of the Kingdom.

One of the main topics in this private teaching was His coming death and resurrection.

Just like many of the Jews,,, the disciples expected a Messiah who would come in glory to reign over an earthly kingdom.

So it was important that Jesus should correct this misconception in the minds of His disciples.

They must be taught that the Son of man (the Messiah) would suffer and die,,, but after three days rise again.

Peter and the rest of the disciples have been following Jesus for nearly three years now.

As I said at the beginning,,, Peter has just acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah.

They have high hopes that their savior is truly here to save them,,, but they thought He would declare Himself king and make their nation great again.

Now Jesus is telling them that He would suffer and die?

They truly didn't understand,,, and Peter really doesn't,,, as the next verse tells us.

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Verse 32 says: 32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.

Peter,,, possibly,,, couldn't believe what he was hearing from Jesus.

He had just made the announcement that Jesus was the Messiah,,, their long awaited Savior,,, and this didn't fit in with his perception of what Jesus was supposed to do.

It also wasn't what the other disciples wanted to hear either.

So many times,,, we pray about something,,, and through faith,,, we know that God hears our prayer,,, but,,, we either wait,,, and it's almost like God doesn't hear,,, or,,, we get a different answer,,, something that is directly opposite what we prayed for,,, maybe we want to answer like Peter does here,,, and question Jesus' answer!

When our problem is the same as Peter,,, we just don't understand what is going on around us like God can,,, and does,,, all the time!

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Verse 33 says: 33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

I don't believe that Jesus was accusing Peter of being Satan,,, or of being taken over by Satan.

Instead,,, He meant, “You are talking like Satan would.

Satan will always try to discourage us,,, in any way that he can,,, from fully obeying God.

He wants to convince us to take an easy path to the Throne.”

My Believer's Bible Commentary asks,,, What was it that made Jesus so upset?

The same thing that exposes all of us,,, which is the preference of an easy path to the cross.

Isn't it true that we would like to escape any trial,,, shame and rejection if we could?

That we would step back if we could,,, from any suffering while doing God's will,,,

That we would prefer to have a quiet,,, respectable path in the world—in short,,, the best of both worlds?

How easily we can be caught by this attitude!

Peter couldn't understand why Jesus should have to go through all this sorrow.

Had we been there,,, we might have said,,, or thought even worse.

Peter’s words didn't happen without strong human affection.

You see,,, he dearly loved Jesus.

But,,, unknown to himself at the time,,, he didn't realize how easy satan can use anything that is going on.

Notice that Jesus first looked at His disciples,,, then rebuked Peter,,, as if to say,,, “If I don't go to the cross,,, how can all of you,,, be saved?”

When we have things that we don't understand,,, we need to remember that we worship the One that does understand,,, and try to pause and give "Him",,, the benefit of the doubt!

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Verse 34 says: 34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Jesus calls the others closer so they can hear as well as the disciples and tells them,,, that "you may have to do without personal comforts, social enjoyments, earthly ties, grand ambitions, material riches, and of course,,, even life itself.”

Words like these make us wonder how we can really believe that it is all right for us to live in luxury and ease.

How can we justify the materialism, selfishness, and coldness of our hearts,,, when His words call us to lives of self-denial,,, surrender,,, suffering,,, and sacrifice.

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Verse 35 says: 35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it

There is always the temptation to save our life— think of ourselves first,,, to live comfortably,,, to make our own choices,,, with our own self as the center of everything.

And by living this way,,, there is no surer way of losing our life.

Jesus calls us to pour out our lives for His sake and the gospel’s, dedicating ourselves to Him spirit,,, soul,,, and body.

He asks us to spend and be spent in His holy service,,, laying down our lives,,, if necessary,,, whatever we are asked to do,,, to spread the "Good News of Jesus Christ" to the world.

That is what is meant by losing our lives.

And by doing so,,, there is no surer way of saving them.

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Verses 36 and 37 say: 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Even if we could gain all the world’s wealth during our lifetime,,, what good would it do if we don't use it to help others?

We would have missed the opportunity of using our life for the glory of God and the salvation of the lost.

It would be a bad bargain.

Our lives are worth more than all the world has to offer.

Shall we use them for Christ,,, and live forever in Heaven with Him,,, or selfishly,,, for ourselves,,, and spend eternity in hell?

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Verse 38 says: 38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Jesus realized that some of His young disciples might have a hard time with discipleship because they would be afraid of being looked down upon by others.

So He reminded them that because they were worried about their feelings now,,, they will suffer a greater shame when He returns to earth in power.

And we could have these same problems today as well.

What a thought!

Soon Jesus is coming back to earth,,, this time not in humiliation,,, but in His own personal glory,,, and in the glory of His Father,,, with the holy angels.

It will be a scene of dazzling splendor.

He will then be ashamed of those who are ashamed of Him now.

May His words “ashamed of Me … in this adulterous and sinful generation” speak to our hearts today.

How out of place this should be to us,,, to be ashamed of our sinless Savior today,,, in a world that is characterized by unfaithfulness and sinfulness!

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We spend too much of our time planning things out in this world when we should be using this time to plan our future in Heaven.

We will only be here a short time compared to eternity,,, but most of our day is spent on things of this world.

That's the whole thought behind Lent.

This time gives us a chance to set something worldly aside and use this to focus on God,,, instead of the world around us.

In these verses this morning,,, Jesus is reminding His disciples,,, and us today,,, that one day He will return.

And when He does,,, it will be much different than the first.

Jesus will return in glory,,, with angels around Him announcing His presence,,, everyone in the world will stop whatever they are doing at the time,,, you will know immediately that Jesus is returning,,, whether you are saved and ready,,, or lost and wishing that you were ready,,, and this glorious moment will happen catching many unaware.

Jesus gave them,,, and us today,,, ample warning that He is coming back,,, and we should be using this season of Lent to help keep us on the right path so that we can stay ready as well.

Remember these verses this week as you go about your days and let them help you to keep things right in this season of Lent!

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