True Colors - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah
We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.
Last week we looked at 5 ‘snapshots’ from the gospel of Mark that reveal an insight connected to living in a dynamic relationship with Jesus.
Today we’re going to see a sequence of events that ups the ante on the disciples. They had seen Jesus doing good works, taking on the religious establishment, and performing miracles. It was clear to them that He was greater than any of the other messianic pretenders who had come before Him. But as we can see by the disciples reactions to the various events that occurred they still weren’t completely sure just who Jesus was and what it meant for them.
They’re about to find out.
So let’s read Mark 8:27-38….
The idea that Jesus might be the Messiah was being floated around by this time but Jesus had never been explicitly said that’s who He was. He had never said that He was the Christ or the Messiah? But all of the signs were there.
Jesus was beginning His journey toward Jerusalem. He knew what awaited Him there. Jerusalem would be the place where He would suffer and be crucified. So it’s at this point that the story line of the gospel of Mark begins to shift. He performs 2 more miracles after this, but His focus changes to preparing His disciples for what was to come and teaching them how to carry on His ministry.
As they are walking along Jesus asks a fairly simple question: “Who do men say that I am?” Of course the disciples would have answer to that because they worked the crowds with Jesus and heard what people were saying about Him. I’m sure some of their family members had opinions that they shared. So the answers they gave weren’t all that surprising. John the Baptist, Herod thought Jesus was a resurrected John. Elijah, he was the prophet that was most closely linked to the Messiah, then the prophets.
It’s interesting that many today are content to label Jesus as a prophet of God. That’s pretty safe and in some ways a comfortable title.
But then almost as if Jesus Himself is testing the waters to see if it’s time to shift into this new phase of ministry and preparation asks a follow up question that’s loaded with meaning “But who do you say that I am?” I think it’s important to note that Jesus didn’t say “Who do you think I am?” The word ‘say’ suggests that He was asking them who that said He was during the moments when they were talking around the campfire in the evenings, or walking along the roads as they traveled from place to place.
But it’s also important because no one can know what you think until you say it. By asking this direct question Jesus is putting the disciples on that spot. There’s no place to hide and no one to hide behind. I’m sure there was a moment of awkward silence.
There are two sides to revelation: what it reveals about Jesus and what it reveals about us. We all face that awkward moment where we have to confess what we believe instead of repeating what someone else believes.
Then Peter as the leader answers “You are the Christ.” Since Jesus had never used that title or even said anything about it how could Peter have known? In Matthew’s gospel Jesus points out that the only way Peter could have known is if God had revealed it to Him. The time had come for the turn toward Jerusalem and it was important that even though they knew His true identity they didn’t understand it enough to share it with others.
Now that the disciples knew who He was Jesus has to prepare them for what this means for Him and for them. In vs. 31-33 Jesus tells the disciples that He will have to suffer and die, but that He will arise from the dead in 3 days.
But that was just too much for Peter, that didn’t match up with his image of the conquering Messiah He was looking for. With all of Jesus’ miraculous power how could He possibly be subjected to suffering and death? That sounded too much like losing to Him. So Peter took Jesus aside and decided to correct Jesus.
But Jesus needed to send a strong message to Peter and the disciples. That’s why he looked around at them; He wanted to make sure they were all listening. Jesus would not allow anyone to try to persuade Him to abandon His mission.
Do you remember at the very beginning of Jesus ministry when He was tempted 3 times by Satan? At the end of the temptations the Bible says that Satan left Him alone until a more opportune time. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus points out that Peter’s actions were being orchestrated by the Satan. It’s almost as if Jesus is speaking past Peter as He’s speaking to him.
While the ‘Satan’ thing gets all of the attention I think the most important line in this whole exchange is “You are not mindful, or you don’t have your mind set on, the things of God.” Peter, and frankly the other disciples were more focused on their own ambitions for themselves and Jesus than God’s. Jesus stern rebuke was a warning to them, and us, that..
Survival as a follower of Jesus demands that our minds be firmly established on the things of God. Because things won’t always look the way they we thought they would. Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Now Jesus reveals to them the true cost of discipleship. In vs. 34-38 Jesus spells it out clearly. If we have a desire to follow Jesus it will cost us everything. It will demand the complete and total surrender of our life to Him. We can have the things of this world or we can have Jesus, but we have to choose.
When we receive the gift of salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, we give up eternal separation from God and inherit eternal life with Him. That life starts the moment we say yes to His offer. But we also receive a new life that we live here and now. That life is as a citizen in God’s kingdom and as His people we now live for Him and not for ourselves. We give up our crummy old life and get a brand new one, but this new life demands that we live it entirely for Him.
The enemy will try to convince you that that’s a raw deal, a bait and switch. He’ll try to convince you that following Jesus demands too much and isn’t fair. But think about it for a minute. That’s exactly what Peter and the other disciples must have thought. They were following Jesus and they understood He was the Messiah, the savior of the Jewish nation and now Jesus tells them He’s going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. That’s not what they signed up for. They must have thought it was a raw deal too. But that was because they were listening to the wrong voice. Satan wants us to focus on what we will lose instead of what we will gain and God is shouting through Jesus that if we will die to our self we will gain eternity and…
The start of dying to self is admitting that we really don’t have a better option
Funny thing is that we seem to think we do. What’s the better option you keep turning back to?
Last week we looked at 5 ‘snapshots’ from the gospel of Mark that reveal an insight connected to living in a dynamic relationship with Jesus.
Today we’re going to see a sequence of events that ups the ante on the disciples. They had seen Jesus doing good works, taking on the religious establishment, and performing miracles. It was clear to them that He was greater than any of the other messianic pretenders who had come before Him. But as we can see by the disciples reactions to the various events that occurred they still weren’t completely sure just who Jesus was and what it meant for them.
They’re about to find out.
So let’s read Mark 8:27-38….
The idea that Jesus might be the Messiah was being floated around by this time but Jesus had never been explicitly said that’s who He was. He had never said that He was the Christ or the Messiah? But all of the signs were there.
Jesus was beginning His journey toward Jerusalem. He knew what awaited Him there. Jerusalem would be the place where He would suffer and be crucified. So it’s at this point that the story line of the gospel of Mark begins to shift. He performs 2 more miracles after this, but His focus changes to preparing His disciples for what was to come and teaching them how to carry on His ministry.
As they are walking along Jesus asks a fairly simple question: “Who do men say that I am?” Of course the disciples would have answer to that because they worked the crowds with Jesus and heard what people were saying about Him. I’m sure some of their family members had opinions that they shared. So the answers they gave weren’t all that surprising. John the Baptist, Herod thought Jesus was a resurrected John. Elijah, he was the prophet that was most closely linked to the Messiah, then the prophets.
It’s interesting that many today are content to label Jesus as a prophet of God. That’s pretty safe and in some ways a comfortable title.
But then almost as if Jesus Himself is testing the waters to see if it’s time to shift into this new phase of ministry and preparation asks a follow up question that’s loaded with meaning “But who do you say that I am?” I think it’s important to note that Jesus didn’t say “Who do you think I am?” The word ‘say’ suggests that He was asking them who that said He was during the moments when they were talking around the campfire in the evenings, or walking along the roads as they traveled from place to place.
But it’s also important because no one can know what you think until you say it. By asking this direct question Jesus is putting the disciples on that spot. There’s no place to hide and no one to hide behind. I’m sure there was a moment of awkward silence.
There are two sides to revelation: what it reveals about Jesus and what it reveals about us. We all face that awkward moment where we have to confess what we believe instead of repeating what someone else believes.
Then Peter as the leader answers “You are the Christ.” Since Jesus had never used that title or even said anything about it how could Peter have known? In Matthew’s gospel Jesus points out that the only way Peter could have known is if God had revealed it to Him. The time had come for the turn toward Jerusalem and it was important that even though they knew His true identity they didn’t understand it enough to share it with others.
Now that the disciples knew who He was Jesus has to prepare them for what this means for Him and for them. In vs. 31-33 Jesus tells the disciples that He will have to suffer and die, but that He will arise from the dead in 3 days.
But that was just too much for Peter, that didn’t match up with his image of the conquering Messiah He was looking for. With all of Jesus’ miraculous power how could He possibly be subjected to suffering and death? That sounded too much like losing to Him. So Peter took Jesus aside and decided to correct Jesus.
But Jesus needed to send a strong message to Peter and the disciples. That’s why he looked around at them; He wanted to make sure they were all listening. Jesus would not allow anyone to try to persuade Him to abandon His mission.
Do you remember at the very beginning of Jesus ministry when He was tempted 3 times by Satan? At the end of the temptations the Bible says that Satan left Him alone until a more opportune time. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus points out that Peter’s actions were being orchestrated by the Satan. It’s almost as if Jesus is speaking past Peter as He’s speaking to him.
While the ‘Satan’ thing gets all of the attention I think the most important line in this whole exchange is “You are not mindful, or you don’t have your mind set on, the things of God.” Peter, and frankly the other disciples were more focused on their own ambitions for themselves and Jesus than God’s. Jesus stern rebuke was a warning to them, and us, that..
Survival as a follower of Jesus demands that our minds be firmly established on the things of God. Because things won’t always look the way they we thought they would. Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Now Jesus reveals to them the true cost of discipleship. In vs. 34-38 Jesus spells it out clearly. If we have a desire to follow Jesus it will cost us everything. It will demand the complete and total surrender of our life to Him. We can have the things of this world or we can have Jesus, but we have to choose.
When we receive the gift of salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, we give up eternal separation from God and inherit eternal life with Him. That life starts the moment we say yes to His offer. But we also receive a new life that we live here and now. That life is as a citizen in God’s kingdom and as His people we now live for Him and not for ourselves. We give up our crummy old life and get a brand new one, but this new life demands that we live it entirely for Him.
The enemy will try to convince you that that’s a raw deal, a bait and switch. He’ll try to convince you that following Jesus demands too much and isn’t fair. But think about it for a minute. That’s exactly what Peter and the other disciples must have thought. They were following Jesus and they understood He was the Messiah, the savior of the Jewish nation and now Jesus tells them He’s going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. That’s not what they signed up for. They must have thought it was a raw deal too. But that was because they were listening to the wrong voice. Satan wants us to focus on what we will lose instead of what we will gain and God is shouting through Jesus that if we will die to our self we will gain eternity and…
The start of dying to self is admitting that we really don’t have a better option
Funny thing is that we seem to think we do. What’s the better option you keep turning back to?
Labels: carry, cross, disciples, discipleship, Mark 8:27-38, radical, surrender
posted by Jerry Stitzel @ 9:03 AM
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