The Turning Point

The Christ and His Followers

(Mark 8:27-38, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 12, 2019)

[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?” [28] And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” [29] And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” [30] And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

[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 again. [32] And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. [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.”

[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. [35] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. [36] For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? [37] For what can a man give in return for his soul? [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.”

“You are the Christ.”

The question that consumed the first half of Mark's gospel was simple: “Who is this man?” Jesus himself brought this matter to a conclusion by asking his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Their answer showed variety. John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets. All of those suggestions had this in common: Jesus had come from the land of the departed. The people had to believe that this miracle worker was not merely a man from Nazareth.

Jesus probed with a more direct question: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered. “You are the Christ.” What could this mean? Where had they picked up their understanding of a coming anointed one? Surely some of their thoughts came from the Hebrew Bible, but not all of them. One way to summarize their expectation is that they made errors of omission. They did not pay attention to all that God had revealed about the coming Messiah. They expected only the glory part that we associate with the second coming and not the suffering part that is so important to our salvation. (Psalm 22:1).

Perhaps for this reason, Jesus “strictly charged them to tell no one about him.” They had much to learn about “the Christ” before they could be his ambassadors.

The Son must suffer

Jesus immediately “began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things.” This suffering would include rejection by the religious authorities, but would extend far beyond that. He would “be killed.” He went on to prophesy that just three days after his death he would “rise again.” Just as they did not understand the truth about “the Christ,” they also did not understand from the Hebrew Bible the hints that he would rise again after his death. See Psalm 16, Psalm 22, and Isaiah 53.

All Peter heard was the suffering and death. He “took (Jesus) aside and began to rebuke him.” That did not last long. Jesus turned around, saw his disciples, and he publicly “rebuked Peter” in full view of the rest. This was not payback or unnecessary shaming. It was the teaching that the disciples needed to see: the great importance of the suffering of Jesus for the completion of his Messianic mission.

“Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” The impulse of Peter to dissuade our Lord from the cross was forever associated with Satan, the one who Jesus says in John 10:10 “comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy.” The sufferings of Jesus are not for death, but for life. As Jesus said in the rest of John 10:10-11, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Peter and the disciples needed to learn that, or they would be agents of Satan and the anti-kingdom. Anyone attempting to making the life of Jesus completely painless would be working against the master and not for him.

Follow me

Not only that, disciples of Jesus throughout the ages needed to know that their lives would also not be painless. For this instruction, Jesus called the larger crowd to himself. Following Jesus would involve a “cross” for them as well. At this moment that would have been incomprehensible. The cross had not yet happened. But the Lord would lay the groundwork for later learning so that when he died and rise again, they would remember what he had said.

Again, it should seem obvious that those who did not understand that the Christ was called to suffer and die and did not understand that Jesus would rise from the dead certainly could not have comprehended the challenging life that they were embarking on as followers of their king. They could not save their own lives by either protecting Jesus when he was in trouble or rejecting Jesus when faith seemed unpopular.

There was one more thing that they did not yet see: the gospel. This “good news” involved the connection between the one suffering and victorious Christ and ALL his suffering and victorious followers. See 2 Corinthians 5:21. They would soon have to potentially give up their own lives for their friend and leader Jesus, but also for his message—the gospel. Everything else of value in this fading world would be as nothing compared to the riches of this message for which they would very soon be ambassadors. They were to be entrusted with proclaiming soul-saving truths that would lead to a far greater victory for Jesus than they could ever have fathomed.

Jesus is the Messiah, but what does that actually mean? The Lord's disciples did not understand that the Christ had to suffer. Even more, the crowds that followed Jesus needed to learn that they too would face many trials if they lived as faithful worshipers. As it turns out, Christianity was never supposed to be painless, especially for Jesus.

The Church: How do we live today knowing that Jesus is Lord? (1 Cor. 16)

The kingdom is God's and we are his ambassadors. We must proclaim the whole gospel and acknowledge the whole church as the one body of Christ. We do not have the brilliance to decide on a new message. 1. Preach the gospel. 2. Reject self-righteousness.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 108 – With God

New Testament Reading—James 3:1 – Teachers