Sunday School Lesson 9

Hello again class. We are again in the Gospel of Mark. You should be in lecture four entitled

Is This the Way of Messiah? covering that section of the book chapter 8 verse 27 through chapter 9 verse 32.

You remember that this passage is set off by an inclusio.

Remember those are the bookends, the brackets on each end of this section that show this is one section.

It's a literary device that brackets off a section. They're like bookends and this inclusio deals with the humiliation, the death and then the resurrection of Jesus.

It begins with that, it ends with that and with that kind of a literary device then it colors everything in between.

Now we have already talked about, we've already talked about the first part of this lecture which takes us up to chapter 9.

We have seen that the Messiah is not like any other deliverer, is not like any other king in the sense that he does not come to power in pomp and glory but rather before he assumes the throne he must suffer rejection, humiliation, death and then resurrection.

Now of course this is befuddles the disciples. Nevertheless Jesus goes on then to talk about what kind of Messiah he's like and what his followers should be.

If Messiah is going to be rejected, suffer, die before his vindication, the same is true of his followers.

We saw that last time that they too are those then who must be servants.

They are those who must deny themselves. They are those who must not count on the parades that come with glory.

Now we come to chapter 9 and here we find the kind of authority that the

Messiah has and here we find Jesus has authority but what kind of authority?

Now again I would suggest that if you haven't read this section take the time to read it and as we are in the last part of lecture 4 now we're starting in chapter 9.

Now what two major divisions of the Old Testament do Elijah and Moses represent?

Can you tell me? You know what it is? It's the law and the prophets.

The law represented by Moses, the prophets by Elijah and you remember that this is the short -handed term for the entire

Old Testament in Jesus' day when Jesus says that he came to fulfill the law and the prophets.

He's talking about the entire Old Testament. Now what does this messianic movement involve?

It involves a leader a king who has full authority, full authority.

Now Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on this mountain and there he is transfigured before them, okay?

He is transfigured before them and then suddenly they see Moses and Elijah with Jesus.

Now what strikes me about that scene is that these three,

Moses, Elijah and Jesus converse as if they know one another. Is it possible that Moses and Elijah knew

Jesus before he came? That's an interesting question. Maybe he revealed himself to them in their lifetimes, maybe it was after they went to glory.

I don't know but it's just kind of an interesting thing to see. But what is of utmost importance in this scene is what

God the Father says when out of the cloud the voice comes and says, this is my son whom

I love, listen to him. Listen to him.

As important as the law represented by Moses and the prophets represented by Elijah are, as important as the law and the prophets are,

Jesus is the one to whom you must pay particular attention.

He is the one who commands. He is the one who gives the authoritative word from God.

You see? Do you see what's happening here? God is saying that he is the one to whom you must listen.

And notice after that voice, Elijah and Moses are gone and Jesus is standing there alone.

So the transfiguration is saying even though Messiah must die and be raised, he has ultimate authority.

He has ultimate authority. He is the one who brings the final word from God.

Now that does not mean that we ignore the Old Testament. It doesn't mean that.

Some today, one particular pastor, I believe in the

Atlanta area, is proposing that we almost cut ourselves loose from the Old Testament.

That's not what God is saying here. The Old Testament is still God's word. It's still a revelation of God.

It's still a revelation of his character and what he expects. So we don't ignore the

Old Testament, but it does mean that we listen to Jesus first.

We must understand the Old Testament through him. The Old Testament is pointing forward to him.

The Old Testament is always pointing us toward Jesus. And now that he's come, he is the final word.

He's the apex of all the revelation from God. We cannot ignore the Old Testament since it's the word from God, but we must see the

Old Testament through the lens of Jesus' person, through the lens of Jesus' teachings, through the lens of Jesus' commandments.

Jesus supersedes and fulfills the law and the prophet. He is the one that we listen to first.

We cannot understand the Old Testament apart from Jesus. All right?

So the Old Testament has to come to us through Jesus now. And he is the one who has the final word from God.

This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Listen to him.

Now we can know this theologically, but how do we know this experientially?

How then are we to listen to Jesus? It surely means that I have to strive to know

Christ. It means that I have to strive to know his teaching and his commandments as the direct rule of my life.

Everything in your life must submit to the

Lord Jesus. Everything that I do, all that I live must be under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Now we have to ask ourselves, do I really seek to organize my life around what

Jesus is and does, or do I just give a nod in his direction?

I must know Jesus and his revelation thoroughly so I can understand the

Old Testament. I mean, you can look at the Old Testament now and see how it points to Jesus.

For example, let's just pick a few examples. Noah. Noah is a representative who, by him being the representative, saves a people from destruction.

This representative saves a people from destruction. Look at Joseph. Look at Joseph.

Isn't it interesting that Joseph must first suffer before he assumes the leadership or before he assumes the power of authority that he has?

Isn't it interesting that it is Gentiles who listen to him more than his brothers, right?

All these things are pointers. Look at David. David suffered tremendously before he ever assumed the throne.

And so we see then that the Old Testament, it all seems to come to life as we look at it through the lens of Jesus.

And so therefore, when I read the Old Testament, I have to read it through his lens. I have to listen to Jesus, listen to what he says, and that includes what he says through the apostles, what he says through the apostles, all right?

I'm going to give you another example. A great example is when you look at the promise to Abraham, right?

I'm going to look at the stars of the sky. That's what your seed is going to be like. And so if we, and this is part of the prophets and the law, right, the history.

If we just look at that, right, we would say, well, he's going to have a great nation, Israel, right?

And God makes these promises to his seed. But when you come to the apostle Paul in the book of Galatians, what does he say?

What does he say? He says, that seed is Jesus. And all those who believe in Jesus are sons of Abraham.

So the stars in the sky include you and I. You and me includes you and me.

You see, we listen to the Old Testament. It's the word of God, but now we see it in its fuller light.

And so we see then that he has authority. He has authority, the ultimate authority.

Our king has ultimate authority over us. As they leave the mountain,

Peter asks about Elijah's prophesied return. And what he's referring to is the prophecy in Malachi chapter four, verses five and six, that says that Elijah was going to return.

And he had just appeared, right? And you can see why Peter's asking the question.

Elijah had just appeared. Why is he not going to, isn't he supposed to, wouldn't it be fulfill the prophecy, came down with us and did what he was supposed to do, right?

And you notice that Jesus asserts, but I tell you that Elijah has come.

What's he referring to? Well, already at the beginning of this book, we've been shown that John the

Baptist was the one who was Elijah. Mark goes to great pains to show just how much like Elijah, John the

Baptist is, right? And so Jesus asserts that he has, he's already come.

All right. So that's important to see. Matthew himself makes that point that Jesus points to John the

Baptist as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Elijah. Again, again,

Jesus is ultimate. He's the one who has ultimate authority and the ability to tell us what is true.

Now, the next thing we see is kind of a difficult passage. Chapter nine, verses 14 through 32, the miracle of the boy who a demon throws into the ground and cause foaming and gnashing of teeth and so forth.

And here we see that Jesus can perform miracles, but what does he really desire?

What does our King really desire? See, we want a King who do marvelous, magnificent things, but what does

Jesus desire above miracles? Let's look at that together. Do you think

Jesus really wants to perform this miracle? As you read the narrative of him healing this boy, you get the impression that he does not want to do the miracle.

Why not? Well, let's look at that. Jesus does not want to perform some miracle. Why? How do we know that?

Because Jesus calls the people there an unbelieving generation. And he says, how long, essentially, how long must

I bear with you? How long must I put up with you? That term is usually reserved to situations where he's reluctant to perform signs to prove his messiahship.

And Jesus seems to do this miracle before the crowd can see it. And it's a little confusing, but at the beginning, it seems that the crowd is there, but he seems to have distanced himself from the crowd because in verse 25, you see, he does this miracle before the rush of the crowd.

And so it seems like he wants to do this miracle for this man and his son before everybody can see it.

He's reluctant to perform this miracle. Why? Why is that true?

Well, I think one thing is true here is what we need to see is that people are always demanding miracles from you.

Prove that you're the king, prove that you are who you are. And Jesus wants them to believe.

Now, the point of the story, if you look at verse 23, and this has been used many times by people trying to say that we should be doing miracles today.

When Jesus says in verse 23, everything is possible for him who believes.

Now, at first glance, it may seem that Jesus says anything is possible for him who believes in miracles.

However, he's just used a phrase that indicates his disdain for those who seek miracles.

For those who say, I'll prove it, let's do a miracle, right? He calls them an unbelieving generation.

An unbelieving generation, people who seem to be characterized by unbelief are people who are always looking for miracles, right?

Instead, it seems that Jesus is saying this, everything is possible for one who believes in Jesus, in me.

They wanted signs, prove you're Messiah. Jesus' response is that everything is possible for those who believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and that he can do it.

So the Messiah is not about signs, he's about faith. He's about faith.

Now look, the disciples lacked faith. Remember, the man was trying to get the disciples to do it, and Jesus indicates that they lacked faith.

He says, oh, this can only happen with prayer. Well, what's he driving at?

The crowd runs to see Jesus to see a sign, but he heals before they can get there.

And now the disciples thought they had the power to do this, right?

As Jesus approaches there, the disciples are trying to do this thing, and they can.

Jesus says later, it's because you didn't pray. Well, what's going on? Is it possible? Hadn't Jesus given them this power already?

In chapter six, you remember, look back at chapter six. He gave them the authority to cast out demons in the hill and do all these wondrous things as they went out, right?

Now, the disciples quite possibly thought they had the power. I wonder, had the disciples given into the magical view of this supernatural power, this power that Jesus gave them, this power that they now had?

Had they started to think that they could now, because they'd been given this power, go out and do their thing?

Jesus, though, wants them to operate with a sense of dependence, and that is expressed by prayer.

Prayer always expresses dependence. What's the point? Jesus, not our powers, not even the powers that have been given to us by Christ, must be faith's resting place.

I don't put my faith in the fact that I can do certain things, even the things that God has given me.

For example, God has gifted every one of you with some gift. Every one of you has a gift.

According to 1 Corinthians 12, everyone has been given a gift by the Holy Spirit to use in the ministry of the body.

God has gifted every one of you, but do you do what God has called you to do by faith with a sense of dependence, or do you live in believing dependence?

Yes, you are gifted, but do you ask Jesus to empower it? Do you ask

God to, by his spirit, do these things? Now, it also says something else to us, all right?

We can only do these things as we depend on Jesus. Do we expect

Jesus to do impossible things? Surely Jesus wants us to learn that we can and must do great things for him if, indeed, we want him to do it.

As the great hymn writer Newton wrote, you are coming to a king.

Large petitions with thee bring. Do we believe that Jesus can do great, even impossible things?

I have seen recently, as, I don't know, faced with certain difficulties and challenges in my own life,

I have found myself praying and praying a great deal, and I have seen

God do some, in my view, marvelous things. Marvelous things.

It's better than I expected. Now, they're not anything miraculous. I haven't walked on water or anything of that nature.

Nevertheless, as I ask him to do great things in people's hearts, I'm seeing him work.

As I ask him to empower things that I must do, I've seen him work.

And what Jesus is trying to teach us here is don't put your faith in power.

Put your faith in him. Do everything you do in dependence on him.

He isn't about miracles. He's about faith. He's about believing that he can do great things, right?

It's not that he's the king that comes along to make our life easy. It's that we have our faith in him that he will do great things for the kingdom.

Now, notice how this section ends. Again, it's the second half of that inclusio, right?

We have another discussion of Messiah's death and resurrection. The glory of Messiah is wrapped up in the humiliation and the vindication of Jesus.

You must understand the centrality of Jesus' death and humiliation and resurrection, vindication, in order to understand anything about him and his kingdom.

So, what do we see in this section as we summarize all this, as we conclude?

Here's one. God turns our whole value system upside down in Christ. Glory and power do not come first.

It comes through humiliation and death. We must understand that.

Our glory is in our loss, which later turns to victory.

We don't arrive in glory. We arrive in humiliation, just as Messiah does.

But we are vindicated with glory. That's true of Messiah. It will certainly hold true for his followers.

Yet, this upside down Messiah and kingdom has ultimate authority over our lives.

Christ is our king, and we must obey him and trust him. Above all, we must always understand life and ministry from this upside down perspective.

Listen. Listen. You must believe that. You must get the upside down perspective.

We must see God work in ways that are just counterintuitive. We must see that our glory is in our humiliation, not all the applause of the world around us.

The world will hate us, and in that is our glory. For in our humiliation,

God will bring about great things. That's the point. That's the

Messiah we serve, the one who suffers and dies, yet the one who commands every aspect of our lives.

Let's pray, then, that that's the kind of way that we will live as we follow

Jesus. Father, thank you for our time in your word again. Thank you for a savior who is great, but not great in the way that we think of greatness.

We thank you, Lord, that you have exalted him after his suffering, and we are thankful that we have the promise that we follow in his steps, and in this life, we will have humiliation and rejection, maybe even death, but ultimately, ultimately, like him, we will be vindicated with glory.

We thank you for a king who, although rejected, still has ultimate authority over all.

Help us, then, to live under the lordship of our great king. Thank you for your word today.