Sunday School Session 8

Well, hello class. Here we are again in the Gospel of Mark, and you should have now in front of you

Lecture 4, entitled, Is This the Way of Messiah? Now of course, the section we're going to cover is

Mark chapter 8, verse 27, through chapter 9, verse 32.

And so, if you haven't read that yet, take the time to shut it down and read that text before we come back to it, okay?

Alright, as we look at this section, the telos, or the purpose of this section of Mark, emphasizes the characteristics of Messiah and everyone that follows him.

So, in this section we have given to us an understanding of who

Messiah is, and then those who follow him, what are they like.

Now, Mark sets off this section by means of what we call an inclusio, which would be, the first one would be chapter 8, verses 27 through 33, and chapter 9, verses 30 through 32.

Let's look at those. 8, 27 to 33. 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?

And they told him, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am?

Peter answered him, you are the Christ. And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

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 to rise again.

And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 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 men.

Now turn over to the end of this section, which is chapter nine, verses 30 through 32.

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the

Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.

But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. So what you see is almost the same words on both ends of this text, this section.

This inclusio is what sets this section apart. Now, an inclusio is a literary device that acts like a couple of brackets or a couple of bookends.

They mark the beginning and the end of a particular section. However, they also give a flavor to everything that's in between them.

So this section begins with Jesus teaching his disciples about his death and his resurrection, and it ends with the same thing, almost using the exact same words.

Consequently, all that you read between this inclusio has something to do with Messiah and his death and his resurrection.

So in this section, Mark wants you to understand the radical nature of this

Messiah, his people, and his authority. Listen again now.

This is about the radical nature of this Messiah, his people, and his authority.

And when you read through this section, bracketed by this talk of humiliation and death and resurrection, when you read that, and it flavors the whole thing in between, what you see is that God turns the world upside down in terms of what you should expect when it comes to the

Messiah. Now, first of all, we see in chapter 8, verse 27 through 33,

Jesus is the Messiah, but what kind of Messiah is he?

What kind of Messiah is he? What kind of a king is he? What is this promised king like?

Now, the disciples recognized Jesus, this teacher of theirs, as the Messiah, the anointed one.

He asked them, who do you think I am? Well, some say that you're Elijah. Some say you're John the

Baptist. Some say you're one of the prophets. That takes into account the fact of his authoritative type of teaching.

But Peter, Peter recognizes, Peter recognizes

Jesus. This teacher of theirs is the Messiah or the Christ or the anointed one.

See Peter's confession of Jesus. You see what he says? Peter answered him, you are the

Christ. You're the promised one. You're the anointed one. Now, many don't recognize

Jesus as such. They believe him to be John or Elijah or some other prophet. So these men, these disciples do know the true identity of Jesus and they have embraced him as the promised redeemer of Israel.

All right. But then at the end of verse, at verse 30, Jesus says, but don't tell anybody this.

Well, why not? Why would he not tell them that? Okay. Why should they not tell them who they are?

Why not? It's the same thing that we saw earlier in chapter seven, verses 36 and 37.

Remember? And Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they're proclaimed it.

And they were astonished beyond measure saying he has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

They're, they're overcome. They're overwhelmed with amazement at the wonders that he can do. He does everything well.

They're not interested in the fact that he is the word from God. They're not interested in, in the fact of what

Jesus stands for. Now the disciples have not yet grasped.

They have not yet grasped the nature of this Messiah. That's why he tells them to be quiet because look at what happens.

Very next verses. Look what happens. Jesus foretells the fact that he is going to die.

He's going to be killed and after three days to rise again, they do not understand the nature of his messianic work.

They do not understand the path that the anointed one, the chosen one, the king must take.

He must tread the path of earthly glory. He must not tread the path.

I'm sorry. He must not tread the path of earthly glory, glory, but the path of suffering, rejection, murder and execution, and then resurrection.

You see, they had the wrong view of the Messiah. They had the hero view of Messiah. This anointed one, this one, especially chosen by God for the task of delivering his people is going to die.

That doesn't make sense. That doesn't make sense. They have the hero view of Jesus.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, everyone has heroes and in our country, we have many heroes.

Let's just say, let's just pick one out. We have a hero named George Washington. He led American forces, ragtag band of American forces against the mighty

British empire and won our independence. And if you go into many American cities, you will see statues of Washington.

In fact, you go to Washington DC, you see a great big monument erected in his honor.

Why? Because he's a hero because he came and he accomplished great things. He, he did that.

And so you'll see parades with flags and bands. When someone is a hero, we have a big parade for him, don't we?

We have a tremendous parade for him. So someone comes back, he's won the medal of honor. What do we do?

Well, we may make a statue of him, put them in our little town. And when he comes to our town, what are we going to do?

We're going to make him the honored guest. We're going to have parades and flags and bands and all kinds of stuff to honor the hero.

Now that's how they're thinking of this Messiah. They're thinking he's the hero.

He's the great deliverer, right? So what do you see that happens? He tells them not to tell anybody.

And then he begins to teach them about the fact, you know, they first, they say, yes, you're the

Christ. You're the Messiah. You're the anointed one, right? Right. They get it. And then he says, but don't tell anyone that.

Why not? Well, then he goes on to tell them, you know what, here's, what's going to happen to the Messiah, to the

King, to the deliverer. He is going to be betrayed. He's going to suffer.

He's going to be rejected. He's going to be executed. And then he'll be raised from the dead. Now, Peter can't accept this.

That's not what the conquering King is supposed to be like. That's not what the Messiah is going to be like.

And so Peter takes Jesus aside and he begins to rebuke him. Isn't that amazing?

Why does he do that? Because he can't, because it's a scandal. It's a scandal what

Jesus is saying. All right. Some of you've heard me use this before, but I'll do it again.

So here's a guy named Irving. Let's call him Ernie Kovacs. Ernie Kovacs is a

GI and he's in world war II. And what does, what does

Ernie do? He deserts. He abandons his post. In the face of the enemy, he takes off out of his foxhole and he runs to the rear, hoping to escape death.

What happens to Ernie? Well, Ernie is taken before a court martial and his case is heard and the officers who sit as judges condemn him.

And so they take him out. And ingloriously, he dies before a firing squad.

Now, are we going to have a statue? Are we going to have a statue of Ernie in our town?

Are we going to have a parade celebrating Ernie Kovacs? No, not at all.

Why not? Because he's not a hero. He's a deserter. He was, he got, he died in front of a firing squad, right?

Well, this is what Jesus is saying. He's saying, yeah, your hero is going to die in a way that's cursed by God.

Anyone hanging in a tree is cursed of God, not chosen by God. And Peter is scandalized by this.

It's again, our hero, that's not hero, that's not being a hero, that's being a loser, right?

And so he rebukes Jesus. Now, Jesus, who is obviously recognized as the

Messiah, must suffer. He must die. He must be resurrected. And this is all of God.

This is kingship. The promised king must die and suffer humiliation.

This turns our thinking all upside down. That's not the way it's supposed to work. You see, here's the problem that Peter has.

That's why he rebukes Jesus. That can't be. That can't be. You're king, you're going to suffer humiliation.

You're the promised Messiah and you're going to be humiliated. That's not our Messiah. So God, again, turns our thinking upside down.

My chosen one, my king, the ruler who represents me will be handed over, executed, will suffer humiliation, and then be raised from the dead.

Now, we should expect God to operate differently than man would.

You know, look at 1 Corinthians 1. This is a great, this is exactly what the apostle

Paul was talking about. This is exactly what he was referring to in 1

Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 18. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning,

I will thwart. Right? I'm going to turn it all upside down. I'm going to turn it inside out. The wisdom that you have,

I'm going to turn it all inside out. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know

God through wisdom and pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. We preach the anointed one crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

God's always worked this way. Should the disciples have been so surprised at what Jesus was saying?

Well, when you look at the old Testament, all of which points to Jesus, what do you see? You see things like this.

You see David suffering, humiliated before he assumes the throne, right?

He's humiliated. He's chased like a thief all over the country. He hides in caves.

He's the one. And what happens for years? He suffers for years.

He's in a humiliating position until he finally ascends the throne. But that's the way

God's always operated, right? Now we would never imagine a king who came to suffer humiliation, death, and then vindication as a means of entering his rule, as a means of gathering his people.

That's not how we would think of it. But this is the way of our king. His glory is of a radically different nature.

And so Jesus takes Peter aside and seeing the disciples behind him says, get behind me,

Satan. You are thinking in the ways of men, not of God. Satan has got you.

He's got you thinking the way of man, right? But that's not the way God operates.

And so what do we learn? We see that the way of this king is not the normal way of a normal king.

The way of the king is to suffer, experience humiliation, death, and then vindication.

He has to go through this suffering and humiliation. That's the way of our king.

Now what we see then is that Jesus leads a movement. As this king, he leads a movement.

But what kind of a messianic movement is this? What kind of a movement is this?

And so we find in verses 34 through 38 of chapter 8, now we see something about those who follow this kind of king.

How are the followers of Jesus the Messiah like him? Jesus leads a messianic movement and those of us who claim to be part of it must resemble our leader.

And so what does Jesus talk about? Notice, Jesus suffers humiliation and death and then experiences vindication.

So those who follow him must also experience humiliation, death, and vindication.

No parades, no statues for us either. There are no parades for our leader.

There will be no parades for us as well. These people, those who follow

Messiah, do not gain worldly treasure. They do not gain position or power by following this

Messiah. But just as Jesus did not gain that kind of treasure, position, or power, neither will we.

Neither must we. Look at what Jesus says and do some serious thinking about it.

What does he say? Well, he tells us that if we're going to come after him, this king, then we have to deny ourselves, we have to take up our crosses, and we have to follow him.

You see what he's saying there? You have to deny self. You must crucify yourself.

Now, listen again, and I've said this so many times in the years I've been here, but this may be the first for some of you.

When Jesus says, take up your cross, he's not saying bear a burden. That's not what he means.

What he means by that is what he does is he draws a picture. If you saw your friend walking through the village with the cross beam, right, the cross beam of the cross on his shoulder in the midst of a

Roman squad, a squad of Roman soldiers, you would know as he was bearing his cross, you would know he was taking a one -way trip.

They were taking him outside the village where they were going to kill him. So to take up your cross daily means to crucify yourself daily.

Now, that doesn't mean that you deny yourself certain things or you abstain from some particular things.

It means you deny yourself, not stuff that you want, but you deny yourself.

You know what he says in verse 35? Do you notice what he says in verse 35? That's even thinking in terms of losing your life.

It's even spoken in terms of losing your life. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

You see, it's even put in terms of losing your life. What does that mean to you each day?

So what does that mean then for you each day? How do you deny? How do you kill?

How do you lose your life, right? Surely involves not doing what just you want to do.

You cannot think in terms now of immediate pleasure. Your life can no longer be organized around the wants, the desires, the dreams that you have.

It must be organized around what Jesus commands. That's what he means when he says, follow me.

Now specifically, you can't even let the desire for life itself set the agenda.

That means that you must actually be willing to give up your life for Jesus' sake.

So anything less than giving up your life must surely apply at this point.

Now denying yourself surely means that you're no longer going to avoid humiliation, even death.

Accumulating wealth for yourself, living for the pleasure of the moment is no longer part of your life.

You deny yourself. You follow this Messiah who denied himself, who did not avoid suffering, who did what he needed to do in order to fulfill what

God had for him. You must instead follow Jesus. You follow

Jesus. Now please notice that Jesus offers a reward to those who follow him in such a manner.

Those who lose their lives for my sake and for the gospel's will gain life.

Now he is not saying here, he's not saying that you earn your salvation.

Rather, this is a description, you get that kind of life because of the faith that you have.

No matter what happens to you, the promises of Jesus mean more.

You see, I may lose my life, I may suffer, but there's vindication, right?

Just like Jesus believed his father and suffered all these things because the promise was that he would then occupy the place of honor, and so it is with us.

We gain life because we believe the promises of Jesus. We gain life because his promises can see us through denying self, crucifying self, and following him.

So, the people who are part of this great messianic movement must lose their lives for Messiah and like Messiah.

If they lose their lives for Messiah and the gospel's sake, they will in reality gain their lives.

And that is true if his people are not ashamed of their humiliation, of their rejection.

If they are not ashamed of their humiliated, rejected

Messiah. So you see then, can you see then that if Messiah, if our king is one who did not tread the path of glory, there were no parades for him, no flag waving for him, he suffered, he was humiliated, he was rejected, he died only to be raised again.

If that is true of him, then it's true of us as well. If we are followers of him, then that will be true of us as well.

Is this the common way that people think about? Is this the common way people think when they talk about following Jesus?

Too many today say follow Jesus and look at all the great riches you'll have. Follow Jesus and your life will be wealthy and enriched.

That's not what Jesus says. That's not what Jesus says at all. No, no.

Now listen, then we have to think about how do we present the gospel to people? How do we present it?

We need to be honest with people and we tell them about following Jesus. We need to tell them that they're going to have to lose their life, but that the reality is that Jesus gives life.

Jesus gives life. And so here we have then our Messiah. This is what our king looks like.

This is the path that he treads. And if our king is like that, then we must follow in his steps.

We too will be rejected. We too will suffer. We too will be humiliated.

We too may even die. But there is vindication at the end of it all.

And so if we're going to be like our master, this is the way we live. So we have a king who did not tread the path of glory, but the path of suffering before he gained his crown.

The same is true of us. We will tread the path of suffering before we gain the crown of glory.

I hope that helps you. I hope this gives you a better understanding of our king, the Lord Jesus, and what it means to follow him.

All right? So next week we'll pick it up and we'll talk about the kind of authority this king exercises.

The kind of authority he exercises. So listen, let's pray and we'll be dismissed.

All right? Father, thanks again for our time together in your word. Thank you that we can surely find life in following Jesus.

We thank you for the promises that far exceed the suffering. And the fact that Jesus was exalted to glory tells us that we too will be exalted on that great day when

Jesus returns. Help us, Lord, we pray, to see our king in the right way and to see our lives and to follow him in the right way.