Message preached Sunday, November 15, 2015 from Mark 8:27-30
Theme: The most important question we can personally answer is, ‘Who do I say that Jesus is?’
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
I ask you to turn with me to the latter half of the eighth chapter of Mark’s Gospel. It presents us with a very important ‘watershed’ moment in this Gospel account. It’s where the Lord Jesus begins to make clear to His disciples that He is going to go to the cross. From this point onward, the cross begins to loom large in the story of this Gospel.
I am asking that we spend a few Sunday mornings in this important portion of Scripture. Today, I only plan to preach from the first few verses of this portion; but I would like to begin by reading the whole portion to you. I’d like for us to consider together how the cross of Jesus begins to be presented as a key focus of our identity as His followers.
This portion begins with a question that Jesus asks His disciples. In Mark 8:27-30, we’re told;
Now Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, “Who do men say that I am?” So they answered, “John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him (Mark 8:27-30).
That was a vital question that our Lord asked His disciples. And I believe that we can say that Peter’s answer was a high point in his training as a follower of Jesus. But then—immediately afterward—comes a sad low point. Mark goes on to tell us this about Jesus:
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (vv. 31-33).
What a heart-breaking moment that must have been for Peter who—in spite of his failures—loved the Lord Jesus very much. Jesus looked past Peter’s words—and past the agreement with those words that He saw in His disciples—to recognize the work of the devil who was seeking to persuade our Savior away from the cross. What a horrible thing it must have been for Peter to be told that he was becoming the mouthpiece of Satan in discouraging the Lord from His sacrifice for us!
It was then that our Lord gathered everyone to Himself and made plain to them what it really meant to be one of His followers. We read;
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (vv. 34-38).
Jesus’ ministry on earth was a cross-focused ministry. And if we would be His followers on earth, we need to be characterized by a cross-focused discipleship. And so; this whole passage needs to be seen as a unit that teaches us what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It’s meant to present to us the high cost of true discipleship; and how a true disciple of Jesus has it ever and always in view that they must take up their cross follow Him.
But this morning, I want to pay particular attention those first few verses—and on the amazing question that Jesus asks. I suggest to you that it’s the primary question of true discipleship. It’s the question that every human being must ask; and the answer to which will determine whether or not someone is a true follower of Jesus. It’s the most important question anyone can ever answer personally, because it determines the course our life on earth will take, and what our eternal destiny will be when that time on earth is over. It’s the question that determines whether or not we will—in actual practice—take up our cross and follow Him in this world.
It’s Jesus’ all-important question, “Who do you say that I am?”
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I wonder if you have ever thought about how remarkable that question is. It’s a question that cannot help but provoke a decision.
It’s important to notice that Jesus didn’t ask His disciples, “What do you think about My teaching?” That would be a great question, wouldn’t it? People all over the world seem to love at least some aspects of Jesus’ teaching. In fact, some people who don’t believe in Jesus at all nevertheless admire the teaching attributed to Him. But that’s not a question that demands as deep a personal response as the question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Nor did Jesus ask, “What to you think about My miracles?” That too would be a great question. The stories about His miracles are—generally speaking—known and loved around the world. People love to read about them and teach them to their children, even if they don’t believe in the one who performed them. But after people hear those stories, they can take them or leave them. Even that is not a question that demands as deep and personal a response as the question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Jesus didn’t even ask, “What do you think about My commands?” That also would be a great question. Most people admire His commands. People around the world read and quote the Sermon on The Mount; and many people claim its principles as their own—even if they don’t believe in the authority of the one who first preached that great sermon. If you try to remove the identity of Jesus from His commands, then you can very easily pick the ones you like and disregard the rest. Not even that question is as personally demanding as the question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Jesus made the question of who He was absolutely central to His miracles, and to His teaching, and to His commands, and to everything that He did and said on this earth. As someone once said, you can remove Mohammed from his teaching and you would still have the basic tenants of Islam. You can remove Confucius from his principles and you would still have Confucianism. You can remove the Buddha from his instructions and you will still have Buddhism. You can remove almost every great philosopher in history from his or her philosophic principles and you would still leave their philosophic system intact. But if you remove Christ from Christianity, you will no longer have Christianity; because Jesus made His own identity the central theme of all that He taught and did and commanded.
And so; I suggest to you that the greatest, most consequential question anyone can answer is Jesus’ remarkable question in this passage: “Who do you say that I am?” If you choose to answer that He is not who He said He was—to answer that is that He was just a man; a great and insightful man, but only a man—then there would be no reason to take up your cross and follow Him. In fact, it may be foolish to do so. But if you choose to answer that He truly is who the Bible presents Him to be, and who He declared Himself to be—the Son of God in human flesh and the Savior of the world—and if you truly embrace His identity from the heart, then you will gladly give your all for Him. You will take up your cross—that instrument of complete death to self—and be His disciple; even if it costs you everything that you are and have.
Truly, our Lord’s question is the most decisive and consequential question anyone can answer.
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Let’s look at this great question in more detail. And the first thing I ask you to notice about it is . . .
1. THE PLACE WHERE THE QUESTION WAS ASKED.
The story comes right after the Lord’s healing of a blind man in the regions of Bethsaida—which was a distinctively Jewish community. And Mark then goes on to tell us, “ Now Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi . . .” (v. 27a).
Just a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to walk the streets of another ancient city called Caesarea. It’s an amazing resort city that King Herod built along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. But the place that Mark is telling us about is a different Caesarea. This is an ancient city that was located about twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It was a place that was beyond the realms of the Jewish people. It was a town that was on the outskirts of the Gentile world.
It was a city that was renamed by one of Jesus’ contemporaries—Philip the Tetrarch. He was a son of Herod the Great; and in order to appease the Roman government, he renamed this ancient city Caesarea—in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius; and then attached his own name to it. So; you might say that Caesarea Philippi was a city that, in Jesus’ day, was symbolic of compromise with secular authority and political influence.
But before that, this city had been known by another name. It was called Paneus; and it had been given that name in times past because it was believed to have been the birthplace of the Greek mythological god Pan. The worship of Pan was a deeply depraved and immoral religion; and Paneus was the capital of this religion. It was a city that had been given over to vile images and grotesque monuments to this false god. It was a center-place of paganism and idolatry—not at all the kind of place that you would have expected Jesus to go to, or from which to have asked this question.
And yet, isn’t it remarkable that the Lord Jesus would choose to go there to ask this question? We’re not told that He went into the city itself; but simply that He went out to its surrounding towns. But it’s as if He went to the place where everything and anything that was contrary to Him would have been worshiped and celebrated, stood at its very doorstep—against the backdrop of false gods and secular power—and asked this question. The closest parallel I can think of here in Portland (if I may suggest it without offending anyone) would be if He had taken His disciples down Hawthorne Boulevard—a neighborhood here in town that is celebrated for its religious diversity and secular hipness—stood at the head of the street and asked, “So; who do you say that I am?”
And isn’t there a lesson for us in this? The all-important question of who Jesus is isn’t something that should be discussed just inside the walls of a nice, safe church building. It’s a bold question that puts all people at the fork of a decision; and it should be asked out in the world—out in the market-place of ideas and beliefs.
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So; Jesus took His disciples out into the realms of the pagan and secular world to ask them with this great question.
But notice that before He asked this question, He asked them a very different question first. Mark tells us that they were walking along the road. Matthew tells us that He was praying—perhaps along the way; and that His disciples joined Him in prayer; “and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, ‘Who do men say that I am?’ (v. 27b).
Why would Jesus ask this? Was it because He didn’t know? That can’t be the case. We’re told in John 2:25 that He “had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” Jesus knew perfectly well what people were saying about Him. He even knows what people are saying about Him today. But He wanted to set His disciples to thinking about what people were saying about Him, so that He could prepare them for His great question to them.
And this leads us to . . .
2. THE VARIOUS OPINIONS THAT HE PROVOKED.
His disciples told Him what people were saying about Him. Some, they said, were saying that He was John the Baptist. You might remember that that was what King Herod Antipas was saying about Him. In the sixth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, we’re told,
Now King Herod heard of Him, for His name had become well known. And he said, “John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” Others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is the Prophet, or like one of the prophets.” But when Herod heard, he said, “This is John, whom I beheaded; he has been raised from the dead!” (Mark 6:14-16).
But this was a strange and superstitious idea. Jesus had been baptized by John; so it could not have been possible that Jesus was John risen from the dead.
And as you could see from those who were around the king, there were other ideas that people had about Jesus which the disciples knew about. Some, for example, said that He was the prophet Elijah. Elijah was the prophet in the Old Testament that did not die as other men. He was taken up by God in a chariot of fire; and so, people wondered if Jesus—this new, fiery, Elijah-like preacher—was actually Elijah himself. But of course that couldn’t be. Shortly after this story, Jesus was transformed before His disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration; and Elijah was one of those who came and spoke to Him about His coming crucifixion.
Others were saying that He was one of the prophets of old. And there’s a sense in which that wasn’t far from the truth. Moses promised that God would one day raise a Prophet like himself to speak to the people; and Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise. But He wasn’t simply one of the prophets. He was THE Prophet!
And what’s interesting is that all of these ideas were—to some degree—favorable of Jesus. In some respects, they recognized and sought to account for His spiritual authority and divine power. People do that today as well. Ask folks what they think of Jesus; and they’ll often say things like, “He was a great teacher of love and peace;” or, “He was a great religious reformer;” or, “He was one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived.” Some would say that He had tapped into a great spiritual power that other great spiritual leaders had also tapped into.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be afraid to explore the various ideas that are out there in the world about Jesus. Apparently Jesus Himself wasn’t afraid of or offended by such discussions. It opens up the conversation about Him; and gives us an opportunity to declare what the Bible clearly testifies about Him.
It’s a way that exposes people to Jesus’ own, all-important question.
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And then, of course, came . . .
3. THE ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION ITSELF.
It wasn’t enough that the disciples could report what other people said about Jesus. Jesus put the question to them in a way that grammarians refer to as ’emphatic’. We’re told, “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” (v. 29a). And the best way to translate what Jesus said from the original language is like this: “But you—who do you say that I am?”
These disciples had, by this point, been with Jesus for over two years. They had been taught by Him personally; and they had heard Him teaching the vast multitudes many times. They had watched as He performed miracles; and they had even helped assist Him as He met the needs of others miraculously. They had seen Him command the wind and the waves, heal the blind, give hearing to the deaf, make leapers clean, and cast out demons with great authority. They had heard the things that He had said about Himself. They had known what the Old Testament Scriptures promised about the Messiah; and had seen personally how He had fulfilled those promises.
By the way; you and I have all of those things and more today. We have everything that they had seen and learned of Him recorded for us in the Scriptures; and we have, in addition, two-thousand years of history of the spread of His kingdom on earth, and of the multiple millions of lives He has transformed, and even the work that He has done in our own lives.
What do you personally say about Him? It’s as if He points a finger at you in this passage, and asks, “And what about you? Who do YOU say that I am?”
Your eternal destiny depends on how you answer that question.
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And that’s when Peter spoke up. He often speaks for all the others; and here, he speaks up and gives the answer to Jesus’ question. It’s . . .
4. THE ANSWER THAT WAS APPROVED BY HIM (v. 29b).
In Mark’s Gospel, Peter says, “You are the Christ.” In Luke’s Gospel, we’re told that Peter said, “The Christ of God.” In Matthew’s Gospel, Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
May I share with you how another one of the apostles answered that question? I was having lunch with a group of friends the other day; and as we were discussing the question of who Jesus is, one of my good brothers in Christ quoted these words from the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1. Who did Paul say that Jesus was?
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:15-20).
That’s who Jesus is. That’s what is meant—in the fullest sense—by saying that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And was Peter’s answer truly approved by Jesus? Consider what Jesus Himself said after Peter gave that answer in Matthew 16:
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:17-18).
Peter gave the answer to the question that was approved heartily by the Lord Himself. It was an answer given to Peter by no one less than God the Father. It’s the answer to that question that saves our souls and enables us to be one of Jesus’ followers: “You are the Christ.”
I hope and pray that it’s the answer each one of us here today gives to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”
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Now; before we close, let’s consider one more thing; and that’s . . .
5. THE SURPRISING COMMAND THAT FOLLOWED.
After Peter answered that question—and answered it correctly—we’re told, “Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him” (v. 30). The fact that He gave this command is, of course, another proof that Jesus approved the answer. But what a strange thing to command! You should know that the word that is used is one that means that Jesus very strongly admonished His disciples—as if He was saying, “Now listen! Do NOT tell anyone about Me. I am ordering you to absolutely NOT do it!”
And I believe that there is a truly wonderful reason for why He would issue this seemingly -strange, very strong command. Look at what He goes on to tell them. In verse 31, we’re told,
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (v. 31).
This was in utter contradiction to the expectations that everyone had about the Messiah—the promised Christ. Everyone in that day thought that the Messiah would be a mighty military leader who would fight for the Jewish people, drive all of the pagan Romans out of the land, and restore Israel to the glorious days of King David. That’s why, when Jesus began to talk about the cross, even Peter dared to pull Him aside and rebuke Him for such talk.
What Peter didn’t understand; and what none of the other disciples understood; and what none of the people who were following Jesus understood; and what Jesus Himself sought to protect Himself from the misguided zeal of His followers in order to accomplish, was that He still needed to go to the cross. He was the promised Christ; but He was the promised Christ in the fullest sense of all that the Old Testament Scriptures promised about Him—that He was a Suffering Servant sent by God to pay for the sins of His people; and that before the crown of kingship, there had to be the sacrifice of the cross.
That’s who Jesus is. He is God in human flesh as our Substitute on the cross—the atoning Sacrifice for our sins. And only after He had fully paid that debt for us were the disciples set free to proclaim to the world who He fully is. After He rose from the dead—victorious over our sins—that’s when He told His followers to boldly proclaim all the truth about Him; saying,
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
That’s why, if we would be one of His disciples, we will also need to take up our cross and follow where He goes. And if we profess the truth about Him, we will!
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So; what about you? What do you do with all that you have heard?
Who do you say that He is?