Message preached Sunday, November 29, 2015 from Mark 8:31-33
Theme: If we would prioritize the things of God over the things of men, then we must prioritize the cross of Jesus.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We have been spending time recently in the eighth chapter of Mark’s Gospel—and in the story of a conversation our Lord had with His apostles. I have felt that it was important to go through this remarkable conversation carefully; and so, we’ve been breaking it up int bits and pieces over several Sundays. Perhaps it would be a good idea for us to being our time this Sunday morning by reading through it together.
Mark tells us of how Jesus and His twelve apostles were taking a journey toward a city several miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It was a city that had a history of being very sinful and idolatrous and worldly; and I believe that it was significant that Jesus chose to have this remarkable conversation with His apostles close to where this city was. In Mark 8:27-30, Mark tells us;
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).
Matthew’s Gospel gives a more complete account of Peter’s words, and has it that he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”; and that Jesus commended this answer and said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-17). I believe that it was one of the highest moments of Peter’s life with the Lord Jesus.
But immediately afterward came one of his lowest moments. 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 contrast! I can’t help but think that those very forceful words broke Peter’s heart; and that tears welled up in his eyes to hear the Lord tell him that he had gone—in a moment’s time—from being the mouthpiece of God in declaring the truth about Jesus, to being the mouthpiece of Satan in trying to discourage Jesus from the cross. What a horrible rebuke that must have been to hear!
Now, I believe that the Lord Jesus always loved Peter; and that even after that strong rebuke, He didn’t stop loving him. But Jesus needed to make things abundantly clear where His focus was—and how the focus of His disciples, if they would truly be His followers, needed to match up to His own. So; Mark goes on to tell us;
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).
It was the set purpose of the Lord Jesus—this holy one who is declared to be the Christ, the Son of the living God—to go to the cross. He took the pathway of submission to the Father that led directly to the cross; and if we would follow Him, then we need to take the way of the cross as well. In fact, in in Luke 14:27, Jesus makes it very clear that “whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Note carefully those words, “cannot be”! To follow Jesus means to go where He went—and He went the way of obedience to the cross; and so, His followers cannot go any other way but the way that He went. Many people who come to Jesus want to be His disciples only on the condition that He make their lives easier and happier—only on the condition that it doesn’t cost them anything to follow Him. But Jesus is not accepting disciples on those terms. And this would mean that a lot of people today who claim to be Jesus’ disciples, by His own definition of things, really cannot be His disciples; because to be His disciple means to truly follow where He goes. And He goes the way of the cross.
And so; you can see why I felt that it was important that we go slowly through this passage. It defines what the Christian life looks like—what it means to be a true follower of Jesus. And this morning, I ask that we concentrate just on verses 31-33—and on the ‘hard’ part of this conversation that Jesus had with Peter. I don’t want to ‘mind’ the things of men to the expense of ‘minding’ the things of God. I don’t want to fool myself. I want to be a true follower of Jesus. And I hope you want to be one too.
* * * * * * * * * * *
It’s very hard to be a true follower of Jesus—as He defined what it meant to be one anyway. To be a follower of Jesus, you have to embrace His cross. And that makes being a true follower of Jesus very hard for at least two reasons.
One reason is because, if you truly embrace the cross of Jesus in this world, you’ll be considered a fool. You’ll be labeled a looser. That’s because the cross of Jesus makes absolutely no sense at all to the kind of ‘wise’ and ‘mighty’ and ‘self-made’ people that this world celebrates. The truth is, of course, that it’s only by the cross of Jesus that God has atoned for the sins of humankind. But the unbelieving, sophisticated people of this world—who don’t believe they need atonement for anything anyway—can’t see how a man dying on a disgusting cross like a criminal two-thousand years ago can have anything at all to do with people today.
Paul wrote about this kind of attitude in 1 Corinthians 1. He wrote;
For the message of the cross is foolishness 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 bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
So; if you’re going to be a true follower of Jesus, you’re going to follow Him along a hard path. You’ll be taking a path that makes no sense to the hip and sophisticated people of this world. Jesus’ path is the way of the cross; and the so-called ‘wise’ people of this world consider the whole idea of the cross to be ridiculous and offensive.
And another reason it’s hard to be a follower of Jesus is because it costs us dearly. To follow Jesus along the way of the cross means to follow at the cost of our very selves. Jesus Himself demonstrated this. Just before going to the cross—as He rode into the city of Jerusalem—He said;
“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:23-24).
He spoke this concerning Himself. He came to Jerusalem to lay down His life for our salvation. He did not so love His own life on this earth that He clung selfishly to it. He gave it willingly, so that He might take it up again in resurrection—and that He might take us up along with it! That’s what it meant for Him to travel the way of the cross. And then He went on to say this about us:
He who loves his life [that is to say, ‘cling to his own life instead of following Jesus’] will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world [that is to say, ‘does not cling to his own life in order to serve the cause of Jesus’] will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor (vv. 25-26).
The message of this world is the opposite of what Jesus said. The whole world, it seems, tells us, “It’s all about you! Your life is your own! Actualize yourself! Make yourself happy!” Jesus says that, if you want to follow Him, then you’ll come to some forks in the road of life. One path is going to be the path of whatever it is that you want to do; and the other is going to be the path of what He calls you to do and say and believe in His service. To follow Him, you must faithfully walk as He leads you; and that means that you will have to take up your cross , put ‘self’ to death, and follow Him.
So; let’s not have any false advertising here. Let’s say it as it is. It’s hard to follow Jesus. It’s the pathway to eternal life, to be sure; and no one who surrenders all that they are and have to follow Him will ever lose-out in the end. But make no mistake about it: so long as we are living in this world, following Jesus the hardest and most costly thing in the world to do.
That’s why even the apostle Peter struggled against the whole idea that Jesus was going to the cross.
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Let’s look at this passage again; and see that if we would prioritize the things of God over the things of men, then we must prioritize the cross of Jesus. First, we see this in . . .
1. OUR LORD’S SENSE OF PURPOSE.
As we saw in verses 27-30, Jesus’ apostles had come to a very important conclusion about Him. They concluded that He is the Christ—the long-awaited Jewish Messiah—the Son of God in human flesh. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And He affirmed that conclusion the correct one—the one that was given to them from God the Father Himself.
And having that important conclusion confirmed—having grasped who He truly is—it was now time for Him to begin to tell them something else about Himself. In verse 31, Mark tells us, “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.” Do you see the word “began”? It was at that crucial moment that He began to share these things with His disciples about His suffering and death. From this point on in Mark’s Gospel, His sacrifice at the cross will be a major theme of our Lord’s teaching to them. It will come up again and again.
Now; look carefully at what He tells them. He lets them know, first, that He must suffer many things. That word “must” is in the original text; and it’s very significant. It indicates to us that the things He was about to endure were absolutely necessary. These things could not be avoided. Do you remember how, in the Garden of Gethsemane—as He awaited His betrayal into the hands of evil men—He prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39)? As it turned out, it was not possible for it to be any other way. Our salvation could not be brought about by any other means than by Jesus’ death on the cross. And so, it “must” be that He would suffer the things that He was telling the disciples about.
He said that He must “suffer many things”. What were those things? I believe it was the many injustices He suffered by the hands of those who arrested Him. Mark will go on to tell us later how He was humiliatingly stripped of His garments and was clothed in mock robes of purple, and of how a crown of thorns was thrust painfully down upon His head, and of how He was mocked and ridiculed and struck and beaten and scourged and spat upon. It was told to us long ago—in the Book of Isaiah—that He must suffer these things. In Isaiah 50:6, it says,
“I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6).
and Isaiah 52:14 tells us that “His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men . . .” He let His disciples know—well in advance—that these things must happen.
He also told them that He must “be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes”. The elders of the Jewish people where their civic leaders. Their chief priests where their religious leaders. Their scribes were their scholars. All three groups constituted the Sanhedrin—the ruling body over the people of Israel. And all three groups rejected Jesus as their Messiah. All three groups stood at the foot of His cross and mocked Him for having said that He was the Son of God, and defied God to come and save Him. This too was told to us long ago—in Psalm 22:6-8; where it says,
But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
“He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” (Psalm 22:6-8).
Jesus also let His disciples know in advance that He would be killed. Psalm 22;16-18 goes so far as to tell us—almost a thousand years beforehand—something of how it would happen;
And for My clothing they cast lots (Psalm 22:16-18).
For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
They divide My garments among them,
And Isaiah 53:8-9 tells us;
He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth (Isaiah 53:8-9).
And in Zechariah 13:7, it says;
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,
Against the Man who is My Companion,”
And the sheep will be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7a).
Says the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the Shepherd,
It was very necessary that these things happen. They were promised in God’s word well in advance; and they were necessary for our salvation. But that’s not all that Jesus said would happen. He also said that He also must, after three days, rise again. As Isaiah 53:10-11 also tells us;
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied (Isaiah 53:10b-11a).
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I believe that it’s very important for us to have considered those Old Testament prophecies in the light of what Jesus told His disciples. They were things that must happen—that He “suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again”. As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures . . .” For our Savior, the way of the cross was absolutely necessary; and it led to the glory of resurrection. He wanted to make that plain to His disciples. In fact, as Mark tells us in verse 32, “He spoke this word openly.” He didn’t use difficult parables or figures of speech. He laid it out to them as clearly as could be.
And yet, the way of the cross was a struggle for Peter—and perhaps for all the others. After all, they just declared that they knew Him to be the Christ, the Son of God. The promise of His suffering and rejection and death was so out of keeping with their expectations of Him as the Messiah that they couldn’t accept it. They didn’t even seem to catch the promise of His glorious resurrection in it all.
And that’s when we come to . . .
2. PETER’S MISGUIDED REBUKE.
I’m suspecting that after having declared so successfully that Jesus was the Christ, Peter felt a little more bold than he should have. We’re told that he actually drew the Lord aside—perhaps wanting to make his words private—and began to rebuke the Lord for what He was saying. In Matthew 16:22, we’re told that he said, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
I suspect that Peter was simply trying to affirm what he and the others expected to be true of the Messiah—that the Lord Jesus would be a mighty, conquering warrior from God who would kick the evil Romans out of the land, and would restore Israel to the glorious days of King David. But Peter didn’t understand that our Lord came first to take the pathway of the cross. Jesus would be a mighty conquering King in time. But first, He must be the suffering Savior who serves the needs of His beloved ones by going to the cross for them.
And that leads us to . . .
3. OUR LORD’S FIRM RESPONSE.
Do you notice in verse 33 that we’re told that Jesus turned around and looked at His disciples? I believe that it was because the words that Peter was speaking to Him appealed, initially, to the desires of His human nature. Naturally, He would want to avoid the cross if He could. He even prayed so to the Father. But when He turned and looked at His disciples, He knew that there was no other way for salvation to be brought about than by the sacrifice of the cross.
The Bible tells us, in Hebrews 12:2, that “for the joy that was set before Him”, our Lord “endured the cross, despising the shame”. The joy that He looked ahead to was the joy of having His redeemed ones washed clean of their sins and glorified with Him forever. And so, even though the words of Peter were persuasive to His humanness, He refused to be turned away from the cross.
In fact, He even detected the true source of Peter’s words. He looked past the rebuke of Peter, and saw the deceptive activity of the devil—who had, some time before in the wilderness, tried to tempt Him away from the cross. And so Jesus looked Peter in the eye—or perhaps better, looked Satan in the eye as he made Peter his mouthpiece—and told Him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (v. 33).
That’s what our Lord said to Satan. And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I don’t believe we should ever even talk to Satan. Our Lord can do so; but we shouldn’t even try. But instead, we should align ourselves with our Lord along the way of the cross. We should say, “I will not set my mind on the things of men; but on the things of God. I will follow Jesus along the way of the cross. It was His priority—His focus! And it will be mine too! I’ll say what Paul said;
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; the next time we come together, we’ll explore further what our Lord goes on to say about following Him along the way of the cross. But there’s an old song that’s found in our hymnal; and I can’t think of a better way for us to close our time than by singing it together:
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain:
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
O the old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
(Refrain)
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
(Refrain)
To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then he’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where his glory forever I’ll share.
(Refrain)
May God help us—like our Lord—to keep our eyes on the cross!