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Mark 8.22-38

²⁷ 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?” ²⁸ So they answered, “John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” ³⁰ Then He strictly warned them that they should 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 chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ 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.”

³⁴ 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. ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? ³⁷ Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸ 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.”

You could say it is about time. So many opinions; So many views. about Jesus from friends, families and foes. Clear thinking about who Jesus is was seemingly hidden from anyone who came into contact with him. A secret was about to be revealed…a secret we have had the inside knowledge on from the very first verse of Mark…but those who within the text were completely oblivious to…there has been a keeping of suspense to these central verses which are central to Mark’s gospel – 16 chapters and revealed at the half-way point in chapter 8 – finally one of the disciples wakes up to the reality that right in the midst of them was one who along with their claims could not be ignored.

You are in front of a load of kids and you are teaching them…doesn’t matter what subject…say you are teaching multiplication tables…you ask a question and you get a show of hands ‘me, me, me!’ You know this routine because it happens every day in your classroom. You also know it is the same hands that go up every time. You know which ones are simply seeking attention, you known the ones who barely know the answer; you know the ones who think that they know the answer to everything and on some occasions you get a surprise hand go up from one of the quieter pupils who will give you the right answer every time.

Peter was always one to offer his opinion, never shy and was thinking that he is right. What was surprising was that in answer to the question ‘who do you say I am’, it was Peter with the right answer. That’s right: Jesus IS the Messiah. Finally one of them had cottoned on. Mark declares it in the first verse: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Suddenly they are faced with a new fact which was blindingly obvious but now…now there surely are consequences of such a discovery?

Bravo, Peter! Peter must have been brimming with pride – in Matthew 16 we find Jesus also praising him for getting it right for it had been revealed to Peter by God himself. Did Peter suddenly get filled with pride? Is that what happened? Did he think himself to be the fount of all knowledge? It must be the case because no sooner had he got it right he got it so disastrously wrong! How is it possible for a man to have something revealed to him by God then be used as a tool of the devil?

I think the key is in what we do with praise. We can receive praise and respond in different ways. We can receive praise and want nothing to do with it thereby making it like it had never been said. We can receive praise and say thank you for it. We can receive praise and say thank you and then deflect it to the one who gave us the ability. We can receive praise and get puffed up like a balloon and of the different responses this is the most vulnerable. We suddenly think we know it all and are ready to exercise our right to speak and people who can speak godly things one moment can speak devilish things the next.

1 Corinthians 8.¹ We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. ² And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. ³ But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

Satan inhabited Peter for that moment of madness because pride is of the devil. It is the thing that led to his downfall and it is the root problem in our lives. Poor Peter! One moment he has great success and in the next such a dismal failure. Pride does not leave room for others or for knowledge or for wisdom. It is saying ‘I know best, I know what I’m talking about, I have nothing to learn from you’. I, I, I. p.r.I.d.e..

We are so puny compared to God. The knowledge that we have is miniscule. What we think we know we actually do not REALLY know at all. God knows everything. We know nothing at all. The things that we think are alright God does not. He has perfect knowledge and the wisdom as to how it should be used. God must laugh from Heaven at the ridiculousness of humans. That is why Paul came to the conclusion that true knowledge is in knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified. Everything else is vanity – everything else is worthless.

Philippians 3.⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Let us be careful to not find ourselves in opposition to God because God opposes the proud (James 5.6, 1 Pet 5.5) but gives grace to the humble. You think you are called by God to great things – wonder at amazement about it but do not think for one second it is because you are worthy. Worthiness comes from being accepted in the beloved. He loves us. Now we are worthy because the ultimate price has been paid for us.

Peter got it wrong because he had imperfect knowledge – he thought that the Messiah was going to come with power and put down the Roman occupying forces and then King Jesus will reign. He could not cope with a suffering Messiah – No! It cannot be! No Jesus! Not realising that if Jesus is the Messiah like he thought he was then He would actually know best but now Peter was his advisor!

A Messiah who is rejected, suffers and dies is not the kind of Messiah Peter had signed up to following. Not only that but Jesus used that word ‘must’ - that we saw last week – the same word saying IT IS NECESSARY δει; it is necessary for Jesus to suffer. It is necessary for Jesus to suffer – how can anyone stomach that? But did Peter miss the bit about rising from the dead in 3 days?! Again this knowledge is hidden from the disciples even though it was as plain as it could be. This is often the case when someone is entrenched in a wrong doctrine and just cannot see what seems obvious to everyone else.

On the one hand Peter gets it right but pride and wrong doctrine makes him get it wrong. And we have to be careful not to fall into this trap…there is right doctrine and wrong and false doctrine…we are only human so not one of us has got perfect doctrine…let’s make sure pride is not the reason for not correcting our thinking. Stop thinking that you have got it all tied up – because not one of us has.

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So when Jesus goes on to say what the cost of following him is then is there anything that it could cost us that it did not cost Jesus more? Jesus made himself of no reputation – he made no room for pride – and his call is to do the same – lay down one’s life to follow Jesus. What good is life if this life is all there is and if the biggest thing you can gain is the world by working day and night – what is the size of the world in comparison to the universe that is held in God’s hand as an insignificant speck of dust? Is there a point in working to gain material things in this life that have to be replaced or repaired in a few years time? Is there a point in gaining what is in your own little world only to die in a few years time? What we gain in this world is so ridiculously small and yet we work a lifetime gaining things that will not be of any use to us when we die. There has to be a better way:

Isaiah 55

¹ “Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
² Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
³ Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David.
⁴ Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
A leader and commander for the people.
⁵ Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the LORD your God,
And the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”
⁶ Seek the LORD while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
⁸ “ For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
⁹ “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ “ For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
¹² “ For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the LORD for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

What will we give our lives for? Will we be ashamed for wasting our lives on things that will be burned up by the fire? This is the only alternative to living for Jesus. To live for ourselves is a sinful thing to do…it proves we are ashamed of the words of Jesus…it proves we are ashamed of his words because we are not willing to live and die by them and He will be ashamed of us at his coming because we will have been Christians who are so only in name and not in action.

When you are young you don’t say that you think you know everything but you act in that way. As you get older you realise that you know nothing at all. There is a knowledge worth attaining – and that is to know Jesus and to live by his words – you may not be thought to be the brainiest and the most knowledgeable but you certainly will be among the wisest in God’ sight.

His thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways not our ways – we are to seek Him – we are to do those things in this life that will have eternal value – sow the Word of God and we will not be disappointed with the results – and then we will enter into eternal joy unashamed before the face of Jesus.

The criticism of Peter was that he had in mind the things of men. It was this that was also satanic. The ways of God’s kingdom is different but we all seem to enjoy too much of being in another Kingdom – the one that belongs to this world. We cannot get the ways of God if we are all too willing to be influenced by the ways of this world. We have the seed of the Gospel that is to be planted into people’s lives. How do we address the people of Ely and Caerau today and sow seeds there? By being led by the Holy Spirit…by praying fervently…which will lead inevitably to a Kingdom Culture where Jesus reigns.

All that is required of us by our Master is nothing more than he was willing to do Himself: that we lay down our lives for this to happen; to seek to please God more than people, and to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

This is the way, now walk ye in it.

Have you heard the Lord today? Do not harden your heart? But respond to him…let us have an open time of prayer before Clive closes our service with a song.

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