This morning, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mark chapter 8. If you are a visitor this morning, for some time we've been working through this wonderful gospel, and this morning we come to Peter's great confession in Mark chapter 8. We will read together verses 22 to the end of the chapter that's found on page 1073. in your pew Bible. Beginning at verse 22, this is the word of the Lord. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly and he sent him to his home saying do not even enter the village 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 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 man. And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can a man give in return for his soul for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with his holy angels and he said to them truly i say to you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. May the Lord bless the hearing this morning of his word. Well, we have seen and studied in the life of the disciples a lot of confusion in here understanding who Jesus is. In these past weeks, we have seen this theme that's run through these great sections here in Mark that the fact that their ears have been closed up and needed to be unstopped and that their eyes were blind and they needed to see by the Lord's power. It's been a big moment in the Gospels here because today, finally, in the entire Gospel of Mark, we have the first real confession that Jesus is the Messiah and it comes out of the mouth of peter it's a big moment here in the gospels and uh jesus wants us to understand this he wants us them to understand essentially what they were saying when they were making this great profession of faith we have been so challenged by this i i particularly been challenged by this you know to think a lot about what is christianity what am i really doing with christianity do i understand or do i even really know what it means that i say that jesus is the christ do i get that do i know the cost of christianity do i know what i've signed up for and you see how appropriate this is then on a day when deborah stands up and professes and we've had uh so many professions in this church and so many lord willing that will will come in many uh and and i i believe that's what jesus is essentially doing here today is we have jesus uh putting it in pauline terms if you will it's time to get off the milk and it's time to move on to maturity uh it's time to to really begin seeing me and understanding me and knowing me and that we'll see how he directly ties that in to being a follower of Jesus. You really can't be a follower of Jesus in any kind of meaningful way until you truly know Him and understand Him. That was what the Jeremiah passage said, that you shouldn't delight in anything other in this life than that you know the Lord and understand the Lord. And so today we see Jesus giving grace to His disciples and making all of this very clear for them and what an exciting, I have to say, passage to study essentially we have probably the best passage to come to that defines christianity that helps us understand christianity and as i was breaking this down if you're taking notes i found it to be somewhat helpful to first there's three things that are going on here first is the confessing of jesus as the christ you'll notice that there the confessing of jesus as the christ and then you'll notice here the struggle that they had to receive jesus as the christ crucified so the confessing and then the struggle to receive jesus as christ crucified and finally and thirdly we'll look at following jesus as christ the lord we read in verse 22 as we begin our section that Jesus went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi on the road. You'll notice actually in verse 27. And it's in the midst of this great walk as they have left this scene now where Jesus had healed this blind man, remember, by putting spit on his eyes, and we'll come back to this, that Jesus is now walking along the road and he stops and he looks at his disciples and he poses now two great questions that he wanted them to answer this essentially was test time they had been with him now for years he had been training them now for some time this was a great test it was a moment of the test and he really cares about it the first thing that he says you'll notice to them is who do men say that i am what are other people saying about me now he knows this but he wants them to say it he wants them to think about something what are and what is everyone saying about jesus it really mattered didn't it and i have to say up front today that that it is that crucial of an issue this is not anything that is sort of take it or leave it in jesus's eyes your your destiny whether you go to heaven or to hell depends on your answering of this question so you see how big it is many people say certain things about jesus and he has made the open and plain claim in the scriptures that there is no other way or access to heaven except through him that is a staggering claim beloved so that what you do with this question then is everything and that's where we come to then the disciples beginning to rehearse what people were saying about jesus they say well uh we know what everyone's saying some say that you are john the baptist and and others say that you are elijah or one of the great prophets one of the prophets it's interesting in our study of mark who was saying those things when we sort of reflect and look back on it remember who advanced the claim with real power and real emphasis and real push that Jesus was John the Baptist, remember? It was Herod. This is John the Baptist revisited. This is John the Baptist raised from the dead. The religious leaders, on the other hand, which aren't rehearsed here, were running around saying that he's of Beelzebub. He's of the ruler of the demons. Which Jesus said, if you believe that in advance, that my works are of the devil, you're committing blasphemy. So that was the line there in terms of what could be forgiven remember there are many blasphemies that jesus said people say against me a blasphemy against the spirit when you associate my works with that of satan that cannot be forgiven so then he came back and they go through one of the great prophets it's remarkable when we look at everything that everyone was saying about him um we've been dealing with a section in mark's gospel where his own disciples are having the hardest of time, seeing Him and knowing Him. Their ears needed to be unstopped to hear Him, and their eyes needed to be open to see Him, so that their tongues could confess Him. Well, here we are. They all had recognized, everyone, that Jesus was somebody great. Anyone in their right mind right now today in 2016 who looks over and surveys the history of the world has to say something about jesus look at his influence you can't influence this many people through thousands of years and have a book that has had this much impact on people and say nothing about jesus you're going to say something about jesus everyone has an opinion on jesus you could deny him that's an that that's a statement you could say that he's a great prophet it as the false religions do that's a statement but everyone says something about jesus well here we are they all had recognized he's doing powerful things in divine works but who knew him jesus begins to draw this out they rehearse their answers and he looks at them and he says but who do you say that i am do you have any idea yet do you see yet are your ears open to hear me yet? This has been a real struggle to get here, hasn't it? And all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, Peter steps up. You are the Christ. Now that seems like such a short answer, doesn't it? We know that Matthew records that Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. But Mark wanted us focused here. Mark wanted us understanding what he was saying when he said, you are the Messiah. It's the first thing that Mark said in the very first verse of Mark chapter 1 of who Jesus is. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Christ. John would say in his gospel that this was the purpose in writing the entire gospel. He would say at the end in John 21, I believe it is, that my purpose in writing this gospel is that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. the son of the living God and believing that you would have life in his name, the anointed one. That was no little claim. Peter was essentially standing up and think about what he was saying at this moment. He was essentially saying at this moment that everything that had ever been promised to Israel through all of these years, all the history of Israel, everything that had ever been promised in the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures from Genesis 3, When the announcement was made in the first gospel announcement, we call the Proto-Evangelium, when the first one was made, Peter was saying, you're the promised one. What a confession. And Jesus makes a big moment of this. Jesus makes a big moment of this. You know what Matthew says, Peter said right after this, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. In other words, you did not figure this out on your own. But my Father, who is in heaven, my Father gave you a big gift here, my friend. That you are able to confess me in this world and confess me correctly is nothing that you ever did on your own. You couldn't do it. You are blessed of God. You never figured it out. You were no wiser than Herod, who's been trying to figure this out all this time. Look at the multitudes. They don't have the faintest clue who I am. The blind lead the blind, and they both fall into a ditch. But God gave this to you, Peter. We talk about the beautiful truth of election right here. In an act of great compassion, now think of the scene here. Jesus had just taken a blind man, pulled him aside, and then he began to illustrate spiritually the problem of the disciples. they had been blind to see and before them Jesus with what seemed to be in front of their eyes and it wasn't for him but he healed in such a way to communicate that this was a great struggle he healed in a way to show struggle that before their eyes he first had spit and touched the man's eyes and he says what did he see and the man says well well I see men like trees walking and then he does it again And he says, what do you see? I see everything clearly. It was a visual for the disciples of their problem. So that when Jesus said, when Matthew records that Peter made this confession and he says, blessed are you, the Father gave this to you, you didn't do this, Mark is illustrating that same grace with an illustration instead of the statement. He's saying, see it? It's all grace. It's all grace that you get here in your life. That you're able to stand up and confess Him in your life. That is the gracious work of God. It is a great work in someone's life when they profess faith in Jesus. That's what makes so beautiful what you did today, Deborah. It is a wonderful work of grace in your life. Matthew 11 says, All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. I chose it for you. I chose it for you. Now, this is the good work that the Lord starts. You think of that verse in Philippians, he who begins the good work completes the work. If you have come here and in true faith, confessed and believed in the Savior, and this is why we do it in front of God's people. This is not a closed confession. It's not in your closet. This is in front of the world confession and his church. In true faith, the Lord is going to complete that project. That's the encouragement of this. They have been tested who is Jesus, and they're now confessing for the first time Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Messiah. But I've always thought to myself as I was working through this this week that there still is a problem here and there still has been a problem in the life of the disciples. There seems to be a continued struggle after the profession. That in some ways we've not really figured out after we've stood up and done this what to do with the Christian life now. We're baptized. We follow a course. If you're raised in the Christian faith, you're baptized. You stand up, and you believe this, and you profess this, and you say, I believe. And then we've sort of taken this notion that we've graduated. There seems to be after this, at least in my experience, in personal times, and also looking as a pastor into churches at times, I've noticed that there seems to be little drive for continued growth and continued understanding. I remember years ago, a man came to us to join the church, And the elders wanted him to take a membership class to be refreshed in what he believed and then to reaffirm his faith in worship. I'd never heard so much anger in response. I made my profession on October 6, 1944. How dare you guys challenge that? I did that already. What was ironic was at the time somebody from a broadly evangelical church who was just cutting their teeth on the truth of the Bible and the faith and the history of it in the Reformation came to us and they were so excited to tell everyone. I could have asked that person to stand up a hundred times to have the opportunity to profess their faith and they would have said, you give me this floor, man, I'll do it. Here was a man baptized, raised in the church, made a profession. Don't you dare push me beyond it. Don't you dare. He was content to be at church once in the morning on Sunday and never was he to be pushed on anything beyond that. No Sunday school classes, no continued growth, evening church. None of that he would have heard. Don't push me. Don't push me. He was above that. And for many, the extent of their Christianity after profession is an hour on Sunday. It's just the reality. No growth, no understanding, the Bible is a closed book. I've thought about that a lot. The kind of graduation mentality. I've got great news for you today. I'm not going to beat you up. I've got really good news for you today. Jesus has way bigger plans for his followers than they do for him. Jesus has way bigger plans for his followers than you do for him. Isn't that wonderful? Something still hindered the disciples. What is it? Well, think of the healing of the blind man. Jesus had just spit, touched his eyes. What do you see? I see men like trees walking. And then, finally, in the second round, they could see everything clearly. Well, now Jesus is illustrating that grace he was giving to his disciples, that it is an unfolding grace in the course of their lives. Complete to the end. And I would suggest that what we have here is that the very illustration of what he just did is now playing out in their lives. Think about this for a minute. What do I mean? on the heels of his opening this man's eyes in a two-stage process, here comes the disciples and you sort of have the first opening of their eyes. And what are they doing? They're seeing Jesus dimly. I asked the question last time, what prevents us from seeing Jesus as we should? Well, think about this scenario that's presented here. Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ. He confesses him as the Christ. Notice this here. They are like the blind man only seeing Jesus dimly at this point. So why do I say that? Well, the confession was right. This was a great work of grace in their lives. They are like that blind man only seeing dimly and there is not an appreciation of what Jesus must continue to do for them to understand what it means in their confession and their profession. The confession is right. now stay with me what's missing the gospel the gospel from their lives this is so important something was a major stumbling block to them seeing jesus what is it as soon as jesus as peter confesses what does jesus do well look at it verse 31 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 rise again and he said this plainly he's speaking really clearly now what does that tell you on the heels of their confession peter's confession you are the Christ comes an open and clear word of his work and that means that Jesus confessed today as the Messiah can only really be understood he can only be understood in relation to what he came to do for you that any understanding other understanding of him as the Messiah that divorces him from what he had to come and do would blind people to what and understanding why he had come now this is a big moment this is a really important point that may seem very basic to us but so important that remember it takes spiritual eyes to see this and have it take root in the seat of the heart which is what Jesus is after heart religion we saw that with the woman, the Syrophoenician woman. Confessing him as the Christ had to come with an understanding that he is the Christ crucified. And that leads us now to what happens. Notice this. Notice what happens right after this then. Peter hears that. And what does he do? Wow, something real big here that's very exposing. Jesus had pulled the blind man aside and took him off in an intimate moment. Now Peter grabs Jesus and pulls him off in an intimate moment. Notice what happens. As soon as he hears about the cross, he grabs Jesus and here's what he says far be it from you lord this shall not happen to you now peter's only seeing dimly isn't he but what is he not seeing he's refusing to see jesus as the messiah in the way that jesus supplied the work of the Messiah. As soon as Jesus hears this, he looks at the disciples and he recognizes something's happened. Get behind me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but of men. What a rebuke. You want to meet Jesus in his full conviction and you want to meet jesus and not worrying about offending anyone here he is they didn't want a cross and it's all exposed this was the problem of the disciples all throughout i mean you could just go over to mark 10 and and and in mark 10 you'll remember uh you'll look at 35 and james and john the sons of zebedee came to him and said teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask can you imagine saying that well what are you going to ask here you go and he said to them what do you want me to do and they said grant us to sit one on your right hand and one on your left in glory you know what you're saying give us the best seats in glory this was them and as this goes on jesus realizes that something has happened something has influenced them you remember when satan came at the beginning of the gospels to tempt jesus what was the great temptation of satan satan said and he took him out and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all of their glory and you remember the essence of that temptation here's what satan said all these things i'll give you right now if you will fall down and worship me you don't need to go to the cross have it now you can be the messiah now now what does that tell you that satan's great work in the ministry of jesus was to do everything he could to prevent the cross from happening but there was something that luke said in that that last of the temptations luke said that as soon as Jesus rebuked Satan, Luke has an interesting phrase that always puzzled me and I never put it together until this week. It says, so Satan left him until an opportune time. Well, here the disciples are at the height of confessing Jesus is the Christ. There was no attack, but as soon as Jesus made clear that the work of the Messiah was to suffer and to die, boom, here comes Satan. Right on the heels of that to corrupt everything he could, throw everything he could to blind Peter and to blind the disciples to that truth. And Jesus realized there was satanic assault happening right at that moment. Now what does that tell you? Let's begin to put this together. You can confess Jesus as the Christ. You're not like Herod, who's questioning. You're not like the Pharisees, who've blasphemed. Jesus is the Christ, the sent one, the Messiah. But you only see Him like a tree walking. Do you know why He came? Now again, you're saying, Pastor, we've heard this all our life. Come on. Come on. Jesus came to die for my sins. We just say it. Jesus came to die for my sin. Do you believe in Jesus as the Christ? It's been the greatest perplexity to me that when you speak of Jesus and you say to Him, what does it mean that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah? Most people think that's His last name. So the predominant view of Jesus has been simply today. And if you don't think this is a major problem, The predominant view of Jesus is simply that He exists to give people a better life. This was the problem back then. This is still the problem today. And I hope to show you here for a moment how bad the problem is. It completely misses the single great purpose for His incarnation and the fact that He is the Messiah. That He had to fulfill the will of his father and he had to do this precisely because the wrath of god is that serious and that it presently abides on anyone who does not believe and without an atonement and without a propitiation without sins being paid for without sins being dealt with no one will be saved lost message today i feel like i'm just throwing out the most basic truths of christianity that i assume everyone understands and yet we have proof that it's not true we have proof in front of us that it wasn't true that only grace can open a mind to this and i'm going to show you then what what happens when grace opens a mind to this for by nature you'll never receive the message you'll never receive it you'll never you'll never appreciate it jesus is fine as a moral teacher and somebody who can give a better life of happiness but you'll never know him in that in other words jesus is only and truly known as a messiah in connection with his work of suffering he who knew no sin became sin for us now jesus didn't want that proclaimed yet you'll notice that here um that he was the messiah why because everyone wanted him for the wrong reasons everyone wanted a political messiah everyone wanted him to remake israel great again and jesus was ready and willing to openly when was he ready ready and willing to openly when did jesus tell people he was the messiah mark tells you at the hour of the cross when he's heading there and he's beaten and he's bruised remember what happened the high priest asked him saying are you the messiah the son of the blessed jesus said i am the time he was willing to reveal it was at his death dear disciples who do you say that i am the messiah don't say it yet it's only known in the cross you're only going to know it in the cross i find this so fascinating because all the rabbis of israel would look for the messiah They would look for a king and a shepherd and they would look at all the wonderful things that were said, but they overlooked the principal work of the Messiah. The principal work the Old Testament taught us of Jesus, the principal work of the Messiah is captured in Isaiah 53. He would suffer and die to pay for the sins of many. That is the most difficult thing for us to accept. Paul would struggle with this, with the church in Corinth, where he would say, don't you understand that the Christian ministry is all about preaching the Christ crucified? He would say, woe is me if in my ministry I don't preach Christ and Him crucified. He said the gospel wasn't to be made known, and this was the struggle in Corinth, with all kinds of human wisdom and eloquence and power and pizzazz and glitter to make it palatable and make it attractive to people. You've missed it. I have been perplexed by Christians who will start to say, well, maybe there's more out there. Or maybe there's something more edifying out there. Or maybe that the real power is in the music or the worship is better somewhere else. And they get these bitter attitudes while the Christ crucified is proclaimed to them. Never understood it. you would think being in life all your life in church you'd know better than that and it's been my struggle so people can tolerate today leaving and going and sitting under ministries where Christ crucified is absent what do you think Jesus would say to that well he would say Satan's really involved in that place and it would make everyone here really nervous that we can't criticize anyone else. Jesus would say, get behind me, Satan, to the churches who refuse to preach him. Remember Donald Gray Barnhouse's Ideal City? You've probably heard it. It's well known. When he described what would Satan's Ideal City look like, he said, well, you'd have the whole place, everyone in that city and church. Everyone would be dressed nicely. The children would all be very respectful, saying, yes sir, no ma'am. Everyone would be filled in that city. It wouldn't be the slums of Los Angeles. It would be a city of total beauty, of total outward perfection. Everyone's in church where Jesus is not preached. That's Satan's ideal city and church. And that's why the Syrophoenician woman stands out so beautifully in this. Lord, I have nothing. I don't claim anything. I have no honor, no righteousness. I don't deserve this, but you're my answer. I need to eat the crumbs from the master's table. I know what I am and I know what you offer and I am desperate for that. Will you let me eat? Look at that approach. But grace will never be truly appreciated or understood until you see who you are and you understand who it is who came for you and what He did to save you. Grace on Christ's terms is hard for us. Far be it from you, Lord. I don't want to hear about a bloody Savior. I need a Messiah who's great. I need a Messiah who can fix all my problems right now. Kings don't act this way, Jesus. when jesus washed his feet he said get up you're not washing my feet and jesus said well if i don't do this you have no part you're not entering the kingdom kings don't get on knees kings don't suffer and die and jesus says get behind me satan this is what you need jesus will let nothing stand in the way as obstacle to them seeing and understanding what he has to do for them and that's the grace in this the bad news is good news do you see that the bad news is the good news he cares that much that you understand it opening your eyes then is a lifelong commitment on the part of christ now this is so crucial then opening your eyes is a lifelong commitment on the part of christ not only to confess him as the promised messiah but to continue to open your hearts and minds to the wonder of His love that the Messiah, who is the Son of God, would love you enough to die for you. You know the marvel of that? And when your eyes are open to the power of that, it changes everything in your life. It changes all your pursuits in your life. This is how you know that you have truly confessed and believed and understood Him. And I think that's captured in verse 34. Jesus calls the people to himself with the disciples, and look what he says. Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever desires to lose his life will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what will a man be given in exchange for his soul? Doesn't that make sense now? If you're going to be a follower of jesus you have to accept the message of what he came to do and if you've accepted that message the way that it's going to show your show itself in the course of your lives will be that your life starts to pattern his if you think that jesus and christianity is about making you and giving you a smooth ride into the kingdom riding on couches while he suffered you've missed it christianity will not be about your personal greatness it will not be about the pursuit of your dreams and aspirations in life. It will not be about making lots of money. It will not be about big houses and big dreams. It will not be about making you comfortable in the world. It will not be about making your name great, about letting no one take from you your personal ambitions and goals. On the contrary, they're all going to be robbed from you. That's what he's saying. And a true follower is going to be a lot like his master. And guess what? He gets to carry a cross. In other words, to belong to Jesus means you'll be no one great. It means you'll be hated by the world. It means that you will be considered weak. It means that you will be considered powerless. It means that you will be no one great in the world's eyes. And all of that is a cross that is specifically chosen for you to carry in some form of suffering. No false teacher says that. Every false teacher says there's something way better in this life besides suffering. And Jesus says through much tribulation and suffering you enter the kingdom. but the glory after is so far beyond the reason you carry the cross is to look like him you get to love your neighbor this is what people should see our life to be and jesus says if you're ashamed of that if you're ashamed of my message of the cross if you're ashamed of that the truth is on judgment day god's going to be ashamed of you so how would that show itself well i think it would show itself in your desire to worship and love him if you want to show if you want something you think will be more exciting to retain children or a message that's easy to hear or panders to the american way of life or what you think is spiritual i could try to give that to you but the omission would be deadly the omission would be deadly. But this is true power, says Jesus. For he, when he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You know what he also said before he breathed his last? It's finished. It's finished. I conquered and I dealt with every last sin you ever committed, past, present, or future. and the Son of God, the Messiah on the cross, thought about you. Look who was put on the cross for you. I am so thankful that Jesus desires to drive away any satanic influence that would want to cloud that work in your life. Here you see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because why he suffered death says hebrews so that by the grace of god he might taste death for everyone that's the gospel of free grace i have nothing more to offer but it's offering you everything that means the deborah's profession this morning takes on a special meaning doesn't it for she can consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth to be compared with the glory that is soon to be revealed. Imagine when on that day, all the blindness and darkness is brought to light and then you enter into the kingdom and you're able to gaze your risen eyes on the risen Savior and everything is finally and ultimately clear. That's coming. But the way you see him in the present is to see him in the message that he died, that he rose again, and that he's coming to take us home. I pray your eyes are open to see him today so that when you say, I believe in Jesus as the Messiah, you are overwhelmed with thanksgiving that he died and he rose. And he didn't just die and rise. He died and he rose for you. Can you confess that? Can you see that? He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Amen. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us the gospel. Thank you for helping us. Thank you for showing us Jesus. And we believe that in what is called foolishness to the world, it is your power to save. And so keep us here. Let us be satisfied with Christ and Him crucified. And may that lead to praise in our life that now is glad to take up whatever cross you give us. Never being embarrassed of Jesus. Never being ashamed of the message. Never being ashamed of who we are. Forgive us for that. And give us great boldness in the faith that others may see in us Christ the hope of glory. Thank you, Lord, for encouraging us with this word today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.