Mark 8:31-9:1

The Gospel of Mark

Feb 19

Date: February 19th 2023

Speaker: Samuel M. Crites

Scripture: Mark 8:31-9:1

Mark 8:31-9:1

Exegetical Outline

Main Idea of Text: Jesus teaches that he will die and rise from the dead, and anyone that desires to be his disciples must follow in his footsteps.

8:31-33: Jesus plainly teaches that he will die and rise again, and rebukes Peter for being ashamed of this prophecy.
8:34-9:1: Jesus teaches the disciples and the crowd that they must lose their life and be unashamed of the suffering of Christ in order to be his disciple.

Homiletical Outline

Main Idea Sermon: A disciple of Jesus Christ must not be ashamed of his death and resurrection, because to follow Jesus as a disciple is to participate in Christ’s death and resurrection.

A disciple of Jesus Christ must not be ashamed of his death and resurrection.

Peter was ashamed that the Messiah would have to die.
Peter might be getting prideful because he is seen as a leader.
Jesus rebukes Peter, because

He understands what is happening in Peter’s heart.
Nothing can stop him from accomplishing the mission of the Father.
The other disciples are watching and so the error was more public.

A disciple of Jesus Christ must participate in Christ’s death and resurrection.

The goal of the Christian life is to save one’s life.
To save your life you must lose your life.

Lose control. (slave to Christ)
Lose sin. (slave to sin)
Lose purpose. (given new purpose in the Gospel)

If you are ashamed of Christ, like Peter, Christ will deny you at the resurrection, because you did not truly follow Christ in everything.

Introduction:

Last week, I was a little ambitious on what I thought we could accomplish in one sermon. Our original sermon text was going to include Mark 8:1-9:1, but as I was working on the sermon, I realized that I needed to call an audible. So, we split last week’s sermon text into two sermons: Mark 8:1-30 and Mark 8:31-9:1.

Last week was the climax of the first act of the Gospel of Mark. Throughout the first 8 chapters, we have seen a tension rising between Christ’s desire to teach the disciples and their inability to understand what Christ is teaching them. The tension was not a deficiency in the teacher, but in the student. The disciples could not understand what Jesus was teaching them, because their hearts were hard. They lacked the spiritual capacity to understand the spiritual truth that Christ was teaching them.

This came to a head last week when Christ was trying to teach the disciples about the danger of the Pharisees. Making a reference to what Christ has already taught the disciples about the Pharisees, Christ warned the disciples to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees. In a way, Christ is speaking in coded language, but language that the disciples should have understood. In the previous chapter, Christ had taught the disciples that the Pharisees did not teach the doctrines of God, but the doctrines of man. In fact, the burdens of these doctrines were so heavy that it prevented men from following the explicit commands of God.

All the disciples heard from Christ was something about bread. This prompted Christ to say,

Mark 8:17-21

“Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Not only is Christ frustrated that the disciples have not understood his most recent teaching about the Pharisees, but they have also not understood his teaching about the feeding of the five thousand or the feeding of the four thousand. They need new, healed hearts in order to understand all that Christ is teaching them.

To illustrate the healing of their hearts, Mark tells us the story of the double healing of the blind man. Christ spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him. The first time he can’t really see clearly, but the second time Christ lays his hands on him, the blind man is truly healed. This is exactly what happens to the disciples. They intellectually understand what Christ is saying, but they cannot truly understand with their hearts.

Sometime between the bread debacle on the boat and the their trip to Caesarea Philippi, the disciples were regenerated. They were given new hearts. We know this, because Peter, speaking on behalf of the disciples finally understood that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the anointed one, the hope that Israel has been looking forward to. He has finally understood what his previous hard heartedness had prevented him from understanding.

The story continues in our sermon text today. In classic Peter fashion, he goes from the shining glory of success to stumbling into the puddle of failure. Let’s read Mark 8:31-9:1:

Mark 8:31-9:1

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. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 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.”

34 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. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 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 the holy angels.”

9 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.”

Last week we saw that to be a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth is to understand that he is the Messiah. This week, our main idea is closely tied to that lesson. Our main idea is: A disciple of Jesus Christ must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, because to follow Jesus as a disciple is to participate in Christ’s death and resurrection. So, last week we saw that to be a disciple of Jesus is to understand who he is, to understand his person. This week, we see that to be a disciple is also to accept and participate in his work, his death, burial and resurrection.

Our sermon will have two main points. First, a disciple of Jesus must not be ashamed of cross of Christ. Peter has two things that seem to be working against him. He is riding high off of his recent successes and he is ashamed of the idea that the Messiah would suffer a criminal’s death. Peter has a concept of the Messiah that is man centered. What God is doing through Christ is embarrassing to him. The second point of our sermon brings this into sharper focus. Our second point is: A disciple of Jesus Christ must participate in his death and resurrection. You cannot follow Jesus unless you follow him in all things, including his death and resurrection. If you want to find the eternal life that Jesus promises, there is only one way, you must participate in his death so that you can participate in his resurrection. Following Christ means unashamedly setting your mind on the things of God and willingly sacrificing what the world values to receive what is valuable in the kingdom of God. The Christian life is an exchange, and the disciple of Christ understands that the trade is worth it. A disciple of Jesus Christ must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, because to follow Jesus as a disciple is to participate in Christ’s death and resurrection.

A disciple of Jesus must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ.

Let’s consider our first sermon point: A disciple of Jesus must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? We use that term all the time. In some ways it is a more accurate term than calling oneself a Christian, but, like the term Christian, it is used so frequently that most of us do not actually think about what it means. The word in Greek is μαθητής, which means pupil or apprentice. Essentially, a disciple is a student, but more than that they are not just learning lessons from their teacher, they are apprenticing their lives under that individual. Discipleship is a means of not only transferring knowledge but a way of living.

If we reflect over the ministry of Christ in the Gospel of Mark, we can see this. For the last 8 chapters, Jesus has been teaching his disciples a what and a how. The what of Jesus’s ministry has been who he is as the Messiah and his mission to bring about the kingdom of God. How he does that is through the preaching of the Gospel and performing wonderful works of power. So, it would make sense that as the disciples came to a true understanding of the content of Jesus’s ministry last week, they would have to work through practical implications this week. As we reread Mark 8:31-33, consider the connection between Jesus’s identity as the Messiah and the ultimate trajectory of his ministry. Let’s read Mark 8:31-33:

Mark 8:31-33

The connection between last week and this week is so important to see. To understand who Jesus is as the Christ is directly tied to the fact that he must suffer and die. Christ makes this point absolutely clear. As soon as his disciples understand that he is the Messiah, he then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected by the elders, and be killed. This is not a new teaching. As we have gone through the Gospel of Mark, we have seen how heavily Mark relied on the prophet Isaiah. What Christ is teaching is exactly what the prophet Isaiah taught in Isaiah 52 and 53. Isaiah taught that the Messiah must not only suffer, but that his suffering would lead to the salvation of God’s people. Listen to Isaiah 53:10-12:

Isaiah 53:10-12

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The Messiah was always supposed to be an intercessor. God planned to crush the Messiah. He would lead the Messiah to the slaughter like a lamb of sacrifice. Isaiah literally calls him a guilt offering. He will bear the iniquities of the many so that the many could be accounted righteous. He gets the punishment for their sin; they get the benefit of his righteousness. This is the message of Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born.

Jesus is not saying something new here. This is something that the disciples should have known, they probably did know it. They just didn’t understand it. It is a lot easier to focus on the parts of Scripture that are easy to understand and that we enjoy studying. A passage like Isaiah 63:1-6 would have been a much more popular picture of the Messiah. Listen to Isaiah 63:1-6:

Isaiah 63:1-6

Who is this who comes from Edom,

in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,

he who is splendid in his apparel,

marching in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, speaking in righteousness,

mighty to save.”

2 Why is your apparel red,

and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone,

and from the peoples no one was with me;

I trod them in my anger

and trampled them in my wrath;

their lifeblood spattered on my garments,

and stained all my apparel.

4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart,

and my year of redemption had come.

5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;

so my own arm brought me salvation,

and my wrath upheld me.

6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger;

I made them drunk in my wrath,

and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

Here we see the Messiah depicted as the conquering king, the mighty right hand of God Almighty. His salvation does not come in the form of substitutionary suffering, but in the form of overthrowing the oppressors of Israel. It is a gruesome depiction where the blood of the enemies of Israel stain his garments like a man that has been treading the wine press. This is a Messiah that is the living embodiment of God’s wrath against injustice and evil in the world.

Now, if you were a people that had consistently been under the rule of a foreign power for the last 600 years, which picture of the Messiah would be more attractive to you? For the last 600 years, Judea had been a province of, first, the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Medo-Persians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans. They have been continuously dominated by world power after world power. They longed for God to reestablish the throne of David and return Israel to the golden age of Solomon.

Now, all of this is background to our sermon text this week to better understand two things: why Jesus immediately begins teaching the disciples about his immanent suffering that is coming when he gets to Jerusalem and why Peter rebukes him for it. Let’s take them one at a time.

There is an urgency on Christ’s part to teach the disciples about his rejection by the elders and priests, his death, and his resurrection three days later. Now that they have understood who he is, they must understand what he must do. As we have seen in Isaiah, there is no salvation without atonement. The danger of sin is not the evil actions that we have committed, the danger of sin is that God is angry about sin. We have personally offended a holy, all powerful, self-existent being that will seek justice. If Jesus does not go to Jerusalem to suffer and die on the cross, there will be no forgiveness for sin. The kingdom of God will come with wrath and retribution for all, not grace and mercy for some.

Christ’s urgency to help his disciples understand this is necessary, because they are the men that he has handpicked to carry on his ministry after he leaves. What good is a life-saving cure if it does not arrive in time? They are going to stand in his place after he returns to the Father to carry the message of salvation to all those that desperately need it. They must understand all that is about to happen is God’s divine plan. The death of Christ is not a defeat, but the means by which God will triumph over sin and death.

Peter rebukes Christ for two reasons. First, he rebukes Christ because he has his mind set on the things of man, rather than the things of God. We see this in verse 33. Christ calls Peter Satan, which literally means adversary. By opposing Christ’s death, Peter is opposing God. He makes this mistake, because Peter is not thinking about the death of Christ from God’s perspective but man’s perspective. He has the wrong mindset. He thinks that the Messiah should be here to liberate and conquer, not suffer and die.

This is the problem of all men. Peter is not unique in this. Our predisposition is to have a man-centered view of the universe. It is our starting point. God does not have a man-centered view of the universe. God is essentially and necessarily God-centered. He is primarily concerned with his own happiness and joy. The number one thing that God enjoys is God. He is profoundly and completely happy with himself.

Christ’s counter-rebuke to Peter is so harsh because Peter has made the fundamental error of thinking that Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection is about him. The Gospel is not about you or me or anyone else. The Gospel is about God. Through the Gospel, God is putting on display the preeminence of himself. The first mistake Peter makes is that he concerned with himself, not concerned with God.

The second mistake Peter makes in rebuking Jesus is that the root of Peter’s rebuke is shame. He is ashamed that the Messiah, his Lord, would be rejected, suffer, and die. Peter loves the idea that the Messiah is going to be a conquering king, because who is going to be riding beside him in his conquest? Peter. Peter is the leader of the twelve; he is in the inner three. If Christ’s boat rises, Peter’s boat rises. If the Messiah suffers and dies, Peter is going to go down with the ship.

So let’s parse out the shame that Peter feels, because as we talk about shame today, one mistake would be to consider all shame as bad. Peter’s shame is bad. We do not want to be like Peter in this.

But not all shame is bad. In fact, our society has lost the critical capacity to feel appropriate shame. I am not even talking about lost people. That should be expected. I am talking about Christians. Think about the music you listen to. What do the lyrics actually say? What values do they promote? It doesn’t matter if you are listening to 90’s country music or hip hop and R&B. Christians fill their minds and playlists with music that does not set their minds on God. They consume music that promotes everything but God.

The same is true for the movies and tv shows that we watch. Christians are comfortable consuming entertainment that previous generations would have considered pornographic. We have become totally desensitized to things that should make us ashamed.

The point here is to see the difference between the shame that we should feel and the shame that we shouldn’t feel. There is good shame and bad shame. Good shame is focused on God’s reputation, and bad shame is focused on man’s reputation. If we do something that brings embarrasses God, we should be ashamed. We are bringing disrepute on his reputation. Oh what a gift it would be to the Church if God gave us a healthy sense of shame for how we are perceived in the world. Christians would be so much more careful about their associations. We would be so much more sensitive to sin and worldliness.

Peter’s shame is bad shame because he has reversed the situation. Instead of being concerned with God’s reputation, Peter is concerned with his own reputation. What God is doing through the cross embarrasses Peter because it makes Peter look bad. His eyes are set on man, this man, himself. He doesn’t rebuke Jesus out of a genuine concern for the glory of God, but a genuine concern for the glory of Peter.

You cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ if you are ashamed of him. In fact, at that point, you are not following Christ as a disciple. Jesus says that if you are ashamed of him, you are Satan, the Adversary. You cannot be for him because you are against him. Oh that we would be a church that is more concerned with God’s reputation than our own. Let us be ashamed if we embarrass him, and let there be no category in your brain where he could possibly embarrass you.

This is such a common problem. We have all been ashamed of Christ at some point. We have retreated from a conversation when it turned to religion, we have resisted the prompting of the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel, or we have gone along with sin because we were not courageous enough to stand up for what we knew was right. We must change our mindset. Instead of being embarrassed for the sake of our own reputation, we must shift our honor and shame paradigm to be focused on God’s reputation. The next time you feel the sting of embarrassment, ask yourself, “Am I embarrassed for God or for me?”

The first point of our sermon is that a disciple of Jesus Christ must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ. You cannot oppose Christ and follow him at the same time. We fight shame by changing our mindset. Our concern should not be what offends our reputation, but what offends God’s reputation.

A disciple of Jesus Christ must participate in Christ’s death and resurrection.

This brings us to our second point: A disciple of Jesus Christ must participate in Christ’s death and resurrection. As we saw in our first point, to be a disciple, one must follow your discipler in all things. They learned from them, the lived with them, and in the second part of our sermon text, Christ teaches that his disciples must also die with him. Let’s read Mark 8:34-38:

Mark 8:34-9:1

9 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.”

All that Christ is about to teach his disciples and the crowd is prompted by Peter’s attempt at rebuking Christ. When Peter pulls Christ to the side to rebuke him for saying that he must die, notice what Jesus sees in verse 33.

Mark 8:33

But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter

When Jesus turned to address Peter, Christ noticed that the other disciples were watching Peter. This was a precedent setting moment. Peter was acting as a leader on behalf of all the disciples. His error in attempting to prevent Christ from heading to Jerusalem is exacerbated by the fact that he is also leading the other disciples astray. If the other disciples had not been there to hear Peter’s interaction with Jesus, his correction of Peter might have been gentler. Unfortunately for Peter, he did not just make a mistake, he was leading other people into error as well. So the initial rebuke from Christ and teaching that follows carries a more severe tone and a serious correction.

In essence, Christ draws a line in the sand. He tells the crowd and the disciples, “If you want to follow me, you need to know what it is going to cost you. If you are going to follow me in life, you must also follow me in death.” This is true discipleship. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to follow him in everything, especially in death. Who would take such a crazy deal? Why would anyone want to follow Jesus into death? What is the value proposition that Jesus is offering?

In verse 35, Jesus says that whoever would save his life must lose his life, and that anyone that loses their life for Christ or the sake of the gospel will save it. It is essential to follow Christ in his suffering and death, because on the other side of death is resurrection. Don’t miss the core teaching. When Christ gets to Jerusalem, he will be rejected, he will suffer and die, but after the death will come resurrection. The hope of the Christian life is that we will follow Christ in resurrection.

Paul talks about this hope in Philippians 3:7-10. Turn with me and let’s read it together.

Philippians 3:7-10

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul lost everything for Christ. In verses 1-6 of Philippians 3, Paul talks about who he was before he met Christ. He was an important guy, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was zealous and as far as he was concerned, he was blameless before the law. He traded it all to gain Christ, and after he made that trade, he realized that it was no trade at all. He gave rubbish, trash, in order to gain the most valuable thing, Jesus Christ, his Lord.

Look closely at verses 10 and 11. He is commenting on exactly what Christ is teaching in Mark 8. The goal of the Christian life it so participate with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection, but you cannot get the reward without going through the suffering. To follow Christ is to suffer like he suffered so that you can rise like he rose. Paul is willing to do anything necessary and sacrifice anything that he has of value if he can just gain Christ and participate in the resurrection from the dead.

So let me ask, is it wrong to want something out of the Christian life? Is Paul wrong for wanting to follow Christ in order to get eternal life after death? Many would say that true selflessness looks like not wanting anything for yourself. Is Paul treating Christ like a get out of jail free card? Or is this what hope looks like? Paul is not abusing his relationship with Christ because what Paul truly wants is Christ. It is not wrong to want the thing that deserves to be wanted. Christ is the most valuable thing in the universe. We were made to enjoy him. Resurrection is just part of the deal on the way to getting Christ.

So, we as Christians are in this thing to win it. What we win in the end is Christ himself, and suffering is the means by which we know that we are on the right path. If we are suffering for his sake and the sake of the Gospel, we can have a confidence that when we get to the end that we will not be disappointed. This is what Christ is teaching his disciples in Mark 8. If you want to follow Christ, you better be willing to lose everything, including your own life, because in the end, you will not be disappointed. What you get in that exchange is so infinitely valuable that you will consider everything you traded as trash by comparison.

So what does this look like for our lives. If we truly desire to participate in the death of Christ so that we can also participate in Christ’s resurrection, how would we do that? Let me give you two suggestions of how to practically live this out in the Christian life.

First, the Christian has an eternal perspective that is counterintuitive to the world. We see this in verses 34-35. If you want to save your life, you must lose your life. Christians have a different perspective than the world on what is truly valuable. The reality is that men prioritize their lives around what they find to be valuable. What the world considers valuable is health, wealth, and prosperity. I have lived that life. I have watched my friends in the business world sacrifice their time, their families, and even their character and dignity to gain what they perceive to be valuable. To achieve their goals, people will sacrifice almost anything to achieve what they think is valuable. They will work long hours, forego meals, and run themselves into the ground to achieve what they think will make them happy.

We Christians are no different. We want what makes us happy. The only difference is that the road to achieving that happiness is not temporal, but eternal. This means that we are willing to do what might make us unhappy in the short term to be happy in eternity. For example, a Christian might choose to spend their vacation budget on a mission trip instead of a trip to the beach in the hopes that someone might come to know Jesus. Instead of working extra time at your job to get the next promotion, a Christian might spend that time going to Seminary or leading a small group. A Christian might decide to start a family and have the wife stay home with her children because Scripture says that children are a blessing from the Lord and we have a duty to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. To the world, these things are counterintuitive. The life of a Christian is radically counterintuitive, because the paradigm through which we assess what is valuable is not man centered, but God centered; it is eternal, not temporal.

So have an eternal perspective. As you go about your life, order your schedule, your finances, and your relationships to make investments in eternal rewards. You can endure sacrifice and hardship now knowing that the reward in heaven will make all of the sacrifices worth it. You will not get to heaven and wish that you had taken one more vacation. You will not wish that you had an extra car or a bigger house or a more important position at work. Even now you can feel the absurdity of such things fading in the light of eternity. You will wish that you accomplished more for Christ. Sacrifice now to get the reward when you finish that race.

Secondly, a Christian participates in the suffering of Christ by following Christ as their highest honor. As we have already seen, if one is going to be a disciple of Christ, they must be unashamed to follow him in all things. That practically means that we must consider suffering as Christ suffered the highest honor of our lives. To be identified with Christ and his suffering is not something to be ashamed of but our joy and pride.

This point is difficult for our modern minds to understand because we do not understand how shameful it was to be crucified. To be identified as a follower of a crucified criminal would be horrendous. It would be like finding out your father was a pedophile or a serial killer. You would never want to discuss it or be associated with that person again. But for the Christian, this is our badge of honor.

But we are in a different context today. What our society considers shameful is different than what it was in the first century. No contemporary person would cringe at the idea that Jesus Christ was crucified. So what is our modern-day equivalent? What is the cross to us today?

Perhaps it would be that Jesus Christ clearly teaches that homosexuality is a sin. We will see in a couple chapters that Jesus teaches that marriage is a creation ordinance established by God between one man and one woman. It cannot be two men or two women. By the world’s standards, this is an extremely shameful thing for Christians to believe. Many would go so far as to deny that Christ ever taught anything like this. Are you proud to follow the teachings of Christ in Mark 10?

Perhaps you might consider it shameful to believe that there are only two genders. God created them male and female. No human being is free to choose their gender. They are made by their Creator either male or female. This example might be more shameful than the previous example. Are you proud to believe that God is the sovereign Creator of human gender?

Perhaps you might consider it shameful to believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation and that the Christian Gospel is the only means by which God saves. The world would find that shameful. They would say that everyone’s religious path is their own. They all ultimately lead to the same God or to no God, but they would consider it extremely offensive and shameful to tell any person that their religion is false. Christians believe that Christ is the only way to God. His Gospel is the only Gospel that saves. The thousands of other religions in the world are all false and there is only one true faith. Are you proud of the exclusivity of Christ?

While there might be different things that we find to be shameful, the danger of being embarrassed of Christ is just as real today as it was in the first century. In our second point, we have seen that to participate in the suffering of Christ is to have our minds set on Godly things and to be proud to be a follower of Jesus, regardless of how the world attempts to shame us. It is suffering like Christ suffered that is a strong indication that the Christian is living the Christian life rightly. The world hated Christ, so if we are living like Christ lived then the world should hate us. But our hope is not in how the world treats us, but in the promise that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. It does not matter what the world says about us. It matters what Christ says about us. When we get to the end, if we have not been ashamed of Christ before men, he will not be ashamed of us before his Father.

Conclusion

As we conclude, think about all that we have learned about being a disciple of Jesus the last two weeks. Last week, we saw that to be a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth is to understand that he is the Christ. He is the Messiah, the only hope of salvation. To be a disciple of Jesus is to know the right things. If you do not know Jesus this way, then you do not know him at all. He is not just a teacher of morality or another one of the prophets, he is the very Son of God, the hope of all of men.

Last week we also learned that the disciples of Jesus must have new hearts. The promise of the New Covenant is that the Holy Spirit will give Jesus’s disciples new hearts that can see clearly. He will take out our heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. This supernatural work of the Spirit is called regeneration. All of Jesus’s disciples have regenerate, living spiritual hearts.

This week, we have seen that being a disciple of Jesus is not just about what you know, but how you live. The disciple of Jesus cannot be ashamed of him. Through Peter’s mistake, we learned that we must set our minds on the things of God and not the things of man. Which means that we must be more concerned about what embarrasses God than what embarrasses us. God is not embarrassed by the cross of Jesus Christ, so neither should we.

We also saw that the disciple of Jesus will participate in his death and resurrection. Those are sequential events. We must first suffer like him in order to eventually be resurrected like him. We cannot have one without the other. The disciple dies, daily, by having a counterintuitive, eternal perspective on life and by being proud to follow all of Christ’s teachings, even when the world would consider them to be shameful.

It is possible to follow Jesus but not be his disciple. Being a disciple of Jesus is hard. You were not meant to do it alone. In our call to confession today, Tony read to us out of Philippians 3. One of the reasons that I love that passage of Scripture is that Paul teaches us that the best way to follow Christ is by following a brother or sister that is obviously following him well. It is easier to follow someone fallible than it is to follow Christ, who is perfect.

This is why we need the Church. We need to be in community with those that are a few steps ahead of us on the path. They can tell you where the potholes are or where the path gets particularly steep. They can give you practical wisdom because they know what you are about to go through. Let’s not be a group of individuals, all following Christ in their own ways. Let’s be a group following Christ together. Living through the difficulties together so that we make it to the end together.

Let’s pray.

The Gospel of MarkSam Crites

Sam Crites

Mark 8:31-9:1

Psalm 93

Mark 8:1-30