Last week I said that we were entering a stage of Jesus’s ministry in which there was a transition. It was a transition from Him primarily preaching and ministering to the multitudes, to His ministry primarily being focused on the disciples. Jesus knew that it would be less than a year until He is taken away from them, and they must continue to carry out His ministry. And so He wants to prepare them for His departure.
But there is another transition in His ministry, and that is that He is slowly but inexorably heading for the cross. In this passage we see that He has gone far to the north, to Caesarea Philippi;, but from this point on He will be moving from north to south, on the way to Jerusalem to be crucified. That is His goal, His purpose, His mission. To present Himself as an offering for sin, by His death on the cross, so that He might save those that are lost.
It’s noteworthy that this event is preceded by the healing of the blind man, who was healed in two stages. You remember last week we looked at the healing of this man, who when Jesus first anointed His eyes, he said he saw men like trees walking around. Then Jesus touched his eyes again, and the man began to see clearly.
That incident illustrates what happens as Jesus ministers particularly to the disciples. They are given spiritual discernment so that they might recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And yet their spiritual vision is still not clear. They see Jesus in an unclear way, as pertaining to the interests of man, but not the mission of God. However, for three of the disciples, Peter, John, and James, they will receive even more insight when they see Jesus after this event, transfigured before them on the mount of transfiguration.
But today we’re going to look at the first stage of their spiritual discernment. Let’s read starting in verse 27, Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, "Who do people say that I am?" They told Him, saying, "John the Baptist; and others [say] Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.”
This has obviously been a source of great debate during the ministry of Jesus. We’ve seen this sort of question voiced time and again by the multitudes and by the Pharisees, and by everyone that heard Jesus teach and saw the great miracles which He was doing. Some have said, “never a man spoke like this man,” when they heard Him speak. Others, such as the Pharisees, said that He performed miracles by the power of Beelzebub. That is by the power of Satan. It seems everyone had an opinion about Him, but there seemed to be no consensus.
The disciples echo answer Him, saying some say You are John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others one of the prophets. It seemed evident to the people that John the Baptist was a prophet of God. And yet it’s odd that they would think Jesus was John the Baptist, because one, John had baptized Jesus, and two, John was now dead. But nevertheless, some such as Herod thought that John had risen from the dead and was now ministering as Jesus.
Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, had prophesied that Elijah the prophet would arise before the coming of the Messiah. Many people failed to see that John the Baptist was that prophet, and instead thought that Jesus was actually Elijah. And the fact that Elijah never died, but was taken bodily up to heaven gave credence to the idea that he had returned.
But bottom line, the majority of the people thought that Jesus was a prophet, whether a prophet risen from the dead or not, they believed He was a no more than a prophet. Though it’s doubtful that the Pharisees even accepted that. But they knew the common people believed that.
Even today, most religions of the world believe that Jesus was a prophet of God. Islam, for instance, believes that Jesus was a prophet, and that Mohammed was a prophet. Jesus, in their view, is no greater than Mohammed. He is just a prophet. The Bahai Faith believes Jesus was a prophet, as well as Mohammed and others. Many religions accept that Jesus is a prophet. The Jews believed the greatest prophet was Moses. But Jesus is far greater than even Moses. Heb. 3:3 says, For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.
So then Jesus asks another question to the disciples. Vs 29 And He [continued] by questioning them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ.” Matthew’s account says that Peter added “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Matthew’s account also says that Jesus responds to Peter in Mat 16:17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal [this] to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Now unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church has completely misinterpreted this passage and somehow deduced that Jesus was instituting Peter as the first pope and whatever the pope said ex cathedra was as the vicar of Christ and had as much authority as the words of Christ. And I don’t have time this morning to deal with all of that, except to say that is not the meaning of this statement, and that’s not what Jesus was saying.
But let’s consider what Jesus did say. First of all, Jesus said that His identity could only be discerned spiritually. You must be given spiritual eyes to see spiritual truth. Jesus is saying that the logic and reason of man cannot discern spiritual things. If one is saved by believing in Jesus Christ, then there must be a supernatural healing that takes place, whereby the blind are given sight, so that they might see and believe.
According to human reason, His own townspeople had become incensed at Him and said, Who does He think He is? We knew Him when He grew up here, with His brothers and sisters and His mother. And they tried to throw Him off a cliff. So there must be spiritual sight given in order to believe. And Peter and the disciples had been given that sight.
The negative thing about Peter’s confession is not seen that clearly on our part, but it becomes more clear from the text following. That is that Peter and the disciples had an incomplete view of the Messiah. All the Jews had been looking for and yearning for the Messiah for hundreds of years. Isaiah and other prophets seemed to promise that when the Messiah came, He would set all things right. He would be the royal Son of David, who would resume the throne, who would vanquish Israel’s enemies, who would rule the over the world from His throne in Jerusalem. He would usher in a time of peace and prosperity such as the world had never seen.
Peter and the disciples do not understand that the Messiah must die for the sins of the world in order to be our Savior. They could not comprehend that. And so in that respect his confession is lacking because his knowledge is incomplete.
So while Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God may be limited by their incorrect theology about the Messiah, it is nevertheless marvelous, it’s spiritually discerning, it recognizes not only that Jesus is the Messiah, which is the Hebrew word that is rendered here in the Greek as Christ, but Peter also recognizes that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. He recognizes the deity of Christ, that He is God incarnate.
And that confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God is the confession of our faith, by which men are saved. Jesus said in Matthew’s account, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of sermons about Peter, which means stone, being a little rock and Jesus being the cornerstone upon which the church is built. And that is correct. But it’s also true that Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of the Living God is the bed rock that Jesus builds His church upon. Because that confession is the means by which a sinner is brought into the church. The church is not a building, but a body of believers. And to be a believer you must believe that Jesus is Lord.
Paul says in Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
That confession is how you are saved, and being saved is how you are brought into the church of Christ. It’s not by walking an aisle and being voted in, or taking a membership class, or even being baptized. Being saved is confessing that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, is your Lord and Savior.
It’s interesting that many years later, as Peter writes his epistle to the church, he uses that same metaphor of a stone, saying in 1Peter 2:4-5 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Now back in our text, in keeping with this transition in Jesus’s ministry to teach the disciples, Mark says in vs 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 was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man’s."
Notice here that Jesus begins to teach them the real mission of the Messiah. They had a wrong view of the ministry of the Messiah as a King who would restore Israel to a place of prominence and prosperity. But Jesus tells them in very plain terms that He would suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. This must have gone in one ear and out the other. Because after His crucifixion, the disciples don’t seem to remember this. They weren’t looking for Jesus to rise from the dead. They were mourning after His death, wondering what it all meant and what they were to do now. But yet Mark says Jesus was stating the matter plainly.
And Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. What does that mean? Matthew says that Peter said, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Maybe he meant, I won’t let it happen to you. Remember Peter would be the one to take a sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest when they came to arrest Jesus before His crucifixion. But I think he is speaking that way because his theology didn’t include Jesus dying for the sins of the world. His theology was more like the prosperity gospel of today, that sees the blessings of God as primarily material and physical. The Messiah is supposed to be their political Savior who creates utopia, not the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
But Jesus turns around and rebukes Peter, and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man’s.” I spoke of this incident a couple of weeks ago as an example of Satan’s influence on a person. Peter is a believer. He has just made the greatest confession of His faith. And yet literally moments later Jesus is calling him Satan. Now you can say that is hyperbole if you want. You can try to explain it any way you want. But the clear meaning of scripture cannot be altered. Jesus called Peter Satan, either addressing directly Satan who is behind Peter’s remarks, or addressing Peter who is perversely influenced by the power of Satan. That doesn’t mean that Peter was demon possessed. But it does mean that even a Christian can be demonically influenced or even controlled to the degree that they give in to him.
Why does Jesus speak this way to him? Why does Jesus speak to Peter as Satan? Because, according to Jesus, he is not setting his mind on God’s interests, but on man’s interests. Satan’s mission is to glorify man. To glorify the flesh. To say that man can be like God. That he can decide between good and evil. That he can decide what is best for himself. Satan’s mission is to glorify man, to make him a god, that can control his fate, that can enjoy his creation, that can reap the fruit of his labor.
You know, these so called Satanists of our day are fools. They think that Satan wants to receive their worship, that they would glorify him. No, Satan’s strategy since the beginning is to get man to glorify himself. His first lie to Eve was to say that you can be like God, to know good and evil. His goal is to get man to worship man. To make man think he is like god. And in so doing, Satan’s strategy is to cause man to rebel against the sovereignty of God and thus condemn himself to eternal hell. Satan’s strategy isn’t to get people to worship him per se, but to get people to worship themselves. He wants to destroy mankind. And getting them to reject God is the most sure way to bring destruction upon the world.
Peter thinks he is being smart. He may even think he is being theologically erudite. But behind his theology is a focus on what he thinks is good for man, not on God’s interests. God’s interest is what is good for man, which is his salvation from his sins that he may receive new life. But Peter’s interests are on what he thinks is good for man, what he thinks God must do in order to bless man.
So Jesus must explain God’s mission more clearly to the disciples which he does starting in vs 34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For 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, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Jesus has just said that He must die and be raised from the dead. And now He explains what that death means, which is death on a cross. But not only is Jesus going to the cross, He says those that wish to come after Him must also take up their cross and follow Him. These disciples were following Jesus. If they didn’t want Him to go to the cross, then it stands to reason they didn’t want to go to the cross either.
But we know that the disciples weren’t crucified with Christ on Golgotha. So what did Jesus mean by that saying? Well, I think He means that if you follow Christ, you have to set your mind on God’s interests and not mans. You must deny the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, and even die to those desires, so that you might live for God’s desires. That speaks of true repentance, ladies and gentlemen. To die to sinful lifestyles, to die to envy, greed, and pride, so that you might live for God’s interests, you might live for righteousness.
Paul speaks of this necessity of death in Col.3:2-5 “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
Jesus explains it further saying in Mark, For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. I think He means there that the man who wishes to preserve his sinful way of life, who wishes to succeed in life irregardless of God’s interests, but focusing on his own worldly, materialistic success, will in fact lose that which he is trying to save.
I was talking to a woman the other day who had lost her brother to an untimely death due to illness. And she was explaining how her brother who was a military veteran was a prepper. A prepper is someone who is preparing for the apocalypse. He is preparing for a melt down of society and law and order, and all the social chaos that would come as a result of it. This man had saved a small fortune in gold and silver bars. He had purchased many guns and lots and lots of ammunition. He had all kinds of generators and battery chargers and supplies. He had even bought these giant metal shipping containers and built an underground compound that he could live in until it was safe to come out. And then he got cancer and died at a relatively early age. He had made every preparation in order to survive, in order to live regardless of what happened. But I can’t help but wonder if he was prepared to die. I can’t help but wonder if he prepared to meet God.
Jesus said to His disciples, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? The media seems to make so much out of billionaires and the movie stars and whoever has the most money. And yet what reward is it really to die a billionaire and not be right with God? You can’t take your money with you. A billion dollars on earth doesn’t have any value in heaven. Hebrews 9 says, it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
Jesus spoke of that judgment in the parallel account in Mat 16:27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS. There is going to be a judgment for every man, when every thought and every deed will be examined in light of what you believed about Jesus Christ.
Jesus went on to say in Mark’s account, vs38 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
What are you trusting in today? Are you trusting in the value of your 401K, your IRA? Are you trusting in your ability to be financially independent? Or have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, who has forgiven your sins and given you eternal life? I urge you to repent and confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that you might obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment