The turning point - Who do you say that I am?

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay at 8:00 15 September 2024. This sermon was not recorded.

Reading Isaiah 50; Mark 8v27-38

Introduction/Background

In today’s NT reading, we are almost in the middle of the book of Mark. Our reading marks a turning point in the book. Until now, the narrative has been mostly positive – miracles and healings. The teaching has been mainly fairly easy, and occasionally it has made things easier for his followers – in Chapter two, for example, he permits them to pick grain and eat on the Sabbath. He starts to draw a crowd, and He becomes well known in the area, and soon has many followers. The crowds follow Him wherever He goes. In chapter 6 the Twelve are learning from him, and practising their new-found skills – healing and driving out demons.

In Caesarea Philippi

Just before our reading today, they were in Bethsaida. Now, they are in the region of Caesarea Philippi, about a day’s walk further away from Jerusalem, and almost as far north as they go. The town is in modern day Lebanon. They are now over 100 miles from Jerusalem.

Caesarea Philippi was a Roman town, dedicated to the god that was the Roman emperor, and before that the god Pan. It had once been called Paneas. It is here that Jesus chooses to ask his question.

“Who do people say I am?”

“Who do people say I am?” Jesus sounds like some insecure celebrity or influencer asking for the uncritical support of his closest followers. That’s not how it is though, the reality is that he is teaching His disciples, and working them gently up to the most important lesson so far.

The answers they report are all quite reasonable considering what they have done and what they have seen. There was an expectation that Elijah would return before the messiah came, but none of the people they have heard from have gone so far as to say that Jesus is the Messiah.

What about you?

So, Jesus narrows the question. “What about you? Who do you say I am?” The disciples have seen things and heard things that the crowd have not. Also, they have seen Jesus closer up and for a much longer time than the crowd. They must suspect more – surely?

The Christ

Peter is the leader of the disciples. I can picture the scene, Jesus asks the question, instantly everyone looks at Peter. What is he going to say? Is there a pause? Does he need time to think about it? Or is this a typical Peter response – the first thing that comes to mind is spoken straight away?

“You are the Christ”. It’s quite a jump. The Christ or the Messiah was, in the popular belief of the time, the one who would restore David’s kingdom. That’s a political and military leader. Three specific things were required:

1. Rebuild or cleanse the Temple
2. Defeat the enemies of God’s people
3. Bring God’s, justice to Israel and then the rest of the world.

Do not tell

Jesus immediately warns them not to tell anyone what Peter has said. He knows that He is not what the popular culture believes that the Christ should be. He is not going to live in a palace, raise an army, or start a war in Israel. That’s probably why he has preferred to call Himself Son of Man. That title mostly just means ‘Human Being’, but in Daniel 7, it undoubtedly refers to the Christ.

Jesus predicts His death

Now, the focus of the teaching changes. It’s no longer about lifestyle, it is about the Christ and what will happen to Him.

“the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”

Jesus is using the suffering servant in Isaiah (52:13-53:12) as the model for how his life will go.

Peter takes Him aside

That’s appalling, Peter has just said out loud that Jesus is the Christ, the glorious leader who will solve all the problems Israel faces, and now Jesus is saying He must suffer and die! So, Peter takes aside.

“Er, Lord, can I have a word with you in private for a minute”.

Of course, it can’t be private, they are out in the open, but Peter can’t take this, he will have to tell Jesus how it really is. Only Matthew gives us some of Peter’s words:

“Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Of course, Peter has a point. Who is going to follow someone whose future is to suffer and to die at the hands of the authorities they are hoping to overthrow? It sounds like madness.

Jesus’s Rebuke

Jesus recognises Peter’s words. He has heard them before. He spent forty days in the desert listening to words exactly like these.

Luke 4:13: When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Now is that time, just when Jesus starts talking to His followers, the ones who He knows will be the basis for the spread of His story, and the redemption of millions, there is Satan, trying his best to kill the church before it is even born.

Jesus’s response, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” is crushing for Peter, but essential for Jesus’s mission.

Jesus’s Teaching

Now, after that drama with Peter, Jesus turns to the crowd, calls them to come closer so that he can begin his teaching.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

Denying Self

Denying yourself, simply means not putting ourselves first, pushing our own desires into the background and focussing on the gospel.

Cross

Taking up your cross, means putting ourselves in the line with the condemned on the way to a Roman crucifixion, death is the only thing that awaits us.

Life

If, at any point, we try to save our lives, we will lose them, but whoever loses their life for the sake of Jesus and for the gospel, will gain eternal life.

Soul / Self

Jesus goes on to say:

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can someone give in exchange for their soul?

The word ‘soul’ here can also be translated self, if read like that perhaps we get a better understanding. If we give up ourself for the world, we have no self to own the world with! I think this is a way of Jesus saying we must be in or out, either we believe he is the Christ or we don’t – there can be no half way position. Verse 38 seems to underline this idea.

End of the gospel

I started by saying we were in the middle of the book, and today’s verses are a turning point. The teaching has changed, in these verses the emphasis is now on belief and sacrifice. As we approach Jerusalem and particularly as we come to the crucifixion narrative and to Jesus’s death, we see that everyone has melted away and Jesus is alone.

It would seem to be madness to follow such a leader, and the world increasingly seems to take that view. As we have seen, even Peter was opposed to God’s plan for redemption because he was thinking in a worldly (or satanic) way.

Challenge

This is our challenge, and one that the church of God faces in every generation, can we look at the world we live in from God’s point of view, when everything around us is telling us that that is madness?

It all hinges on the question that Jesus, at some point, asks each of us: “Who do you say that I am?”

What is your answer this morning?

Do you recognise Him as the Christ?  Are you willing to follow Him to Jerusalem, to death and ultimately receive the resurrection?

Amen