Day 9: Who Do You Say I Am?

Welcome to day nine of our study of the book of Mark. If you were with us last time, the context is, Jesus has just fed 4,000 adults plus families in all likelihood in a very Gentile area. Then the Pharisees are going to come back and the religious rulers, and they're going to say, hey, look buddy, we need a sign. And Jesus is going to talk about hypocrisy, and He's going to warn the disciples about some things they need to watch out for.

And then, Jesus is going to say to the disciples, We've been doing this for a while, Who do people say that I am? And then who do you say that I am? And then we get the great confession of Peter. And then we get the call to discipleship.

And Jesus is going to ask you, and He's going to ask me, who do you say that I am? And then He's going to ask us, do you know where I'm going? And we'll learn it's the cross. And then He's going to say, will you follow Me? So, there's the big picture.

Now let's walk through the text and see the disciples, the Pharisees, and how this works out. We're in chapter 8 of the book of Mark. Let's pick it up in verse 11. The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus to test Him. They asked Him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. Then He left them and got into the boat and crossed to the other side.

Now, think about this. They're asking for a sign. How many miracles has He already done? How many testimonies does He have? Thousands of people are showing up. I mean, this has gone viral before there was viral. I mean, everybody has heard of Jesus. Everyone has stories. Thousands of people have been healed. And now they come and, well, we, we want to sign. You know, on our terms, our way.

And Jesus understands that seeing more things is not going to convince them because they have a hard heart. And now He's going to warn the disciples about the Pharisees and about Herod because there's something that will undermine your faith and my faith and others more than anything else.

Then it goes on to say, The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf that they had with them in the boat. Be careful, Jesus warned. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They discussed with one another and said, It is because we have no bread. Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? And then notice this, Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see? And ears but fail to hear?

When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied. And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets of pieces did you pick up? They answered, seven. He said to them, Do you still not understand?

You know, when I read this, a couple thousand years later, there's part of me that can be fairly critical. Guys, what part of this don't you get? And then I realize God's answered some pretty big prayers in my life, and I'm sure in many of yours. And yet we still kind of live on this level of the, the material.

And what He's trying to tell them is, Why are you so focused and so uptight about are you going to have enough to eat? Broadly speaking, what He's really saying is, why are you so concerned about material things and if I'm going to provide for you when I'm trying to teach you some things that are far more important?

And so, He tells them, look, you know. Twelve basketfuls. Seven basketfuls. The yeast that I'm talking about. I know there's yeast in bread, but your hearts are so hard. Could you kind of get down to a little bit deeper level and understand? Yeast is something very small that you can't see, that multiplies and left to itself makes a huge impact. And so, what He's saying to them is that it's the hypocrisy. It's the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. It's the hypocrisy of Herod.

It's this positioning and this posing. These are the things that you have to beware of, and that we have to beware of. Right? I mean, we can all put on a good show. We can all pose as though everything is going better. We can act like we love people. We can go to church. We, we can smile. We can act like, oh, things are great. When in reality, we're all broken. We all have struggles.

But what you have to do is you have to be honest about those things, and even more so for those of you involved in church ministry, and whether you're leading a small group or you're a deacon or you're an elder or you're on staff or a pastor or in a parachurch ministry, the dangers are super more heightened because we feel this pressure that I need to project what's true, you know, I need to project this is, this is the Jesus life. And you would be surprised or maybe you wouldn't be surprised of the number of Christian leaders that I've spent time with over the last 35 or 40 years.

And, the level of hearing them speak or, maybe reading a book that they've written that is great content and very, very helpful. And having a private conversation in a green room and hearing a joke or something off color and you say to yourself, Lord, you know, I'm not perfect and, but we've got to be real. If you look at what's happened across America, as we've seen moral failures and this deconstruction of faith, what we have to do is when we have issues, we need to own them, we need to bring them to the surface, and we need to deal with them. That's authentic Christianity. No one has it all together. No one's perfect. Uh, we don't air all of our dirty laundry, but we've got to be real with people.

And Jesus is wanting them to understand, the Pharisees, that religion, those traditions, that hypocrisy, it's death. Or Herod, he's about power. And what he does is he'll project whatever, and he wants power. And his hypocrisy is that, man, I'm going to rule everything, and at the same time he's got another man's wife.

So, what He's going to help them see is that, guys, you're spiritually blind. In order to help them see that seeing is a progressive process of learning the truth, applying the truth, and seeing from God's perspective, Mark throws in a miracle here.

So that they can visually see the process of what needs to happen in them with their spiritual eyes. It says they came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When He had spit on the man's eyes and put His hands on him, Jesus said, Do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people. They look like trees walking around.

Once more, Jesus put His hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened. His eyesight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home saying, Don't go into the village.

So again, He wants to keep the crowds away because He wants to have a private conversation. The disciples have talked about hypocrisy now. Jesus has done some extra explaining. We learn from the other Gospels. Now He heals this person in a sort of one part, two part, where they see partially and then they see fully. And now He's going to go to the, jugular, if you will, the real key issue that He wants them to understand.

Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, He asked them, Who do people say that I am? They replied, Some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. And still others, one of the prophets.

Here's the moment of truth. But what about you, He asked. Who do you say that I am? Peter answered, You are the Christ. The other Gospel writers say you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. In other words, You're the Messiah. You're the one we've waited for. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about this.

Note, this is one of the times where Jesus tells them, look, don't make that public. It's true. You've got it. Don't make this public because the moment He goes completely public, and He will later, and say I am the Messiah, that will be the turning point where He will be killed. And His time's not ready yet. He's training the disciples.

So, they've come and they've said yes. You are the Christ and, of course, the other gospel writers say, Peter gets it about half right. In other words, that blind man, it was a progress. He saw, but not completely clear, and then he saw fully. Peter has now seen you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. But he doesn't have it fully clear.

Notice he then, verse 31, began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. This is now where the entire book is shifting. Who am I and where am I going. Now this is who I am. And now He's now told them, I'm going to go to the cross.

Let's pick it up at verse 32. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. Out of my sight, Satan, He said, you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

I just want to make this point. I have a professor who wrote a short little book about, leadership development. And one of the lines in that book that stuck with me, you have to be careful that you don't try to do the will of God in the power of the flesh. He says, you want to do the will of God, but there's a lot of people who they want the crown, but they don't want the cross. And this is exactly what Peter's doing. Peter's saying, wait a second, I believe You're the Messiah. My theology is correct. Lord, You're from God. I believe it. I've seen the miracles. I've declared it with my mouth. God's revealed it to me. I'm on Your team.

And then, when You talked about suffering and being rejected and dying and suffering, Peter takes Him and says, Hey, Lord, that's not, that's not part of the plan. You need to understand I want all of You on my terms. But let's forget the cross. This suffering stuff is not what I signed up for. What I signed up for was You and loving You and the Messiah and my life being changed and all the joy and being used by You and casting out demons and seeing the Kingdom come. Right? We all do that.

And Jesus rebukes him and notice what He says, You don't have your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men. You want God's will your way on your terms. And before we get to this last little section, I just have to say, that is a reality and a challenge for all Christians. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say, I think for some of the most committed Christians, you know, you really want to follow God. You're really serious. So, many of you are really in the Bible. You want to do God's will. And then He brings you to this point of absolute surrender.

If you're going to be used by Me, and if you're going to follow Me, the Calvary Road, ends at a cross. It's death to self. It's death to personal agenda. It's death to my way.

And so, notice what Jesus then says. Picking it up in verse 34. Then He called the crowd to Him, along with His disciples. He said, If anyone would come after Me, he must, one, deny himself, and two, take up his cross, and three, follow Me. Well, here's the reason. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it.

And then here's the logic. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? And then here's a kicker. If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory and with His holy angels.

So, notice what He says. He says, Peter, not only, is this not going to be your way? He says, I want everyone to understand. If you want to be a disciple of Mine, if you want to be an apprentice of Mine, if you want to follow in the way, if you want to experience life and peace and joy and forgiveness and an absolute commitment to be in Heaven with Me forever and ever, He says, here’s what you need to do. You need to, first of all, deny yourself. It's My agenda, not your agenda.

Second, you take up your cross. That means it's an instrument of death. I'm dying to myself. Like Jesus died on the cross, I will die to my agenda, my will, and I will pray and live out what Jesus prayed in the garden. Father, not My will, but Your will be done. It was these kind of Christians that were completely sold out to Jesus that changed the world.

It was people who understood this isn't like a salad bar spirituality. This isn't like, oh Jesus, I really love You, and this part of what You say, I agree with. Uh, this part on sexuality, I'm not, I don't really think that's really relevant today. Oh Jesus, I'm for You 100%, but you know, this stuff about greed or not storing up material things. You know, you just, you just didn't have a good enough financial planner.

We explain away so many of the passages, when what Jesus is saying to us is, You don't get it. I have your best in mind. What will it profit you if you gain the whole world and you forfeit your soul? And this is two-fold. This isn't just about an eternal relationship. There are people that are genuinely born again. They really know Jesus, but they want to play both sides of it. I want to follow You, but on my terms and my way. And they invest their life in lots of things that don't have any eternal value.

And they find themselves sometimes with a lot of success, sometimes with quite a bit of financial gain, and a lot of emptiness. You know, I have a very unique job in some ways and I've had thousands of private conversations. I mean, that's what pastors do, right? You teach God's Word and you try to shepherd people's souls and you help them make it through difficult times and you rejoice when a baby's born and maybe they get a new job or a marriage is restored or, I've had a lot of rewards, but I've had a lot of very confidential conversations.

I just cannot tell you the scores and scores of conversations of people that knew Jesus, trusted Jesus, were in His Word, but on their terms. And He wasn't Lord, or He was Lord of 80 percent of their life. And this other 20%, you know what, I'm going to do my way. It's often about business. It's often about, sometimes it can be family and kids. Sometimes it can be money.

You know, He speaks to them, and I cannot tell you the number of people that in their late 40s or early 60s, you know, God called me and, and made it really clear I needed to take this job, or I needed to go into vocational ministry, or I needed to break off that relationship, or I needed to sell that house, or I needed to stop associating with that group of people. And I waffled. And I said, you know, I can handle this. And then they tell me a story of a of a life that they wish they could do over, or at least a decade or two.

And Jesus is trying to prevent you and me from wasting our lives. And He says with all boldness, I want the best for you. But if you want the crown that's in this life and in the future, I want every disciple to understand there is a cross. You must follow Me to the cross, even as He says not My will but Thy will be done. You have to and I have to.

My first big test was with a girl that I was convinced I was going to marry. We dated for a year and a half. She visited my family. I visited her family. There was only one tiny problem. She was a Christian. She loved God. She was beautiful. I was deeply in love with her. And she said, I have to live in the house across the street from my parents. Because they had me when, you know, they were older.

And I feel responsible. And I felt I had to follow Jesus no matter what, and I knew that was going to mean probably traveling around, to some degree, regardless of what I did. And it was [a] crossroads. I mean, I broke up with her in obedience to Christ, and I'm not exaggerating, I cried for a year. She was beautiful. I loved her. She loved me. But it wasn't the, it wasn't the right vision.

Later on, I remember, finding myself in the Philippines and playing basketball, sharing Christ early on, and um, I had a decision to make. God made it really clear, I want you to go into full time ministry. At the time, I'm coaching, I'm teaching, I love what I do. Hey, God, I'm leading Bible studies. I'm in this college ministry. I want to be a great college coach. I want, I want them to say, There was Bobby Knight. There's Coach K. And then there's Chip. Good old Chipper.

And, and you know, that's where I felt comfortable. That was my passion. And God says, I've given you an opportunity and I've given you a gift to teach My Word, now. And the cost, it was like, Lord, I've been to college and, you know, I kind of like school and then I went to graduate school, another couple years, but, oh, the thought of going back to school and learning the Bible and seminary, and by the way, I'm married, by the way, you know what, I've got these two little kids, are you like kidding, it's a four year program, I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it, okay, I will. And you know something, I'm so glad I did.

And I just don't want you to miss out. If you have never said yes to Jesus as Savior, I encourage you to ask Him to forgive you of your sins and ask Him to forgive you and ask Him to come into your life right now.

Now, if you're a follower of Jesus and you have never said, I'm all in, I'll do whatever You want me to do, I'll deny myself, I take up my cross, I'll follow You from this day forward, if you've never done that, do it right now. Just do it right now. It's a decision followed by progressive actions. He's kind. He's understanding. He's going to help you fulfill that commitment. But if you want the life that's really life, it means you have to give up your life and take on His.

Lord, I pray that even as these words came out of my mouth, and hearts and minds received them, that You would grant them grace and perspective to not be spiritually blind, but to see clearly, receive You as Savior, and surrender their life fully as Lord. In Christ's name. Amen.