Mushrooms or Maple Trees:
Spiritual Growth as God Intended
Sermon #1
Sermon Objective: Being a Christ-follower requires an accurate (albeit maybe not always complete) understanding of Jesus Christ’s person and ministry.
INTRO
Mushrooms and Maple Trees; they are strikingly different aren’t they? Each maple tree has a history. It has withstood storms, insects, wild life, and humans. Did you know a maple tree (particularly a sugar maple of a red maple) can grow to be 120 feet tall and 50 feet wide!? They grow gradually but they grow to be massive and majestic. They can dominate a skyline and fill it with majestic color.
Mushrooms? Well, not so much. A mushroom is a fungus. The fruitbody grows about 3-5 inches overnight and is withers away in a matter of days. Here today, gone tomorrow is a pretty good description.
Have you ever observed someone who “got religion” and was transformed with great zeal and rapid growth only to fall away just as rapidly? It is heart breaking isn’t it?
We have observed others who come to Christ and years later they are still following. Their growth is often more steady; it maybe a bit less dramatic but it is deep, permanent, and capable of withstanding life’s storms.
I am convinced that the Father prefers the latter scenario. Jesus’ training with the disciples lasted over three years and it took place in the rough and tumble of life. There was ongoing instruction, correction, and even rebuke. But the result was a team that was thoroughly equipped to withstand intense scrutiny and intense persecution while producing significant fruit. In short, they matured.
Jesus was developing Maple Trees not Mushrooms.
Billy Graham said, “Salvation is free; discipleship will cost everything we have.” As we begin our sermon series from Mark 8 & 9 called “Mushrooms or Maple Trees” it will serve us well to keep that thought in mind.
There are the questions that I pondered as I read Mark 8 and 9.
o What does a life look like that pleases God?
o What does a Christ-follower look like?
There is a shift in the Gospel in at 8:27. Once Peter’s confession is given the ministry of Jesus is redirected; streamlined; more tightly focused. The term “on the way” is used frequently now … we are headed somewhere … to Jerusalem. The chapters leading up to the Passion week (which begins in chapter eleven) move from emphasizing Jesus’ public ministry to chronicling Jesus’ instruction to the twelve.
He begins to answer questions that they have (and many they don’t) in a manner that forces them to face themselves and their future. He answers questions like:
o What does a life look like that pleases God?
o What does a Christ-follower look like?
Mark’s Gospel teaches us the benefits and how-to’s for deep, long lasting growth.
We are going to move from 8:27 through 9:50. We will read more and more of this each week. We are seeking to answer my question … “What kind of a life pleases God?” We will listen to Jesus’ instructions and inspect our lives. In the process, we will grow and be transformed; because we are Maple Trees not Mushrooms.
Read Mark 8:27 – 9:1
Question: What does a life look like that pleases God?
Our passage today illustrates / instructs us on what a life that is following him looks like. As I said, it begins to get very streamlined; more tightly focused, intense, and specific.
The answer has eight parts. But they are not in random order. You must begin with 8:27-33 if you are going to get the answer right.
A life that pleases God is:
1. A LIFE THAT FOLLOWS HIM PERSONALLY (8:27-33)
Mk 8:27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
Mk 8:28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
Mk 8:29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.’”
Mk 8:30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
Mk 8:31 He then began to teach them that 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.
Mk 8:32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Mk 8:33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
The setting is Caesarea Philippi. This is not by accident.
• Caesarea Philippi was at the foot of Mount Hermon, on a shelf of land 1,150 feet above sea level and overlooking the north end of the Jordan River Valley.
• This is a beautiful place and attracts interest in religion—all the religions of the region collided here
• It was originally called Balinas; the center of worship for Baal.
• It became known as Panias (even now know as Banias); the birthplace of the god Pan (god of nature).
• From a cave near here gushed a stream where the river Jordan was believed to spring from … the boundary of Israel / Judaism.
• On the hillside was a gleaming white marble temple which Philip had built to Caesar, the Roman emperor who was considered a god.
• It is here that Peter looks at a homeless Galilean carpenter and sees the savior of the world, the messiah, the Son of God in flesh!
You begin to see where we are headed don’t you? It requires a proper understanding of Jesus in order to follow Him. Not just any old understanding will do.
The disciples begin to summarize the commonly held understandings of Jesus. they knew, as Jesus did, that these summaries missed it entirely.
Then Jesus asks his disciples the crucial question “But what about you? … Who do you say I am?”
The answer come from Peter but certainly speaks for the whole team. “You are the Christ.”
Their answer, like others, is not complete ... BUT AT LEAST IT IS ACCURATE! The disciples still had much to LEARN about what it meant for Jesus to be the “Christ” but they were on the right track. Peter, like us, was a Maple Tree not a Mushroom. This meant growth was sometimes slow but steady and permanent for him.
Jesus now begins to teach his disciples what being the Christ (anointed one) really means.
Peter held a common view of “The Christ.” It was filled with inaccurate baggage. It was a popular messiah who was expected to overthrow the Roman government and take his seat as King.
For this reason, Jesus seems to avoid self-defining terms like Messiah and Christ. He uses another term ... the Son of Man.
o "Son of Man" is by far Jesus’ favorite description of his office in the Gospels.
o On seventy nine different occasions Jesus refers to Himself as the "Son of Man" in the Gospels. He does it seventeen times in Mark alone.
o No one else, neither his friends nor his foes, refer to Jesus as by this title.
o Jesus considered "Son of Man" to be a messianic title (Daniel 7:3) because, immediately following Peter’s confession of him as the Christ, he began to teach them that the Son of Man (equivalent to Christ in 8:29) must suffer, and die, and be raised from the dead.
Jesus sense of purposefulness and teachings are strong but strange … “MUST” suffer and “MUST” be killed.
Jesus’ instructions about who He was got through to Peter; but Peter didn’t like it.
• One minute Peter is saying words that only could have come from God and the next minute he is saying words that could only have come from Satan!
• One minute Peter was a rock and the next he was a stumbling block.
• That’s because Peter, like us, was a Maple Tree not a Mushroom. This meant growth was sometimes slow but steady and permanent.
Peter was opposing the divine will. He had in mind that popular messiah concept. That was the way the world thought. Peter was thinking in human terms and was, therefore serving as an “adversary” to God’s plan for the Son of Man.
The disciples were yet to understand the core of what it means to follow Jesus … they did not understand the unique central defining element of Jesus included (indeed highlighted) a SUFFERING SAVIOUR.
They could not grasp the reason for a cross. Without the cross there is no salvation … no redemption … no pardon from sin … no reconciliation … no appeasement of wrath. "Christianity" without the cross is not Christianity at all, but a shabby, slimy substitute.
WRAP-UP
Jesus stands at the cross-roads of many religions and asks his followers who they thought he was. Then he teaches them even more about himself.
Knowing Jesus as a good and noble leader of men (or even a king) is not enough. Jesus must be understood as the Suffering Savior and Resurrected Lord. This is a non-negotiable aspect of a Christ-follower. It is the beginning point. To miss this means the following seven components will be inconsequential.
You see, TO PLEASE GOD WE MUST FOLLOW HIM PERSONALLY. We must come to him as Savior and Lord. Beware of getting the cart before the horse – your journey must start here.
Jesus’ mission on earth is ABOUT YOU HAVING A SPIRITUAL NEED YOU CAN NOT FILL AND GOD HAVING THE RESOURCES TO FILL THEM.
Jesus’ mission on earth is ABOUT YOU HAVING A DESTINY YOU COULD NOT CHANGE AND GOD HAVING THE POWER TO ALTER IT.
Jesus’ mission on earth is ABOUT YOU HAVING A BROKEN RELATIONSHIP YOU CAN NOT MEND AND GOD HAVING THE LOVE TO REPAIR IT.
How does a person follow Jesus personally? You must trust Jesus’ sacrifice to pay the penalty for your sin; you must choose his substitutionary death as opposed to paying for your sins yourself.
Maybe the following acronym from faith (a.k.a trust) will help:
F – is for Forgiveness.
Salvation is only available when one has had their sins forgiven through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Romans 5:8 declares, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
A – is for Available.
Relationship with God is available to everyone but not automatically applied to everyone.
Romans 10:13 says it again, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
I – is for Impossible.
It is impossible to go to have relationship with God any other way than through Jesus Christ’s work on the cross.
Romans 6:23, says "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
T – is for Turn.
We must turn to God. This is a choice we make. We transfer our faith from our own good works to God’s grace.
Romans 10:9 says "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."
H – is for Heaven.
God has provided a place in eternity with Him – God has settled the account and removed the penalty of sin!
Romans 5:1 has this wonderful message, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
