Who Do You Say That I Am? Part 2
The Book of Mark
Mark 8:27-33
I. Introduction.
A. Answering the question that Jesus posed in the passage we are studying is one of the most crucial things you can do.
B. Every one has an answer to this question when you think of it.
1. It is a question that few ever really sit around and consider.
2. Very few people articulate the question.
3. But it is a question that we have an answer to none the less.
C. As we pointed out last week, there are a lot of different answers out there.
1. In the secular world as well as religious circles.
2. A prophet a priest a great teacher, a healer of infirmities.
3. He is all of these things by the way.
4. Those are all accurate answers to the question but there is only one right answer.
II. The second question.
A. The second question brings the focus to the individual.
1. Who do you yourselves say that I am?
2. They had been beating around the bush and Jesus is personalizing it.
B. They had been watching and listening and learning now for over two years.
C. They had left their livelihoods and their families to follow Him.
D. They had been tested and stretched in their lives.
E. Now the time comes to see if they had internalized what they had observed.
III. The right answer.
A. You are the Christ.
1. Luke says the Christ of God.
2. Matthew records the Christ the Son of the Living God.
3. Peter answers the question but since he is the main spokesman for the group it was an answer shared by them all.
B. What is the significance of this statement?
1. The Christ.
a) Ho Christos GR. Heb. Messiah.
b) The word means to be anointed or consecrated or set apart.
c) The word is used in a general sense to identify certain offices.
(1) Priests.
(2) Kings
(3) Prophets.
(4) It is used to describe the Patriarchs of the nation of Israel.
d) In a specific sense the word is used to describe God’s special anointed one Jesus.
(1) Ps.2:2
(2) Dan 9:25-26.
(3) Jn.1:40,41.
e) A survey of the OT prophecies and statements concerning Christ reveals that what took place in the NT Gospels was the plan all along.
(1) Messiah would be born of a virgin – Isaiah 7
(2) Messiah would heal and restore – Isiah 61
(3) Messiah would be cut off – killed Dan 9
(4) Messiah would reign on David’s throne Is.9
f) However the view of the Jews had become so narrow that by the time Jesus arrived, the messianic hope lay only in a political/military ruler who would deliver them from the oppression of the Romans and restore Israel to its former glory.
g) They failed to see the 2 advents of the messiah.
(1) The first as the suffering sacrificial Lamb of God.
(2) The second as the conquering Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
2. So Jesus asks the disciples the question and they give the right answer.
3. It isn’t the first time they have said it.
a) Jn.1:41 Andrew said it when he told Peter about Jesus for the first time.
b) Jn.1:49 Nathanael
c) Jn.6:69 when Jesus popularity was waning and He asked if the disciples were going to leave Him.
4. The difference is found in Matt.16:17
C. It is impossible to answer this question apart from the Spirit of God.
1. “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father who is in heaven.”
a) The natural man cannot understand the things which are spiritual 1Cor.2:1-10, 14.
b) The disciples would never have come to this conclusion on their own.
c) This is the point at which this band of men became true believers.
(1) It wasn’t a result of intellectual considerations.
(2) It wasn’t a result of finally getting it after all this time.
2. It was direct intervention by the Father.
3. This is something we often miss but it is a biblical truth.
a) Jn.1:12-13
b) Jn.6:37,44,65
c) Eph.2:8-9
d) 2Tim.1:9 Paul said talking about God.. “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,”
e) Peter himself understood this later 1Pet.1:2.
4. This is so very important.
a) We are saved only because of what God has done for us.
b) Not because of anything we have done or will do or can do.
c) As a result we can truly and freely worship God because it really is all about Him. 1Pet.1:3.
D. He told them to tell no one of this. Jn.18:36.
1. He uses a very strong word to warn them not to tell anyone.
2. It was a stern warning almost a rebuke.
3. The disciples did not fully understand the implications of Jesus’ messiahship yet as was made clear in the next verses.
4. Not only did they not understand yet but the people understood it even less.
5. So Jesus didn’t want it to be revealed until the right time – Palm Sunday and ultimately after His resurrection.
6. His reason is made painfully clear in the next verses.
IV. The wrong response vs.31-33
A. It’s a good thing that Peter wasn’t saved because of his works or his faith because he would have lost it right after vs.31.
B. Jesus begins here to prepare the disciples for what lay ahead in the next few months.
1. He had to first become the suffering savior before He could be the conquering King vs.31.
2. He spoke of His suffering and His resurrection.
3. “Must suffer”
a) It was inevitable.
b) There was no bypassing the cross.
C. He spoke openly.
1. Up until now He had made veiled references to these things.
a) Parables.
b) Symbolically – tear this temple down and in three days I will raise it up.
2. Now He spoke plainly and frankly about those things which lay ahead.
3. The word is in the imperfect mood which indicates a continuing dialogue.
a) AMk.9:31
b) Mk10:33.
D. Peter missed the point vs.32b.
1. He uses the same word that Jesus used just a few moments earlier.
2. A very strong admonition.
3. You can picture Peter taking Jesus’ arm and moving Him away from the others.
E. From the pinnacle to the pits in ten seconds or less vs.33.
1. In the midst of Peter’s rebuke Jesus turns back to the other disciples so they would hear.
2. He reminds Peter that his perspective has to be vertical not horizontal.
3. When we fail to keep this perspective the “things of men” cloud our understanding of God’s work in our lives.
4. If we have the right answer but the wrong perspective we fail to understand why thingsA happen the way they do.
5. We fail to see God at work in the circumstances we are faced with.
6. The lesson we can learn from this is that our Christian life is a process.
a) We all start the same way – by a sovereign act of God.
b) But our daily life is a process of becoming more and more acquainted with God and His purpose in our lives.
(1) We don’t know the whole story but God does.
(2) We need to learn to trust Him in every situation.
7. The disciples learned these things but it took several months of instruction and ultimately the resurrection for it to sink in.
a) 1Pet.2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed.
b) 1Pet.3:18For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
8. We have the advantage of reading about the process they went through so we have a head start as it were.
V. Conclusion:
A. Who do you say that I am?
B. That is one of the most crucial questions you can ever answer.
C. If God has put the right answer in your heart you have embarked on great adventure that will have it’s ups and downs but will ultimately end in heaven with Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
D. In the mean time we can rejoice in the fact that God is at work in our lives.
