#36 Be a Loser!
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
February 7, 2021
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TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 8:27.
INTRODUCTION
Winning the lottery isn’t an assured ticket to the good life, as these previous winners can attest:
• Jack Whittaker, a West Virginia businessman, won $315 million in the Powerball lottery in 2002, the largest jackpot ever from a single ticket in American history at that time. – After being robbed of $545,000 in cash while at a strip club, Whittaker’s granddaughter and daughter were later found dead, and he was sued by Caesars Atlantic City casino for bouncing $1.5 million in checks to cover gambling losses.
• Billy Bob Harrell, a preacher who stocked shelves at Home Depot struck it rich in 1997, winning $31 million in the Texas lottery. – 20 months later, after divorcing his wife and buying a half-dozen homes for relatives, he committed suicide with a shotgun.
• In 1996 Jeffrey Dampier and his wife won $20 million in the Illinois lottery and used the money to buy relatives homes and to start a gourmet popcorn shop in Florida. – Nine years later, Dampier was kidnapped and killed by his sister-in-law and her boyfriend who targeted him for money.
Winning fame or fortune sometimes means losing in life.
In your mind, answer this question: “__[BLANK] is for losers.”
• Someone who drives a BMW might say: “Fords are for losers.”
• A burly football player might say: “Soccer is for losers.”
• A foodie might say: “Frozen pizza is for losers.”
Now if you like one of those things, even if those comments were offered in jest, you might not let others know it because no one wants to be thought of as a loser. That’s why people try to keep up with the latest fashions and technology, or at least do their best to fake that they’re keeping up, because no one wants to be thought of as a loser.
Today’s Bible text teaches that being a loser isn’t a bad thing in the Christian life. In fact, it’s essential! That’s because God’s best life for you is for losers, and for losers only. That’s the surprising claim Jesus makes in our text this morning. But there’s much more Jesus teaches in this text too, so let’s take a closer look at it.
I. NOTICE FIRST, A LIFE-CHANGING CONFESSION IN MARK 8:27-30 – “...Jesus and his disciples went out into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ 28 And they answered, ‘John the Baptist, but some say, Elijah, and others, one of the prophets.’ 29 And he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ 30 And he warned them not to tell anyone about him.”
On the way to Caesarea Philippi, Jesus paused to ask the disciples two questions. Jesus often used questions as springboards for new teaching. His first question was general: “Who do PEOPLE say that I am.”
The disciples echo the predominant views of the day.
• Some said he was JOHN THE BAPTIST. – This was absurd, of course, since John the Baptist lived contemporaneously with Jesus, but it was out there on Facebook and Twitter: So it must have been true, right?
• Some claimed Jesus was Elijah back from the dead.” – Elijah was considered the greatest of the prophets and it was believed Elijah would play a key role in the establishment of the Messiah’s kingdom, so this one might have made some sense.
• Finally, the disciples said, “Some say you’re one of the prophets.”
To identify Jesus with these people was to rank Him among the stellar figures in Israel’s history, which gives us an idea of how esteemed Jesus was in the popular imagination. Yet these comparisons are wholly inadequate. To compare Jesus to any of these luminaries—or as many say today that He was the greatest teacher who ever lived—sounds like an honor, but such comparisons ultimately deny Jesus’ uniqueness and puts Him on the level of mere humans. The authority and power Jesus shows throughout the gospels do not allow us to define Him in any way other than as the unique Son of God—God in human flesh.
But Jesus wasn’t so much interested in who the MULTITUDES thought Jesus was, but in what THEY—His disciples—thought. Jesus offered his first question to prime them, because it’s usually easier to give someone else’s opinions than to venture your own opinion.
So Jesus gets personal: “‘But who do YOU say that I am?’” I think there was a pause, as the disciples digested this more personal question. The Peter, the big mouth of the group, spoke up, probably echoing what he had discussed with the other disciples, and thus voicing what they all thought. He said: ‘You are the Christ.’
What did Peter’s declaration mean? In calling Him the Christ, Peter was not just giving Jesus another name, but ascribing to Him A TITLE. The term Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew Mashiach (or as we say, Messiah,”) which in both Hebrew and Greek means “the Anointed One.” Peter was recognizing that Jesus was the long-awaited Anointed One promised throughout the Old Testament who would overthrow Israel’s enemies, regather the Jews from the four corners of the world and make Jerusalem and Palestine the center of the world, thus establishing the perfect reign of God.
Seeing that they all agreed with this assessment of Jesus, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone yet about His identity. The timing was not right. Soon enough His identity would be admitted openly…and all of them would be caught up in a maelstrom of both tumultuous and rapturous events.
II. IN VERSES 31-33 JESUS GIVES THE DISCIPLES A NEW REVELATION ABOUT MESSIAH – “And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and by the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spoke this openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when he had turned around and saw his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’”
The Jews saw the Messiah as a conquering foe who would deliver them from the many tyrannies they had suffered under since the glory days of kings David and Solomon. But Jesus tells the disciples some things about God’s kingdom which they had not learned from the rabbis. He told them the Son of Man must suffer many things, that He would be rejected by the Jewish leaders, that He would be killed and rise again after three days. Of course, these things had been prophesied in Isaiah 52 and 53, but most Jews just could not comprehend what those scriptures meant in relation to Messiah. They wanted a conquering victor—NOW, NOT a suffering Savior—ever!
Notice that Jesus accepts Peter’s evaluation of who He is, and in fact, Jesus confirms it by referring to Himself as “the Son of Man” in verse 31, which was a recognized title in the Old Testament for the Messiah.
Notice also that Jesus said that the Son of Man MUST suffer these things. In John’s Gospel, Jesus told Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so MUST the Son of man be lifted up,” speaking of His crucifixion. (John 3:14) – “Must”—a statement of necessity. Later, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter reminded the Jews that Jesus was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.” (Acts 2:23)
It had all been pre-arranged in heaven before time began. Jesus MUST suffer and die and rise again. There was no other way to provide salvation for humans.
Mark tells us in verse 32 that Jesus “spoke this openly.” In other words, He didn’t speak in code; He gave it to them straight; He completely leveled with them about what was ahead for Him…and for THEM. Jesus is preparing His disciples for what was to come.
As you can imagine, this was shocking news to the disciples. In fact, verse 32 says Peter pulled Jesus aside to rebuked Him for such silly talk. The Greek word translated rebuke means a sharp reproval; a decisive censure; a clear reprimand. It is the same word used elsewhere of rebuking DEMONS and later in the New Testament letters for rebuking FALSE TEACHERS. This is what Peter thought about the things Jesus was telling them: He thought Jesus was teaching false doctrine. It’s not what the rabbis had taught them, so he was going to set Jesus straight!
Verse 33 says that Jesus turned his back on Peter and rebuked the source of his misconception about His mission: ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” The word for rebuke here is the same word used earlier of Peter’s rebuke of Jesus. But the rebuke is not really addressed to Peter himself. It was addressed to Satan, whom Peter was unwittingly being a spokesman for. Peter was parroting human values, not the plans and purposes ordained by God. The way of the Cross was God’s will and Jesus refused to turn from it.
III. IN VERSES 34-38, JESUS GAVE AN HONEST ASSESSMENT OF THE DEMANDS OF DISCIPLESHIP.
Verse 34 says, “And when he had called the people to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
I’ve heard some ridiculous explanations of this verse. Some people think it’s talking about giving up things for God.
Illus. – One time a man developed a love for chocolate to help him quit smoking. It worked, but eventually he had to ration himself to 6 chocolates a day. Every year during the weeks of Lent leading up to Easter, he’d open up a box of chocolates, look inside and then tell the Lord that he would not eat any candy as a token of his love for Jesus. He called it “denying himself” and “taking up his cross.”
Well, I hate to break it to you: denying yourself of chocolates may help your weight, but that’s not what Jesus is talking about here.
I’ve heard people say that living with a difficult spouse or going through trials in this life was their “cross to bear,” and this too completely misses the point.
Other people see the cross as a superstitious protection from danger.
JOKE: There’s the story of a soldier frantically digging in during battle as shells fall all around him. Suddenly his hand feels something metal and he pulls out a silver cross. Another shell explodes and he buries his head in his arms. Suddenly someone jumps in the foxhole with him and he looks over and sees…an Army chaplain. The soldier thrusts the cross in the chaplain’s face and says, “Boy am I glad to see you. How do you work this thing?”
To understand what Jesus was saying, you have to first see this verse in the context of this chapter and also understand the cultural context: that is, to see what the cross meant to people in that day.
• Textually, in the previous verses (verses 31-33), Jesus had made it very clear that His path led to self-denial, and suffering…and a cross. – So when Jesus is talking about self-denial and suffering in this verse, He’s basically calling His disciples to follow in His steps in suffering for His cause.
• Culturally, the cross in that day was not pretty jewelry around their necks; rather it was an instrument of torture and suffering and death. – Wearing a cross as jewelry back then would be like wearing a beautiful miniature electric chair or a hangman’s noose around our necks today!
The point is, Jesus was laying out the realities for those who aspired to follow Him. It would involve two things:
First, it would require denying self. To deny yourself means to turn from self-centeredness and every attempt to orient your life by your own self-interests. It’s to follow wholeheartedly the will of God, even if it means great sacrifice and hardship.
Second, it means to take up the cross of Christ. In Jesus’ day, bearing one’s cross conjured up the sight of a condemned man forced to demonstrate his SUBMISSION to Rome by carrying the crossbeam through the city to his place of execution. So to “take up our cross” is to accept our submission to Jesus against whom we had previously rebelled.
These two requirements of discipleship signify your TOTAL allegiance to Jesus and TOTAL relinquishment of everything you have to Him.
Jesus continues in verse 35 – “For whoever will save his life will lose it; but whoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Jesus is not talking about the cost of our salvation here because salvation is free. Romans 6:23 says, “…the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” There are many other scriptures that teach us the freeness of salvation.
Today, when we talk of “saving souls” we’re usually referring to people being saved eternally from sin and God’s judgment in hell. So it may surprise you to know that nowhere in the Bible, in either the Old or New Testaments, does the phrase “save a soul” ever refer to eternal salvation. It always refers to preserving or rescuing someone’s LIFE.
Notice something else with me from here in Mark: Notice the word “life” twice in verse 35, and then the word “soul” twice in verses 36-37. Actually, the same Greek word, psuche, is used in all four cases. Psuche can mean the spiritual part of a person in some contexts, but in others it refers to one’s physical life. Even in English we sometimes use the word soul in the sense of “life,” as when we say, “The ship went down and 200 souls were rescued.” What we mean is 200 LIVES were saved.
So if Jesus wasn’t talking about our eternal salvation here, what was He teaching? In this passage Jesus teaches us the cost of discipleship. Billy Graham said, “Salvation is free; discipleship will cost everything we have.” John Calvin called self-denial “the sum of the Christian life.”
Jesus is teaching that if we “lose” our lives (that is, take the road of self-sacrifice and cross-bearing), we will experience God’s best LIFE for us. Conversely, even if we gained all the wealth and treasure in this world, but lose out on God’s best life for ourselves, we become losers in life. In other words, Jesus calls us to be losers in order to be winners in what is truly worthwhile in this life.
Then Jesus says in verse 38, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
Again, Jesus is not talking about salvation here. 1 Corinthians 3:12-14 says, “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
This is known as the Bema seat judgment, or the Judgment Seat of Christ, which every believer will experience and does not determine one’s salvation, which was determined by Christ’s sacrifice on believers’ behalf. Rather God will examine our WORKS under God’s searing evaluation and if you are faithful and persevering in your works for Christ, your works will endure, just as gold, silver and precious stones survive a physical fire, and you will be rewarded. But if you’re unfaithful, if you lived the self-life rather than the cross life, if your works were done for wrong motives, what works you have will be like wood, hay and stubble that burn up. You’ll suffer the loss of rewards, BUT notice carefully Paul’s words at the end of verse 15— “He himself will be saved, yet so as by fire.”
With that in mind, verse 38 means that if you are saved but you give in to the peer pressure of this sinful generation, at the judgment seat of Christ, Jesus will be ashamed of you, and you will lose rewards that could have been yours had you lived a life of self-denial and persevering dedication to God.
Illus. – I have seen both sides of the fence. On the one hand, I have sat by the bedside of a dying believer who lived for God…kind of. He attended church regularly, but never got involved is serving God in his local church. His interest was often piqued when he heard God’s Word preached, but he only responded in some way if it made him look good in the sight of others. He was a “good-enough Christian,” but when the rubber met the road out in the world, he was a “silent Christian.” I knew the man; I have no right to judge him, but I believe he was saved, and I saw some fruit of God working in his life…but not as much as I would have liked to have seen.
Illus. – But let me tell you about another saint I knew. When I lived in Okinawa, I was back from college on a 90-day tourist visa and I decided not to return to college that semester. So at the end of summer vacation I had to leave the country and then reenter it from outside the country to get my visa renewed. At that time I was a long-haired Jesus Freak and I truly wanted to serve God, but I was very confused and was just figuring out a lot of things. My parents had lived in Taiwan years before and knew several missionaries there, so they arranged for me to stay with a missionary couple until I could get my visa situation straightened out. They struck me as a very dedicated and faithful couple.
On the second night I was there, they invited an older missionary to dinner who had served for years in China before it fell to communism. He had been with the China Inland Mission, which was established by the well-known missionary, J. Hudson Taylor. The moment I met him I knew I was in the presence of greatness. We talked around the dinner table and this man literally exuded a Christ-centric life in his manner, in his humility and in his zeal.
After dinner I started peppering him with questions about his ministry in China and was astonished by one story after another of amazing conversions, churches started, seminaries begun, and preachers sent out. Then he told how he was not able to escape China when the communists took over because he was ministering to people’s needs to the very end. He described being put in a communist prison for several years. Separated from his wife, he was tortured, beaten, deprived of sleep and starved, all because he was a preacher of the Gospel.
Finally, he and some other Americans were released through negotiations with the U.S. government. He found out later that his most precious treasure, his faithful, godly wife, had died in a separate prison. I was in the presence of an actual sufferer for Jesus who had been married to a true martyr.
Back then, there was a fear at any time of an invasion by China of Taiwan. I asked him why he didn’t return to the U.S. to live out the rest of his life there instead of possibly having to go through all this suffering again if the Chinese invaded Taiwan.
He looked at me incredulously as if I had said the dumbest thing in the world, “Why? Reaching and teaching Chinese people is my life’s work. It’s what Jesus called me to do. I cannot leave. Jesus has done too much for me to give Him anything but my best, even my life for Him if necessary.” He would never leave Taiwan unless God called him to heaven by a natural death or he was executed by the Communist Chinese.
After that experience, I went back to Okinawa very troubled because I was living for the day, sipping at the stagnant waters of this world, eating the moldy bread the world had to offer. I WAS saved, but I WANTED MORE. Not too long after that visit was when I stopped being just a believer in Christ with my ticket punched for heaven and I became a dedicated disciple, willing to follow Jesus wherever He led me.
Tell me: In the light of eternity, which of these two men is a winner in the things that count for eternity? I’ll tell you who it is: It’s the one who sacrificed himself, gave up himself and carried the cross of suffering for Jesus’ sake. My heart’s desire is for you to be saved by faith in Jesus and then start down that long path of the cross-life—to become a LOSER for Jesus and a WINNER in ETERNITY.
