Mark 8:28
Sermon Series: The gospel according to Billboard
#9: “Ain’t No other Man"
This is the season of epiphany where we are concern with the revelation of God to the world in Jesus Christ. This is the season where we highlight Jesus teachings, miracles, and evangelism to the lost of his generation in the hope that people would come to understand who Jesus is both Christological and Prophetically. And it is a struggle to get people to understand how Jesus can be both a divine deity and fully human and comprehend that neither of those natures canceled the other at anytime. It is difficult for this generation to grasp as it was difficult for the generation of Jesus’ time to grasp-they witnessed the everyday activities of Jesus for three years. He struggled with teaching them who he was because his identity could only be seen through the eyes of genuine spiritual faith. Some within his community got it, while others struggled and doubted. It is like a teacher with a classroom of students-she gives all the same lectures, works through examples in front of all, gives all the same homework; yet, every student may still comprehend those lessons differently- some will get it, acing the tests, others will struggle, barely passing the test, and others will fail and need remediation. Much like today-some of us get it, others are still struggling, and some will need remediation. The only way to determine where the students are at in their respective understanding of the faith is to simply ask the question.
And periodically, we see Jesus posing questions to his disciples. As he mentors and tutors them, occasionally he wants to see what they have grasped. And we must understand that any time Jesus raises a question to anyone, it is simply a test. He knows the answer but we must know it as well. Think about the questions he posed to his disciples alone:
1. When his family tried to encourage him to stop his controversial ministry, chase him down, and his disciples told him, your mother and brothers are outside asking for you, his question, “Who Are my mother and my brothers?
2. Or as he was on his way to Jarius’ home to heal a sick little girl, and the crowds was pressing in on him, he turned to his disciples and asked, “Who Touched me?”
3. Or, “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him; he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”
4. Or finally, after people were beginning to fall away because he would no longer do miraculous signs for entertainment or give them free food, he turn to his disciples and ask, “Do you also wish to go away?”
a. Every now and then when Jesus would test his class to see just where they were in their discipleship. We have to understand that some times, when we are going through challenges in our own lives, that test is only God asking us a question? And so we must examine what is it that God is asking us?
• He says to his twelve: “Who do men say I am?” And although it is only one interrogative, it is a three part question dealing with,
a. First of all, we all do care what people say about us? We are human filled with emotions and the desire to belong. But we should not allow Public opinion to shape our faith. And this is what Jesus is testing: he is testing to see if the disciples have allowed public opinion to shape or hinder their faith.
b. Secondly, we are struggle with physical perception.
i. Jesus was surrounded by those who were caught up in their physical perception of him. And their physical senses were hindering the revelation of his identity.
a) These were blinded by what they saw.
a. There were the crowds who were amazed at his bold actions
b. There were the teachers of the law who say he is a sorcerer.
c. There was is home town that only saw him as local town boy.
b) We are often blinded by our sight:
a. Some won’t believe it until they see it.
b. Others are discourage by what they see going on it the world and in the church.
c) Some were hindered by what they heard.
a. Complaining that his sayings where to hard.
b. Complaining that he exalted himself to high
d) We are often hindered by what we hear.
a. Rumors, gossip, and innuendos can be the death to your witness to others. Many souls have been lost in the rumor mill at hair salons; many have lost members in the gossip of barber shops.
e) We are often hindered by what we say.
a. Our own tongues work against us.
f) We struggle with social perception, physical perception, and spiritual perception
• Our Faith must exceed our logic and reason. The spirit must supersede our flesh and blood. This is what finally occurs in Peter. His faith level begins to exceed his logic and reason.
• His response is “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.
• So what was it about this statement that caused Jesus to say, “Voila, some one finally got it?”
a. In saying “You are the Christ” Peter is first dispelling that Jesus stands alone from his peers. The very fact that people were saying that he was John the Baptist- was evidence that some people just merely view Jesus as one of the contemporary preachers and prophets of his time. Mush like today: many simply view Jesus as one of several viable figures in history. For them, Jesus is like Socrates, Plato, Shakespeare, or Confucius – a great moral philosophical teacher.
b. Secondly, Peter is dispelling the myth that Jesus is just a prophet along the lines of Jeremiah, Isaiah, or for our modern day society, Mohammad of Islam, Joseph A. Smith of the Mormons- Jesus is are more than just a Prophet.
c. Thirdly, Peter is dispelling the myth that Jesus is Elijah and the real messiah would come after.
1) You are the Christ- Ain’t no other man, can stand up next to you
a) You are the ‘anointed one’. You are the one predestined before time was time to cross into time from kronos to kairos and fulfill our time. Son of God-the Christ, the anointed one, the messiah. He just did not step into this position by chance. He was chosen, designated, and equipped for the assignment. Jesus has the authority and power to accomplish all things.
2) You are the Christ- Ain’t no other man on the planet does what you do
a) In modern day language identifiable with our secular world, what Peter is saying is simply this: can no other man do what you do. He’s talking from personal experience. You command the demons to run, you command the lame to walk and the dead to rise, you even command the stormy winds to cease. Ain’t no other man on the planet does what you do
3) You are the Christ, the son of the Living God
a) Peter is saying:
“I could feel it from the start,”-when you said “come and follow me”
Couldn’t stand to be apart. (That’s why I left everything behind because) Something about you caught my eye. Something moved me deep inside! (Yes Peter that was my Father who is in heaven for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. No man can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.)Well Peter continues…Don’t know what you did boy but you had it and I’ve been hooked ever since. I told my mother, my brother, my sister and my friend. I told the others, my lovers, from past and present tense. Every time I see you everything starts making sense. There ain’t no other man, can stand up next to you, Ain’t no other man on the planet does what you do (what you do). You’re the kinda guy, a girl finds in a blue moon (being the woman at the well, the woman with an issue of blood, the woman caught in adultery). You got soul, you got class... Ain’t no other man but you.
