Who Do You Say Jesus Is?
Dr. Larry Thorson
Mark 8:27-38
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?"
28 They
replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others,
one of the prophets."
29
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the
Messiah."
30
Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
Today’s New
International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
A few weeks ago on my
vacation/study leave week in
When we met with Sarah in the City I
asked her if she had been going to church so she invited us to walk over and
see where she worships. She attends the
Sunday night contemporary worship service at a relatively large or at least
wealthy Episcopal Church in her neighborhood.
But as much as she loves her church, she lamented to us how difficult it
was to meet Christians her age in
But what I saw in
Earlier that day I went on a long walk
with a minister friend of mine, Jim Tirone, who has been the associate pastor
of the Presbyterian Church in
Back
in
In our text today Jesus and his
disciples were in a similar place to
Those were interesting and significant choices. John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin had been a
prophet of God whose head was cut off by the very Caesar honored in that city because
he preached against his infidelity. I
think there was some fear in that city that God would raise him from the dead and
retaliate against them for the beheading.
Elijah had been a prophet of God who never died but was carried right up
to heaven, his body never found. The
assumption among Jews was that he would someday return. Notice that the option of Jesus being God or
even the son of God was never mentioned.
Every day that you get up, you have options
or choices about what and who you’re going to believe. Some of those choices will be influenced by
those you’re around. In the
But everyone has choices, whether you know it or
not. That’s what Jesus was pointing out
with his question. There were many
choices to believe in
“But who do
you say I am.”
Peter answered, "You are the
Messiah." I
find it interesting that of all the disciples who were with him, only Peter is
recorded as answering him. It was a relatively
good answer. You are the Messiah.
Most of us are not Jewish and the title
Messiah doesn’t mean a lot to us. But to
Peter the Messiah was a conquering political savior who would overcome the
political Ceasars. What Jesus said next
countered what Jews believed the Messiah would be like.
31
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be
rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that
he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about
this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Now that took a lot of guts (or
stupidity) on Peter’s part to rebuke somebody like Jesus. But what Jesus said got Peter upset and when
you’re upset often something is going to be said and it’s usually not good. To Peter’s credit he at least didn’t go to
James and say “Did you hear what Jesus said?”
He also didn’t confront him publicly.
It says he “took him aside and began to rebuke him.”
But what Jesus said was the opposite of
what Peter always understood a Messiah to be.
In Peter’s background every Jew would be behind the Messiah and that
would be proof he was the Messiah.
Anything short of that was disillusionment. That’s sort of like when our President appeared
on the Tonight Show. Some people were
disillusioned because that hasn’t been our presidential picture.
Disillusionment is when your reality
differs from the picture you have of something.
Back in the day when I first gave my life to Christ there was a popular
little booklet called “The Four Spiritual Laws” produced by Campus Crusade for
Christ. I used it all the time and even
memorized it. It’s one of the few things
I can still remember word for word. It’s
a great tool.
The Four Spiritual Laws starts out by saying; “God
loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” As you read the booklet you find out that you
can’t know that wonderful plan unless you pray to receive Jesus Christ into
your heart.
It is true that God has a wonderful plan
for our life but the wonderful plan for me I thought in those days just had to
include a college scholarship in track and field. What I didn’t know is that after we accept
Christ our lives would probably take a nose dive and bad things would happen to
us. Friends would reject us. Career options would fall apart. Relationships might tank. We would have to give up harmful things that
we treasured like smoking weed. But as
God is shaping and molding us into a new image, painful pruning has to take
place. A lot of new Christians find
themselves disillusioned with following Christ because they can’t see God’s
long term wonderful plan or what they see doesn’t match up with their
expectations of a wonderful plan.
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 concerns of
God, but merely human concerns."
Wow, get behind me, Satan? How would you like to be called Satan? By Jesus himself? It is possible at any given moment for anyone
of us to speak the words of Satan, God’s archenemy. It just takes getting off base a little bit. If Peter believed that Jesus was to be the
Messiah and his understanding of a Messiah was a political conqueror, then Peter
was going to be off base. Just because
you’ve been right on most of the time doesn’t mean that you’re always going to
be right on.
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples
and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take
up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose
it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36
What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? 37 Or
what can you give in exchange for your soul? 38 If any of you are ashamed of me
and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed
of you when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
I
want you to notice that Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter in public. Verse 34 says “then he called the crowd to
him along with his disciples…” Jesus
never humiliates someone to get a point across.
If you’re humiliated in public, that’s not Jesus doing it.
The second thing I want you to notice is that no
matter how relevant we try to make Jesus Christ in order to attract people who
don’t want to follow him, the bottom line Jesus says is “whoever wants to be my
disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross (or their concerns) and
follow me.” Everybody has something that
needs to go in their life.
Today Jesus is asking each one of us:
Who do you say that I am? It doesn’t matter that the hundreds of 20 somethings
in
Maybe your life has had some disappointments. Things haven’t turned out like you hoped they
would. Even church hasn’t turned out
like you envisioned it to be. That
wonderful plan Jesus supposedly has for your life has been everything but
wonderful.
Think of these years of your life on this earth as
a construction zone. There are
construction supplies piled up on the lawn, rusty, dirty work trucks in the
driveway, construction debris including even beer cans and cigarette butts
scattered about. But if you gave your
heart to Jesus, progress is being made.
When this life is over, construction will be done and we’ll be a
completed image of God.
Who do you say Jesus is? More importantly who does your life say that Jesus
is? What is it that Jesus is calling you
to give up? It’s eternally important to
get the first one right, and then not only to believe Jesus is Messiah, Savior,
and Lord, but also to live it out each day. Amen.