Good evening.
It's about time for us to get started.
If I start a minute early, we can end a minute late, and we only went one minute over, right?
All right.
ah Thank you for being here.
We're grateful for your presence.
We're going to begin with a word of prayer, and then we'll get into our study in Mark chapter eight.
Let us pray.
Our gracious Lord and God, all-powerful.
all-knowing, and all-present God that you are.
We're grateful for your wisdom, for your mighty hand, the works that you have done throughout the existence of this world, the salvation which you have brought to us through
your Son and through the scheme of redemption, that we might both have salvation and a family in the body of Christ.
Lord, we pray that we might
search diligently to know your will and your word that we might live daily in accordance with it.
We might strive to walk in the light as you were in the light.
Lord, we pray that when we stumble and when we fall, when we recognize our own sins and the sins of those around us, we might repent of those things, that we might pray that
those things are forgiven.
Lord, we pray that we might always be those who are willing to
stand before you in holiness and strive to correct those things that are wrong in our lives.
pray for those who are struggling with illness.
We pray for those who are awaiting word from doctors or physicians concerning potential illnesses.
We pray that you will be with them and we pray for good outcomes of those tests.
Lord, we...
are grateful for all those who are present this evening.
We're grateful for uh Terry and Jenny being able to be with us again this evening, and we're grateful for their safety and traveling.
Lord, we thank you for all of these things, and in all of these things we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
In Mark chapter 8 verse 27, Jesus said to his disciples, who do men say that I am?
And as the disciples respond, what are some of the answers that they give?
All right, John the Baptist, Elijah.
one of the prophets.
All of these individuals were individuals who either they had perhaps heard of in person or seen witnessed in person in the case of John the Baptist, and they thought that perhaps
John had been risen from the dead.
Name one person who thought when he heard concerning the deeds that Jesus was doing that John had been risen from the dead.
Herod.
if Herod believes it, he's probably not the only one in Judea that believes it ah or in the land of Israel.
And so, some were suggesting that this is John the Baptist, and others were suggesting this is Elijah.
Why Elijah of all the prophets?
Alright, he went to heaven and didn't see death, at least in the typical sense.
Part of the reason why Elijah is, there was a prophecy that Elijah would return.
And Jesus will actually identify who that return was, and it was a typified Elijah, it was not Elijah himself.
But who did Jesus identify as being that person?
John the Baptist, okay?
So there were those who knew of the prophecy.
and said, well, this must be Elijah.
This must be the fulfillment of that.
And yet Jesus says, no, no, you've got the wrong guy.
That's John.
But then in addition to that, you also have the phrase, one of the prophets.
This likely has to do with the prophecy in Matthew chapter 18.
sorry.
I keep saying Matthew.
I'm not meaning Matthew.
Deuteronomy chapter 18, and that is where
Moses says that God would raise up one like unto me and specifically states it would be a prophet like unto himself.
He says, hear him.
Okay.
So in Deuteronomy 18, Moses forecast that there's a Moses or one like Moses, a prophet like Moses.
And they were told to hear that prophet.
Some say Elijah, some say John the Baptist, some say one of the prophets.
But he said to them, who do you say that I am?
Peter answered and said to him, you are the what?
the Messiah, the Christ, the one who was foretold in the Old Testament as the Savior.
So, as these questions are being asked, Jesus then responds and tells them to tell everybody.
Right?
No.
Who are they supposed to tell?
No one.
if the people understood who he was and they fully understood who he was.
some things could have gone very differently.
we're told even later after the crucifixion and after the resurrection that the putting to Jesus to death was done ignorantly in unbelief.
And there is a clear line between what Jesus was doing and where Jesus was going and why he was here.
Was Jesus ever here to save the world without going to the cross?
No.
As a result, you see some of the things that Jesus does are to make sure that his mission is actually going to be completed.
Imagine a general giving an underling a command to go out into the battlefield with his regiment or with his uh soldiers and to take a particular hill.
and he makes sure to make it clear to that underling, there's no cost too high.
No matter what, you must take that hill.
or the consequences will be far greater than whatever it costs to take the hill.
What is the underling going to do to take the hill?
everything he can to make sure that the outcome is the taking of the hill.
Jesus does the same thing.
Jesus puts both statements in place, questions in place, doctrines in place, to both teach, yes, to admonish, yes, to reprove and rebuke, yes, but also to create stumbling
blocks for people.
You say, wait a minute, I thought God wanted everyone to be safe.
He does.
but he doesn't want everyone to just go about feeling they're self-righteous and feeling like they're saved and yet they are not interested in spiritual things.
They're not interested in God or his commandments.
They just want to feel saved.
That wasn't gonna work for Jesus.
Jesus was going to put stumbling blocks not in front of those who were honest hearts.
but rather those who were dishonest hearts.
Is there an Old Testament example of a prophet of God putting a stumbling block in front of a dishonest heart to their own destruction and demise?
Pharaoh, Moses, and Aaron did a number of things to put a stumbling block in front of Pharaoh.
But what was the first thing that they did?
Very first time they came before Farah.
All right, they said, the God of our forefathers, the God of the Hebrews said, let my people go.
Did Pharaoh have an open, clear, honest opportunity to obey God?
Yes.
Did he refuse that opportunity?
Yes.
And afterward, event after event after event that would have transformed an honest heart into an obedient heart caused his heart
to be hardened.
So Jesus in this example is utilizing much of the same tools that the Old Testament prophets used, which was they didn't tell everybody everything.
They wanted people to have to search it out.
They wanted people to have to discover and diligently seek.
to find the truth because there's actually a purpose in the seeking.
Jesus said, seek and.
So what does that say about the people who never seek?
They hold on fine.
Ask.
And it should be given to you.
What does it say about the people who never ask?
You see, God does not desire people to follow a crowd to salvation.
God desires, according to John chapter four, and Jesus speaking to the woman at the well, God desires those who will diligently seek Him and who will worship Him in spirit.
and in truth.
That requires someone willing to study, willing to search, willing to learn about God.
And so Jesus is going to withhold information.
Not that they couldn't have learned it, but that the disciples are not going to go and spread it about.
So verse 31.
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
He spoke this word openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when he had turned around, he looked at his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.
when he had called the disciples to himself with his disciples also, or called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me, let
him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." As Jesus is teaching, Jesus begins to tell the disciples what's going to happen.
Do they immediately understand what he's taught?
No.
Do they understand what he said?
Yes, that's why Peter rebuked him.
That's why Peter said, this is not going to happen.
And so they understood what he said, they did not understand what he taught.
They understood the words, they did not understand the meaning and the purpose and the reason behind the things he was saying.
They did not see it in God's grand picture.
They saw it as this person says they're going to go be put to death.
That can't happen.
He's our Savior.
He's the King.
We've seen Him literally speak the waves to calm and the winds to silence.
And you're telling me that the chief priests and the elders are going to accomplish killing Him?
So in their disbelief, Peter being the prime example here, Peter tried to dissuade him from this.
But then he calls to the people, he tells the people to listen to this and he says, whoever desires to come after me, which is the idea of being a disciple, let him deny
himself.
take up his cross and follow me.
Why did Jesus use the imagery of the cross if the people listening to him did not know that he was going to be crucified?
What would a cross have meant to them?
Okay, so the Romans were not the first ones to use crucifixion as a punishment.
It had gone all the way back to the Persian Empire.
uh And the Medo-Persians had used that during their time and it had been used.
uh But the Romans like a lot of things.
They didn't originate an idea, but they really worked at perfecting it.
They were quite diligent at perfecting the experience of crucifixion.
And so it was common among the Roman Empire that they would not just crucify you, they would not just bring about a period of uh punishment by death, they would humiliate you
and then crucify you.
They would make it an object lesson for everyone else.
And so it was common practice for them to take the individual who they were going to crucify and lay the cross on their shoulders and make them carry their own cross to their
own death.
This was not a one, when we read about Jesus doing this, this was not a unique one-time experience.
This was the Roman Empire demonstrating its power and authority and its willingness to bring about humiliation and pain to the point of death.
Absolutely.
ah You go into the period uh of Nero and you would have individuals who were mounted on crosses or mounted on objects there in the city of Rome and they were lit on fire as the
lighting for the streets.
So Rome took this to another level beyond what others had done.
and they did so and so when Jesus makes this statement the people's immediate mind would not have gone to Jesus talking about his death that's what our mind goes to that's the
cross we immediately think of but their mind would have gone to person after person after person throughout their life in the Roman Empire that they had witnessed bearing their
cross to their capital punishment
Yet Jesus says...
The first thing that the person must do is not take up his cross, is it?
What's the first thing the person must do?
Jesus says the first thing you have to do, you want to follow me?
You have to deny you.
What does mean to deny yourself?
Let's go from the casual idea, the daily action.
Somebody give me an example of denying yourself.
Say again.
All right, denying yourself oh some form or fashion worldly pleasures.
So let's take it from the amoral first.
You stand there as we did a few months ago up in uh Mackinac Island and you stand at the counter where the fudge is, all right?
And you look at the fudge and you know I've already bought five pounds of fudge.
Do I really need another one?
The answer is of course yes.
But say you haven't bought any fudge but you just left the doctor who said you've got to cut sugar out.
You've got to cut all the sweets out and you're standing there in Mackinac looking at a pound of the most delicious fudge ever and you go, I've got to deny myself.
and you turn and you walk out of the store.
There's a casual experience of denying yourself.
You can take it to another level and you can go, all right, to the moral level, Here's something God says is not good for me, here's something God says is morally wrong, here's
something God says I should not do and yet because of the sinful life that I've had in the past, these are things I have done, this is a temptation for me, and you see that
temptation and you say, no, I will not do that, and you turn and go the other way.
You have denied yourself.
You were tempted to do that, which you should not do, and you chose not to.
There's one example, there's another example, but there's one beyond that.
What about when it's the thing that isn't wrong, isn't bad, is actually a good thing to do, and would benefit you?
But it would also distract you from Christ.
Sometimes we see the example of the man in the book of Luke.
The man comes to Jesus and says, I will be your disciple.
Only let me go and bury my father and then I will come and follow you.
Question.
There's often discussion about the wording, does the Greek imply that his father's not yet dead?
It's set all that aside, doesn't matter.
Is there anything wrong with burying your father?
Is it something expected of a son?
then why did Jesus say, the dead bury their dead?
Come and follow me.
So that's part of it.
If his father's dead, he could do no more for his father.
But Jesus' point is not about the value that he can bring to burying the father.
His point is directed at the heart and the motivation of the individual who is saying, will be your disciple.
And Jesus is drawing out that this man's attachment to this world.
is still fully intact.
that he is fully still tied to the world and its way of thinking.
and that he has not yet died to himself.
He's still prioritizing the things he wants above the things that Jesus says.
And so as a result of that, Jesus uses this point to say, you haven't yet forsaken or, I lost my word there, uh denied yourself.
You have to do that first.
when we understand that Jesus demands not just obedience, but He demands from us that we are willing to take everything we've always thought we would do, we would be, we would
have, and say, God, it's up to you.
If you want me to have these things, I'll have them.
But I will never choose them over you.
I will, yes.
No, you're fine.
They will start.
dirty everything that I paint her.
putting myself first and learning that I have to put myself first in order to do that, not above God by any means, because that is what's gotten me through everything.
But I've always, having been in the church my whole life, Jesus first, others second, and your self-blasting, and always being blessed.
And it's taken me a long time, like I'm there now, but learning it's okay.
put yourself first, it could seem a godly way.
that's necessary.
But that's always been a really important thing, because there's so much guilt that you don't put yourself first.
So working that in, I would challenge the terminology.
because by taking care of yourself, that's not putting yourself first, all right?
It's not.
Here's the example, okay?
If a runner wants to be an Olympic runner, right?
They want to be the best of the best of the best.
Do they run every hour of the day?
No.
Why not?
If they're going to be the best, don't they have to train nonstop?
All right?
The muscles have to have time to rest or they don't strengthen.
They have to go through a cycle of strain, the uh exercise, and then they have to recover.
If they never recover, they don't get stronger, they deteriorate.
So.
God intended, and you by the way see this in the life of Jesus, you know when Jesus went out away from the crowds and escaped in the night as it were, when the disciples were
still asleep and he went up into a mountain to pray, no indication that that's Jesus acting selfishly.
That's Jesus taking care of himself.
It's not him putting himself first, it's him properly managing himself so that he still can do the things for others that he needs to do.
The preacher who is always invested in everyone else's problems, is always available, who's always studying and never spends any time and rest, guess what they are?
they're deteriorating as a preacher.
Because that's not how God made us.
That is denying the very principles that God has instituted in our humanity.
Now what if a person says, yeah, the way I'm going to approach this whole thing is if there's ever a point where I want to do something for me, that's going to be right here at
the top.
m
and then maybe I'll consider the things that God wants me to do and then maybe I'll consider other people.
But I'm coming first.
See, there's a difference between the world's mindset.
You've got to put yourself first.
And sometimes what they mean, okay, is you've got to stop incessantly denying yourself for everyone at everyone's whim.
And that's true.
because everyone's whim of what they think you should do is really a bad idea.
Does everyone have your best interests in heart when they ask you to do something?
No.
One of the best ways to put a business out of business is tell the business the business has to do everything that a customer thinks is a good idea.
And answer the phone every time a customer calls.
It's not a healthy way to run a business.
because the customer doesn't have the big picture in mind and their priority is not the business.
The same thing is true in a family.
What if the family says, you know what, any time anyone asks us to do anything, we're always going to say yes.
Are they ever going to prioritize the things that God tells them to do?
No, because they prioritize what everyone says to do.
Let's add to it one more principle.
What is the thing that God commanded of Israel that they had to do every single week?
The Sabbath rest.
He says in six days you shall do your labor, but on the seventh day, you're going to rest.
Now, the rest was a two-fold purpose, right?
It was that they needed to rest.
It was important that they rest, but also that they could then focus on what?
on God and on spiritual matters and on worship.
So God says, if you don't rest, you're doing it wrong.
If you don't set a priority on taking care of yourself, you're doing it wrong.
By the way, in that command, he doesn't just say, you rest.
He says, you rest and your household rests and your servants rest and your beasts rest at
everything rests.
It's not just the head of the household who finally gets to take a break.
It's everybody.
And it was a violation of the law to put your ox to work while you rested.
God says it is fundamental to our lives,
to rest, to take care of ourselves, to do those things that are appropriate.
Where do we read of Jesus being on the Sabbath day over and over and over and over again?
in the synagogue.
I challenge people out in the world.
who will say, I just don't really, I don't do the whole going to church thing.
It's the only day I take off, that's my day to rest.
My challenge to them is they misunderstand rest.
Because if you relax the body, but you do not invigorate the soul, you're still draining.
You go without reinvigorating and nourishing the soul while you relax the body and while you rest from your labors, but you don't put anything spiritual into your life and guess
what?
You're going to run out.
you're not going to accomplish the rest that you want because what the rest does is it allows the mind to move beyond the physical.
What is it that Paul writes?
That day by day we're perishing, but inwardly we're being renewed.
You see, when the world thinks rest, the world thinks focus on self.
When God says rest, God says stop focusing on you, focus on me.
because perspective is by far the thing that we need most.
Perspective about our struggles, perspective about our work, perspective about our labors, perspective about these things.
So as we draw that back in here, yes, rest is a great thing.
Putting yourself first in the sense of taking care of yourself so you have something to give to others is fundamental to God's Word, but...
Jesus challenges us to say, will you deny yourself?
not incessantly serve others, but deny your leadership position in your life.
Will you choose to serve me?
Did somebody have a question?
Stop doing what you want to do and come follow me.
was look at my example and how I set myself aside for you and now I'm asking you to do the same for me.
Okay.
So, let me add to that 2 Timothy chapter 2.
In 2 Timothy chapter 2, as Paul's writing to Timothy, says, you therefore, verse 1, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard
from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
m
Paul says, you're going to accomplish the work of a soldier, you're going to have to stop getting ensnared, entangled, wrapped up in the things of this physical world.
Now does that mean that we can't have a job?
No.
No, Michael.
It doesn't mean that we can't have a job.
It means our job can't be what?
the highest priority.
Does it mean we can't have a family?
No.
Did Peter have a family?
Did other apostles have families?
John?
Yes.
Did Paul point out though that the Christian who has a family has things he must prioritize and not just the work of God?
Absolutely.
Paul writes about that, 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
So, will having a family change what you can and can't do in the kingdom?
Yes.
But if it's bad to have a family, then all the elders are bad because they had to have a family to be an elder.
They had to have a wife and believing children.
So, it's not only a good thing,
It's something that qualifies someone for the eldership and yet can it take priority over God and what he's told us to do?
And answer is no.
The first thing Jesus says, number one, you're going to have to deny yourself.
So the last point I wanna make on the denying yourself side of things is,
Will denying yourself look equal and the same for everybody?
No, I won't.
to the rich young ruler, what did denying himself look like?
Go sell all that you have, but what did he have to do with the profits?
give to the poor, then come and follow me." For that individual, not for everybody, by the way, that it was not Jesus' message to every person he met along the way.
It was his message to a young man whose heart had been captured, for he loved his possessions.
And he had many of them.
And because He had been captured by His possessions, Jesus said, step one, deny yourself.
And that young man went away sorrowful.
Not because he couldn't have carried his cross, but because he wasn't willing to deny himself.
Sometimes.
when we listen to people.
We listen to people in the religious world around us say.
God told me to do this.
God told me to start this company.
God told me to launch this product.
God told me to play this game.
God told me to...
Seems like God's only interest in things they're interested in.
And that, by the way, is the way the world relates to God.
The world relates to God in the genie who gets the lamp rubbed and you come out and say, I wish I could do this.
And the genie says, I'll make it happen.
That's not God.
Now, challenge ourselves to also remember this.
There were times in the Old Testament where God told a non-believer to do something that was intended to result in a benefit for his people.
Name one example.
Thinking the Old Testament and coming back from Babylonian captivity.
No, when Cyrus wrote a decree.
that the people should go back to their homeland and rebuild their temple.
How about when Nebuchadnezzar
came and destroyed the southern kingdom of Israel.
Was that to the benefit of God's people?
Shake your head this way.
because what group out of that people was saved from that judgment?
the righteous.
It was a net negative for a nation.
It was a net positive for God's people in the nation.
for uh Daniel, Ananiah, Azariah, Michiel, they went to Babylon.
Yeah, they lived their lives in captivity as the governors in Babylon.
Ezekiel sitting on the shores of uh outside Shushan, the palace, writing back to Israel.
It was a Neb positive for God's people.
It a negative for the nation.
Now, Nebuchadnezzar thought it was his idea.
Nebuchadnezzar thought he was doing His will.
God finally convinced Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter four that Nebuchadnezzar had not been doing his will at all.
He had been doing God's all along.
There are times where God utilizes the motivations and the actions and the self-interest of men for His purposes.
If you're not sure about that, go read Habakkuk.
You'll get it, it's there.
But having done that, it was all to His glory, it was all for His purpose.
So sometimes,
It may be true.
God said I should do this.
And yet the real benefit isn't to them.
It's to God's people.
Okay?
One last thought as we close.
Jesus says, first, deny yourself.
Second, take up your cross.
Three, follow me.
When we realize that denying ourselves doesn't mean that life has now become easier.
rather that we have just begun to bear the real burden in this life.
And that the real burden is very different than what the world thinks it is.
That's where we're going to pick up next week.
Thank you for your attention.