Called to follow | Mark 8:31-38

I just now ask Sam to read with us the Gospel for today's topic.

I want to make sure you read with us the Gospel for today.

First reading this morning comes from Hebrews 10 starting at verse 32.

those earlier days after you had received the light,

when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.

Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution.

At other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

You suffered along with those in prison

and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property

because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

So do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded.

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gana аtada sut na ditunia tw i söti ngola,

ketu menata wedi pinaidabu byga bor Spinazio,

illustrates how affectionate be his vision.

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babies passionate in his mother's

infant 10 years,

kids respect and polished and

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but those older children

do not know how heartbound

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...

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the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the holy angels.

This is God's word.

Good morning everyone. It's going to be with you this morning as we look in God's word.

Just a quick word about Michael. I understand this week he and Hailey have been quite ill in the family as well.

Michael's still doing the pulpit swap so he's still up in—whoop whoop—yeah, handshift, that's it.

North Perth, right? So yes, so he's still up there but do keep them in prayer if you think of them.

Well, I'm sure you think of them. Please keep them in prayer.

This morning we are in Mark 8 and we just read it. We are going to look at the Hebrews passage as well in the sermon

so just a little bit later so you might want to keep your finger in both places if that's possible.

My granddaughter likes to push buttons. Now it could be as simple as turning lights on and off

but button pushing doesn't stop there. Sometimes when her mom and dad say yes, she says no and it doesn't stop there.

If she's told to go in one direction she may not know her right from her left but she knows that she can also go in the opposite direction to what she's been told.

Just to push buttons. It does make me wonder then where did she get that from, right? For me.

Well, not from me directly but yeah, it comes—it runs in the family. Let's put it that way.

The passage in front of us today is a pivot point in the drama of the gospel's account in Mark.

Jesus is going one direction to his death and no one else, especially the disciple named Peter, appears ready for Jesus to die.

And here in this passage we've seen it, Peter rebukes Jesus and boy does that push a button.

The truth is there is a button pushing gene inside each one of us here. We think that we should go one direction even after God and even after God's word tells us to go a different direction, to go the correct way.

We still push buttons. Jesus tells his followers, he says, live a cross-shaped life.

Live a life of self-denial where you lose your life and where you cling to Jesus.

And we wonder, why can't I do it my way? And Jesus tells us the reasons why we can't do it our way.

The first is that our way is the way of the world. It is Satan's way.

The second is our way forsakes Christ and the third is our way ends in loss and shame.

You see, our way is the way of the world. Our way is Satan's way if we just follow our way.

So starting with this passage, there's a huge surprise as Jesus speaks plainly to his disciples about what's going to happen.

To his disciples, he gives the direction that he's going to be heading.

And he says that he's headed to suffer, that he must suffer.

Now if you think of it as a king and for these disciples who think they're following the king, what king suffers?

I mean that's not what kings do. Kings don't suffer. And so here he is, telling his disciples, I'm going to suffer.

He also tells them, I'm going to be rejected. Again, this is Israel's king, but he's telling his disciples that the leaders of Israel, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes, they're going to lead a rebellion against Israel's king.

And they're going to lead others to reject Israel's king. Jesus tells them, I'm going to be killed.

Now in their mind, they're thinking this is going to be a triumphant glorious kingdom like in Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

And if you're not familiar with that, you can look back. It's where the God of the universe, God the Father as it were, hands to his son, an eternal kingdom that never ends.

And so if you're thinking a never-ending kingdom, then why is the king talking about dying?

And then he says, I'm going to rise again on the third day. And by this point, their minds are just blown. How does all this going to happen? They didn't understand.

So Peter takes the king aside and starts to privately rebuke him. Lord, you can't go this way.

Now remember, Peter just called Jesus the king in verse 29. Who do people say that I am? You are the Christ. You are the king, God's king.

So the question is, can you rebuke a king? Is that a thing? Did Peter think that he had the right to rebuke the king? Of course not.

It's not what people that are followers of kings are meant to do. There's only one being who would dare to rebuke God's king, Satan.

And so that's why Jesus puts Peter in his place. Get behind me, Satan.

Now the name Satan means accuser or adversary. And Jesus tells Peter in front of all of his disciples. Here he is. Look at verse 33.

Jesus turned and he looks at the disciples and then he rebukes Peter publicly. Get behind me, Satan. You have in mind the things of man, not the things of God.

Peter is acting as the adversary of Christ. Jesus the king is going one way, his mind set on the things of God.

And Peter and any who follow in that direction, they have their mind set on the things of man or in following the ways of Satan, going Satan's way.

Now Peter, just like any human being, including Jesus himself actually, does not want to suffer. I mean nobody wants to suffer.

And Jesus doesn't rebuke Peter for fear of suffering. Look carefully at what Jesus says to Peter, the rebuke.

Verse 33. Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

The rebuke is directed at Peter's way of thinking, at how he was approaching life. His mind is not on God's ways, but on man's ways.

And so Peter is not thinking God's way about God's plan.

Just as a way of getting that, if a soldier or a group of soldiers make a battle plan, they work together, they're going to work together to outflank the enemy, to cut off his supply lines, to wipe out the enemy.

They're going to work together on that. Now if all the soldiers are willing to put themselves in harm's way and all of them are willing to work together, they're likely to be able to carry out that plan and defeat the enemy, right?

But if some soldiers wish to preserve their life, well, I don't want to get shot. You mean I might get blown up, I might get run over by a tank, you mean my life might be in jeopardy? I'm not going to do that.

Well, you can see that the plan to defeat the enemy would quickly fall apart.

From verse 31, if you look at your passage, from verse 31, God's plan in its simplest terms is this. Death must occur before Jesus can rise from the dead, right? Death before resurrection.

Suffering before glory.

So why does death need to occur? Well, death needs to occur because Adam and Eve way back in the garden decided that they knew better than God.

God had told them, in the day you eat of this tree, you will surely die. Death is a curse.

So that's why death needs to occur, but why did Jesus need to die? He didn't sin, he never sinned. He needs to die because he is acting willingly as our substitute, the perfect lamb of God to deal with our sin.

So you can see that if Peter's advice was followed, he would have Christ Jesus avoid suffering, avoid rejection, avoid death.

Peter's advice goes directly against God's plan, his battle plan, to deal with the curse and to deal with our sin.

Peter is not thinking in God's way. He is thinking in Satan's way.

So why can't humans do it our way? Why can't we live life any way we like? Well, that's what got Adam and Eve in trouble, right?

Our first parents did not think to live God's way. Instead, they listened to Satan and they did it Satan's way and all their offspring, including us, tend to follow that way as well.

You see, our way forsakes Jesus. In verse 34, Jesus said it, there is one way to follow Him. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.

There's no wiggle room in Jesus' plan, is there? There's no sitting on the fence. He's very clear, this is how you follow me.

Followers need to do these things. They need to deny themselves. We stop seeking the Disney-centered life.

Disney, make all your dreams come true, everything's about what you want and what you can have, have a perfect retirement, have a perfect family.

If you don't like the family you have, leave them and start over. Whatever it is in this world that says you don't have to follow things in a selfless way.

See, our rights, our comfort, our dreams, they all need to yield allegiance to Jesus' call on our lives.

We need to take up our cross. Now, the Roman cross was simultaneously a torture device, a very effective form of execution, but also an instrument of public shaming.

You see, a criminal was either nailed or tied to a cross, and you can imagine if you're hanging from your arms like this, after a while you get tired, and even just to breathe you have to kind of push yourself up or pull yourself up just to get a breath.

Most of the people that died on the cross would have died from something like a combination of exposure because you're left there maybe even for days, so cold and exposure, blood loss, but also suffocation.

And the cruelty of having all this happen was not just happening behind a fence somewhere in a small building or whatever. No, it was out on the roadside.

So when people went by, they could see this person who was a criminal accused of violating Roman law, a criminal put up on a cross, and people could mock them and deride them, and its purpose was to bring public shame and humiliation to all who defied Rome and to anyone who broke Roman law.

Rome said, effectively, do not follow this criminal's behaviour.

What does Jesus do? Jesus said, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

See, Jesus is telling us he is the king, and he can tell us how to live, not Rome. Follow me, he said, even if you go to the cross, even if you suffer shame and public humiliation, follow me.

And where did Jesus' purpose to go? That's right, he told us in verse 31, he's going to suffer, he's going to be rejected, he's going to die.

Following him means that we will likely tread the same path.

Have you ever played Follow the Leader? It's a very simple childhood game, it has one simple rule.

Follow the leader, right? That's it, that's all you have to do. Follow the leader.

And if you don't follow, then you're not playing the game correctly, and more to the point, if you don't follow, you lose.

Right? If you don't follow, then you're out of the game, that's it. In verse 35, here's what Jesus said, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

The penalty and the reward imitate that game, follow the leader, and you cannot cheat Jesus' rules.

If you try to save your life by going your own way, Jesus is very clear, you lose.

But if you lose your life following Jesus, and following the gospel, and really following the teachings of Scripture, if you go that way, you'll save it.

And Jesus phrases it here in the form of a promise. This is a promise from Jesus' own lips.

If you follow this way, the way that I'm telling you to go, you will save your life. It's a promise.

Now, all of us here struggle at the thought of losing our life, right?

I mean, nobody likes to suffer. Nobody wants to suffer.

And suffering for something that might happen or is promised in the future, that's even harder.

Like right now, I've got my stuff, and you mean I've got to give this stuff up, or I've got to find ways to serve others when that might not go so well for me.

I might have to tell somebody the gospel, and they might make fun of me, or things like that.

Nobody likes the thought of losing our life.

But here's the challenge, here's the point, here is faith. Do we trust Jesus' promise?

He says, if you live like that, and you lose your life for my sake or for the gospel, what is it?

You save your life. It's a promise. Jesus is faithful to his promise.

Jesus is the one we can trust. He overcame our greatest enemy death.

The worst thing that could happen to us in this life is that we lose our life.

But Jesus says, if we live our life for his sake and the gospel, we save it.

We overcome death, and Jesus has promised it.

So, what might it look like to lose your life?

I mentioned a couple of things just earlier, and it sounds pretty horrific.

I mean, I have to give up my stuff. Does that mean I have to go live on a mountaintop and give up all my stuff?

All the creature comforts? No retirement for me? No nothing for me?

Everything's about no?

Do I have to hand out Gideon tracks until somebody stabs me and then I die?

Do I have to actually die for the gospel?

What about going on a crusade to the Holy Land?

Obviously centuries before Christians have tried that. Nope, that didn't work.

I don't think it means those things necessarily. Here's what it does mean.

In 1 John, so this is just one passage, but in 1 John 316, okay, you don't have to turn there,

but not John 316, but 1 John 316, here's what John writes.

This is how we know what love is.

Christ Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

You see, Jesus loved us, and that's why he gave his life for us.

And so if we're going to follow him, we do the same.

Give up our lives for others. In other words, not living selfishly, but living to care for others.

Look out for others, to love others even sacrificially.

Jesus' followers, we deny our selfish rights, our selfish comforts, our selfish dreams, to lovingly serve others.

And we demonstrate that by practically helping one another, praying for one another, serving one other,

finding ways to help each other out along the way, bearing each other's burdens and so on.

And even shamelessly caring for those who are despised by the world.

Other Christians, particularly, persecuted for their faith, maybe here, maybe around the world,

but finding ways to help one another, even those who are despised by the world.

And that's why we read Hebrews 10 earlier.

So if you want to look there, you can just see how the writer of Hebrews is reminding those Christians,

those Hebrew Christians, how they acted when they first heard the gospel.

Here's what he says, Hebrews 10, verse 32.

Hebrews 10:32

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, in other words, after you had embraced Christ,

when you endured a great conflict full of suffering.

So because of their faith, they suffered for the gospel.

Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution.

Again, you believe and you suffer for the gospel.

But then he goes on, at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

Brothers and sisters who were suffering, you stood with them.

You're not ashamed of being named the name of Christ with other Christians who are suffering for the name of Christ.

You suffered along with those in prison.

And prison back in those days meant that somebody had to come and supply you with the food if you were in prison.

So brothers and sisters supplying one another's needs.

And you joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property,

being so identified with suffering Christians that they lost their own property

and trying to look out for other Christians.

And all because of this, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

You knew the inheritance that God had promised.

You knew that Jesus had promised, if you lose your life here, it will be saved for eternity.

Dying to yourself to selflessly love and serve and share the gospel with others is following Jesus.

Conversely, or in the opposite way, loving your life, your things, your dreams,

more than you love Jesus or more than you love others forsakes your leader.

OK, now I don't know about how you're feeling right now,

but I know when I study this passage and when I preach it and when I hear this again,

I'm like, wow, I've messed up.

My life is not an example of always being faithful, right?

I always live my life this way.

What if you mess up?

And that's precisely why we must trust alone in Jesus' work, in what Jesus has done,

and what He has accomplished.

It's not about how well I follow Jesus,

it's that I am looking to the one who did everything perfectly

and my substitute and cleansed me.

You remember Simon Peter?

Simon Peter boasted.

He said, I will follow you, Jesus.

I will fight for you, Jesus.

I'll even die for you, Jesus.

And then not even a few verses later reread, he ran away.

He denied Jesus three times, right?

It is not about being the perfect follower.

It is about following the one who did everything to accomplish your salvation.

Jesus said in Luke 22, so just another passage, but you don't have to turn there,

Luke 22, 31 and 32, he said to Simon after Simon was boasting to Simon Peter,

he said, Simon Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat,

but I have prayed for you.

Jesus, I have prayed for you, is what he said,

that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

So Jesus is telling Peter, I have prayed for you.

Like Peter, it is Jesus' love for us, and his prayer for us,

his intercession for us that keeps our faith from failing.

He knows we're weak.

He knows that we fail to faithfully follow him, to fail to love others,

that we live selfish lives, we try and live our way at times.

And in those times of failure, when you recognize that you're not following the right way,

can I just simply suggest to you do a Peter?

Okay, Peter in the right way.

When he did turn back to Jesus, when he did come back to Jesus,

when he was restored by Jesus, come back like Peter.

Follow Jesus, return and love and strengthen your brothers.

You see, Jesus' call to follow the leader, it allows do-overs, right?

If we mess up, you get back in the game, but you go back to following the leader.

I tell you what you must not do when you fail.

What you must not do after failure is to continue walking your own way.

Jesus welcomes you back. Come back.

Don't keep going your own selfish way. Come back.

You don't want to keep going your own selfish way because our way ends in loss and shame.

Why can't I do it my own way?

Well, Jesus' warning here in these last few verses, verse 36 to 38, tell us exactly why.

So, look at verse 36.

Verse 36, Jesus says, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit their soul?

See, if you think that if you could gain the whole world and how many people have that, right?

But if you could, if it were possible to gain the millions and billions and trillions of dollars out there

and to get all the power, all the glory, all of everything, if you could do all that, Jesus says it's not enough.

The loss of your soul would be worse than losing the world.

In other words, if you gain the world and lose your soul, it is a bad exchange.

Verse 37, he says, or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Your eternal soul is more valuable than anything you own, anything you own.

And then verse 38, if anyone is ashamed of me in my words in this adulterous and sinful generation,

the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with all his holy angels.

He's giving us a comparison. This life is short, right? 70, 80, 90 years, maybe?

This life is short. And he's saying to us, it is exceedingly better to bear the shame of your king in this life,

in this very short life, than to face and be ashamed for Jesus to be ashamed of you in the coming life.

It's not hard to grasp, Jesus' warning, is it? It's very clear.

The loss and shame that we will endure if we follow our way, or the world's way, or Satan's way, as we saw earlier,

it's incalculable.

Now, the world, it has a great appeal to us, to just our thinking and our appetite, sometimes for wholesome things.

I mean, wanting to be married or being married, or just enjoying life, going to the beach, and enjoying God's creation,

or enjoying food, I enjoy a little bit too much food.

All those things, wholesome things God has created within us, appetites that we have, that can be met in godly ways, in good ways,

but also sometimes in wrong ways, in sinful ways, in rebellious ways, things we shouldn't see and watch and do,

and God's word is clear, telling us what not to watch and do.

God has made us to enjoy creation.

Again, we're not called to go live in a cave somewhere, hive off, and not have any enjoyment in life, no more enjoyment in life.

But the question that I'm asking, and I think the question that Jesus is really trying to put before us,

is do we value this world, this very short, brief life, do we value this world more than our eternal soul?

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, but to lose their soul, to forfeit their soul?

See, our soul is precious beyond price. We've already seen that. Jesus has driven that point home.

Do you recall the MasterCard commercials? I think they ran here, credit card commercials.

There's a little bit of a sketch of one, or a little bit of a picture of one,

and the ad would review the cost of certain items that you could purchase with MasterCard.

So you could purchase tango lessons, you can purchase tango lessons with your MasterCard.

You can purchase a nice bottle of wine with your MasterCard,

and you can purchase nice dancing shoes with your MasterCard, and you're thinking,

why would I do this? Why would I do this? Well, that's what MasterCard was wanting you to ask.

And then they would back up a little bit, they would give you the big picture.

Why would you do all these things? Because you want to dance at your son's wedding.

And then they would come across with this word, priceless.

Now, in other words, you could spend your money on these things, but the thing you really want,

the priceless thing is to dance at your son's wedding.

Jesus is doing something similar here. He's saying, don't miss the big picture.

Your soul is given to you by God. It is dearer than anything that you own in this world,

or anything around you. It is priceless.

But Jesus doesn't stop at underscoring the value of your eternal soul.

He expands the big picture even further.

You see, our souls were made for a purpose, not just so that we have an eternal soul,

but we are made to be in relationship with our King, with our God, with our Creator.

Therefore, we must not be ashamed of our King Jesus.

Our souls' relationship with King Jesus is priceless.

It's beyond measure.

So, when Jesus is describing this in verse 38, when he describes life as short,

do you see how he describes it in verse 38?

He describes this generation, which isn't just the disciples' generation,

but sort of like this world's generation, the generation of this world.

This time, he describes it as an adulteress and sinful generation.

In other words, this world is marked by shameful sin, rebellion against God.

However, the coming eternal kingdom is glorious.

So, he says, when the Son of Man, when he comes in his Father's glory,

with all the holy angels, you can imagine what is that going to be like

to see Christ return the skies split and this glorious trumpet sounds,

and these glorious mighty beings, including Christ Himself, our King returns.

Do you get the picture right?

We've backed up far enough to see the big picture right?

Being ashamed of your glorious eternal King in this short life

is going to be a terrible thing when the Son returns in His glory.

In contrast, though, this is our glorious hope.

Bearing the shame of your relationship with Jesus now, suffering now,

but glory later, bearing the shame of your relationship to Christ Jesus in this life,

will be priceless when He returns in His glory.

So, friends, brothers and sisters, are you following Jesus His way?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are indeed very grateful for Your kindness to us,

for the way that You have loved us, You sent Your Son to demonstrate to prove Your love.

Jesus raised again on the third day, proving that our sin had been dealt with.

The Holy Spirit sent to dwell with us so that we might know Your presence, Your peace, Your joy,

even in the midst of whatever suffering and trials comes our way.

Lord, in all of this, You are a wonderful, loving, merciful, kind God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Thank You.

Lord, for wherever we are, any one of us here and all of us here, wherever we are, help us, Lord,

to turn, to follow Christ, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and follow our King Jesus.

In His name we pray. Amen.