The Confession of The King

Mark 8 : 27-33

Transcript

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You guys love that song too? Yeah. What'd you say? Oh, yeah, good song. Yes, yes.

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All right, well, good morning, church family. Hope you're doing well. It's so wonderful to be together and worship together this morning. We're gonna be in Mark chapter 8. Um, if you want to be turning with me there. Um, we had uh a big week for several of our our families uh this past week. I know um Bill and Deb got to uh see one of their granddaughters married, and and Bill actually performed that wedding, so that was pretty cool, I'm sure. For the I guess they're still partying today because they're not here, right? But I know that was a special time for them. We've also had a a ton of birthdays this week in this church. Uh it's Kelly's birthday today, actually. Yeah. She probably didn't want me to tell you that, but I did anyway. Our family had two birthdays, uh Jonah and and Maddie, and um uh Miss Evelyn, she she was here walking around just a minute ago, but uh Evelyn Tilson, she turned one just a couple days ago, so that's special time for them. And then um one of our pastors, Patrick, had a birthday Thursday. There's Evelyn. There she is. She's she had a special birthday this this week, and then um Patrick's was extra special because uh now he shares a birthday with Forrest and Mariah's newest editions, double edition, right? Uh yeah, so yeah, Lucy and and Parker were born on Thursday. And so they're they're doing well, I believe. Um I think they're home and mom and babies are are doing well and and uh getting adjusted, but that'll be quite the adjusted adjustment. I want to ask you to keep praying for for their family, um, for Samariah. And um, that's a big jumping from three to five like overnight. That's kind of a kind of a big adjustment. So we'll we'll be praying for them. And and look look on church center, there'll be a mill train, I'm sure, at some point, and um you'll be able to serve in that way uh too if you want to. But exciting times for for a lot of our church family. And uh if I missed anything, then uh please forgive me. I'm sorry, but um yeah, a lot going on, a lot of excitement uh this past couple weeks here here at Risen Life. So um we're gonna open to Mark chapter 8, continue our series through the Gospel of Mark uh titled The Servant King. And uh this morning we've we've made it to what I would say is really the climax of Mark to this point. Everything in the first eight chapters has led really to this moment that we're gonna read this morning. And everything in the back half of Mark really flows from what we'll read today and next week, and um that is gonna be become more clear as we as we go today. But uh, if you were with us last week, um Drew led us through verses 14 through 26, and we ended with this account of Jesus healing a blind man, and um this healing was somewhat different than other healings because it happened in stages, which is weird for Jesus. Usually he just um says, do this, and and boom, they're healed, right? And uh this one was a little bit different. He first laid his hands on this man and and then asked if he could see anything. And surprisingly, um the man could see, but he couldn't see perfectly. He he his vision was still obscured and blurry. He said, Yeah, I see people, but they look like trees. Um and um and then Jesus laid his hands on him again, and uh he could see perfectly, he could see everything clearly after that second touch from Jesus. And I want you to know that the Holy Spirit recorded this miracle in this way because, first of all, that's just the way it happened. That's the way Jesus chose to heal this man. But also I believe the Lord did it in that way because he's trying to make a point about spiritual sight, not just physical sight, but spiritual sight. A point that we're gonna see play out in the passages today and next week. Jesus didn't do this this healing in two parts because it was hard for him. Okay, I don't want you to be confused and think, wow, that must have been really difficult. Like blindness, I guess, is extra hard for Jesus to heal. It's not, um, it's just as easy as anything else. Um, but he he was giving an illustration for his disciples and even for us today as the readers of Mark. So this morning we're gonna we're gonna see one of Peter and the disciples, one of their strongest moments. We're gonna see one of their strongest moments here, which will immediately be followed by one of their weakest moments in the same passage. All right, so we're gonna see both those things today. At this point, the disciples in in this passage, they they showed some great signs of spiritual sight, but they were still a little bit blurry. You see what I'm doing with the illustration there. See what the gospel of Mark is doing with that illustration. They were they were starting to show some signs of spiritual sight, but there were some things that still needed to be cleared up by Jesus. They needed that second touch from Jesus to see everything clearly. And so we're gonna see that in our passage this morning. Their understanding was incomplete. Um they had begun to accept his identity, but now they needed to learn and accept his mission in order to really see everything clearly. So this morning we're gonna look at um what I'm gonna title the confession of the king, and I'm gonna ask you to stand with me and we'll read Mark 8, 27 through 33. It says, And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, Who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, others one of the prophets. And he asked them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, You are the Christ, and he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on things of God, but on the things of man. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning for the excitement, Lord, that's going on in this church, Lord. And um we praise you, Father, for the for the many praises that we have over the past couple weeks, Lord, that we've um some we've talked about this morning and some we haven't. But uh, Lord, you are so good and you are so good to us. Um, Father, we just give you praise for who you are. We give you praise that we can gather together this morning and uh just openly talk about your word, Father, and grow in your word. And Lord, we pray that you would allow us to do that this morning, that you would um just speak very clearly to us, to each heart, Lord. You know what each heart needs. And Father, I pray that you would take this passage and apply it to our hearts in those exact ways that you know we need to hear, Father. Move me out of the way this morning and speak to your people. Lord, we pray that you would get all the glory and honor this morning. And God, we thank you for this passage, Lord. Um we thank you for that great comp confession of Peter, Lord. And we also thank thank you that you bear with us, Lord, even when we fail, Lord, even when we have big blunders, Lord. You you bear with us, Father. And I know there's someone that needs to hear that this morning, that you will bear with them, Father, in patience and forbearance, and Lord, that you love them. So, Father, I pray that that would come across this morning. I pray that just everything you want to come across would come across, and that you would give us grace in these moments, and we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat. Well, as I said earlier, everything in Mark's gospel has led up to this great confession of Peter and the disciples in verse 29. Mark has been giving us glimpses in these first eight chapters of Jesus' identity each and every week, right? And we've been picking up more and more about who Jesus is. And finally, we have a confession that seems to really get it. Peter says, You are the Christ. That's really the first time we've seen that in Mark since uh chapter one, verse one, uh, when Mark said that he was going to tell us about Jesus the Christ. And this is the first real confession that we have from anyone who wasn't a demon, right? So we see demons confess these things early on. But this is the first time we see you are the Christ confessed by any person in this gospel. And after this great confession, Mark begins to shift from focusing on the identity of Jesus, because this is the climax of that, to now and through the rest of Mark, really focusing on the mission of Jesus and what it means to follow Jesus in his mission. And that starts in verse 31 with what would have been a very shocking confession of Jesus to his disciples. This is a major turning point in Mark, this passage is. And again, it shows that that progressive vision the disciples were gaining. But it all starts in this passage with a question from Jesus in verse 27. And that's where we're going to look at our first point, the conjecture of the crowds. The disciples and Jesus have been on really a long journey together for the past couple of chapters through the Gentile regions, and then they've gone back down near the Sea of Galilee. And then as we jump into this section, they're now entering the villages of Caesarea Philippi, which is in the far northern part of Israel. This was, again, as we've seen in other passages, this was another region dominated by Gentiles, and also a region dominated by pagan worship. This had previously been a center for the worship of Baal. Um, and then after that, it was a center for the worship of the Greek god Pan, and actually it was named after Pan initially, this city was, until Philip uh renamed it Caesarea Philippi. And at this time in the first century, it was heavily involved in the worship of Caesar. Um at Caesarea Philippi, there were many shrines and idols to many, many gods, and one particular shrine at the entrance to a cave called the Groto of Pan, which locals believed to be a portal to the underworld, and even called it the gates of hell. And so that'll be that'll come up again later in this message. But this was a hub for pagan worship. And it's on the way to this city where Jesus began to ask his disciples a very important question. Who do people say that I am? In other words, what are the crowds saying that are seeing my teaching, that are witnessing all these miracles? What are they saying about my identity? Of course, Jesus knew this, but he wanted to see what the disciples were saying about this and compare it to what the disciples believed. And so they told him several answers here. Some say John the Baptist. Remember, King Herod thought that uh Jesus was uh John the Baptist. In Mark 6, 16, um, Herod said of Jesus, he said, John whom I beheaded has been raised. So he thought that uh John the Baptist had somehow been raised from the dead, and uh this was Jesus now. Jesus was John uh resurrected. Others say Elijah, they say. And for us, you know, we Elijah, that seems weird. Like why you're just kind of pulling that out of nowhere. And uh we need context, right? Most of us, because we're not uh Jewish, right? And so we we need this context as why they would suggest Elijah. Um it actually comes uh straight from the Old Testament in Malachi chapter four, verses five and six, God says this through the prophet, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. Those are the very last words recorded in our Old Testament, a promise of Elijah coming before the day of the Lord. So some said, okay, this must be Elijah. He's he's coming just as Malachi said. Now, if you'll remember, uh, Jesus himself actually identified someone else as Elijah. Remember who it was? John the Baptist, right? Yeah, somebody said that. Yeah, Taylor, thank you. Uh so uh John the Baptist, uh Jesus identified as that Elijah who was to come. Um there may yet be a future uh coming of Elijah uh that's alluded to in Revelation before the day of judgment, but but that's where that idea comes from, right? It comes from Malachi. And so they uh the Jews thought Elijah would come before the time of the Messiah. Still others say that he's one of the prophets. Now, God promised in in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15 through 17, um, that he would send a prophet like Moses, but much greater. And I believe that actually was referring to uh Jesus, but it just says a prophet there. There were also traditions that Jesus, or I'm sorry, that Jeremiah would return with the Ark of the Covenant to usher in the Messiah's reign. So some people thought, okay, maybe he's um he's Jeremiah, he's one of these other prophets from God. There was a lot of opinions about who Jesus was as there are today. What the crowds knew, and even what the religious leaders knew, was that Jesus had come from God. That was very clear. They couldn't deny that. He had to be a prophet of some sort, but he really didn't fit their expectations of the Messiah. That's what we need to note this morning. The Messiah, they thought, would come in great power. We've talked about this many times. Great power and with great force, and he would reign immediately. It would be so clear that he was reigning. He would overthrow pagan authorities and usher in his kingdom in power. He would bring the Jews back to dominance. So perhaps Jesus was maybe a forerunner to the Messiah, but surely, according to what they thought, surely he couldn't be the Messiah. This is what most people in the crowds thought. Maybe he's a forerunner, but I don't think he fits my picture of what the Messiah should be. There were many conjectures about Jesus' identity at this point, but all the ones mentioned here were woefully inadequate and even condemning to the people. You know, today is no different. There are many opinions about Jesus. It's not good enough to say that Jesus didn't exist. I mean, there's the evidence is clear that Jesus existed. Hardly anyone, hardly any scholar would say that anymore. Jesus didn't just didn't exist and it was just made up. No, um, he existed. That's very clear from the evidence. So you have to do something with Jesus. You gotta deal with him in some way. You've got to have an explanation for Jesus and his following, and what in the world are we doing still celebrating him and worshiping him 2,000 years later? Everyone has to do something with Jesus. There are those that would say, well, Jesus was a prophet, right? Just like they said in the first century. Islam says that. Jesus is actually a very important prophet in Islam. And actual, actually, um, according to Islam, will return someday and defeat the Antichrist. Isn't that interesting? Um, they believe high things about uh Jesus, but not high enough. They don't go far enough. They believe he's a great prophet. Um, some say he's a good moral teacher. That's what many other religions would say. He was just a great uh guru, or he was very enlightened, the Buddhists might say. Um we respect and honor Jesus as a moral example and a wise teacher, but you know, that's that's really that's really it. That's what a lot of religions would say. Many religions would say that. Others say he's he's you know he's a nice example, he's a good example of a sacrificial life. Had some good things to say. Um, but none of these other opinions about Jesus are adequate. It may be safe and inclusive to have a high and honorable opinion of Jesus without surrendering to him. But we cannot be saved by thinking Jesus to be less than who he is. You cannot be saved through Islam. They would say they honor Jesus. You cannot be saved through Islam and through that view of the identity of Jesus. You cannot be saved by saying, you know, he was a good teacher. I think I have a lot to learn from him. Oh, goodness, yeah, you do have a lot to learn from him, but he's so much more than that. We cannot be saved by anything less than what the Bible clearly states uh Jesus is, and we're gonna get to that this morning. We either get him right or we will suffer eternity apart from God. That's the two options. You either get Jesus right, or you're gonna be apart from God forever. We are either with Jesus in his full identity and his purpose, or we are against him. There's no fence riding with Jesus as badly as the world may want that. They may want to praise Jesus on one end and curse him in the very same breath. Um, that just isn't gonna work for Jesus. That does not work for Jesus. We either we either take all of Jesus or Jesus says, You're my enemy. Jesus doesn't let us get away with anything less, because anything less will not save us. If Jesus is not the Messiah, if Jesus is not who the Bible says he is, then Jesus is unimportant. And Jesus cannot save us this morning. And that's what we're after this morning. We want to know how to be saved, right? We we need to know how to be reunited with God. We need to know how to fix this broken world that we're in. And it's only the true Jesus that will do that. Um, but a high opinion of Jesus is still a false confession if it doesn't lead to the correct conclusion about who he is. Okay, the crowds then and today were guilty of that. Well, that they didn't really, they weren't mostly condemning him, um, at least not till later. They weren't mostly condemning him. They had a high opinion of him, uh, but that does not go nearly far enough for who Jesus is. So there was a lot of conjecture about his identity, but only one response will suffice. And that's what we're going to get to in our second point this morning, the conviction of the companions or the disciples. Uh, Jesus moves from the crowd's opinions to the confession of those he walked closest with for over two years at this point. Verse 29 uh says he asked them, but who do you say that I am? He turned to his disciples. He said, Who do you say that I am? This question is the climax of the book here. This is this question is the climax of the Gospel of Mark. Um, I would say this question is the climax of the Bible in general. Who do you say Jesus is? It's the climax of each and every life who is. Ever lived? Who do you say Jesus is? And there's nothing on earth more important than how we answer that question. And each and every one of us must give an answer to that question. And we do give an answer to that question, whether we even realize that or not. If we think we can avoid this question or distract ourselves from this question, we are sadly mistaken. The answer to this question, who do you say Jesus is, determines the eternal fate of every individual who has ever lived. Who do you say Jesus is? And maybe I'll add a follow-up to that. Who does your life say Jesus is? Because we all know we can say things with our words, and our life doesn't always back that up, right? So who do you say Jesus is, even with your words and with your life? Have you sealed up the answer to that question in your own heart this morning? Is it evident in both your confession of him verbally and in your life lived out? If not, I pray that you won't leave here today without giving that some serious thought. Who is Jesus? The disciples, really from the very beginning of meeting Jesus, had hoped that Jesus was the Messiah. And they had made various statements at this point about his power and his identity, and even had worshiped him and worshipped his deity at times. But here we really have recorded the clearest and most emphatic statement from the disciples on the identity of Jesus. Peter speaks for the group and he says, You are the Christ. Now, others may say you're a good teacher or a prophet or Elijah or John, but we say you, Jesus, you're the Christ. Now, the word Christ is not the last name of Jesus, right? We have to remind ourselves of that. This is not the last name of Jesus. We call him Jesus Christ, not because it was Mary and Joseph Christ, but because this is a title, right? This is Christ, this is Jesus' title. It's the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. So Messiah equals Christ. Those two things are equal. And your translation may even say Messiah in place of Christ here. Mark doesn't record the whole statement from Peter here. And so for that we have to go to Matthew chapter 16. And in verse 16, there he says the more complete statement. That's what Peter says. We get even more detail about who they understood Christ to be. He's the one all the prophecies of the Old Testament pointed to. He is the one, the Messiah. This was a strong moment for Peter and the disciples. I mean, for us, like we're like, yeah, of course he's the Messiah, right? But for them, I mean, this is the first time. Like really, nobody else was saying these things, as you can see from Peter's previous response. Nobody else was drawing this conclusion yet. There weren't a lot of people drawing this conclusion. So this is a strong and very significant moment for the disciples. Finally, they seem to get who he is, they seem to get his identity. Despite the crowds not understanding, these twelve finally have a great moment of truth. Well, we've been waiting for that, haven't we? We've seen a lot of not so great moments from the disciples. And now we have this one uh great climax for them. Um now Mark doesn't record Jesus' response to this great confession because um Mark has a little bit different focus than Matthew. So again, we we go back to Matthew to see Jesus' response, and and and I'll read that for you in verses 17 and 18. It says, And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And we could spend an entire sermon or two just on Jesus' response there. Um and and the following verse that I didn't read there, but that's uh that's not really, again, the focus of Mark's gospel. But this was a remarkable statement by Jesus. Here they are at Caesarea Philippine. I think that I think that's significant. Right? They're at a place filled with false idols, filled with satanic worship through false idols. Um and um they're they're they're at this site, more specifically, that the locals called the gates of hell. The gates of Hades, this huge cave opening where they thought it was a portal to the underworld, and they called it the gates of hell, representing all sorts of satanic worship and all idols and shrines who would put themselves up against the one true God. They're in this place. They're in a place that is a stronghold against God and against his Messiah and against his plan. A place dominated by satanic forces, kind of given over to satanic forces, and Jesus says, God has revealed my true identity to Peter and these followers, and I will build my church on this identity, on this great confession that Jesus is the Christ. And you know what? The gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against it. That's powerful, right? This is a powerful moment here. There is power in that confession that Jesus is the Christ. Power that makes the darkness shudder. He goes to the hub of pagan worship and he says, Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the one with the power. Jesus is in charge here. Darkness, death, and the enemy will be defeated ultimately because of that great confession. And the disciples stood on that confession even to the point of death. Of course, we'll see much later. And the church, even today, is made up of those who would proudly confess Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. If you don't believe that about Jesus this morning, you're not a part of the church. You're welcome to be here this morning, but you're not a part of what the Bible calls the church, right? The church is made of those who would stand firmly on that confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This is more than a declaration of truth about his identity here. It's a declaration of war against our adversary and ultimately a declaration of victory over all satanic forces. The church shall stand upon this truth. And 2,000 years later, we are still here, right? Standing upon that truth. This was a really strong moment for Peter and the disciples. Their eyes had been opened to the truth, the true saving identity of Jesus Christ. But unfortunately, this moment didn't last long. They were still missing something. They were, as the blind man, they were seeing people, but they looked like tall trees. There was still some blurriness here. They were missing something. They understood now his identity, and they confessed his identity proudly. But there was still more that they needed to understand about his mission and how the Messiah would usher in the kingdom. They needed a second touch from the king here, which Jesus is going to give them. But first, Mark records that he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And we've seen this command of silence many times at this point in the Gospel of Mark. And I think here, again, it is because Jesus' mission was not complete yet. There was still more to reveal to these disciples and more that they needed to know about how the kingdom would come. And as the coming verses show, they really weren't ready to receive this further insight. They were not ready to receive what Jesus was about to give them. After this climactic moment when they had declared Jesus' identity as the Messiah, and Jesus had really accepted that title by his statement, I would imagine these disciples were probably really excited. Right? I mean, yes, we've got it right. This is the Messiah. We are with the Messiah, and finally, he admits us. He is the Messiah. This has to be the moment. He's going to show his power by defeating the Romans, ushering in his kingdom, and we're going to reign right by his side because we've been here, right here with him for two years, and this is our moment. Maybe this would be the moment prophesied in the New Testament, prophesied by Psalm chapter 2, verse 9, when the Messiah would, it says, break them, that is the kings of the earth. He would break the kings of the earth with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. This was the moment. And Messiah was about to reign, and they were about to reign with him. Can you imagine the excitement they must have felt? This is a big, big moment. It's kind of hard us 2,000 years later putting ourselves in this moment with the kind of expectations they had. Right? Because we're on this side of the cross and the resurrection. They surely thought, here we go. Now it's really beginning. But that's not what happened. And in fact, what happened next was maybe the furthest thing from what they expected. And that's where we're going to come with our final point this morning, the confession of the king, which is also our title. After this confident confession of Peter, on which the church is built, that confession, Jesus has a confession of his own. Peter and the disciples had declared the only identity of Jesus that will work, the only one that is accurate, and the only one that will save. But how he was going to save, Jesus had not yet revealed to them. Mark says in verse 31 that Jesus began to teach. And what he was about to say was new teaching. He began to teach this to the disciples. Jesus had made some veiled references. You know, he talked about tearing down this temple and I'll raise it up in three days. He had made some statements like that that were kind of veiled, statements about his death and about his resurrection. Statements that probably went right over their heads that they certainly didn't get. But nothing this clear that we read here. This was new teaching and would at this point become a focus of his teaching with the disciples. And it's a teaching about the mission of the Messiah. And it wasn't the mission that they were expecting. Remember, they're ready to go. They are ready to reign. And it says that he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. And it says he said this plainly. He said this very plain to them. They go from being in one moment on the peak of the mountaintop. This is the Messiah, and we're ready to reign with him. The peak of the mountaintop to now the lowest of lows. This one with whom they had spent virtually every moment with for over two years now is saying he's going to die. He's going to die. They had no room for this kind of Messiah in their minds. Surely Jesus was mistaken. Surely he misspoke here. And we'll see the same statement from Jesus two more times in the next two chapters. So we'll see it in chapter 9. We'll see it again in chapter 10. Pretty much the very same statement here. Now, of course, on this side of the resurrection, we get it. But for them, this was devastating and unbelievable. I want you to see how unbelievable and devastating it was. Evidently, in their shock, they didn't even get the part about him rising from the dead. I mean, they totally blew past that. Peter doesn't even address that. They either greatly misunderstood what he was saying, or, you know, they thought he was saying something else, or they just totally missed it because they were stuck on he's going to die. Or they just totally missed it. He just said he's going to rise from the dead, and they didn't even respond to that. We see later that even when he rose, um, they didn't believe it at first. Right? Remember, the women came and told them, and they said Luke records these things were like idol tales to them. They had to see him themselves. They had to touch him, they had to see the nail-scarred hands. They were in shock that the Messiah would die in weakness rather than reign in power the way that they expected. That's what they had been taught since they were babies. That the Messiah was this powerful figure. As indicated by Peter's response, they didn't really want that kind of Messiah who was going to die. But Jesus said they needed him. He said the Son of Man must die. He must die. Now, this is really important for us today. Why did Jesus have to die? Why is this a must? Why was it uh necessary? Why couldn't God just say, you know what, you're all forgiving, it's all fixed, I'll fix the curse, everything's good now. Why did he have to die? It's important that we can answer that as believers, and I think there's several reasons to point to. First and foremost, Jesus had to die to be our substitute. He had to die to be our substitute. Uh, 2 Corinthians 5 21, for our sake, now I quote this verse all the time. We you know what you ought to just memorize it. Let's just memorize this verse together. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So why did he have to die? Well, it was first of all, for our sake. He did not have to die to crush the enemy or to reign forever. I mean, do you think Jesus really would have a hard time getting rid of Satan? No. He didn't need to die to do that. He also didn't need to die in order for him to reign forever. Remember, Jesus was already reigning forever before he came to this earth. He was reigning on his throne forever. He was being worshipped for all of time and eternity. He was already reigning. He didn't have to die to reign, but if he was going to reverse the curse of sin on this earth and its effects, most notably death, if he was going to reverse that for us, someone perfect had to pay the penalty on our behalf and face the wrath of God for us. If Jesus doesn't die, we cannot be forgiven. Because there is no one to take our place. There had to be a payment. Because God is just and God cannot violate his perfect character of being just. Romans 3 21 through 26 really explain this well. I'm going to read verse 26 for us. But it describes how those, or I'm going to explain verse 26. I'm not actually going to quote it, but it describes how through the substitute of Jesus on our behalf, God has become both just, maintaining his justice, punishing sin. Sin gets punished. He has become both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. I love that. He is both just and the justifier. He remains just because sin is still punished. So God doesn't violate his perfect justice, his perfect character. Sin is punished in Christ's death. But it's in Christ's death. He himself pays the penalty. So he has become both just and the justifier, the one who justifies. What does it mean to justify? To make us clean. Jesus must die. Because without his death, there can be no payment for sins. And as Paul says, without his resurrection, there's no acceptance of his payment, and we're still stuck in our sins. So Jesus had to die in order for us to be saved, but he also had to die to fulfill prophecy from the Old Testament. Yes, it's true, there are all sorts of prophecies like Psalm 2 and Daniel 7 that spoke of the Messiah reigning in power in a kingdom of power. There's a reason the Jews thought this. It's very clear in the Old Testament that the Messiah is going to reign in great power. He's going to crush his enemies. He's going to reign with a rod of iron. But there are also several prophecies about this one who would suffer. This one that God would send, who would suffer. And there are a lot, actually, and most notably is Isaiah 53, which we reference all the time here, which says that he would be cut off from the land of the living, and we would be healed by his wounds. It's by his wounds that we would be healed. The Jews didn't know how to reconcile those two things: the power and then the suffering. It must be two different people in their minds. And so Isaiah 53 had to be about someone else, not the Messiah, surely. But it was about Jesus all along. And he must die to fulfill those scriptures. He must die to win the victory over the enemy for us. He must die to fulfill the scriptures. You know, the cross and the resurrection were the only way to defeat our greatest enemy of death. Now it was an enemy that didn't affect Jesus. He could live forever without him having to die and resurrect. But for us, death had to be defeated. Sin had to be paid for. The sting of death is sin. See, death loses its power when sin is removed. If death cannot separate us any longer from God, then we have overcome Satan. Do you realize that this morning? If death really has no power over you, if death does not separate you from God, then Satan is absolutely defeated. And if you are in Christ this morning, then you have that victory. And there's nothing that could ever change that. The enemy does not have power over you, Christian, because you are in Christ. The enemy is defeated. The Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed, and after three days rise again. It was necessary. But it wasn't necessary so that God could gain something. That is the beautiful, incredible thing about all of this. God wins no matter what. I mean, have you ever thought about that? God wins if he doesn't create humans. I mean, God already wins. If he doesn't fix our mess, well, God wins anyway. He is God. He is sovereign. He is all-powerful. God will win. It wasn't necessary for Jesus to die so that God could gain something or win something. But it was necessary for us to have victory. For us to reign with Him forever, the Son must suffer. And why would God care about that? That's the real question here. Why would God care about us? Why would He love us in that way? And that's the answer the Bible gives over and over again. It's that He loves us deeply. I don't know why. It's clear about we have nothing to give Him. We have nothing to offer. We have no goodness. All of our righteousness, even is as filthy rags. We have nothing to offer Him. But the Bible just keeps saying over and over again, He loves you deeply. He has set His love on His people. He loves us so deeply that He wants us to have life. He wants to invite us into relationship with Him. He wants us to experience perfect love when we're really incapable of giving or receiving that here on earth. What a God we serve who loves us so, so much. More than words can describe. That's the real mystery here. Why does God love us? But because He loves us and wanted to save us, the Son of Man has to die. The Son of Man must be rejected. Jesus would have to suffer much. And this is what He's revealing to His disciples, who He's been with every day for two years now. He's revealing them to this clearly for the first time. And they were not ready to receive this plan yet. They would proclaim it and rejoice over it eventually, right? After all of this had happened and after Jesus had risen from the dead, they would rejoice over this plan. But here they were not ready to rejoice. They were in fact offended. It says that Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him. That's not a good idea, Peter, right? That's not a good idea. Matthew says, Peter said, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. Oh, really, Peter? This shall never happen to you, God, this thing that you just said would happen. It shall never happen to you. And again, yeah, we can be hard on Peter. But Peter's just a spokesman here. All the disciples felt this way. And you and I would too, honestly. This was just so far from the messianic expectations that they knew and that they loved. I mean, the Messiah is a hero. We love that guy. I come now. Hosanna, come and save us. We are here for that. They loved the expectations that had been ingrained in them. And they were influenced by the Bible. I mean, again, there's clear passages about the Messiah's reign. And they loved that Messiah. But they had never brought together those reigning passages with those suffering passages. Even the leaders had never brought that together. And so this was a shock for them. You know, even John the Baptist questioned whether Jesus was the one when he was stuck in prison. Remember, he sends messengers to ask, Jesus, are you sure you're the one? Now he may have had the best understanding. Remember, he called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Like he had some understanding of that. But even he struggled with not seeing the Messiah reign in power in his lifetime. He really struggled with not seeing that. Why am I in prison? Like, shouldn't this be all done now? Shouldn't we be on a different plan at this point? You know, at first it seems to us that Peter is noble in his declaration. He loves Jesus. Right? He says these things out of love. He loves Jesus and he can't bear the thought of him dying. I mean, without Jesus, he is without purpose. He gets up every morning and says, okay, where's Jesus going? That's where I'm going. Without Jesus here, what is he to do? But remember, he's arguing with God himself. That's never a good look. And Jesus rebukes him strongly for it. He says, get behind me, Satan. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. It may seem right to you, it may seem noble to you. It may seem like love. It may seem like wisdom what you're saying, Peter, but ultimately, Peter's attempt to stop the cross, Jesus calls it satanic. No, Peter, what you're thinking right now is satanic. He wasn't calling literally Peter, you are Satan. But he was saying this thought that you're having, Peter, it is anti-Christ. It is anti-the plan of God. It is satanic. There's nothing Satan would want more than for me to listen to you right now. And I will not be tempted by that. I have a mission to fulfill, and it's not a mission you're going to like, not at first, but it's the mission that's going to ultimately bring salvation. There was no other way but the cross. There is no other way for God to be just and the justifier. There is no other way for us to be saved. What can wash away my sins? What is it? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. There was no other way to usher in this kingdom and to save humanity. Again, it's not some deficiency of God that he's trying to fix. It is our deficiency. And he loves us deeply and he wants to fix it. But there was no other way but the cross. There can be no glory without the suffering. Peter was elevating himself to being the authority over God Himself. And before we point the finger, I bet you did that at least once this past week. Whether it be a sin issue, whether it be, I just I know you want me to talk to this person, God, but right now I'm just uncomfortable with that. I have a different agenda than you have right now, and I'm going to be the authority here and tell you that you're wrong. Right, I wonder how many times that we do the same thing that Peter does here, that Jesus calls satanic. Get behind me, Satan. You don't know what's best. Well, we think we know what's best so many times, and we rob ourselves of real life. We love the Jesus who gives us salvation. But how often do we try to edit the Jesus who wants us to change? Maybe it should be read a different way. Maybe that's not what the word is saying here. How often do we want to try to change the Jesus that brings and allows suffering into our lives? Well, sometimes we want to change that, Jesus, don't we? I don't like this. This can't surely be the plan. Suffering? Like this loss that I'm experiencing, that's the plan? For my growth, are you sure, Jesus? Oftentimes when suffering comes, we we're ready to play God. And we want to shake our fist and tell God the way, the way He should be doing things. God, there's got to be a different plan here. We like to place ourselves on the throne of authority, just like Peter does here, setting our minds on the things of man, the things that we want, rather than the things of God. Well, we need to be reminded this morning what Isaiah 55 tells us. He says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways, your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, that's pretty high. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Are you willing to submit to that passage this morning? Think about it before you say yes. Yeah, absolutely. Think about it. There's a cost to that. Right of just saying, God, your way really is better and higher. You know better than I do. Whatever you're bringing into my life, whatever your word says about my purity or about my anger, about you know, whatever it may be for you, you fill in the blank this morning. Your word is best, even though I don't feel it in this moment. I'm gonna trust, I'm gonna live by that, the fact that your ways, as the heavens are higher than the earth, your ways are higher than mine. And so I gotta go with you on this. And that's a daily battle, isn't it? That's an everyday thing, multiple times a day. We have to decide his way is higher than mine. And so I will trust him. When we don't feel like getting into the scriptures, right? You've got to decide his way is higher than mine, though. He knows where life is found. I don't. I think it's on Instagram. It's not. It's amazing how many times you fool yourself into thinking that. I do too. So we're all we're in good company here. Or maybe I should say bad company, or maybe I should say satanic company based on what Jesus says here. Um, but we're in company at least, right? We struggle with that. We we so often we want to find our life in other places. You know that Jesus says that eternal life. John 17, he says, This is life eternal, that they may know you and the one whom you've sent. Himself, right? That is eternal life. It's not heaven. That's a part, the paradise thing with no more death and no more sin and perfection. That's that's like the cherries on top. Eternal life is knowing and fellowshipping with God, and you can do that now. If we would just believe that his ways are higher than ours, the joy that we would probably walk through suffering with, and walk through struggles with sin with, and the victory that we would walk in. But we have a hard time believing a verse like that. What are you talking about, Jesus? This eternal life is. I thought it was heaven. Meanwhile, we rob ourselves of heaven on earth. Heaven on earth. Now there are joys coming in heaven that nothing can describe, right? But we can have heavy fellowship, intimate fellowship with God on earth. Sure, someday the veil is going to be lifted even more. But we can have so much more than what we're having. If we would just take him at his word. That verse has been really convicting to me. I didn't plan to share that, but I think it's relevant to what we're talking about this morning, and maybe you'll find uh identification with too. How much are you robbing yourself? Because you just will not believe his ways are higher than yours. You will say that, you will confess that with your mouth. Your life says a different story. Right? Are there areas in your life right now that you are like Peter and you're actually being the voice of the enemy? Maybe it's a calling that you you just you're afraid to step into. You think you you know a better plan. Maybe it's a sin that you're just not willing to go to war with, because honestly, it's fun and you're not ready to give it up. You got a better plan. Maybe it's circumstance that you don't understand and you can't imagine why it's in your life, and there just has to be a better plan, and you've become the voice of the enemy in believing that lie. We tend to create a Jesus that we are more comfortable with. That's what they did about the Messiah. That's why they ignored all the suffering verses, because that's not cool. And it's hard to fit it in. Like, I mean, I kind of get it. It was just hard to fit into those victory passages. But it was the truth of the matter. The Son of Man must come first to die. But we also created Jesus that we're more comfortable with. That doesn't say those difficult things that we just disagree with or that we don't like. That's what the crowds did. They thought they knew what the Messiah should look like, and Jesus couldn't have been him. That's what the disciples, they got the identity right. You are the Christ, but they weren't ready to accept his plan of suffering. Um, and just wait till next week's passage. Where Jesus then turns it on them and says, This is the plan for me, but this is also the plan for those who will come after me. There must be suffering. That's a hard truth that we don't like to hear. Surely the disciples thought, surely we know better. Surely there's another plan. You know, in both of those cases, they were making a more comfortable Jesus. And if we're honest, we do the same at times. God's ways are often really hard. But they're usually clear. Um, just as Jesus is very clear in this passage, they're just hard. So, in what ways do you need to submit to the person or the plan of God in your life right now? I'm gonna ask the band to come on up. We're gonna move to a closing point here. And um, as I said, as we move forward in this passage next week, it only gets more difficult to handle. We'll find out that this path of suffering that the Messiah must face is also the path that he calls us to face. This this life of sacrifice and of self-denial. But this morning, as we close, let's ask ourselves where we are making a different Jesus in our hearts right now. And I'm gonna ask you to just bow your heads and close your eyes. And let's just ask ourselves that question. And maybe you don't, it nothing comes to mind immediately, and maybe you need to ask the Lord to reveal it to you. Lord, where am I? Um, maybe making a more comfortable Jesus in place of the true Jesus. Let's ask the Lord to reveal that to us, and let's at the same time, let's rejoice in the great, great love of God communicated in this passage. You know, even in your weakness and your struggle right now, even in your tendency to make a different Jesus, He loves you more than you can imagine. Yeah, God often calls us to hard things. Sometimes God's ways are far from what we think they should be, but he loves you deeply. The must in this passage, the Son of Man must die. That must is all about us. Jesus didn't have to suffer any of this for his own sake. But the suffering, the rejection, the cross was all about our salvation and our future glory with him. He wasn't deficient in anything, but he wanted to lavish his love upon us. He lavishes his love upon us. And so it says he endured the cross for the joy set before him. That's what Hebrews says about it. The joy set before him, the joy of being united forever with those he had redeemed. And us getting to experience that unity and love in the Trinity that had existed for all time. And now in Jesus, we get to experience that. In part now, although probably more than you're experiencing right now, still in part, but someday in heaven in full, with no veil at all. The cross was difficult. You know, we read in the garden just how difficult it was for Jesus. But what a burden it was. But it also brought joy to our Savior as he thought about the results. Isaiah says it pleased God to bruise him. It pleased God to bruise him for your sake and for my sake. Who could not love a Savior such as this? His bruising meant our salvation. Have you come to the Savior yet? If you haven't, what are you waiting on? There is a love that you have not experienced, that you cannot experience apart from Jesus Christ, and he is calling you to himself this morning. He has paid the penalty, paid the price, so that you can have fellowship with him. He will remove your sin because he has paid for it. And you can be with him. You can rejoice with him now and forever. Have you come to this Savior yet? Do you come by repentance of sin? Confess your sin to him. And ask him to forgive you, and he will. He absolutely will if you will come in humility. So we do that this morning. And for many of us, I know we already have done that. And we need to ask the Holy Spirit where we need to apply this text to our hearts. And each heart may be different this morning. Where are we putting ourselves in God's place as the authority? Becoming the voice of the enemy? Where do we have misunderstandings of his person or his mission? Where are we arguing with those musts that God and his wisdom has put into our lives? Because we must suffer these things in order for him to get us to where we need to be. Is there a place in your life maybe you're arguing with God over that must instead of just saying, What do you want to teach me, Lord? Who this? He knows what is best to get us where he wants us. That's a hard truth sometimes. For some of you, that's a joyful truth right now. For some of you, that's an extremely hard truth right now. But for all of us, he knows. He has the wisdom. Will we submit to him this morning? And will we lean into him and his great love and wisdom? We're going to close, I'm going to just give you a few moments to do what you need to do with the Lord. This altar is open if you'd like to come and pray. I'll be in the back if you need me.