what man means for evil god intends for good that when man thinks they won god's the one who's actually laughing because god is the victor even over suffering and death and that there is no absence of god amidst your suffering
well this morning we have officially hit the midpoint in the gospel of mark
alright cool we have officially hit the midpoint mark and i love how mark is structured it is so beautifully structured because the midpoint is mark's high point in his gospel this morning we're going to see a radical shift it's like part one and now part two because mark is going to totally reorient our focus and narrow us in on this one thing that we're going to talk about this morning and what mark has been dealing with for the first eight chapters of his gospel is this one idea who is jesus he wants us to ask that question who is jesus if you remember back to chapter three the storm comes the disciples panic and jesus calms the storms calms the wind calms the waves and what do his disciples ask who is this man but even before that all the way back to chapter one if you remember jesus has that run in with that demon and that demon says what he says you are jesus of nazareth the holy one of god and what does jesus say shut up and come out of him and the crowds were amazed because they said what is this a teaching with authority the whole question we've been getting at is who is jesus if you remember two weeks ago we came and we saw this leaven the unbelief of the pharisees and we noticed one amazing thing that unbelief had spread to the disciples and this is what we realize that proximity without understanding is a recipe for disaster that in the kingdom of god and when we think that we are close to jesus just because we have proximity by doing good moral things and no understanding of who our king is that is disastrous for our lives proximity without understanding will keep us stagnant in our walk proximity without understanding will harden our hearts making us think we are able and we are good enough and we don't need a savior proximity without understanding will never cause us to cling so tightly to our king when troubled waters in our lives come
and then last week seth did a great job with those few little tiny verses of jesus healing that blind man and this was a picture that i love how jesus uses us as sermon analogies by the way has anyone ever just loved that about their lives like everything we go through is a sermon analogy for the glory and the majesty of god and this blind guy last week was a sermon analogy for the disciples because if you remember two weeks ago the disciples were confused they're worried about what where's the bread where's the bread and jesus is like you're missing the point and then we saw showed us last year that understanding does not come from in the kingdom of god through memorization it does not come through intellectual ascent understanding in the kingdom of god does not come through white knuckle discipline of doing doing doing and doing understanding comes when our lord and savior grabs us and opens the eyes of our hearts to see the glory and the majesty and the greatness of god and this is good news that jesus doesn't knock at the door of our hearts and say can you let me in but he busts down the doors of our hearts and says i am here to make my for myself a holy people and what we see last week is it's going to take multiple times of jesus continually opening the eyes of the hearts of his disciples so that they may see clearly who he is and praise god because that's your life in my life is it not i always say it the same way i am terrified of people who spend decades in church and are no different over decades of repeated teaching of the word of god the whole point of preaching is to do what to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable and so man when we come into the presence of jesus man we are called into great great things and this is good news and then so what we see is in the human condition in your life in my life we have pointed out time and time again where we have found ourselves way too easily satisfied with the things of this world we have found ourselves way too easily satisfied with the things that have no power to resurrect the dead heart that we once had and jesus calls us into greater things than that and so what do we do we behold the glorious riches of christ the glory of god this idea that this infinite god and we realize how small and tiny we are this infinite god loves us despite how wicked and tiny we are the great gospel that god chose us to be in him before the foundations of the world he adopted us he set us apart he is making us holy and he will one day glorify us all into eternity to spend time with him and this morning we get to see we get to see this great truth when the disciples it finally clicks in their heart this great announcement of understanding who jesus is and yet just like the blind man last week their eyes are opened a little bit but they still don't see clearly because they need more teaching more understanding and so this morning we're going to see jesus's great plan for his church amidst a wicked world this morning we get to see what jesus declares as victory and it will shock us so if you have your bibles go ahead grab them we're gonna be in mark chapter eight mark chapter eight is going to be our text this morning uh mark chapter eight will be our big shift in the gospel of mark we're going to go from jesus teaching the disciples about who he is to now he's going to shift teaching what jesus has come to do he has come to teach and now he is shifting and he's saying i have come to be the suffering servant and he calls his disciples he calls the disciples you and me to a life of discipleship the call to follow christ is not a call to raise a hand to pray a prayer to walk the aisle to get dunked to show up to church to put some money in the plate the call of discipleship is the call to die and the call of discipleship is a call to live in the glories and the riches and the majesties of god and beholding his glory and saying that is my treasure you can have the world i'll take that and that's what the call of discipleship is the call of discipleship is a recognition that you and i have only one life to live and we can live our lives one of two ways one way we can live our lives is for our glory our majesty our kingdom building up our self knowing that the second we die will all pass away or we can live our lives so that god's name may be seen amidst all things and everything we do that call that we can lift and exalt christ and it will never be put to shame amen and god calls us to put to death some things in our life that we hold most dear doesn't he not and far too often far too often do you and i believe that lie from the serpent in genesis 3 hey eve do you know why god told you not to eat of that tree because he's keeping power from you he's keeping stuff from you because he doesn't want you to be great far too often in our life do we view our walk in obedience like that god's restricting me because he doesn't want good things from me and what do we realize over and over and over again what god restricts so that we may grow in faith with him this is the promise of psalm 16 11 you make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy joy is missing when we are not walking with our savior at your right hand are pleasures forever more is your joy found in you walking with christ are your anxieties found from the things of this world so we're going to see this very deep call of god this call that begs us and bids us to come and die so that we may live the old scottie's got to die so that christ can be glorified in my life that's right may that be so of us this morning and so before we take a look at this great deep call in our lives let us pray together would you pray with
me father you are the father of all god your word says that you know what we need before we even know we need it that you know what we're going to pray for even before we pray for it but that you delight in the prayers of your people a sweet aroma to your nose and so father god we ask that the preaching and teaching of god's word be a delight to you in this worship time now church let's just pray for me i pray that i'll be helpful this morning pray that i'll speak clearly pray that god will hide me behind and beneath his cross and lift up his son this morning
now church let's just pray for yourself pray that god will open up your ears your heart your mind to hear from him this morning that he'll remove distractions
and that he will fill your heart with the joys of his gospel
father god this time is yours we pray these things because your son's atoning work on the cross your spirit that's alive and active within all who believe amen mark chapter 8 starting in verse 27 through 30. this is the word of the lord 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 and 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 him to tell no one about him so jesus takes a nice little walk north about a 25 mile walk north to ask one question jesus has taken his disciples into many interesting many fascinating places but i would argue caesarea of philippi might be the most fascinating might be the most interesting of all places jesus would ever take his disciples so what is the deal with caesarea of philippi caesarea philippi sat at the most northern point of israel it's as far north as you could go it's on the border of israel and this is where immense immoral polytheistic religion was practiced by the romans it was a place of incredible immorality it was a place of incredible polytheistic religion worshiping many many gods it was a place where the romans would often go to worship their gods and here is why it was immoral because what sat at the center of this religion this polytheistic religion was what you know as from matthew chapter 16 the gates of hell and at the gates of hell was a big old cliff and you would walk to the top of the cliff and beneath you on this cliff was a river that ran into this cave below you and this is where many sacrifices would take place usually they were animals but often but there was also sometimes when human sacrifices would take place children being thrown from the top of the cave down into this water
and what it was was when you threw the sacrifice over if you saw blood it meant that the gods accepted your sacrifice but if you did not see blood they rejected your sacrifice and jesus stands amidst this audacious horrific worship experience and he has one question for his disciples who do people say that i am and i want to remind you jesus is not trying to find out how popular he is
in a world where we are obsessed with popularity and fame jesus never was in fact jesus often recognized the dangers of popularity fame and power we would be right we would be wise as a church to recognize the dangers of fame and popularity especially in a world that's obsessed with fame and popularity i find it amazing how many people are looking and how many people are excited when that one celebrity becomes christian that we're all waiting for that one really smart person to give their lives for christ allow me to remind you that being popular in the kingdom of god is like being prom king of your home school it's not that great of an achievement
some of you got it your neighbor will explain it to you later it's okay i want to remind you that jesus did not go find the most brilliant the most popular most powerful people to follow him he found the most average of average people people like you and me did he just call me average well if you're not i'm sorry i am and i'm okay to admit it but you know what jesus was looking for in his disciples not fame not popularity not brilliance not good white knuckle moral discipline but people who are totally sold out to the glory and the majesty of him amen and that's the church my friends this was peter's cry in john chapter six jesus where would we go you have the words of life and we want to be with you oh lord let me tell you jesus and god are not looking for that one famous popular whomever to come and fix this world jesus and pay attention very carefully jesus and god are looking to the church because the church is where the glory of god is manifested god has said the church is my plan a and i have no plan b for this world and so if we're waiting for some celebrity some politician some someone to come and be our hero guess what our messiah has already come and he has won and he is reigning and ruling that's right and my dear friends we must be very careful of looking the fame in popularity to advance the kingdom of god because the church is made up of a group of average individuals who are radically sold out to see the glory of god into all four corners of this world
next we see jesus wants his disciples to know who he is he wants his disciples to understand who he is my friends far too often we're obsessed with doing and we neglect the knowing far too often do we talk about doing and neglect the knowing the call to follow jesus is not blind faith the call to follow jesus is to follow him we're disregarding all other empty philosophies and religions of this world and this is why mark has spent literally half of his gospel getting us to ask the question who is jesus and this is a question we need to be asked who is our savior who is our lord who is our king
and so how do we know who jesus is step one we must know his word i want to remind you if we are void of private worship if we're void of time and worship with just ourselves and jesus in our prayer closets in our individual private studies we will fail to worship him publicly without private worship public worship will be just what it seems a show an act and let me remind you without private worship without private worship the courage to stand up for the glories and the majesties of god in a world that hates him will be absent if we fail to have a private time with god we will fail to have a public time with him as well because it is in those private times of worship that god builds our faith do not neglect your private time of worship next we are called to have maturity maturity in the kingdom of god comes from knowing jesus and then walking him out just like james talked about in our congregational reading don't be just here is the word but be doers of the world this is why in the church service this is why the sermons are not about doing but about beholding the glory of christ amen and so we must not be so concerned with the doing and neglect the knowing and so here jesus asked the question who do people say that i am if you notice the answer that the disciples gives are the same answer that herod's friends gave him back in mark chapter six it's the same order of the same people john the baptist elijah and one of the prophets here's the glowing problem of that list all of those people were designed to point to god and what is why do those fall short because jesus is god he not only points to god but he is god he is the answer he is salvation because he is going to be the lamb who was slain truly god truly man and then jesus asks the more important question of his disciples who do you say that i am jesus wants to make sure that his disciples understand who he is let me remind you jesus is not concerned with public opinion of himself he's concerned with his church's opinion of himself and this is the heart of worship when we're not concerned with changing public opinion about christ but rather concerned with worshiping him in spirit and in truth if we try to change public opinion of christ that will be like chasing wind what the church is concerned is to worship him in spirit and in truth and peter answered it perfectly you are the christ now what is christ so this is where we gotta do a little work right all right so we gotta do a little work during our sermon so roll up your sleeves and we need to understand what is the word christ okay so christ is not jesus's last name we all understand that right i hope so here we go if not i'm gonna you're gonna i'm either going wow you're gonna hate me so will you the one so here we go so in the old testament especially in the prophets the major prophet isaiah i think was the most adamant about making us understand this word the promise of the coming messiah messiah means anointed one it just means king it's another way to say king the king was promised back in genesis if you remember in genesis we just read this a few months ago so it should be really fresh on your mind in our reading plan where if you remember back in genesis you had the 12 tribes and one of those tribes was the lion of judah the king was going to come from the line of judah you get to david and the promise to david in 2nd samuel was there was going to be a king who would sit on the throne forever and ever the psalms talked about this king that would come and set israel free isaiah talked about this messiah who had come and set israel free messiah and christ are the same words it's messiah messiac and hebrew christos in greek but they're the same words christ in greek anointed one so understand messiah equals christ so when he says you are the christ it literally means you are the king you're the king of kings you're the lord of lords you're the promised king of the old testament amen and why is this amazing the first time we saw the word christ in mark was in mark chapter one this is the gospel of jesus christ the son of man we have not seen the word christ until this moment in mark chapter 8.
so here's what we then therefore realize that people have not recognized jesus as the promised messiah of the old testament why because jesus wasn't doing things the way they wanted the messiah to do things they wanted the messiah to come in take care of rome remember rome's got their thumb on israel enslaved they've got their thumb on israel and they're like the messiah when the messiah comes he's going to kick out rome he's going to give us back our country and jesus wasn't doing that was he he actually has not even been concerned with the romans at all in mark's gospel he has come and he's invading the hearts he's invading he's invading prostitutes and tax collectors he is calling and seeking and saving the loss and he is not dealing with the country because he has a greater purpose
and so this is what we realize in our human condition that we must truly understand who jesus is we will always see jesus as one of two ways as messiah or as useful as useful we'll see jesus as someone here to clean up our messes to answer our requests to fix our culture to bring back what we hold most dear or will see him as messiah as king here to invade the hearts the people who we come in contact with every day as king your prayers will be filled with with you and i crying out lord do whatever you do take whatever you have to take do whatever you need to do send me wherever i need to go into the most darkest and terrible places in the world so that the people may know your name
a useful jesus will have the five easy steps to the 40 days of whatever a year of this the how to of this while the messiah jesus will be the god of all things through all things for all things a useful jesus when suffering comes into our life will cause us to say as job's wife did curse god and die while the messiah jesus when suffering comes will cause us to say as job did the lord gives and the lord takes away but blessed be the name of the lord a useful jesus will cause us to worship whenever it's convenient the messiah jesus will cause us to worship in all things in all moments of our lives a life of worship the messiah jesus will have us say the sentiment of the psalmist in psalm 16 god's people are the excellent ones they are where i find delight the lord is my portion translation god take whatever you want to take take the whole world and leave me you and your people amen a true christian finds great joy amidst the people of god do you know how messed up the church is pastor absolutely because i know how messed up i am never met a perfect person in the world and by the way if you ever find the perfect church please don't join it because you'll just mess it up i'm begging you don't join that church
i get very concerned in the christian life when we talk more about doing rather than worshipping i get very concerned in my own heart when i think i have to rather than god i am so glad i get to serve you by serving blank and so our man peter cries out you are the christ you are the king this is the promise of the scriptures that the king would come and set his people free
and so we see that time and time again that jesus says what he does here in verse 30 and he strictly charged them to tell no one about him this started all the way back in chapter one i'm gonna tell you you go to an evangelistic meeting no one's gonna use this verse right as our evangelistic meeting tell no one about jesus bro so why does jesus say don't tell anyone about me this started all the way back in chapter one if you remember the demon first one like first human actually i mean the first i guess entity where you see the claim you are jesus's naturalist the holy one of god was jesus say shut up and then from there we see jesus strictly warn people don't tell anyone don't tell anyone don't tell anyone interesting enough and this is i think the key to understanding this y'all don't miss this who did jesus not strictly warn people to not say anything about him the gentiles because the gentiles didn't have a wrong view of king they had the right view of king while the jews view of king was what he's here to fix the political structure and so why does jesus tell his disciples don't tell anyone this fact because jesus has to fix their theology church i need you to hear me on this theology is not just for the pastors and the academics theology is for the christian theology matters what god's word says matters a great deal and jesus has to fix their theology before they can become proclaimers verse 31-33 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 that 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 the things of god but on the things of man i want you if you're you have your little mark journals or you're okay in circling in your bible circle that word must the son of man must suffer this must take place why must this take place because the cross was on the books before the foundations of the world before god even laid the first stone in this world the cross was on the books the cross was not a reaction to adam and eve it was already proactively on the books before the first sin would take place in genesis 3 we see the promise of god to the evil wicked serpent that from this woman from her seed there will be a man and you will bite his heel and he will crush your head he will destroy your works and so this is what the messiah comes to do he comes to destroy and to set free his people from the slavery of sin and the only way this can happen is how through the road of suffering and you and i have to love the humility of mark in this text because who is giving mark all of his information my man simon peter if you read matthew 16 the parallel account to this matthew's account of this matthew goes into great detail about jesus's response to peter and he says what blessed be you simon son of jonah for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven and upon this bedrock i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against you why is that missing in mark's account because mark wants you and i to pay attention to the rebuke more than the praise of jesus because this is the central point in mark that the son of man must suffer let me remind you if simon peter was the beginning pope peter clearly did not know that because he would have said it right here y'all listen to me because i'm the beginning pope but he doesn't say that he pays attention to the rebuke
and then we see in verse 32 and i want you to pay attention this verse 32 and he said this plainly i love short little sentences in the bible that we can so easily run past do you realize what what simon peter through mark is saying here he's saying jesus was not being cryptic he wasn't even speaking in parables he was very very plainly telling us i must suffer and we didn't understand it it was staring us in the face and we did not get it the purpose of his ministry the purpose of jesus ministry was to be the lamb who would be slain for peter the cross was unthinkable for jesus it was inevitable
next i want you to notice that it was not the worst of society it was not the most immoral of society who jesus lists here it was the most moral and religious of people he lists here it was the people that thought i'm good enough to be in the kingdom of god
these moral people had no true love for god because their good works were their god they thought they could earn their way into salvation through works the most moral of people without the grace of god will always show you how little they understand the gospel by how they preach to god the gospel to those who do not know christ the moral person actually believes they are morally superior to the immoral people the moral person looks at others and sees them as animals while the gospel-driven people see them as people made in the image of god who desperately need to know the grace of god to set them free from the slavery that so entangles them if you do not have grace and mercy like jesus had on you to the most immoral of people then my friend i want to encourage you you don't know the gospel
i don't like him rebuking me
because we have a world that desperately needs to know how christ has come to set us free remember back to earlier in chapter 8 jesus said what beware of the leaven of the pharisees my friends it was not an out of control mob who came to arrest jesus it was a very carefully orchestrated plan with arrest warrants in the middle of the night who came for jesus it was not the immoral non-church-going people it was literally the people that had no desire for the glory of god just the desire to lift up themselves lift up their preferences and lift up their agenda so why was peter and the disciples having such a hard time understanding the cross jesus says it right here because they were not setting their mind on the things of god but on the things of man they weren't thinking heavenly they were thinking about this world the problem is not that they were thinking too big they were thinking too small and oh how this happens in your life and in my life how we think only about this little tiny blue and green marble we live on when there's a great vast heavens that we are called to live for and this is your prayers and my prayers so often we pray may it never be we'll come across scriptures in the bible and we'll be like that doesn't apply to me that must apply to someone else and this is why we must let the word of god mess with our views of this world and of others let me remind you if in your reading plan if in your quiet time if in your worship god does not disagree with you you are in trouble
the word of god will often disagree with you why because god is shaping you and shifting you and conforming you into the image of god if you don't believe me find someone with gray hair in here and ask them about how god has shaped and shifted their gospel transformation over the decades of their lives
next i want you to notice if you look at verse 31 jesus he began to teach verse 32 and peter took him aside and he began to rebuke jesus began to teach didn't even get through all this teaching and jesus started rebuking so the question we are asking is why is peter rebuking jesus because he has some disbelief that needs to be rid of in his own heart and i want to say this with confidence our pulpits in our world and our lives do not need more inspiration we do not need more fancy memes on facebook and in instagram we need transformation and followed by perspiration we do not need more inspired sermons we need more biblically transforming sermons followed by perspirating work of the gospel our hearts have a tendency to shape jesus into our personal felt need and when a rebuke comes from jesus we must pay attention to it we must allow jesus to rebuke us
and so what is peter's ultimate rebuke of jesus i wish i want to know what he actually said i want to know how you start off that conversation but i want to know that but that's okay i'll find out in heaven and here's what's going on here peter is assuming that suffering and the goodness of god are divorced from one another and this is a problem this is why doctrine this is why theology matters this is at the heart of why jesus said i have to teach you about these things far too often do we assume that god gives sunshine and not storm clouds in our lives far too often do we assume that the good things are from god and the bad things are from satan when the bible says the direct opposite the lord gives and the lord takes away he makes rise and he kills he heals and he sickens
and this is a point all the way back into the book of genesis how does genesis end but a story of one guy my man joseph and joseph's brothers they beat him up they throw him in well he sold into slavery he's in slavery for 12 years wrongfully imprisoned by the way for 12 years and finally he comes face to face with his brothers who sold him into slavery and what is his big response to his brothers
what man means for evil god intends for good amen that when man things save one god's the one who's actually laughing because god is the victor even over suffering and death and that there is no absence of god amidst your suffering
it's good news for a lot of us and paul reminds us ii corinthians chapter four this light momentary affliction is producing in us a glory that far outweighs all comparisons and this is the question we get so often if god is good why is there suffering if god is good why am i suffering if god is good why am i struggling and you know the problem with that question don't you they're ultimately asking why do i deserve this suffering why do bad things happen to good people well let me give you some scripture romans 3 for there is no one good no not even one there was only one time in the history world where a bad thing happened to a good person and he volunteered for it
so when we find ourselves like peter saying may it never be mark is having us reorient our eyes to see the glories of jesus on that cross and so what we see here is jesus is going to walk out faith in the plan of the father and the reason why jesus volunteered for the cross was because he cared more about the glory of god than his own will his own preferences and his own comforts this is faithfulness being totally sold out for the glory of god in all things in our lives
this is trusting in god that even through suffering god's goodness will be clearly seen even amidst the worst of circumstances even in which the worst moments of our lives god will be vindicate will vindicate his people and god's glory will never be put to shame and this was god's plan from the beginning that's colossians by the way before the foundation's world cross was on the books but it's also stated in isaiah 53 it was the good pleasure of the father to crush his servants my friends the romans didn't kill jesus the pharisees didn't kill jesus god crushed jesus and jesus gave up his life to save his church next we see this is jesus's declaration on war this is jesus going war this is jesus going to battle and jesus knew how to win because he knew his enemy and he knew the weapons it would take to win his enemy was not the religious leaders his enemy was not rome his enemy was not those who wanted him dead his enemy was not anyone in this like religious scene of caesarea philippi his enemy with satan who held the keys to sin and death jesus's enemy was satan and jesus's weapon was not force and power but servanthood and suffering and know this jesus had complete control and power over the situation jesus we're going to see from mark a all the way to the end jesus is going to march towards the cross he won't be dragging his feet he won't be lollygagging he will be marching like a warrior to the cross and aren't you glad that jesus decided to fight with a heavenly perspective not with your perspective in my perspective because man i know if i had all the power of god i would be wrecking havoc on people
but jesus knew what you and i now know that without the cross there would be no salvation with no salvation we would still be in our sins with still in our sins we'd stand before that judgment seek guilty
and so jesus knew his enemy and he knew his weapons this is why paul reminds us in ephesians chapter 6 that we fight not against flesh and blood and the principalities of the air or any sort of human group or people but we fight against the forces of evil and the one weapon we have the one offensive weapon we have is what this word of god the sword of the spirit in prayer amen that's our one weapon because the word of god is effective in cutting bone and marrow down to soul and spirit causing dead man to rise that's our one weapon the church fights not on its feet but on its knees and that's how god gets the glory in the church amen and this is what we must realize what is success if we have a view of success from a human perspective it will always feel like we're losing in this world but when we see success from a heavenly perspective when we see success from a heavenly perspective we will see how god is conquering the hearts of people over and over and over again church we have a lot to celebrate in this church
if we try to measure success how the world measures success we will be like peter may it never be if we look at things from a human perspective we'll be tempted to cry out i want to fight with the weapons of the world and let me tell you that has never worked well for the church in the history of the world the church has always flourished when they stand up and they say do what you have to do to me my king reigns and rules from heaven
he reigned and ruled from the cross what you meant for evil he intended for good and he will have the last say so you do whatever you got to do to me because my king wins and i wants to see the follow-up of our lord verses 34 through 38 and calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them if anyone would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save her for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can a man give in return for his soul for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels i want us to put this scripture into context remember mark is being written to a church in rome and nero is in charge and nero has said let's kill all of the christians and so you have soldiers they're banging down the doors of the homes of christians dragging christians out into the street and they're saying all right i'm going to ask you one question and you're either going to be put on the cross or you're going to let be able to go back home and live your life is jesus your king if you say yes you're going to that cross today if you say no you go back home and live your life
and this is a question the church in rome was asking that that peter is answering we're watching our friends be crucified brutally murdered and killed amid sis it doesn't feel like we are winning peter it doesn't feel like we're winning here how do we win here if that's what's going on in our world and peter's reminding us through the words of jesus do not think of your life so small as your little 80 years on this little marble but set your eyes on the glories of heaven because if you deny christ you've denied life in general
do not deny christ for christ is greater what life do we have if christ is absent there would be no joy why because the things of this world cannot satisfy us and for the christian they say give me death as long as i have christ because this death is not the end
and so jesus calls to us again don't believe me read the book of revelation
look the king the lion of judah and i looked and behold there was a lamb who looked as though it had been slain
who is to bring a charge against god's church against god's elect it's christ who's justified it's christ who died and it's christ who says you are mine what court could they hold us in for there is one final court of appeals and that is a great white throne rooted judgment where we can boldly say i put my whole faith in jesus and that's where i live my life so how do we live this for us who are not in danger of being dragged out in the streets and pointed across and saying that's your destination if you say you believe in christ how do we live this out the life of discipleship is a life of self-denial hard-heartedness comes when we think that this world is made for us the whole point of the gospel is that it calls the church to come and die so that we may live if we love the things of this world we will never be able to be conformed to the image of god the freedom that is so clearly seen in this world is when the people of god declare that it is god who governs all things so what fear do we have so what do we do with all this how do we live on purpose with this text how do we walk this out first i want to talk about the problem of our sinful nature that we're constantly putting to death day by day and it seems backwards the call to victory is the call to die in the kingdom of god walking out god's plan in our lives is hard we recognize that it's hard but it's hard because too often we do not actually do what god wants us to do too often we want what we want and we want god to deliver it for us part of denying yourself and submission to the holy god is to see that god wants what he wants we must allow god to mess with our views and our desires we must be willing to put our desires to death for the glory of god next great victory happens not in great grand moments but in tiny seemingly insignificant moments
if you do not find joy in those seemingly tiny insignificant moments with just you and your bible in your prayer closet you will not find joy in standing up for christ during great suffering god will always prepare you for the most difficult moments through private moments of worship finally suffering is not an absence of god what suffering does is it's god's tool to wipe the taste of the world out of your mouth to remind you that you and i have no control in this world that god governs all things and he is where we put our trust and this hope causes us to strive for the glory of god in this life and the life to come when pain comes set your eyes on christ who is regenerating us and who is anchoring our souls into the father who promised us i will never leave you nor abandon you let's pray father god we thank you we thank you that victory is not found by force but it is found by seeking and beholding the glory and the majesty of god and god may we be totally sold out to see your glory not only here but into the deepest and darkest places of the world god i'm reminded of psalm 51 teach me your ways so that i may teach those who do not know you so father god we ask you to do a mighty work in our hearts god may we set our eyes maybe we set our mind may we set our hearts and the things of heaven and not the things this world we pray this because your son's atoning work through spirit that's live and acted within us amen
hi i'm pastor scott pastor of the oasis church listen we are so excited that you decide to join us for the preaching and teaching of god's word we just pray that this will stir your affections towards christ but we have one encouragement we want to leave you with please do not allow this to take the place of the local body of believers we pray that you will be involved in a local congregation a local church that you can find yourself submitting under the eldership and the leadership of a local church we pray that you will find yourself stirred towards christ and that your joy in christ will be ever increasing