THE FORK IN THE ROAD
MARK: THE SERVANT WHO WAS OUR SAVIOR • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 15 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
This passage is the hinge of the entire Gospel story of Mark. As the great Yogi Berra once said, "If you see a fork in the road, take it." The followers of Jesus see the fork in the road and they want to take it. In other words, they want it both ways, but Jesus will remind them that they can take only one part of the fork—not both.
Mark 8:27-30
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 them to tell no one about him.
Jesus takes His disciples 25 miles north into an area called Caesarea Philippi to ask them a question. As a student of Scripture, we should ask ourselves why does Jesus take them to this specific place to ask them this particular question. Every action of Jesus is calculated and intentional.
Jesus often uses His surrounding to give understanding to His teaching. For example, when Jesus wanted to teach His disciples about evangelism, he put them in a boat and used the metaphor of fishing to explain evangelism.
In our text today, Jesus is preparing to ask His disciples the most important of His ministry. Of all the places He could have chosen to ask this question, none was better than Caesarea Philippi.
Caesarea Philippi was a Gentile region known for its worship of many gods. Here is Jesus with His disciples among people who did not worship one god but many gods. Jesus' chosen location became an intensifier of His question.
Jesus asks His question twice, changing only one word. In His first asking of the question, he uses a noun - people. Who do people say that I am? Our world is filled with people who espouse their idea of who Jesus is. And as was the case in Jesus' day, so it is in our day the majority is often wrong.
Three decades of ministry have taught me that most people have a distorted or deficient idea of Jesus. So I often tell those individuals who say they can't believe in a Jesus like that, NEITHER CAN I, because what you have described is either a distorted or deficient Jesus.
The Jesus of the Bible is clear and yet complicated. It is His complexity that many simply dismiss, and when they do, they end up with a distorted or deficient Jesus. They end up with a Jesus of their own making. A Jesus who looks like them thinks like them and acts like them.
The word on the street about Jesus was that He was possessed by the spirit of John the Baptist. Others believe that He was the Old Testament prophet Elijah that the Lord carried away in a chariot of fire. And the remainder believe He was yet another in a long line of prophets. These would all be distorted views of Jesus. However, there could be another possible way of interpreting their answers. When they called him John the Baptist they were referring to His message of repentance. When they called him Elijah they were referring to His miracles. When they called Him Jeremiah (Matthew’s account) they were referring to His compassion. If this interpretation is correct then their view of Jesus is deficient (incomplete). Which should remind us that POPULAR OPINIONS ARE POOR GUIDES FOR SPIRITUAL TRUTH.
A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable". So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it. The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, "This being is like a thick snake". For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk. The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a wall". Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear.
Why is this question hardly ever answered correctly? Are we not capable of answering? Do we lack the necessary intelligence? Is it beyond our understanding?
In verse 29, Jesus moves from public opinion to personal opinion. He moves from the noun "people" to the personal pronoun "you." If we were translating this into southern, it would be "ya'll." Even though He is asking the group, He is, in essence, asking them individually. He wants to know “are you following the crowd?” - “are you sticking with conventional wisdom?” “or do you have another, more insightful answer?”.
Our text tells us that Peter responds with, "You are the Christ." Matthew's account of this story adds "the Son of the Living God." This is the first time that anyone has called Jesus “Christ” or Messiah. He has been referred to many times as “Son of God” but never by this title. Why has it taken two plus years for His disciples to call Him by this title? Remember, last week’s story about the blind man’s healing. How Jesus touched him twice in order for Him to be healed. Our conclusion was that our faith grows by the continued touch of Jesus.
Matthew's gospel tells us that upon Peter's answer, Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." We cannot answer Jesus' question rightly alone. We need help - we need God's help. We cannot answer this question alone; only God alone can help us.
Mark's account says "that he strictly charged them to tell no one about him." Sidebar, this command is no longer to be obeyed. This command had a shelf life and was replaced by one with no expiration day - Mark 16:15
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Doesn't the fact that Jesus told them to tell no one who he was; undermine your point that no one can believe without God's help. It seems as though people can believe through proclamation alone. Jesus' restriction doesn't undermine my previous statement but undergirds my statement. Proclamation is needed for people to answer life's most crucial question. However, proclamation alone is not sufficient. Jesus said,
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
He did not send out His disciples to proclaim until they had been filled with His Spirit.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Remember, Jesus told them that he must go away so that they could do greater works.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
In John 16:7
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
He was saying, "Me inside of you is greater than me beside you."
Also, Paul said in Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Jesus said, John 6:63
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Did you notice the narrowness of Peter's answer? You are THE (singular) Messiah. He is saying one Savior means one way to be saved. Remember, where they were, they were surrounded by a pagan culture that said the path to salvation is as numerous as the gods we worship. Truth (the Messiah) by definition excludes. All religions cannot be true because every religion at its core is exclusive.
Jesus is narrow when it comes to the path of salvation {narrow is the way that leads to eternal life} {no one comes to the Father but through me} but not the people {Whosoever believes will be saved}.
C.S. Lewis says that Jesus is either a lunatic, liar, or Lord. "It is a very foolish thing when people say, "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."