Mark chapters 8-16 Death brings life

Mark 8:29-38

This talk is like the guide book to a city: it’s only really useful when you’re actually in the city, experiencing its sights and sounds. So take this talk along as your guide book, and go and visit the city of Mark’s gospel tonight – hear Jesus, see Jesus, experience Jesus. And marvel at his magnificence, his glory, his love, his power, his sacrifice, his rescue plan. What God is this, who in such deep love, comes to die, even die on a cross, in order to rescue his enemies, we who have sinned against him, rebelled against him – he died for us! - in order to make us into his friends.

Tonight I’ve got three points:

1. Jesus is the Messiah (Christ) – that’s the great truth from chapters 1 to 8. Jesus is the promised rescuer, God Himself in the flesh, come to earth as a man to save us.

2. Jesus’ death brings life. Jesus came to die a sinner’s death. That is why he came. He does the impossible – he swaps places with us: he dies a sinner’s death, our death; so that we can get his life, holy, perfect, sinless. His death brings life.

3. Our death brings life. We have a new life in Christ. Our old “me-centred” life is dead – Jesus took it with him to the cross. We have a new God-centred life. If we try to hang on to the old life we will be dragged down to death. Put it to death, and live for Christ, and truly live!

1. Jesus is Messiah (Christ)

1:1 This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Greek) which means the Promised Rescuer. He is the one promised in the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, the one who will rescue us all from sin and death. Christ is not his surname but his job description. Jesus: saviour of the world!

As we read through chapters 1 to 8 we see a truly remarkable man. One with awesome power, truly terrifying power. We see the demons, evil spirits, trembling before him, so afraid. We see even his own disciples, dearly loved friends, terrified after he speaks to a storm and it obeys him. Who is this man? They wonder. Jesus is to be feared.

We see that Jesus has authority – authority over the spirit world, authority over Creation – the wind obeys him, the water obeys him; even death obeys him, sickness flees at a word from him. Only God has this kind of power. Only God is feared by the evil spirits. They would not fear an angel – they too are angels, fallen angels. But their Creator? Yes. They fall down at his feet screaming in terror “What do you want with us Jesus, Son of God.” Only God can command creation to obey him. Only God has power over death. Only God can forgive sins. All this Jesus does. And very significantly, he does this in no-one else’s name. He does not call on God the Father, he does not cry out O Great Jehovah, he does not say “in the name of… “. We do. We pray in the name of Jesus. We cast out demons in the name of Jesus. We pray for the sick in the name of Jesus. It is the name of Jesus that has power. No other name. He is God Almighty, and that’s why it is right that the glory goes to him.

In 8:29 Jesus asks his disciples: “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”

Who is Jesus? He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Rescuer.
He is the one who should be feared, the one with great authority, because he is Almighty God, holy and perfect.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He is our Saviour and our God. But what does that mean? How is he going to save us? And what do we have to do? What does it mean to follow him? That’s the message of chapter 8-16.

2. Jesus’ death brings life

Peter has just made the good confession “You are the Christ!”. Yes! 8:31–33 (NLT) Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. 33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Peter had a different plan for Jesus, and probably, himself, as one of Jesus’ closest followers. Peter saw glory and honour – a victory procession into Jerusalem, Jesus the victorious King, riding into Jerusalem after beating the enemies of Israel and setting Israel free. That’s the Messiah he thought was coming.

But his point of view was too low, too human. God’s view is high and lifted up! Yes, there will be a victory procession: Jesus, beaten and bloodied, carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem as people jeer at him, spit on him, mock him. There will be a great battle: Jesus on the cross, refusing to give in to the temptation to “Come down from the cross, that we may see and believe” “Ha he saved others, but he can’t save himself” “Save yourself, “Messiah””. No. His love keeps him there, until he can give up his life with a loud cry, and descends into the darkness of Hell itself in order to defeat Hell, defeat sin, and defeat death itself: the great enemies not just of Israel, but of the whole world! Lift up your eyes, Peter, and see the great vision! Yes, I will suffer and be killed – but in three days will rise again. My death and resurrection will bring new life to all people throughout the world, through all time and space- this is what the Temple is about, the sacrifices all point to my sacrifice, the meeting place between God and man. This is what Moses looked forward to, what David was promised, what Abraham was promised. This is it! Lift up your eyes Peter.

This is so important Jesus says it three times. As we’ve just read in 8:31, then again in 9:31 (NLT) He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”

And again in Mk 10:32–34 (NLT) They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with awe, and the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear. Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him. 33 “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. 34 They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again.”

Jesus’ death on the cross was no mistake, no misstep by a popular teacher who made too many enemies and suddenly got trapped by them. No, this was the deliberate purpose of God, the great rescue plan made before the creation of the world, to showcase his glory, his love, his compassion, his power. What a glorious God we serve! Praise him!

Some say, no, it wasn’t Jesus on the cross, but God changed Jesus’ face to look like someone else, and someone who was a criminal had his face changed to look like Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was a good man, and God looks after good men.
Really? But then you make Jesus out to be a liar. You mock the reason he came. You destroy the great message of Christianity: Christ died for sinners. Grace is gone and we’re left with trying to be good enough for God, because God only looks after good men.
No, like Jesus, we must say “Get behind me Satan”. Anything that tries to take us away from the glory of our Saviour God upon the cross is Satanic. That is what Satan most fears. That is where Satan was defeated. At the cross is where we slip out of Satan’s grasp and into the firm grasp of Jesus, which never slips.

Jesus’ death brings us life.

To help us grasp the significance of this, that GOD is the one doing the saving, not us, I want to remind you of a familiar verse for those coming to the Bible studies: Rom3:10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Some have described salvation as 1000 steps, where God has taken 999 and we must take the last one.

Well, if that were true then, according to Romans 3:10, we are all doomed! The Bible is very clear – none of us would take that last step, not one, and we would all be condemned to hell. We are weak, dead, in slavery, in bondage, unable to turn to God. Praise God for his goodness and mercy that in his sovereign power he comes down to us to do the impossible.

If you are a Christian today you are one because God took action to rescue you. Jesus came for you, awakened you from spiritual death, and made you alive to God. And he did this not because you were special or fantastic or because he knew you would choose him (whoever heard of dead people making choices – they’re dead!)) but because of his great love and mercy and his sovereign power to rescue sinful people. And if he loved us so much as his enemies, how much more, if we have accepted Christ and are counted as his friends!

Do not be afraid. You are secure in Christ.

So then, what does it mean to follow this great Saviour, our Rescuer, our God, our King? It means we must die.

3. Our death brings life: we must die to ourselves to truly live

Mk 8:34–38 (NLT) Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

You know, it’s a tragedy when people die for the wrong reason. I remember one of my classmates got high on drugs, got into his car, sped down the highway with no seatbelt on, and smashed into a tree. Dead. What a foolish way to die.
I remember reading about a man trying to impress his friends with a chainsaw, said “Ha, watch this!” and swung it at his own head. Obviously, he died. What a tragedy.
To die for the wrong thing is a tragic. It’s foolish. And Jesus says the only wise thing to die for, is him. Everything else is folloishness. Because if you don’t, if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. Even if you gained the whole world, what benefit is that if you lose your soul? How many of the rich and famous feel empty, lost and alone. How many artists, actors, top sportsmen confess to reaching the top to find nothing there except anxiety – worry about the next person who’s going to come and take the crown from you. What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

There is only one way to save your soul, your very life – and that is to give it up to Jesus. We were designed, created to obey God. Our reason for existing is to glorify God. That is our purpose.

But we stepped away from that purpose when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, broke his command, and decided for themselves what would be the way to live. They wanted to be God instead of God – and all of us are exactly the same. We want to determine what is right and wrong in our lives. We want to live life our way. Frank Sinatra sings “I did it my way!”. What a great expression of our rebellion against God. We want to be God, to do things our way.

That’s why following Jesus is both the easiest and hardest thing to do. Easiest because everything is done! He died for us, he rescued us, he brought us new life, his Spirit is given to us to live a new life, and he will take us to Paradise. And nothing we do can separate us from that, because it is guaranteed, underwritten, by his blood.
But it’s the hardest thing because we have to give up pretending to be God. We have to acknowledge our dependence on him. We have to obey him, to live life as HE wants, not as we want. That’s hard, and that’s why Jesus describes it as taking up your cross – that’s dying! 9:35 Give up your life for my sake. We must nail our old life, our selfish ambitions, our foolish desire for self-determination (that’s deciding for ourselves) – nail it to the cross! Say I am dead. Jesus lives instead. I am his. Imagine if all of us really started living like that. Let it start tonight. Make a decision to die to self, and live for Jesus. Because if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And if you don’t the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

You know, it’s no mistake that the first story after Jesus says these words is the transfiguration, where Peter, James and John see Jesus in his glory, beautiful and mighty before them.
He is God. You are not God.
They then come down the mountain and the other disciples have been trying to cast out a demon – but they can’t. Jesus says “this can only be cast out by prayer”. What is prayer? Prayer is acknowledging our dependence on God. It’s not telling him stuff he doesn’t know! He know everything. Prayer is us reminding ourselves that we need him, that we are under him, that he is God and we are not. That’s why we find it hard to pray! It cuts right at our sinful heart pretending to be God. And that’s why we must pray!

Prayer is summed up by the man, the father of the boy with the demon: “I believe, help me in my unbelief”. It is total submission to Jesus. Help me! I want to serve you but I can’t. Help me. And Jesus answers that prayer.

We then see the children in chapter 10, helpless, dependant, compared to the rich young ruler – confident in his own righteousness, a “good man”. And Jesus shocks everyone by saying the Kingdom of God belongs to… ah, not the rich, powerful, “good” man, obeying (some) of the 10 commandments. No the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like little children. Mk 10:15 (NLT) I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

The Pharisees, the religious leaders, had tragically got that wrong. They were living for the wrong thing. They were trying to do what only Jesus can do – live a perfect life by obeying God’s perfect law perfectly. They wanted to EARN their salvation rather than receive it.

Why? Because if we EARN it, then we’re OWED it – and then we have power over God. He owes me. And then who’s God.
If I have power over God, who’s God. That‘s why law-keeping, being good, is oh, so attractive to us.
It’s why other religions exist – they are all about being good, earning your own salvation, giving the gods gifts to make them do things for you. And why it keeps sneaking back into the Christian church: in Catholicism, in false sects like Jehovah’s Witnesses, in churches preaching “be good, be moral, behave yourself” – there are many such churches, even in Norway. There’s no gospel in that!

And so, in chapter 12, Jesus tells the story of the vineyard: Israel. Israel is being lead astray by the wicked farmers, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, who seemed to love God on the outside, but actually hated him and, in the end, murdered him on the cross. Religion without the grace of Jesus will lead you away from God. Being good, being religious – these lead to death. Why? Because it’s our sinful hearts trying to be God over God. If that’s your attitude – kill it! Nail it to the cross. Only submitting to Jesus brings life.

The disciples had to learn what it means to die to yourself, to pick up your cross: it means service. In chapter 9:33 we see them arguing about who is the greatest. Mk 9:35 [Jesus] sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”

In chapter 10 Jesus has to again remind them of this lesson. To follow Jesus means to live for HIM, not for yourself. Mk 10:42–45 (NLT) So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 43 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus served us, even to the point of death. We are called to the same path of service. We serve because he first loved us. We serve because we belong to him. We serve because we have a new life – the old selfish life is gone, nailed to the cross. Remember this!