The Shocking Mission of the Messiah

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Well, we are in Mark chapter 8 and our last time together, we looked at the confession of the apostle Peter—his confession that Jesus is, in fact, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We’re now two and a half years into Jesus’ earthly ministry. It is less than a year before he is on the cross, probably around eight-to-nine months. And here in this passage that we come to tonight, Jesus begins to predict very plainly what lies in His future. You see, Peter’s affirmation of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel was right. But Peter’s perspective of exactly what it is that Messiah would do once He came, was entirely wrong. Peter was absolutely right about His person, but He was terribly wrong about His mission. And this was true of most Jews in the first century. You see, the Old Testament record made it clear that Messiah would come. When you look at the very beginning in Genesis chapter 3, there is the promise of a child, the promise of a child who would defeat Satan who had tempted Adam and Eve into sin, and who would bring permanent redemption. So, from the very beginning, the people of God knew to look for a person who would come and deal with sin.

This issue continued in John chapter 5, it’s clear the people were looking for the Messiah. In Luke 24, Jesus begins at Moses and the Prophets and shows them all the things that are written about Him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. When you come to the book of Acts, where is it the apostles go to prove that the Messiah had to come, He had to suffer? When you look at the sermons of Peter and Paul in Acts, it’s very clear it’s the Old Testament. In Acts chapter 2 in that wonderful message on the day of Pentecost, Peter says, David looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christos “the Messiah.” He speaks of the “Servant of Yahweh,” that Isaiah figure, referring to the Messiah who would come. In Acts 3:18, He tells them that they were ignorant of the Messiah and what He would do, but the problem wasn’t the Scripture, he says, “You should have known. It was recorded in the Scripture.” In Act 3, he continues and says, Deuteronomy 18 spoke of the Messiah Who would be a prophet like Moses. He would be the One Samuel and his various successors spoke about. He’s the fulfillment of the ancient promise to Abraham. So, Peter goes on and on to say: the Old Testament spoke of the Messiah.

When you come to Stephen in Acts, he says, “They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murders you have now become.” Your Old Testament ancestors killed the Prophets who said Messiah was coming and you have now killed the Messiah. As you continue on in the book of Acts, you see the same theme. In Acts chapter 10, Peter to Cornelius says, “Of him all the Prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Peter says, “It’s there. It’s in the Old Testament. The Messiah is promised.” In Acts 13, Paul says, the Messiah was given according to promise. In Acts 18, Apollos demonstrates by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. He was using the Old Testament Scriptures to prove that the Messiah was coming and what He would be like. In Acts 26, Paul gives his defense, and he says, I am “stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses [that’s the entire Old Testament] said was going to take place; that the [Messiah] was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.” All of that, Paul says, is in the Old Testament.

He goes on to say that those who believe the Prophets and compared their predictions with the facts about Jesus had to acknowledge the truth. The book of Acts ends with Paul trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. It is clear from the book of Acts that the Messiah is in the Old Testament clear and plain.

When you move out of the book of Acts, in 2 Timothy 3:15, Paul says that the Old Testament Scriptures are able to give you “the wisdom that leads [you] to salvation through faith which is in [Messiah] Jesus.” In Hebrews 11, Moses considered “the reproach of the [Messiah] greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” That’s fourteen hundred years before Christ came. Moses was making life decisions based on his relationship to the Messiah. In 1 Peter, in fact turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, I want you to see this one. In verse 9, Peter mentions salvation—the salvation of your souls. And in verse 10, he talks about that salvation, “As to this salvation, [the salvation of your souls] the Prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,” so in other words, the Old Testament Prophets prophesied about the grace that would come to you. They sought “to know” notice verse 11, here is what they made careful search and inquiry into: “seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of the [Messiah] within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of the [Messiah] and the glories to follow.” Notice in that passage, the Prophets understood that salvation would come through the Messiah. They simply didn’t know what person it would be, and they didn’t know what time He would come. They knew that the Messiah would suffer before enjoying glory. The sufferings would come first, and the glory would follow. They knew all of those things they just didn’t know who it was, and they didn’t know when it would happen.

So, the Old Testament is very plain about the Messiah. And because of that, when you come to the New Testament and to New Testament times and specifically to the first century, the Jewish people of the first century were eagerly awaiting the Messiah. You’ll read some books that will say the Jews weren’t looking for the Messiah. The best record we have, the New Testament, makes it clear that the contrary is true. In Matthew 2, Herod, a wicked king, understood that there was an expectation of the Messiah and he sent, you remember, to the Wise Men, to the rabbis, to the scribes and the Pharisees, and he asked, “Where is the Messiah to be born?” In Luke 2, Anna saw Jesus, baby Jesus, and spoke of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Israel—all those who were looking for the Messiah to come. In Luke 3, people were excited and hopeful that John the Baptist might, in fact, be the Messiah. They were so eager to see the Messiah, they thought, perhaps, even John was the Messiah. In John 1, you see that same expectation among the people of the coming Messiah and even Andrew and Peter are looking for the Messiah. You remember that Andrew says, “We found Him. We found the Messiah Who has been promised!” In John 4, Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman, and even the Samaritans were looking for the Messiah to come. The people in John 7 and John 12, the crowd answered Jesus, “We have heard out of the Law that the Messiah is to remain forever.” They were looking for the Messiah and they were trying to reconcile that with what Jesus was teaching. So, there was this expectation among the people of the Messiah’s coming. That was true of the Jewish people in the first century.

There was also general agreement about what He would do when He came. The Messiah would in their thinking be a political person. He would be a king. In a sort of strange interweaving of Old Testament prophecy about what we now know to be Messiah’s second coming, along with first century politics, they sort of wove it all together and they came up with the Messiah as the solution to all of their political problems. When the Messiah comes, He will establish an earthly physical kingdom. He will get rid of Rome. He will push those usurpers out of our country and the Messiah will reign and even the nations around us will respond to Him. It was into that kind of thinking that the true Messiah came. And the passage we come to tonight, Jesus sets out to correct His disciples’ ideas: those ideas that have been influenced by the mindset of their age to help them see what’s really true about Him.

Let’s start back in verse 27 just to get the flow. Mark 8, verse 27. Let me read it for you. We are going to be looking at the paragraph that begins in verse 31 and goes down through verse 33. But let me just remind you of the context. Verse 27:

Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the Prophets.” And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ [the Messiah].” And He warned 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 was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interest, but man’s.”

This is at the same time both the prophecy from Jesus and an explanation of His real mission. It is a revelation to us and to His disciples of the shocking mission of the Messiah. Those who have read this gospel so far, and in particularly who were unacquainted with Jesus, perhaps, and as they read this gospel, they are acquainted with His power and His greatness and all that He is able to do and, both healing and casting out demons, and the power of His teaching and the authority with which He taught, might wonder what will this Man become? What will the end of His mission be? The whole world will be enveloped in His power. And so, Mark wants us to know as Christ wanted the disciples to know that His mission is actually a shocking one.

So, let’s look at this revelation of the mission of Christ. As we flow through this text, first of all, we see the catalyst for this prophecy. It’s in verse 31, “And He began to teach them.” The context as you just saw rose out of the last paragraph. Jesus and His disciples had been in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, a gentile area to the north of Galilee and the lake of Galilee. And after a time of private prayer, as we discovered a couple of weeks ago, Jesus rejoined His disciples, and He asked them those two questions: Who do people say that I am and who do you say that I am? Peter responded as he often for the entire group and uttered that great confession, that great affirmation, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Matthew makes it clear that it was Jesus’ question of His disciples and their answer through Peter that prompts Jesus to begin teaching them in earnest. Notice how Matthew puts it in Matthew 16:21: “From that time” from the time of that confession “Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things . . . and be killed and be raised on the third day.” Now what had changed? Jesus’ disciples had finally come to acknowledge the full reality of Who He was and Who He still is. Only after He was sure they had come to that conclusion that He was the long-awaited, long-promised Messiah, that He was the Son of the Living God, only then were He ready to hear what He had to share with them next. The shocking prophecy. But as shocking as it was, they didn’t get it. It had to be repeated to them over and over again. Their minds were so steeped in the popular ideas about the Messiah, that in spite of our Lord’s instruction, here and in chapter 9, we will find it again, in chapter 10, we will find it yet again, in spite of that, when Jesus is arrested, when He is killed what happens to the disciples? They run. They are crushed. “We thought He might have been the one,” the Emmaus Road disciples say. They forgot about His predictions regarding His suffering and His death and His resurrection. But here in the villages of Caesarea Philippi having heard their affirmation of Him as Messiah and God, Jesus begins to unfold to them His real mission. That’s the context of this prophecy that He makes. The catalyst for the prophecy is that confession, that acknowledgment of Who He really is. Now they are ready to hear what His mission is.

That brings us to the content of the prophecy. Notice verse 31, “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.” Now that is an amazing prophecy. Remember now, this is some eight months to a year prior to these events unfolding. And Jesus is here is giving us a number of details. First of all, notice the divine necessity in this prophecy. All three synoptic gospels, all of the three gospels, and I use that expression “synoptic,” “it means “to see together.” They are the three gospels that kind of tell the same stories that follow a similar flow—Matthew, Mark and Luke. John sort of does his own thing. He has a lot of unique content to him. But the other gospels are called the “synoptic gospels”—Matthew, Mark and Luke. They see the events in the life of Christ together. That’s what that word “synoptic” means.

All three synoptic gospels use the same word here: “must.” He must. The Greek word in each case is the Greek word dei. It means to “be necessary.” Jesus said it was absolutely necessary that He suffer and die and be raised. Now can I just pause here and make an aside. Many of us were raised in churches and in homes that embraced classic dispensationalism. That is sort of Scoffield Bible kind of dispensationalism. That sort of dispensationalism teaches that Jesus actually made a real offer of Himself to Israel as king on the day of triumphal entry. In other words, when Jesus came riding in on the donkey on the day of the triumphal entry, He offered Himself to Israel as king, if Israel had received Him, classic dispensationalism teaches, he would of stopped everything and established His kingdom. That absolutely cannot be true. Jesus said that what I am about to prophecy to you is absolutely necessary. It must happen. Why? Because it had already been prophesied as we will see in the Old Testament. It is a divine necessity; these things must happen.

Matthew again adds another component to the prophecy and that is the location. We don’t see it here in Mark but in Matthew chapter 16 verse 21, “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem,” and suffer and be killed and be raised. For most of His ministry, Jesus had been in Galilee with His headquarters in Capernaum. For the last couple of months as we have been studying these passages together, Jesus and His disciples had been in gentile territory in the Decapolis and east of the lake and then now north up in Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus made this prophecy, He was a hundred miles north of Jerusalem in the gentile territory of Caesarea Philippi. But He was very much aware that the real drama of His life would not unfold in Galilee, would not unfold in Capernaum, would not unfold in Capernaum, would not unfold in Caesarea Philippi, but would unfold in Jerusalem. Look over in chapter 10 verse 32, “They were on the road going up to Jerusalem,” and by the way, the reason the Bible refers to Jerusalem as “up” is because geographically its elevation is one of the highest points of Israel. So, wherever you go, wherever you travel from in Israel, you go “up” to Jerusalem, because of its elevation. They were going up to Jerusalem, “and Jesus was walking on ahead of” the rest of them:

and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles.”

It's going to happen in Jerusalem. What amazes me about that passage is Jesus knew exactly what He was going to, and He did it with all of His heart. He walked out ahead of everybody else eager to fulfill the mission that He had volunteered to fulfill—this shocking mission.

Back in Mark’s gospel, notice that He prophesies that He is going to face intense suffering. The Son of Man must suffer many things. Jesus now uses a Messianic title for Himself. A title that was used for the Messiah in the Old Testament. “Son of Man” comes from Daniel chapter 7 verse 13. It was recognized by the rabbis of Jesus’ day as a reference to the Messiah and Jesus takes it to Himself. The suffering that He here states generally, “I am going to suffer many things.” He describes in much more detail when the time comes. Go back to chapter 10 again. Notice what He says specifically to His disciples. Verse 33, they will condemn Him to death, will hand Him over to the Gentiles, verse 34, they will mock Him, and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him. So, Jesus knew exactly the intense suffering that was before Him and here some eight months to a year before it happens, He tells His disciples, it’s coming. I am going to face intense suffering.

There is another part of this prophecy and that is who the human instigators will be. Notice what He says in verse 31, and He will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. Now as we have already discovered, those are the three parties who made up the Jewish Sanhedrin—the highest Jewish ruling body in the nation. They were under the Romans, but they were the highest Jewish ruling body in the land. The elders were simply the lay leaders of the nation, and the priests were the current high priests along with the former ones and the leaders of each of the 24 courses of priests who served throughout the year. They were the aristocracy. They were Israel’s most influential families—the bluebloods. And then you had the scribes. These were the interpreters—the copiers of the law of God. Mostly they were Pharisees. Together they made up the Sanhedrin. The seventy men who ruled the nation. And all of these parties together, notice, reject or will reject Jesus. The Greek word that is translated “be rejected” literally means “to fail to pass the test. The Sanhedrin will assess officially Jesus’ claims and then they will willfully deliberately reject those claims. They will reject Him because He didn’t meet their extra-biblical standards and ideas of all that the Messiah should be. As one commentator writes, “Jesus will not be lynched by an enraged mob or beaten to death in a criminal act. He will be arrested with official warrants and tried and executed by the world’s envy of jurisprudence, the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman legal system.”

Jesus’ prophecy goes on to tell us the death that he has to die. Notice it says, “He will be killed.” What does that imply? Clearly it implies a violent death. He is not simply going to die; He’s going to be killed. Now that would have been shocking to the disciples. Nothing could be further from the Messianic expectations of first century Judaism than that. They expected the Messiah not to be killed but to conquer—to conquer all of their political enemies and to establish His reign. And Jesus says to them, “Listen, everything you have heard about what the Messiah will do in His first coming is wrong. I am the Messiah. Peter, you were right, and it is necessary for Me to be killed, to die a violent death at the hands of others.” By the way, Jesus is here predicting even the kind of death He would die. Notice, He says He’s going to suffer many things from Israel’s leaders, but it doesn’t say that they would be the ones who would kill Him, although they certainly bore the guilt. You remember what they said in Matthew 27, all the people said, His blood be on us and on our children. They bore the guilt. Israel’s leaders especially bore the moral guilt of the execution of Jesus Christ. But in all three gospels, the killing is separate from what Israel’s leaders do. They inflict the suffering, but they don’t kill Him. Why is that important? Because this points to the way Jesus would die. In the first century, the nation of Israel, the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish ruling body did not have the authority under the Romans to execute. This meant that Jesus was predicting the Romans would eventually be involved. And He does that over in chapter 10. Remember what He says? Chapter 10, verse 33, “They will hand Him over to the Gentiles” who will kill Him. So eventually, He makes it very clear as they are going up to Jerusalem just before that last week of His life, He says Jewish leaders will reject Me and they will hand Me over to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles will kill Me.

There is another part of His prophecy though and that is His resurrection: and after three days arise. Now that could sound in Mark like Jesus was predicting that He would be in the grave three complete days. There are those who try to make Jesus in the grave three complete days and nights. They take that expression as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish so the Son of Man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Most of the time, however, when the New Testament speaks of Jesus’ resurrection, it says, “on the third day.” And both Matthew and Luke say that in this context, “He will be raised up on the third day.” Now whenever you use an ordinal number like first, second, third, those are ordinal numbers, whenever you use an ordinal number, the sense is always the same. If I say to you, “I’m going to sit in the third chair” it never means to skip three chairs and sit in the fourth chair. It always means chair number three. So, when Jesus says that He will arise on the third day, He means that He will be in the grave on day one; He will be in the grave on day two; and He will arise sometime during day number three. This is truly an amazing, precise prophecy about what is going to happen to Jesus. That’s the content of His prophecy. He looked ahead eight to twelve months, and all of that, He knew would unfold and He tells His disciples here.

Let’s look thirdly at the clarity of the prophecy. Notice verse 32, and He was stating the matter plainly. It was clear; it was unambiguous. Jesus had alluded to His death and resurrection from the very beginning of His ministry. But He had done so in sort of vague terms. In fact, look back in John chapter 2, and you will be reminded of the fact that one of the first acts of His public ministry, some two years before, was to cleanse the temple. And you remember when He cleansed the temple, they came and said, “By whose authority are you doing this? What authority do you show to do this?” And in chapter 2, verse 19, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three day I will raise it up.’” The Jews didn’t get it, verse 20: They said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple [talking about Herod’s temple], and will You raise it up in three days?’” But John finally understood “He was speaking of the temple of His body,” so that “when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.” But they didn’t get it at the time. But Jesus would give these sort of veiled references as He does there to the fact that He is going to die and be raised again. But it was only after the disciples fully understood who He was, and they made that clear in Peter’s confession, that Jesus begins to state plainly what is going to happen to Him.

Jesus’ prophecy here is not a unique one. It’s throughout the Old Testament. Look at Luke; Jesus Himself makes this point in Luke chapter 24. Luke 24, notice verse 26, “Was it not necessary” He asked the Emmaus Road disciples, “was it not necessary for the [Messiah] to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Wasn’t that necessary? “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the [Old Testament] Scriptures.” Jesus said the Old Testament Scriptures make it very clear that the Messiah has to suffer and then enter into His glory. It’s clear in the law, Moses, and it’s clear in the Prophets—the entire Old Testament. Notice down in verse 44, the same chapter. Jesus here now is talking to His disciples and “He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was [still] you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’” So, everything in the Old Testament about Me had to be fulfilled. “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them,

‘Thus it is written [in the Old Testament Scriptures], that the [Messiah] would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem’” and you have witnessed all these things. You say, where are all those things prophesied? Read the book of Acts. Read the sermons of the apostles, Peter and Paul, and you will see where those things come from. Notice what Jesus said to the disciples on the Emmaus Road. I skipped verse 25, but notice what He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” Notice what Jesus said to them: it’s clear; you should have seen it; and you should have believed it. But here less than a year before the cross, in Mark chapter 8, Jesus begins to teach these things plainly and unequivocally to His disciples. He begins to explain to His men what the real mission of the Messiah is. And they respond beautifully. And they line up behind Him eager to follow that plan. Not so. Look at the conflict over the prophecy: verse 32, “And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.” That is an amazing statement. Peter respects Jesus enough not to rebuke Him in front of the others, so he takes Him aside privately and began to rebuke Him. Now the clear implication of the Greek word “rebuke,” is the same as in English. It’s that Peter thought Jesus was in the wrong. There is an air of superiority; there’s an air of pride. You say, “Where did that come from?” Remember what had just happened. Jesus had just said, “So who do you say that I am?” And who spoke up? Peter. Peter said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And what does Jesus say in turn to Peter, Matthew records it: “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, [Peter] but My Father who is in heaven. You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Peter is feeling pretty good about himself about now. And then the Lord turns right around and in response to all of that and says, “Oh, and by the way, let me tell you My mission as Messiah. I am going to go to Jerusalem, and I am going to be rejected by the leaders of the nation and I am going to be killed and suffer and then be raised on the third day.” And Peter says, “Wait a minute. This isn’t what I just said. You’re the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God. This can’t happen this way.” Matthew tells us what Peter said to Jesus. “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This should never happen to You.’” Let me show you how it reads in the Greek text, literally this is what it says, “May God be merciful to You, Lord! Not at all shall be to You this!” This isn’t going to happen! Peter thinks that what Jesus has just predicted is so wrong that it deserves a prayer that God will show mercy to Jesus and prevent it from happening. What is equally clear, however, is that Peter understood it. He understood exactly what Jesus was predicting, he just rejected the idea that it was necessary—that it had to happen. Isn’t that fascinating? Because that is how all men are by nature. What man by nature embraces the idea of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ? No one does. The cross is offensive. The idea that my sin is so bad that God’s Son has to die to pay the price, that’s offensive. “I am not that bad. Yes, I sin some, but it doesn’t rise to that level. Later Paul would say that the whole idea of a crucified Messiah is a stumbling block to the Jews and it’s an absolute moronic idea to the Greeks. Peter was just ahead of his time. “May God show mercy to You, Lord, for even thinking something like that.” Verse 33, “But turning around and seeing His disciples.” Now it’s hard to know exactly what Mark means here. This may imply that the rest of the disciples were thinking exactly what Peter had the courage to say—he is speaking for them here, just like he was speaking for them a moment ago, when he said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” and so Jesus is rebuking them all—that may be what is implied here. Verse 33, “But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’” Now Jesus is not saying here that Peter is Satan or that Peter is personally indwelt by Satan. Instead, what He is saying is this: Peter at that moment was playing the role of Satan and was being prompted with that idea by Satan. Think about the temptation of Christ back in Matthew 4, we looked at it when we studied the temptation in the early part of Mark, we looked at Matthew’s account and there Satan offered Jesus a way to bypass the suffering of the cross by simply offering him worship. Peter is doing the same thing: “Lord, you don’t need to do that.” And so, Jesus responds strongly, “Get behind me Satan.” This name for the devil means, “adversary.” Peter you are acting like my chief adversary the devil. Matthew adds “you are a stumbling block to me.” Jesus said, “Peter, you’re trying to tempt me to sin for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s. You are not thinking God’s thoughts, you are thinking like a human being.” This may seem reasonable to you; it may seem like a good plan to you; it may work out in your human mind, but it’s not God’s plan; it’s not God’s process; it’s not His thought, His mind. An amazing interchange.

What are the implications from all of this for us? Well, the first one: understand that this is the worst rebuke Jesus ever gave one of His disciples. Peter is one of His true followers and Jesus says to one of His true followers, “You are acting like Satan.” What precipitated that? We must never substitute human reasoning for divine revelation. That’s what Peter did. He rejected the divine revelation—the divine prophecy Jesus had just given for his own ideas of how things ought to be. Why did Peter and the rest of the disciples reject Jesus’ revelation about His suffering and death? Because it was out of sync with their ideas about what ought to happen. It was ought of step with human reasoning, with human thinking. How often do you and I substitute human reason with divine revelation? Let me just ask you a question? How many times have you heard someone else or yourself say or think something like this: “I know that is what the Bible says but”? The moment we take that step, we are stepping into the role of Peter and ultimately, we are stepping into the role of Satan himself. We are substituting human reasoning for divine revelation. We must never substitute our puny human reasoning for what the Bible says. Your first question and your last question on any issue ought to be what does the Bible say, not what do I think. Or what does the culture around me think?

There is a second implication for us. As believers, the cross must remain at the center of our lives. You see, here in the middle of Mark’s gospel, once they affirm who Jesus is, that He is the Messiah, the Son of Living God, the cross becomes the central point in this Messianic prophecy and the central point in the mission of Jesus. And for us who come to embrace Jesus, that can never change. The cross of Christ must remain at the center of our lives. Initially, Peter didn’t like the idea of the cross. He said, “May God have mercy on you. May it never be. This will not happen to you.” But Peter finally got it. He finally understood just how important the cross is even for a believer. Look back in his first letter, 1 Peter. Let me just show you this; I love this. I want you to see the change. Peter says, “The cross! No!” But then years later, notice what he writes, look at 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2. He said, you “are the chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ [and watch this] and be sprinkled with His blood.” His death was necessary. You needed to be cleansed with His death. Look at verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope [how?] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” He had to die, and He had to be raised again. I see it now. And that is the center, Peter says, of everything for me and for you. Look down in verse 10: “As to this salvation, the Prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you [that’s what we looked at a few minutes ago] made careful searches and inquiries [they wanted to know who is the person and when will He come?], . . . the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating . . . the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” I see it now. The Old Testament predicted it just like the Lord said. It’s there. They looked for it; they knew it was coming and I missed it, Peter says. Look over in verse 18, live out your time here on earth in fear “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” “That’s what had to happen,” Peter says. “The cross changed everything. I see it now!”

Down in chapter 2 verse 4, he refers to Christ as a “living stone” rejected by men but “choice and precious in the sight of God.” Verse 6:

For this is contained in Scripture: “behold, I lay in zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “the stone which the builders rejected, this become the very corner stone,” and “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.

Peter says, “I see now. They had to reject Him. It was prophesied in the Old Testament. He would be the stone over which the leaders of the nation stumbled, but for us He is the cornerstone.” And finally look down in chapter 2, verse 21:

for you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; [now watch verse 24; here’s the center for Peter] and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

Peter keeps bringing his readers back to the centrality of the cross. He finally got it. The question is do we? Are our lives truly cross-centered? Does the cross show up in our prayers? Does the cross show up in our thoughts? Does the cross show up in our choices? Does it influence how we live? As Peter says here in verse 24: Have we now begun the process of dying to sin and living to righteousness?

There is one final implication for us. Jesus came on a divine rescue mission that was absolutely necessary for you. He came not to be a good example; not to be a great teacher; not to be some great guru. He came on a divine rescue mission to suffer and to die and that’s what His disciples needed to understand. He doesn’t yet tell them why He needs to die, but He will. Look over in chapter 10 of Mark’s gospel. Mark chapter 10 and verse 45. Really the theme verse for of this great gospel: For . . . Son of Man did not come.” He uses that Messianic title again. “The [Messiah] did not come to be served but serve and” here’s the real reason “to give His life a ransom [in the place] for many.” That’s literally what it says. Jesus had to come on a rescue mission to die as the substitute for those who would believe in Him. Listen can I just remind you, can I remind all of us that we are by nature sinners? We were made by God; we are given life and breath by God—all good things by God. And yet we rebelled against God. We hated God; we chose our own way; we wanted our desires; we pursued our own flesh; we lived without reference to God. And left to ourselves, we were spiritually dead and unable to respond to God, but God initiated this rescue mission. He sent Jesus and Jesus volunteered to come and He volunteered to come and become one of us. He continued to be fully God and yet, at the same time, became fully man. He became everything you and I are except for sin. And He lived a perfect life for thirty-three years, He never once violated a single command of God. He loved God perfectly every moment of His life and He loved others as He loved Himself—without a single moment of failure. Not one thought; not one word; not one action contrary to the perfect holy will of God and then as He said He would He died. And He endured on that cross not only the wrath of men but more importantly the wrath of God against the sins of everyone who would ever believe in Him. If you are here tonight, and you want His death and ultimately His resurrection to be yours, you want to benefit from His mission, His rescue mission, you’ve got to be willing to turn from your sin. To turn from everything, you know is an act of rebellion against God. And you have to be willing to embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior. He said everyone who comes to me, I’ll not turn away. If you will turn from your sin and embrace Him as Lord and Savior, His life, His perfect life will be credited to you and God will treat you as if you lived that life, and His death will be credited to you as well. It will be as if you endured the just wrath of God against your sin, but it won’t have been you, it will have been Christ in your place. And someday you’ll stand in His presence as one of His. That was the real message Jesus gave His disciples in that little village outside of Caesarea Philippi. The question is what is your response to the cross?

Let’s pray together. Father, thank you for this wonderful prophecy. Thank you that our Lord knew all that He would endure, all that He would face when He volunteered in eternity past to assume this mission. Father, thank you that He knew what He would suffer and yet He set His face like flint toward Jerusalem. He walked out a head of everyone else eager because He loved His own. Father remind us of His love and help us to respond to that love even as Peter reminded us to die to sin and to live unto righteousness. Father help us as believers to live cross-centered lives. May the shadow of the cross Christ be always cast across our souls. May we live in light of it everyday. May we make choices in light of what He endured for us. May we give up our way for Him. May we be willing to serve Him here and to the ends of the earth. Father, I pray for the person here tonight who has truly never responded to the simple gospel—what Jesus accomplished in His life and death and resurrection. Lord, they have heard it again tonight and I pray that before their head hits the pillow, they would find the quiet place and pour out their heart in true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ our Lord in whose name we pray. Amen