Mark 8:27-38 :: “Who Is Jesus?”

[Music] hey good morning church family i'm pastor roger if for those of you that have not met me yet and i just want to say welcome and i'm so glad you're here to worship with us this morning as people are coming in we're going to just focus our hearts and minds on christ and again we're going to to really seek him this morning and seek what he has to tell us through his word because remember we're not here just to hear a good bible lesson right we're here to be changed from the inside out we're here to let god in so i just want to encourage us to do that to take notes to to listen and then to talk about it after the service and then figure out okay lord how can i apply this to my life today right sound good sound like a plan all right okay let's pray and ask god to really bless us this morning father we're so grateful for your love for us we're grateful for how you work in and through us and around us lord thank you for this this local church body here that loves you so much and that loves our community father i pray a blessing on my church family lord that you would encourage them to continue to follow you to seek after you harder lord grow that our appetite for your word grow our appetite for sharing your word lord we want to right now just focus on you and lord we want to prepare our hearts for what you have for us this morning we're grateful lord that you speak to us we're grateful for the relationship we have with you lord pour out your spirit on us right now we pray in jesus name amen amen let's stand and worship our god this morning [Music] foundation our god the only solid ground [Music] of forever [Music] [Music] [Music] justices [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] forever [Music] if the name of jesus [Music] almighty [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're bad [Music] everyone needs compassion a love that [Music] everyone needs forgiveness of the [Music] nation [Music] savior he can move the mountain my god is mighty the same he is safe forever author of salvation he rose and conquered the grave [Music] jesus [Music] take me as you find me all my fears everything i believe [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] let the whole world let the whole world [Music] is [Music] [Music] the whole for the glory [Music] [Applause] glory there is or we are here because we recognize that if we try and build our life on anything else or it is shifting sand it is not a stable foundation lord maybe some of us are actually living out that instability that comes from not founding our life upon you and upon your word or help us do that this morning [Music] my hope is [Music] but holy just [Music] in jesus blood and righteousness [Music] stones [Music] through the storm [Music] when darkness seeps [Music] holds [Music] within the [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh you shall come with trumpet sound oh may i then in him be found dress in his righteousness alone faultless stand before the throne christ alone [Music] [Music] through the storm [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] right [Music] lord [Music] amen but that is why we are here help us to build a sure foundation not by our own uh merits or efforts lord we're not we're not smart enough to do that in our own capacity lord we need your word and we need your word empowered by our holy spirit who dwells in us to change us and sanctify us and conform us more into our true identity more into the image of jesus christ humble us now help us humble ourselves as we approach your word in jesus name we pray amen amen let's continue to worship just through uh fellowship communities say hello to one another [Music] [Music] good morning everybody it is so good to see you all here this morning and it is good to be together to worship the lord together um so welcome to calvary nexus my name is jeremy adam i'm the community life pastor here thank you and i'm excited to walk us through our program announcements for this morning if you are new to calvary nexus uh we are a movement of jesus followers devoted to loving god and loving our neighbors it's what we're all about that's the vision of the church that's what god has called us to and uh we would love for you to be a part of that with us so welcome uh if it is your first time or if you're new anytime over the last like six months to a year stop by the welcome center in the foyer we'd love to just give you a gift a welcome gift there's no strings attached uh you don't have to like return it if you don't come back next week you can keep it um so we would love to bless you with the welcome gift and just get to know you a little bit so stop by the foyer on your way out if you have one of these paper programs that you got on your way in you can follow along otherwise pull out your phone and you can follow along on the calvary nexus app as well so today's spotlight is kids camp is happening this summer which is awesome it happened last summer but it happened online and this summer we're back in person we're so excited hopefully you saw the table set up in the foyer the registration is officially open so if you would like to register your kids for kids camp you are more than welcome to do that this morning out there at the table you can also do it online you can find that form on the church website on the kids ministry page or you can email christina christina calvarynexus.org and get your kids plugged in for kids camp also if you are not a kid going to kids camp we are looking for volunteers to help with kids camp as well so if you love kids if you are going to be maybe sending your kids and might have a couple free hours while they're at kids camp to serve at kids camp that would be awesome too so um we are looking for volunteers to help at kids camp you can sign up for that out at the table as well or you can do that online as well so um yeah we're excited for kids camp uh invite whoever you want to it's gonna be awesome uh our next spotlight for this morning is our mission spotlight which is uh in calvary chapel manila and pastor elito guzman is leading the church there and he's just doing some amazing work training up pastors all throughout the philippines planting churches all throughout the philippines and it is truly a privilege that we have the opportunity to partner uh with him and with calvary chapel manila and so uh it's an incredible ministry god is doing some amazing things if you want more information you can check out their facebook page again it's calvary chapel manila in the philippines um yeah check them out it's awesome what god is doing um we do have our kids ministry assistant position that is still open and we are looking to fill if you have a heart for kids we would love to get you plugged in it's a 25 hour a week position um you're going to be working alongside of christina rodriguez who is our children's ministry director and lizette halcomb who is amazing and loves kids as well so it's a great team if that's something that the lord is calling you to we'd love to help you get plugged in uh just reach out to christina at christina calvarynexus.org and you can get more information from her a couple awesome things that we have coming up this summer that you need to clear your schedule for and mark your calendar is one we have our men's breakfast that is on june 12th we haven't been able to have a men's breakfast for a while so we are so excited to be able to reconnect after this long year um so our men's breakfast is uh the sign up is going to be available in the foyer harry avedisian is right here can you stand up and give us a wave harry's going to be in the foyer ready to sign you up um yeah it's gonna be an amazing time june 12th uh guys you're welcome to come if you're here you're invited you're welcome to invite whoever else you want it's gonna be ten dollars for breakfast and we're just gonna get together and encourage one another um so we would love to have you please sign up after the service um also the following day the day after that on june 13th we have our summer barbecue and night of worship which we're also very excited for the night of worship is amazing we're going to gather together to worship the lord in here that evening and then we're going to head outside for some food not that you need any incentive because the worship is really the part that is the best and the most important but we will have an in-n-out food truck here for you that evening um so if that maybe helps you can invite whoever you want to to the night of worship and the in-n-out food truck will be here so um we're super excited about that june 12th june 13th make sure you clear your calendar for those and then finally we have our youth summer camp coming up as well so if you have a kid from 6th grade to 12th grade you are invited if you are a kid from 6th grade to 12th grade a youth you're invited if you have a youth in that age demographic they are invited we would love to have them plug in for this summer in person they're going to be going to san marcos christian camp just outside santa barbara and it's just going to be a really really good time of like community and worship and growing in the word together so yeah really really encourage it you can sign up online on the youth page on calvarynexus.org or you can reach out to pastor chris right over here and he will help you get plugged in as well so we're going to move into a time of giving online you can do that through the app you can do that on the church website and also we are going to uh submit prayer requests and praise reports i don't know if you know this but there's hundreds of people that would love to be praying for you which is crazy that is an incredible blessing so if you're going through stuff right now or if you have stuff that you want to lift up and praise the lord for uh we would love to do that with you so take a time take some time fill out a prayer request or a praise report on the app and let's just do that right now together [Music] all right would you guys pray with me heavenly father thank you so much for this morning thank you for this opportunity that we can just come together to worship you god we recognize that you are the king of kings that you are seated on your throne and lord we just want to exalt you this morning father it's such a privilege to be able to gather together as brothers and sisters in your family lord just to be in community with one another is such a blessing so lord we thank you for this opportunity god we want to praise you and we want to honor you this morning by bringing our tithes and our offerings before you lord we recognize that you have poured out your blessings on us abundantly god you've been so good to us you've been faithful to us and so god we just want to give a little bit back now this morning from a cheerful heart god for you to use to advance your kingdom here in this city and all around the globe god we want to see you continue to do incredible things so father thank you for letting us partner with you in that lord i'm just grateful to be part of a community of believers who are willing to go before you on each other's behalfs lord thank you for the heart of prayer that you've given to this church father for those that are struggling i just lift them up this morning i ask that you would give peace and lord for those that are rejoicing this morning we just want to praise you for your goodness god we thank you for this opportunity to open up your word together lord move in a mighty way this morning transform us more into your image through the teaching of your word god we love you and it's in jesus name that we pray amen all right pastor bruce is going to be teaching us from mark chapter 8 this morning but before we get into that um if you were here last week one thing that we were able to do is just celebrate pastor bruce and karen's 25 years of service here which is amazing so thank you [Applause] but the other thing that we were able to do was pastor bruce was able to walk us through our school adoption vision which is something that is going to be happening if you're not sure what i'm talking about please grab one of these on your way out there by both of the sanctuary entrance doors and there's ones at the welcome center as well so please grab one of these what is so exciting is that god has allowed us and called us to partner with every single elementary age school in camarillo to to share the gospel to support needs and to come alongside of the families and the schools who are struggling which is is amazing and it is mind-blowing and i'm so excited um for what that looks like for the next 10 years that's the vision that we feel god has called us to and it is just so incredibly exciting and so we've been partnering with pleasant valley school of engineering um over the last couple years in las posa school and uh just to give you a little bit of an idea of the impact that you guys have made through our partnership with them we have a couple stories that we wanted to share with you so here's a video of that and then we'll go into our teaching [Music] so we're here with principal thomas holkey affectionately known as tommy at pleasant valley school of engineering and arts the pvc that we have worked with during the last couple of years so any particular story come to mind as you reflect about the last year or two that we've been involved that a family a child that comes to mind i've got an incredible story that there was there was a young two two students and uh they had been showing up anywhere between 30 and 45 minutes late every day and i had and wearing my principal cap i'm i i need kids in seats and i've been riding those kids for a week be on time be on time be on time when i finally picked up the phone and called the family it was brought to my attention that the reason they were late is their car broke down and they've been walking to school every day for about four miles and so mom would walk the kids to school and you know it took one day to figure that out i reached out to calvary nexus on a a card and you guys got the vehicle fixed and the attendance problem was fixed um just that kind of impact that you guys make for us every day yeah it's encouraging yeah so a quick story if i can share with you so one night my wife karen and i were teaching at the college group and as we arrived on the campus there was this young girl we introduced ourselves it was her first time ever visiting calvary nexus and so we just kind of took her under her wing walked her over introduced her to some of the other college-age students and the college group met on friday nights so sunday i see her again and she's with her younger sister and so i get introduced to the younger sister introduce them to karen again and she tells me this story that she had gone home that night from the college group and she had so enjoyed it and she wanted to bring her sister to church on sunday and the parents said well what church are you going to and the older girl said to calvary nexus down the street and she goes oh that's the church that helped us with mattresses when we moved in and we didn't have any beds for you guys to sleep on small world yeah really good to just see how god has brought that all together it makes you feel good hi guys it's good to be with you hey before we get into our study in mark chapter 8 i just want to talk for a moment about the school's adoption as pastor jeremy referenced we started working with the pleasant valley school of engineering and arts about two years ago that has the highest incidence of students participating in title 1 the government-sponsored program to provide meals for those families that qualify because they cannot afford food and so based on the percentage it's the highest percentage of all the schools in this district so as we became aware of needs that arose perhaps it was a repair bill groceries school supplies clothing a utility bill and similar expenses we would receive those and then make them available in the church to adopt and care for needs and you guys cared for literally hundreds of needs and through that we got to see our relationship with not only uh principals uh principal holkey was here at the 9 a.m service which is just a really neat experience to have him here with his family but teachers kids and their families and i just want to give you a quick praise report in addition to to showing god's love in this community in a tangible way where literally there are thousands in this community who are living in poverty we wouldn't think that in a a suburban area like camarillo or ventura county but this is the reality unfortunately but one of the the purposes here is to present the love of god and present the gospel of jesus to kids and their families not to condition help upon someone coming to church or receiving christ but to love in such a way that people are then curious and enter into a relationship with jesus so we had a volunteer appreciation luncheon here yesterday for good news clubs volunteers these are clubs that take place typically in public schools after school where kids are hearing the gospel learning the bible and we had three of these clubs going on before the pandemic with approximately 50 students or more in each of them so we got a report yesterday at this volunteer appreciation for the county from september to may and the pandemic with every school closed and people trying to meet in neighborhood homes or online 268 kids receive christ during those nine months so as we are talking about this school's adoption idea here almost at the end of the school year i want to explain to you the timing of this we're going to be doing opportunities for training volunteers for the good news clubs this summer as well as signing up for those who are going to serve to help teachers get their classrooms ready we're going to mobilize hundreds of volunteers in this community to help teachers get their classrooms ready for returning students as well as providing backpacks with school supplies for hundreds of kids in this community and that will be taking place during the summer as we prepare for school to return in august so we'll just keep you apprised of what's going on but it is a wonderful opportunity to think of a local church engaging every elementary age school child in this community with the love of god and the gospel of jesus christ and i just want to share that with you guys nice nice okay let's uh if you would let's turn together to the gospel of mark as we continue our study through mark's gospel we're in chapter 8 we're going to pick it up at verse 27. so the idea of identity identity is arguably the most important factor that will impact your life identity is arguably the most important factor that will impact your life a proper identification of who jesus truly is and a proper understanding of your relationship with him is the most important the most critical factor impacting your life on this earth as well as your eternal life now when you think about identity identity is primarily factual who or what a person or a thing is but it's also secondarily somewhat personal based on affinity for example you might identify based on your race based on ethnic origin you might identify based on your political party you might identify based on your sense of gender your sense of sexual attraction you can see your identity as primarily related to your career your recreation your accomplishment even in our culture we can find identity in our sports teams you know i'm a dodgers fan yay i'm a lions fan i'll pray for you all right and all of those things impact our sense of identity so identity has a very personal sense who we see ourselves as it also has a sociological sense in who others perceive us now typically adolescence is a time that is characterized by chaos and confusion as people are trying to navigate their sense of identity and as people are contemplating all of the various ways that they can choose to identify themselves and how they see themselves it is oftentimes characterized by chaos confusion and consequences because people made poor choices in how they see their identity what i want to encourage you to realize with me in terms of secondary identity in other words you see yourself as a dodger fan you see yourself as democrat republic whatever the case might be those secondary identities are part of what makes you you but if your first and primary identity is anything but jesus and being his child his follower what i want you to see with me here is that identity is going to change it is going to waver it is not going to be stable and because it's going to waver and it's going to change and ultimately it will be taken from you and it's going to cause chaos and confusion and consequences that's why the most important factor in determining your spiritual health your emotional health and arguably your physical well-being is finding your identity in jesus as a follower of jesus as your first and foremost primary identity that is the only identity that will never be taken away from you and will never waver and so how do we do that that's what we're going to discover this morning we're in mark chapter 8 and we're going to pick it up at verse 27 i'm going to read out loud and ask you to follow along silently now jesus and his disciples went out to the towns of caesarea philippi and on the road he asked his disciples saying who do men say that i am so they answered john the baptist but some say elijah and others one of the prophets he said to them but who do you say that i am peter answered and said to him you're the christ and he strictly warned them that they should tell no one about him let's pray father i just asked that you would help sort through all the confusion and chaos so many of us have put our sense of identity in something other than you and we've realized lord that it won't last forever that it won't be stable and sure for our lives and i pray lord there are people here who lord have found their identity in you and encourage us in the wisdom of that choice and people are still trying to navigate and i ask that you would open our eyes that you would open our ears that you would soften our hearts that we might receive from you now and we ask this in jesus name amen so what we're going to talk about this morning is identifying jesus identifying jesus and the object is that we would discover identity in christ discover your identity in jesus so first idea we want to talk about is to discover jesus so it says at verse 27 that he went with his disciples to caesarea philippi and so caesarea philippi is about 40 miles away from the galilee it's a two-day journey caesarea philippi sits at the base of mount hermon north of the galilee it is also where the jordan river begins in the spring there at caesarea philippi but that's not what caesarea philippi is known for caesarea philippi is the epicenter of spiritual activity opposed to god caesarea philippi is the epicenter of spiritual activity opposed to god so all through mark's gospel as we've come to this point jesus goes to a place whether it is to the 10 cities of the east of the jordan whether he is going to regions around the galilee and it's always focused on the people of that place here jesus wasn't focused on the people it is the place there is an epic showdown that is taking place where jesus is making a declaration that all spiritual authority and all spiritual truth resides in him rather than in the forces opposed to god that is what is going on here in this epic situation that is unfolding that we're invited to at caesarea philippi there is this large cave this deep grotom and in the ancient world and the canaanite people who inhabited the area before the time of abraham and the patriarchs that area was seen as the birthplace of the canaanite nature god the fertility god ba'al and so it was associated with the worship of baal in the canaanites later the greeks would occupy the land and they said that that was the birthplace of their nature god pan and so the greeks called the area panas arabic people have difficulty pronouncing the hard p sound so it was known in the region as banyas but again they erected temples to their nature gods similarly when the romans occupied they established shrines and elaborate temples not only to the emperor but to their fertility and nature gods to a jewish person that area was perceived as the gateway to the underworld everything in the spiritual realm that was recognized as being opposed to god in rebellion against god had its connection to that place and jewish thinking and so where that cave that grotto was called the birthplace of baal the birthplace of pan to a jew it was called the gates of hades or the gates of hell jews had this sense that there was spiritual activity and i'm optimistic that most of us understand there's more than just the material world that we're occupying there is a spiritual realm and there are spiritual forces that are loyal to god and doing his service and there are spiritual forces that are opposed to god similarly there are human beings created by god that are loyal and seeking to do his will and others who whether realizing it or not are opposed to god and doing his will so jesus is bringing them to caesarea philippi for a declaration of his spiritual authority and his spiritual truth and along the way we read at verse 28 that he asked the question hey who do men say that i am and really this question is asking what does the culture say about jesus what does your culture say about jesus and so the question is basically like hey guys you're talking to people what's the word on the street who do they say that i am and so the response comes out of verse 28 well some people think that you're elijah and the prophet said foretold that elijah would proceed the coming of the messiah the christ now some people think you're elijah others think that you're john the baptist others say that you're one of the prophets matthew records that some thought that he was jeremiah the jesus was jeremiah jeremiah in the old testament is thought of as the weeping prophet and so arguably they saw jesus compassion for people and they associate him with jeremiah so i want you to see this with me all of the responses are super favorable in other words jesus swag is is just really good like associate him with a call to repentance and get right with god the performing of miracles which elijah is known for being associated as from god one of the prophets but the word on the street man does not measure up like yeah maybe you're one of the prophets elijah like elijah's one of the premier prophets if you like have your you know profit trading cards you want to trade you know a couple of the minor prophets to get an elijah card he's like an mvp most valuable prophet um so the the street cred is all favorable assembly if you think in our culture if you say well you know what did people think in your culture about jesus and recognize this people in our culture today the culture we inhabit generally speaking have a much higher view of jesus than they have of his people and in part that's on us also in part that's because of jesus being viewed so favorably because you think about uh what people associate with jesus what what could you have exception to in other words the guy's just too loving it bugs right what would you say is like too perfect just bugs so in our culture the view about jesus is like he's an enlightened person a guru a rabbi a teacher a good example the world would be a better place if we just followed what he said all those thoughts are favorable but they really just don't measure up at all to who he really is see that with me nice okay so then jesus asked the question at verse 29 but who do you say that i am now i want to encourage you to see this one this is the most important question that anybody here is going to consider it's going to have the greatest impact in your life and your eternal life your life on this earth and your relationship with god not only during this life but the life which is to come a proper identification of who jesus truly is and your identity in relationship to him is critical so he asked the question who do you say to them and peter who's never at a loss for words isn't always saying the right thing but it never keeps them from taking a moment to reflect just immediately you're the christ in other words he remember christ isn't his last name it's his title it's speaking of the anointed one the christos uh in the hebrew idea he is the messiah and i want you to see us with me we've gone through almost a full eight chapters as we come to this point we haven't seen the name christ with the exception of the very first verse chapter 1 verse 1 that introduced jesus the christ now we're seeing it again it's signaling a transition peter's saying you're the messiah he's making this declaration and he's saying emphatically without any hesitancy and it's sickening to us this kind of progression in peter's relationship with jesus so a little over two and a half years before this incident john the baptist points to jesus says behold the lamb of god and takes away the sin of the world in other words he's the guy it's not me it's him and peter is attuned to that idea jesus says follow me and peter says yeah i think this is the guy i'm going to follow him a year and a half later it's recorded in john chapter 6 that peter makes the declaration you are the son of the most high god in other words you're the messiah you are god's son he has some sense that it's unique but he doesn't fully appreciate all that is intended in that identity of who jesus is now i'm going to go one step further i'm going to give you guys can i give you a spoiler alert okay so i've given this next week one week from today and what is recorded is happening in less than a week from the incident that we're seeing here jesus is going to take peter james and john three of his disciples and he's going to reveal to these three that he is actually god in the flesh like you're right i am the anointed one i am the christ i am the messiah but i'm so much more i am the god who created the universe all authority in the universe and i have come dwelling in human flesh he never stopped being god as he took on humanity so you don't want to miss that next week but but the point here isn't just a teaser like come back next week for the next part in this exciting series it's telling you that as they continue in their relationship with jesus as they spend time with jesus as they learn from jesus as they learn of jesus they come to a fuller understanding of who he truly is and ideally that's what's going on with all of us it is matthew who records in the 16th chapter that jesus says to peter peter flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who's in heaven in other words figuring out who jesus truly is and that's simply an intellectual issue or an academic issue although it is there's abundant evidence to contemplate and consider but first and foremost it's a spiritual issue that if you ask god to confirm who jesus is and his identity god wants to do that for you and if you're not interested you don't care or you just opposed to that idea then god will let you make that choice he's not going to force you but matthew also records chapter 16 verse 18 that now jesus says to his birth name is simon he gives him for the first time the name peter he calls him peter meaning rock petross he's saying you're a rock and upon this rock i am going to build my church now i want you guys to see this with me the rock wasn't peter it's like oh yeah you're rocky i could build a church on you you're going to be the first pope and i'm going to hand you the keys that's not what jesus is saying when he says upon this rock i will build my church he was saying upon the foundation of the statement that peter just declared that jesus is the christ the messiah the anointed one he's the guy that the church rests on that foundation and then jesus says this and the gates of hell will not prevail against it now gates are not an offensive weapon it is a defensive structure right you understand that and so what jesus is saying is when man rebelled against god that satan gained influence in this universe and because satan gained influence in this universe that people did not discover their relationship with god they did not discover god's goodness and god's love because they were blinded by the enemy of men's souls but now that the king has come now that the kingdom is at hand we are taking back territory and he's saying that his church is going to be kicking down gates and gaining influence where previously satan exercised influence in this world that people's eyes are going to be opened that their hearts are going to be open that their ears are going to be open they're going to discover the goodness of god the love of god the gospel of jesus and receive him and be restored in relationship with the true and living god who created them because he loves us and he's saying like yeah and you guys are going to be involved in kicking down gates hallelujah and so the first step in that is discovering jesus second we need to discover the cross beginning of verse 31 and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again he spoke this word openly then peter took him aside and began to rebuke him but when he had turned around and looked at his disciples he rebuked peter saying get behind me satan for you're not mindful of the things of god but the things of men so after this declaration by peter on behalf of the 12 that you're the messiah jesus now begins to talk about his imminent death and so he had alluded very infrequently and and very nebulously to the idea of his death and resurrection from this point forward we're going to be focused on jesus preparing the disciples to go to jerusalem where he's going to experience death and he will be raised on the third day so he begins now to tell them that he is going to suffer many things it says verse 31 and then the religious leaders and other leaders are are going to require his life they're going to take his life he is voluntarily giving his life and he will be raised on the third day and so it then begs this question why the cross why the cross so here as the disciples hear this there are certainly dismayed they are certainly distressed why well as you look at the old testament prophecies concerning jesus concerning the messiah we see two pictures we see one of this triumphant glorious messiah who conquers evil and establishes justice and righteousness and a kingdom on earth that will then transition to an eternal kingdom right right second we see another picture of messiah this suffering servant messiah for example in isaiah 53. now for us with new testament glasses on we can reconcile that we understand that speaking of the same person first coming and then a second coming in the old testament there wasn't that kind of new testament lens that gave clarity and so the rabbis in the time of christ said yeah there's two potential messiahs that come one's a suffering messiah but the other is a glorious conquering messiah and if we're righteous if we're holy if we're good god will send the conquering glorious messiah to get rid of the roman oppressors and so the jewish sense of anticipation is god's sending us the conquering messiah who will vanquish rome and establish justice and establish his physical kingdom on this earth and jesus wasn't delivering that expectation he was telling them that he was going to suffer and he was going to give his life before it was raised on the third day so peter pulls jesus aside and it says that he began to rebuke him now peter's trying to presumably be respectful that he pulls jesus aside but the greek tenses that he kept rebuking him he kept correcting him and criticizing jesus for what jesus had foretold about going to the cross now before i go any further let me just encourage you to note this with me if you're arguing with jesus you're wrong like if you any time in your life you see yourself arguing with jesus like jesus you just don't get this you're just not understanding what's really going on you're wrong he's right okay so peter peter is like lord i'm never going to let you go and suffer that's not going to happen i got your back i don't know about these other guys but don't worry i'm not going to let you do that everything's going to be okay i'm going to take care of you you're not going to suffer and he's expecting like jesus just graded peter's last quiz and wrote like 8 plus he said to him like flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven so now peter is expecting not only an a plus but a gold star on his paper and what does he get get behind me satan uh i mean and it's it's even better than that peter had taken jesus aside to correct him now jesus looks at all the disciples he wants them all to understand he says get behind me satan you're not mindful of the things of god but the things of men what jesus is saying is no matter how well intentioned you are here that what you're saying is actually opposed to god's plan and because it's opposed to god's plan its inception is the very pit of hell see why why is the cross such a stumbling block the the cross tells humanity that you can never be good enough based on your morality to deserve heaven right i've thought to so many people like well i'm a good person compared to who like compared to god i don't think so right and so i thought like well you know i whenever i stop at a corner and i see somebody who's homeless i always give them gift cards for mcdonald's so of course i go to heaven what sort of thinking is that where did that come from and so the cross is an offense it tells us you're not good enough and you could never be good enough in and of your own efforts to deserve to spend eternity in god's presence dang sorry i love you guys right you're all wonderful but none of us is good enough why else is the cross an offense here's here's what the cross tells us no no just hear this for a moment here's like my casual posture like what am i doing i don't know i okay the cross i mean you got to understand what the cross is saying the cross is saying that god created you for relationship with him because man rebelled against god we've been separated in that relationship but god loves you so much that he came to his creation dwelled with man took on human flesh then became the perfect sacrifice not for his stuff for our sin so that if simply in believing what he did on the cross is proven by the resurrection three days later that we could be restored in relationship with god which would start now on this earth and continue into eternity and so in one sense the cross is an offense because it tells us we're not good enough in another sense the cross is a stumbling block because people hear and go that's unbelievable like next you're going to tell me there's a unicorn in my garage and there's a pegasus waiting in my driveway for me and see it's an offense until you actually consider the claims and consider the evidence and you recognize that what jesus is declaring is there's no other way for god and man to be reconciled apart from me being a sacrifice for your sin that separates you from god so we discovered jesus now we're discovering the cross now let's discover life beginning at verse 34. when he called the people to himself with his disciples also he said to them whoever desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life will lose it whatever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul forever ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him the son of man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels so i want you to hear this this is the only time in all of the scriptures that jesus calls the multitude to himself with the disciples it's the only time other times multitudes have come to him but this is the only time that jesus calls them to himself what why am i bringing that to your attention what he's about to say is uber important that means like for the next 10 minutes you want to make sure that you are really focused on what jesus is saying here because it's going to make the difference of your life and what he's explaining is what you must do to discover life and your identity in jesus so he starts at verse 34 and he gives us this first key the first key is that we need to come to jesus so anyone would come after me and so it's not the idea it's like well you know i i came to jesus i raised my hand i walked down the aisle i said a prayer it implies something much more than that coming to jesus is committing to be a disciple and what a disciple is is a learner you are learning of of of god you're learning spiritual truth and this is not or this is and this is like a really important conjunction here and you're yielding to it it's not simply that you know it as an intellectual issue it's that you're learning from jesus and you're yielding to him he cannot be your savior he cannot include you in his family he cannot give you spiritual life unless you want him to be the lord of your life this is the first thing we need to come to jesus secondly we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross verse 34 let him deny himself and take up his cross so if you think like the cross is like some affliction that you have noticed i have a disability and so i'm taking up my cross every day that's not what it's talking about and it's not your spouse either okay and so it has nothing to do with some difficult circumstance or some challenge that you endure in this life the idea of taking up the cross and this luke would add take up the cross daily is the idea that each of us have ideas goals dreams aspirations that are primarily fueled by our flesh and our selfish ambition it's our will and what jesus is saying is you need to die to your will and embrace god's will we are to deny ourselves and take up our cross speaking to an audience that understood that the cross was a symbol of what would be a very difficult and slow and painful death and letting go of our will to acknowledge god's will and let it rule in our lives is difficult and slow and it's oftentimes painful so what are the benefits that outweigh that jesus begins at verse 35 he's making a contrast between your eternal life your spiritual life that is going to continue through eternity versus temporal gains and he said what if you could have everything that you wanted in the world in other words everything that you're thinking like oh my life would be so cool if i had this my life would be so awesome if i did that my whole life would be so insta-worthy if i could do this that and the other and just saying what if you got that all but you lost your soul he's calling us to weigh relatively now if you imagine this whole stage 20 feet long and you think about your life on earth whether god blesses you with 60 70 80 90 100 years whatever it might be that life compared to eternity represents like one inch at the far end you've got another 19 feet 11 inches of eternity and we're so focused on that one inch that we forget the most important thing our spiritual identity as a child of god our spiritual identity as part of his family and he said that any person who understood the significance of eternal life not only in terms of the quality of life but the duration of life who had to choose between everything this world could offer first relationship with god life with god any reasonable rational person who understood that reality would choose god and so that's the benefit he's saying the reason why you deny yourself is because you gain god you're getting the better end of the deal and then he says we have to follow jesus follow jesus take up the cross and what follow me what does it mean to follow jesus we're called to imitate jesus to learn from him to learn of him and apply what we learn to bear his image wherever and to whomever he calls us now that was just a mouthful but i'm going to repeat it because i want to encourage you to type it to write it to record it in whatever way you can so let me just repeat that to follow jesus means you're called to imitate jesus to learn from him of him and apply what you learned to bear his image wherever and to whomever he calls us so let me just kind of explain from a meta picture of the scriptures god creates humanity in relationship in a tangible place on this earth called eden he dwells with men says to adam and eve i want you to be fruitful and multiply you are my image bearers i have created you in my image and now you are to represent me so that all of humanity will know me and my love adam and eve rebel against that call god's plan isn't going to be thwarted his next stage in that development deals with a particular people group so it's abraham isaac jacob jacob's 12 sons the jewish people that god says look you are going to be a distinct people not because you're the strongest not because you're the fastest not because you're the mightiest not because you're the biggest a matter of fact you're the least you're nothing special but i'm special and i'm going to make you my special people so that other people will see something different discover me and through you i will bring forth the messiah the anointed one the christ who will reconcile all of humanity to me and i'm going to bring forth a people who will represent me they will bear my image so that others will come to know me so you see god creates the the jewish people as a special people to himself to bear his image and the jewish people they we blow it we we just we rebel against that call we we're to be a light to the gentiles to most of you and what god says is fine then i will pour out my love upon the gentiles you guys to stir the jewish people to jealousy so that the jews will come and receive christ as messiah so the jews blow it so now god says in the fullness of time he brings forth his son in a perfect time to create a whole new group of people to represent him that group of people is called the church jesus said upon this rock i will build my church and what the gates of ace of hades hell will not withstand against it in other words my people will now represent me to those who don't know me yet they will bear my image wherever and to whomever i have called them and sent them so that others who don't know me yet will know me that is what you're called to be i want to make sure we understand that that your life is primarily for the purpose of knowing god and making him known now you you think about your identity right it is so easy in the midst of the material world that we live in to make this material world the source of our identity and so you make your sense of identity maybe your political party maybe your occupation maybe your achievement wow got my personal best my personal record right you may even make it on your appearance i look at you guys you're all beautiful but hey news flash gravity always wins right you may look at yourself and think oh my gosh look how lovely i am and then one day you look in the mirror and you're the saggy baggy elephant it just happens i'm sorry and so anything that you're putting your sense of identity in is going to be taken from you you will be separated from your spouse i'm not trying to be morbid you'll be separated from your parents you'll be separated from your children you'll be separate and all the things that you could have put your sense of identity in will disappoint other than jesus and once you discover that then you're living for christ and his gospel and because your life then takes on a nature that is different than the world around us people look at your life and recognize that you've discovered and found hope that transcends circumstances faith that isn't shaken at every difficulty and a love that is characterized by commitment that is unconditional and that is characterized by serving others rather than seeking to be served and they recognize there is something different in your life that is better than all the comfort of this world and they want what you have and the system is perfect because when you do that you discover the contentment that you've always been longing for that always eludes us when we put our primary sense of identity in anything else other than jesus and so jesus is still inviting people today to discover who he is to discover the cross to discover identity and life in him join me as we pray father i just ask if there's anyone here today who doesn't know you yet that you are standing at the door of our lives lord and you are offering us identity as your family as your children you're offering us life with you right now that is going to continue to eternity and lord when we discover that identity when we discover the goodness of you and your love for us we find contentment and father as a people we confess to you our tendency to see our identity in something else we confess to you lord that we haven't always been great to embrace the mission you've called us to we thank you lord for reminding us we thank you for gently stirring us and we pray that as we contemplate just our identity that we would resolve that first and foremost it would be in you i pray lord for anyone that's here today who hasn't received you yet that they would recognize that as soon as they choose to commit to follow you that you have promised to forgive us of our sins you've promised to give us spiritual life and you've promised to give us a new identity in you and that they would take this opportunity right now in the quiet of their heart to commit to you to receive that life and identity that will never be taken that will never waver that will always satisfy when we put you first we praise you we thank you we ask us all in jesus name amen god bless you guys as we continue to worship now through song and communion i think i've used uh the vocabulary of doing business with god this is a time to do business with god that's so transactional um that's that is not at all god's heart towards us his children um god wants relationship communion with us it's not just hanging out with jesus it's we living in him he living in us i don't even understand the full implications of that but i want to search that more and part of how we do that is through communion which jesus commanded to do often in remembrance of him so please don't leave without taking advantage of the fact that you are filled with a room of believers and followers of jesus and the sorrows by his own beatrice of god has been on jesus [Music] now [Music] doors oh that rocket crossed my salvation where your love poured out over me now my soul cries out [Music] hallelujah [Music] god's own son to purchase it [Music] two [Music] is [Music] my soul cries out [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now [Music] i was [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] with me still [Music] my [Music] road [Music] [Music] since your face [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] of the night [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] myself [Music] lord help this moment of worship not end here lord help us to continue to worship you to continue to seek to reflect you and bear your image to others lord help us to do that through loving one another lord because that's how you said the world will know us again lord help us to continue to worship not just here but in every moment of our lives and in jesus name and by the power of the spirit we ask amen amen family i love worshiping with you all please continue to worship again through fellowship we'll see you next time [Music] may all our satisfaction in you whose grace has set us free give us hope give us faith help us trust in your guidance from the depths of your grace you have richly provided thank you thank you father you are all we need forgive us all our trespasses as we forgive whence give us hope give us faith help us trust in your guidance from the depths of your grace you have richly provided thank you thank you father you are all we need thank you father you are all we need father you are already [Music] [Applause] your kingdom will forever [Music] [Music] forever [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] you broke my of sin and shame and you covered me with grace [Music] and i [Music] [Music] it is for freedom that i am set free [Music] you broke [Music] and i am free [Music] i am set free set free [Music] you

Channel: Calvary Nexus

Views: 189

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, God, gospel, Book of Mark, gospel of Mark, identity, self-identity, follow Jesus, life, the cross, John the Baptist, spiritual truth, coming to Jesus, faith, renewal, restoration

Id: aeQuPS3AZVs

Length: 88min 41sec (5321 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021