Hey everyone, good to see you all here.
Good evening, I should say, actually.
I'm super excited to be here today.
Yes, because it is my now second sermon, because of this morning.
But more because I get to talk to you about God's word, from God's word.
And that's a very exciting thing.
So Sam gave me this passage a few weeks ago.
And it's a great passage.
And so I prepared eagerly.
So let's pray before we get into it, shall we?
So, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great things that you've given us,
including your son, Jesus, Lord.
I ask that tonight you would open our ears so that we can hear your message, Lord,
and give us hearts that are willing to change for you.
Amen.
I'm not sure if you've ever had that moment of clarity in your life,
where you realize that after this point in time or in this situation,
things have to change.
They can't be the same anymore.
There are some pretty famous examples of this,
such as getting married or having children.
But I haven't experienced either of those yet.
So I'll give you one that I do remember and that I have experienced.
I can tell you without any shame that I was an adorable child.
It's a fact.
And at year four, they presented us with an option of joining the music program at my school,
Trafalgar Elementary, or if you're in the French immersion class, Trafalgar Elementary.
And I desperately wanted to be a part of the music program.
I wasn't great at any or many courses at school.
And music just seemed like so much fun.
You could make noise.
It was joyous.
And so I wanted to be a part of it so bad.
And so I applied.
I auditioned, rather, and successfully became a part of the music program at my school.
And I was over the moon about it.
I was the only trombone player in the whole school.
How much fun is that?
But all my joy came to a sudden halt one day.
Let me set the scene for you.
We're in the gym.
You know, kind of the same wood paneling, actually, as we have in the church.
About 50 kids, all tiny, lots of dark-haired clarinet and flute players,
and one small blonde kid with freckles in the back of the room,
making a sound like a baby elephant being strangled to death, just loud as anything.
And I had no idea what I was doing was incorrect in any way.
I was happy to make noise.
But after class, my teacher came to me and said,
if I could play specific notes for her.
I had no idea that there were such things as notes,
or any idea how to play them.
I knew I either had to learn how to play notes, as she said,
or stop playing altogether.
Fortunately enough, I learned my instrument just well enough
to leave it behind when I came here.
But the reason for that story is that in the passage today,
we have the biggest kind of moment of clarity in all of history on display to us.
The greatest truth being revealed of all time.
And we need to get to the heart of that,
because it has an infinite amount of implications for us as followers of Jesus.
Now, like always, there are three questions that I have in my head
when I read the book of Mark, which I inherited from my older brother,
because he's very wise.
Again, who is Jesus?
What has he done?
And what does that mean for us?
So first, who is Jesus?
Again, the importance of this question cannot be stated enough.
It is central to the gospel of Mark.
It's so important that Jesus asks it himself, unprompted, in the passage today,
which is such a rare occurrence for Jesus to do.
And I think a little context would help us understand more.
Does anyone other than Tashi know the first sentence of the book of Mark?
Or Liz?
Anyone else?
It says,
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The first sentence in the book identifies Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.
Lays it out plain.
But there isn't a clear occasion of anyone identifying him as that
until this point in the book.
It's a mystery.
So for a while now, Jesus and his disciples have been traveling around the area of ancient Palestine,
teaching, preaching, healing, exercising, and possibly exercising.
But this whole time, Jesus has been doing miraculous things,
with our expectation being that people would see him for who he really is.
But it hasn't happened.
People don't see it.
Earlier in this chapter, the disciples are worried about their lack of food,
specifically bread,
immediately after Jesus has just finished feeding a humongous group of people
for the second time in front of them.
And you can see by his reaction in verse 21 of chapter 8
that he expects them to see what's really going on,
and he's frustrated that they aren't.
So we come back to the question asked by Jesus himself in the chapter.
Who do people say that I am?
Meaning, what have the people put together
after seeing my miracles, or hearing my teaching,
or even just hearing about me?
What have they put together?
What is the fruit of my labors, Jesus is wondering?
And the answers the disciples give him,
that the people are saying, aren't bad answers.
They're in an appropriate direction.
But they're still wrong.
We have John the Baptist,
who died a few months ago before this story.
We have Elijah, who died a few hundred years ago before this story.
And we have generally the great prophets,
who are in the back half of the Old Testament,
none of whom have appeared to Israel for also another 800 years.
But these are all people that are great.
The heroes of Israel, the paragons of the nation,
the people who they think,
he must be great, he must be like one of these men.
The best they can think of.
But like I said, these answers are incorrect.
Jesus asks the question again,
but to his disciples this time,
specifically to them,
the people who he's taught the most.
He's handpicked them to follow him.
They have seen more and done more
than we could ever imagine from the Bible that we have.
So they must have the right answer.
Yeah?
Well, thankfully, Peter,
who's known for putting his foot in his mouth
at every opportunity,
actually gets it right in verse 29.
It's an amazing moment.
It's as simple as an answer can be to that question
while also being as truthful
as any possible response that could be given.
You are the Christ, he says.
And there we have it.
That moment of clarity,
that thing that changes everything.
It changes everything.
Jesus isn't like John the Baptist
or Elijah or the prophets.
He's on an entirely different playing field.
He is astronomically more powerful and important
than any of those men are.
They aren't good enough to be like him.
They aren't anywhere near who Jesus is.
Jesus is the Christ.
It's not just another title of his.
It has weight.
It has meaning.
And it shouldn't be a mystery to us
how important this title is.
It conveys the entirety of God's plan
throughout time and history.
You know, promises to Adam and Eve
in Genesis chapter 3
or to Abraham in Genesis 12
or to Moses and the people of Israel
in Exodus 19
or to David in 2 Samuel 7.
The list keeps on going.
It goes on and on and on.
And each one builds upon the idea
of who this Christ is,
how important he is,
how powerful he is.
They just add weight to the person of Jesus.
When Peter says to him,
you are the Christ,
all the things go boom.
This is who he is.
It means all of these things.
I love how amazing this part of Mark actually is.
Something I learned a while ago
and was reminded in class this term
is the structure of Mark chapter 8.
Jesus has just finished healing a blind man
of his physical blindness.
It's kind of a weird story.
He spits in his face
and the guy kind of sees trees
and then sees people again.
It's kind of strange.
But then he moves down
and he heals the disciples and us
of our spiritual blindness.
The answers that the disciples give
about the people when he asks them
shows that they can't see who he really is.
They haven't put it together.
And it wouldn't be possible
without his teaching and miracles
and allowing us to see who he really is.
It's a miracle.
Jesus' display of himself to us.
And he's chosen this part
in chapter 8 of the book of Mark
to change that,
to reveal it to us.
And so who he is
directly affects what he has come to do.
in verse 31.
That is what the Christ has come to do.
Take a look at it.
The all-powerful promised one of God
who has come to save the world
comes to do it through pain,
through suffering,
through rejection,
and through death.
And I think this idea
has lost a bit of its impact on us.
We take the concept
that Jesus can actually die
on face value.
But it's a miracle.
It's a miracle of God.
It's a tragic one.
It's a sad one.
But it is,
nonetheless,
miraculous.
Mark has just spent
the first half of the gospel
showing how powerful
Jesus actually is.
If you read chapter 5,
you see that Jesus has the power
to exercise demons,
to heal the sick in masses,
and to raise a little girl
back from the dead.
So how can a man
who has the power over death
actually die?
It doesn't make sense.
It just doesn't.
And that's what Peter is thinking.
Jesus talks about himself dying,
and Peter says,
that's not how the plan works.
The Savior is not supposed to die.
He sees it as like a misfortune
or tragedy that needs to be avoided.
He's saying,
you're talking smack, Jesus.
That's not how it works.
The idea that Christ has to die
is so contrary
to the human way of thinking.
You can see it in our culture
all over the place,
you know,
in our movies,
in our books,
our TV.
Our heroes are,
you know,
majestic and strong people.
They succeed in their acts
of heroism
by not needing to die
because dying equals failure.
Right?
As a teenager,
I was a massive fan
of comic books.
I still kind of am,
only I don't have the money
to spend them anymore.
But in particular,
I love the stories
that were engaging.
You have a hero
who has a struggle
he has to overcome.
And he has to use
his powers at his disposal
or his tools or whatever.
And he overcomes them.
But there was
an interesting phenomenon
in the comic book world
that I eventually
got kind of jaded with,
which is the idea
that comic book heroes
never really die.
It's a thing called retconning,
which means
retroactive continuity,
where they come back to life
in various ways.
But I think it's because
that human idea of
he can't be a hero
if he ever dies.
That negates
all the work
that they have done
because it's a failure
as a character of theirs.
It's that human idea
that death is just
a defeat of heroism.
Thankfully, God doesn't think
the same way we do.
Very thankfully.
The work that Jesus has to do
is perfectly in line
with God's way of thinking
because it's God's plan.
And it's so different
from how we would ever
even imagine
being saved by somebody.
Which is also why
the completion of his work
is still utterly bewildering to us.
Not only does the guy
who has control over death
have to die,
he also comes back to life.
It's even more impossible
than the guy
who has control over death
dying in the first place.
It's amazing.
So who Jesus is
as the Christ
affects what he has to do
and will do.
And both of these
bear tremendous importance
for us.
Which brings us
to the last section
of the passage,
verses 34
to chapter 9, verse 1.
It's also worth noticing
that these words
are not spoken
to his 12 disciples anymore,
but to the gathering
of people who are
following him.
And so they also
apply to us
if we seek to follow him.
We have the third
subtle miracle
of this passage.
In that we can actually
be saved.
There is hope for us.
It's a miracle.
What Jesus' death
and resurrection
mean for us
is our salvation.
And with that,
the expectation
that we follow him
as the Lord
who has saved us.
They go hand in hand together.
The invitation
for salvation
for us
isn't just a simple
contract to sign, though.
There is fine print,
only that it's not fine,
but bold,
double underlined,
highlighted,
and in a gigantic font.
It's big.
It's there.
What is expected
of us as followers
is an enormous amount,
and Jesus holds
no punches back.
Take another look
at those verses.
There are about
three things
that are expected
of us as followers
that are all
equally as daunting
to attempt.
Let's see.
There is deny yourself,
take up your cross
and follow him,
and lose your life
for the sake of Jesus
and the gospel.
All of these are,
again, reversals,
contrary to
how we humans
think our lives
should be.
It's just
a flipped up world.
It's not the way
we think like.
It's just the same
as before.
Our way of thinking
isn't the same
as God's way of thinking
or the way God
plans things,
but it's only through
God's plan
and God's way of thinking
that we can actually
be saved.
So if we're going to do this,
what is expected of us?
Because the examples
given by Jesus
are kind of puzzling,
but they're not very clear
exactly.
So first,
the idea of denying yourself,
taking up your cross
and following him,
it's not talking about
living a life
of austerity,
of being poor,
that whole Buddhist notion
of self-denial,
so the material items
in your life
don't bring you happiness
so you have to deny them
and reject them.
It's not talking about that.
What it is talking about
is a life of humble submission,
a life example
off of what
Jesus himself has done.
There is no greater
denial of self
in the history of time
than the creator
and owner of the universe
coming down
and being born as a human,
living a life of suffering,
and then dying for us.
There's no greater
example of it.
And that is the image
that we are to follow
in our taking up our cross
and following him
in our life.
We are to put down
those things
that reach up
and towards us
from following Jesus
and doing it
them instead.
It's a path of rejection
of the world
and the people
and this is why
Jesus brings up
the idea of being
ashamed of him.
It's such a temptation,
isn't it?
When you're at work
and you just want
to get things done
and somebody comes
and asks you
what you did
with your Sunday.
or when you're at uni
and there's that kind
of air of mutual views
and sharing them
and everyone kind
of appreciates each other
until the topic goes
to something like
gay marriage,
even regular marriage
nowadays,
and you realize that
their views
don't really extend
to you.
They don't really
accept you
as being valid anymore.
or you're in school
and your friends
ask you why you
haven't partied
with them on the weekend,
why you're not
getting drunk with them.
And these questions
come up and you just
kind of shrink inside.
You don't want
to talk about them,
you just want to
kind of shrink away
and avoid the question.
That human reaction,
that natural reaction
that we have,
I am a massive culprit
of those many points
of my life.
But the point
of this passage
isn't to despair,
but to have hope
in who Jesus is instead.
Because who Jesus is
and what he has done
for us
is more than enough
for us to endure
a temporary amount
of discomfort.
It even says
in John chapter 15
that if the world
hates us,
it's because it
hated him first.
And the moment
of clarity I deal
of talking about
is here,
it's right here
in this passage.
It's the truth
that is ultimately
more valuable
than anything
Uriah could ever
be worth.
As it says
in verse 37,
what can we offer
in exchange for our soul?
What are our lives worth?
You could have
everything in the entire earth
and your life
would be nothing
compared to the work
of Jesus and his life
and a life
following him.
This passage in Mark
is so humongous.
It just changes everything.
It's like that street
outside from which
we can reach
every corner of Sydney.
We can go
north, south, east, and west.
This passage
kind of spreads
over every corner
of our lives
and affects
every area.
It reaches those places
and demands
that we follow him.
you see the truth
of Jesus
on display
as him being
the Christ
and it demands
that you be changed
for him.
It demands
that we live
a life
of humble submission
like he did
in order to be saved.
and it gets rid
of those
dark corners
of our mind
that kind of
distract us
in those situations
and helps us
to keep walking
on that path
Jesus has already
trodden out for us.
And so the truth
of Jesus
being the Christ
here in Mark
chapter 8
and the work
he has done
of coming,
suffering,
and dying
for us
means an infinite
amount to us
and it is awesome
enough for us
to follow him
in every area
of our lives
and change for him
and suffer for him
so that we can be
saved by him.
Amen.