Mark - Jesus the Messiah

 

Jesus the Messiah

Good morning class.  

Question of the day: What is something that you have started doing or started doing more since the pandemic started? 

We will finish up chapter 8 today.  

Did any of you go back and listen to Elizabeth Talbots sermon?  Any other thoughts about her presentation, or any realizations since last Sabbath?

READ: Mark 8: 22-38

Jesus Heals a Blind Man at Bethsaida

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into[a] the village.”

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Jesus Predicts His Death

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

The Way of the Cross

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

 All three of these little stories bring a punch when it comes to lessons for us.  

What are some things that stuck out to you?

1. Jesus Heals the Blind Man

What is a life application lesson for us?

2. Peter Declares Jesus the Messiah

Does Peter understand who Jesus really is and what that means?

3. Jesus Predicts His Death

What do we learn about Peter?

Is it possible for us to fall into the same trap? 

4. The Way of the Cross

Did this section hit you as hard as it did me?

Our well being is never more important than following Christ.

To follow Christ will be the hard way, the sacrificial way, the way that puts others ahead of ourselves...

There is so much in this lesson for us too.  So much that challenged me.  I want to close with this.  Raising children, at least my children, I constantly heard, "that's not fair!"  Our son was especially concerned with fairness.  Fairness boils down to self protection.  The whole story of salvation is something that has become so familiar that we forget how "unfair" it all is. Jesus not only came to be crucified on a cross but rejected, miss understood etc.   There is nothing fair about how we are called to live.  Our calling is to fight for the justice for others, to serve sacrificially, to give sacrificially, to love sacrificially, to humble ourselves.  

I just read a post on Facebook from a friend,  I thought it fit todays lesson.  

"Once there were some people who really needed to overturn corrupt political powers. They desperately wanted God to intervene.

Some people thought God sent somebody. But sadly, the guy turned out to be one of those “social justice warrior” types. He got distracted into making a big deal about racism and sexism and sticking up for the oppressed and downtrodden. When people pointed out what he really needed to work on, he always changed the subject to lepers or Samaritans or defending abused women or other people who didn’t really matter.

He never got anywhere, sadly, distracted by social justice stuff about loving God and letting that flow into loving others. He wouldn’t listen to those who warned him that he’d get nowhere without political power, and they were right.

Some people still think he did some good, though. He said his kingdom was not of this world, so who knows?

Interestingly, there are still a few people thousands of years later that keep trying to follow his example. Just loving God and loving others never seems to change the world in big ways like political movements, but, well, I guess some movements just never end."

This is also a great quote to go along with it.   

“A religion that leads men to place a low estimate upon human beings, whom Christ has esteemed of such value as to give Himself for them; a religion that would lead us to be careless of human needs, sufferings, or rights, is a spurious religion. In slighting the claims of the poor, the suffering, and the sinful, we are proving ourselves traitors to Christ. It is because men take upon themselves the name of Christ, while in life they deny His character, that Christianity has so little power in the world. The name of the Lord is blasphemed because of these things.”

(Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 137)

I challenge all of us to live by picking up our cross.  Let's together go and love our church family, our community and the world in a self sacrificing way!  Are you willing to take up your cross?