Confession of Christ

Come and Die: Not Ashamed of the Christ Mark 8:27-38

I. Some cultural expectations

What is the cost of discipleship? This is a question we will ask several more times in this book, because it is a question that Mark seeks to answer. In fact, you might argue that this is Mark’s main theme—that you understand who Jesus is and with that you understand your role as his disciple. So what does he expect?

Popular culture/society expects many things of me and of my family. Some of those expectations aren’t that bad, others seem diametrically opposed to what Jesus expects.

For instance a. Follow your dream.

That seems like a good thing to insist on. Have a vision and try to accomplish it. You might hear me say many of the same things. You can do whatever you want to do. You can be whoever you want to be. True? To some extent yes, but then people insist on us demanding our freedom. You are free to choose whatever path you want and nothing can stop you. If you allow anything to alter YOUR plans then you are to blame.

That’s just one thing they expect.

b. feed your cravings, spoil yourself, deny yourself nothing

If you want something, you should have it. How many people out there have trouble at Christmas time because well…everyone already buys what they want when they want it? If they want something, they get it. That’s what credit cards are for after all. We are Americans and we mustn’t deny ourselves anything ever. And we must never allow people to take anything from us either. We must protect ourselves at all costs. We must never let anyone walk on us or take advantage of us. We hold our head high and we want everyone to look up to us.

c. Get a life

You know what else culture expects from me. And many people over the last few decades have said this to my face. Apparently, people expect me to …

“Get a life!”

Get a life. Perhaps one of America’s most popular iconic phrases is one you have certainly heard from your teens. I don’t hear it a lot anymore, but it used to be pretty big. It’s a way of saying you are a loser and that to be able to present yourself as an average person, to be able to socialize and be accepted you must now “get a life.” You don’t have a real life now, so you must get one. 2

d. Don’t be ashamed…about anything apparently

It also expects me to stop feeling shame for things. I can’t be held responsible. It is either someone elses fault, or there is no fault at all. Shame? We don’t even understand this word very well anymore. We just don’t feel much shame. We aren’t ashamed of our ability to illegally copy DVDs; we aren’t ashamed at our huge collection of movies that numb our minds into believing free sex and violence is legitimate entertainment; we aren’t ashamed at where our eyes travel when we know there are no safeguards on our computer and no one is watching. We aren’t ashamed of the filth on our facebook pages; we aren’t ashamed at our provocative dress; we aren’t ashamed of our friends that pull us deeper into the gutter and further from Christ. We aren’t ashamed because our culture tells us there is no shame in any of these things. Its not even that we reject the shame; this generation doesn’t even know what they should feel shame about. Everything is okay. follow your dream, feed your cravings, Get a life, don’t be ashamed.

Have you ever thought about what God has to say about all of this?

Feed your cravings, deny yourself nothing… Jesus says “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross.”

Follow your dream, don’t let anything stand in your way Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me”

Get a life Jesus says “Whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it.

Shame Jesus agrees “don’t be ashamed” he says. But what should we not be ashamed about?

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

We have very little shame in this new bold and free world, but I wonder… I wonder how many of us are ashamed…of the gospel. How many of us are ashamed of Christ? I have titled this sermon “Ashamed of the Christ” because I think if we get this correct, we will find that the others are all wrapped up in it. If we aren’t truly ashamed of him, then following his dreams will be much easier, denying our own rights will be much easier, losing our life will be much easier. Unfortunately, I am afraid that all of us are at least a little bit ashamed of him.

II. Mark’s purpose in writing 3

On August 17th of last year I began a series on the book of Mark. That morning I preached from the very first verse of the book and I told you that first verse was a synopsis of the entire book. The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

This morning, 34 weeks later we reach the center of Mark’s book. It is the close of one part of Jesus’ ministry and the beginning of another. After today, Jesus will move from a Galilee centered ministry to a Jerusalem centered one. From here on, his face will be set towards Jerusalem and towards his death. In fact, between now and the triumphal entry on a donkey into Jerusalem, there are three major literary cycles that we will see. Each one will be centered around Jesus grand revelations that he will die. Three times he will explain that he must be rejected, suffer and die and three times his poor disciples will not understand and three times he will follow up with some very important things about what it means to be a disciple.

Mark is more than a little bit concerned with what a true disciple looks like. Remember I have said from the very beginning that the point of Mark’s book is as a witness to who Jesus is and a call that you respond by following him. I have said from the beginning that this Jesus is the Christ and that we must follow him as servants, right to the cross. Well, this morning he will make it very clear.

Remember last week that Jesus healed the blind man. I asked you to consider your own blindness and the blindness of those around you. I told you about John Newton’s picture of a world full of blind men and what would happen if someone who could see came into that world. I will come back to that. The main point of course was that the disciples were slowly having the veil lifted. The scales were beginning to be removed and soon they would truly see, truly understand.

And that “soon,” it seems like it just might be right now.

Look at this pivotal section in the book of Mark. Mark 8:27-30 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 Christ."

III. The turning point—they finally get it?

This is Huge. This is a turning point in the life of the disciples, in the ministry of the kingdom itself. Up to this point there has only been speculation. Mark has said he was the Christ, but Jesus himself hasn’t said it and the disciples haven’t said it. In fact, it hasn’t shown up at all yet. Only questions and none of them getting the full picture. He may be a cleaner, a healer, an exorcist. He may be a miracle worker, a feeder of thousands, and one who raises the dead. He may be one who walks on water and calms the storm and baffles the rabbis. We know from the story about Herod killing John the Baptist that the speculations were various. Perhaps John the Baptist, Elijah, or some other prophet? And we learned early on that all these are inadequate as 4 they assign only a preparatory role to Jesus instead of the definitive role associated with consummation and the achievement of salvation. And now Mark repeats the same ideas in the mouths of the disciples. Who is he?

This is the question he asks those who are closest to him and this is the question he asks us. Who do you say that I am?

And Peter finally answers the question of the last 8 chapters for us. He answers the question “Who is this, that even the winds and the waves obey him?” He answers finally and boldly on behalf of all the disciples. “You are the Christ!” Finally, they get it. From last weeks’, “They just don’t get it!” to this week “You are the Christ!” That was the point of Jesus doing all that he did —that the disciples might finally understand and they do. The story is over, the people understand, God be praised. Sigh of relief. Finally.

IV. They still don’t get it

Or so it seems if we stop reading there.

But look at verse 30

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Up to this point, he told people not to spread the message because they didn’t get it. Why would he tell them to not tell anyone now? The answer—you guessed it—They still don’t understand.

Let me back up for some of you here who might be a bit confused by our terminology. Perhaps whenever you hear the word Christ it is directly connected to Jesus. Its Jesus Christ. Like Jace Broadhurst. A first and last name. But this isn’t correct at all. “Christ” is a title. It’s the Greek word for Anointed one. The Hebrew title is Messiah. Anointed one, Messiah, Christ. All the same word in different languages. So Peter knows that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed one. He knows that Jesus is the one who comes as the King to usher in a kingdom of power and glory. And this is all true. We are happy with Peter’s confession because it is true, but saying that Jesus is the Christ, is a far cry from understanding what it really means to be the Christ.

The turning point in Mark’s gospel is not because the disciples finally get it, but because Jesus will now explain it plainly. To make it super clear he begins to teach them (v 31) that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the leadership and be killed. Suffer, rejected, killed. Suffer, rejected, killed. This is the absolute furthest thing from what the Messiah is. The Psalms of Solomon speak of a son of David purging Jerusalem from its neighbors, destroying unrighteousness and saving the people of God. This is the great king and he has obviously proved himself to be that. He comes in power with miracles all around. Five thousand people were ready to make him king, the disciples are behind him, the demoniacs and ex-deaf and ex- blind are ready to usher in the kingdom. You are the Christ. 5

And Jesus doesn’t let them tell anybody. Because they don’t get it. He isn’t that kind of a Messiah. Peter understood he was the messiah, but of the deeper and more costly dimensions of messiahship, he had no idea. And that understanding is absolutely essential to understanding Jesus.

Ushering in the kingdom can only happen if he is rejected, suffers and dies. Jesus sums up the Messiah as one who must suffer many things.

V. The Rebuke of Peter—Jesus apparently doesn’t get it.

But Peter will have none of this nonsense. Suffering isn’t for Jesus, it’s for everyone who opposes him. He takes Jesus aside and rebukes him (v 32). I love Peter. He apparently didn’t even hear the end of Jesus’ plain speaking. Rejected, suffered, die….and in three days rise again. That’s what I would be asking about. But Peter ignores that and rebukes Jesus. “Jesus, you just don’t get it. Let me see if I can explain to you what the Messiah really is.”

The audacity.

For Peter the indication that the Son of Man will die is unthinkable. For Jesus it is inevitable.

Bonhoeffer says it like this: Jesus Christ must suffer and be rejected. (Mark 8:31-38) This 'must' is inherent in the promise of God—the Scripture must be fulfilled. Here there is a distinction between suffering and rejection. Had He only suffered, Jesus might still have been applauded as the Messiah.1

That shows how the very notion of a suffering Messiah was scandal to the Church. … Peter’s protest displays his own unwillingness to suffer and that means that Satan has gained entry into the Church, and is trying to tear it away from the cross of its Lord.2

And Jesus without missing a beat rebukes him right back. “Get behind me Satan, you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men. It is not that Peter has become Satan in any sense, but this is to remind Peter and Marks readers of the temptation of Satan earlier on. Satan wanted Jesus not to suffer. Just take the power now. Peter does what Satan was doing. In Peter’s attempt to avert Jesus’ suffering, he opposes a deep mystery of God, for suffering is the only way to destroy the stronghold of Satan. And that’s why Jesus is really there (1:24, 3:27). Peter is opposing the design of the incarnation itself.

Bonhoeffer again: Jesus is a rejected Messiah. His rejection robs the passion of its halo of glory. It must be a passion without honor. Suffering and rejection sum up the whole cross of Jesus. To die on the cross means to die despised and rejected of men. Suffering and rejection are laid upon Jesus as a divine necessity, and every attempt to prevent it is the work of the devil,

1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost Of Discipleship (New York, Macmillan, 1949 [repr. 1963]), 95. 2 Ibid, 96. 6

especially when it comes from his own disciples; for it is in fact an attempt to prevent Christ from being Christ.

VI. A wrong view of Messiahship leads to a wrong view of discipleship

A wrong view of Messiahship leads to a wrong view of Discipleship. Jesus summons the rest of the crowd and tries to set them straight What must they do? Deny themselves Take up cross Follow him Lose their life Not be ashamed of the son of Man

Let me read it from Mark’s record: 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his 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 him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Here is the application so beautifully apparent. But we can’t bring this to us without at least asking what this meant to them. We are a society of individuals. They were a collectivist society. What does it mean for them to deny themselves, take up their cross, follow him, lose their life and not be ashamed.

A. What is denial?

Perhaps denial is simply doing without cokes or candy for lent. Is that what Jesus meant here? Taking up the cross is as simple as bearing with an infirmity of putting up with an inconvenience. Or maybe we can connect the taking up the cross and the not being ashamed and wrap them together and say that all Christians have to have one of those nail crosses and wear it on their neck every day.

But deny is a bit stronger than it seems here. Especially for a more communal society. What we call collectivist. Everything they did was for the good of the society. They were a piece of a bigger picture. To deny oneself—aparneomai is to completely disown, to utterly separate oneself from someone—in this case from the society itself. From the in-crowd. From the religious system, from anything and everything that opposed what Jesus was propagating. This is why he said “Who are my mother and my brothers?” This is why he will soon tell the rich young ruler to give up everything—his wealth and prestige. This is what it means to follow Jesus. To give up everything. 7

B. What is “taking up our cross?

We say, “I will pick up my cross” when we have to do something unpleasant or inconvenient, when there is chronic disease or a nagging spouse or a cranky mother in law or leaky roof in your Chevy. But think about how they would understand this. They wouldn’t even see the other side of the cross. They don’t know about Jesus death and resurrection. But they knew the cross. They probably saw the criminals and rebels and slaves who abandoned their masters hanging on the side of the road. For them it was an image of extreme repugnance, it was the instrument of pain, cruelty, dehumanization and shame.

And Mark’s readers would have understood it similarly, because Nero continued to crucify and burn Christians while Mark was writing. They would have seen it as a sign of abandonment by those around them, but not from God. It was identification with and faithfulness to the way of Jesus himself.

C. What is discipleship?

Discipleship is ______of self, ______of Christ, and ______of life.

What is discipleship? Discipleship is unashamed denial of self, proclamation of Christ, and losing of life.

Jesus had to do it and we must follow him. Again from Bonhoeffer’s classic and moving book The cost of Discipleship:

…the very notion of a suffering Messiah was scandal to the Church. … Peter’s protest displays his own unwillingness to suffer and that means that Satan has gained entry into the Church, and is trying to tear it away from the cross of its Lord. Jesus must therefore make it clear beyond all doubt that the "must" of suffering applies to his disciples no less than to himself. … Discipleship mean adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross. 96 [See John 15:20-21] The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. … we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. … When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. …death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man [or nature] at his call. Jesus’ summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die…(99)

VII. The insanity of the call to discipleship 8

The call is nothing less than insanity. “Come”…we like come. But come…and die. Why would anyone choose such idiocy?

But suffering is the badge of true discipleship. We are not above the master. WE must follow. That’s why Luther reckoned suffering to be one of the marks of the true church.

Bonhoeffer again: “If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at the hands of men, we forfeit our fellowship with Christ and have ceased to follow Him. But if we lose our lives in His service and carry our cross, we shall find our lives again in the fellowship of the cross with Christ. The opposite of discipleship is to be ashamed of Christ and His cross and all the offense which the cross brings in its train.”3

But I never really suffer, at least not like you are calling me to. I sure don’t take up my cross on purpose. I am not even sure how I could.

Remember last week when I spoke of John Newton treatise on spiritual blindness. He speaks of every man in the world walking around blind. Then there were one or two people who were in their midsts professing that they could see. They couldn’t prove it of course. And what was the consequence. Newton says these would receive the same treatment as Jesus did. The blind would hate these who claimed they could see and would argue vehemently against the idea that there is either light or sight. He says they would rise against them as deceivers and enthusiasts and disturbers of the public peace and say, “Away with such fellows from the earth; it is not fit that they should live.”

You ask how can we suffer for Jesus, I ask, how can you not? Just open your mouth and say the truth. Just refuse to be a part of what the world loves. Do something crazy. Downsize your house and give the extra to the mission field. Finally tell your mother that you love her so much and you refuse to let her go to hell. Stop stifling the gospel with your non-Christian friends for fear that they wont be your friend anymore. I am not saying offend for offense sake. I am saying, tell the truth. The truth will offend. You don’t think so? Try this. “There is no other way to the father but by me [Jesus]!” You don’t think that is offensive? This is the definition of offensive in our tolerant, no room for absolute truth world.

Are you willing to lose your life? My rich friends, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Do you hear this in a world which screams “Look out for number one” “Save yourself,” “Love yourself.” “Pamper yourself.” “Live for yourself.”

Does anyone here still remember the name William Maugham? They called him Willie in the 1930s and he was an accomplished novelist, playwright and short story writer. His novel Of Human Bondage is a classic as is his play The Constant Wife. He was wealthy and famous and refined and comfortable and perverse and basically did whatever he wanted.

3 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost Of Discipleship (New York, Macmillan, 1949 [repr. 1963]),101. 9

At the age of 91 he was still fabulously wealthy and received hundreds of fan letters every week.

The London times carried this excerpt from his nephew, Robin Maugham:

I looked round the drawing room at the immensely valuable furniture and pictures and objects that Willie’s success had enabled him to acquire. I remembered that the villa itself, and the wonderful garden I could see through the windows—a fabulous setting on the edge of the Mediterranean—were worth 6000 pounds. Willie had 11 servants, including his cook, Annette, who was the envy of all the other millionaires on the Riviera. He dined off silver plates, waited on by Marius, his butler, and Henri his footman. But it no longer meant anything to him

The following afternoon I found Willie reclining on a sofa, peering through his spectacles at a Bible which had very large print. He looked horribly wizened and his face was grim.

“I’ve been reading the Bible you gave me…and I’ve come across the quotation, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ I must tell you, my dear Robin, that the text used to hang opposite my bed when I was a child…Of course, it’s all a lot of bunk. But the thought is quite interesting all the same.

His nephew then goes on to describe an empty, bitter old man who repeatedly fell into shrieking terrors, crying “Go away! I’m not ready…I’m not dead yet…I’m not dead yet, I tell you…”4

Contrast this with missionary after missionary. Do you remember Rowland Bingham or Warlter Gowans or Thomas Kent? In 1893 they began their trek into Africa from the West coast heading into Sudan. Their chance of survival, they were told, was nil. The Head of the Methodist Mission in West Africa gave them an ominous warning “Young men, you will never see the Soudan; your children will never see the Soudan; your grandchildren may.” Missionaries from other societies also offered gloomy predictions, but they insisted on not turning back. But as they set off, Bingham became ill with Malaria and had to man the supply base on the coast. In less than a year after they left on their eight hundred mile overland journey, both Gowans and Kent, true to the pessimistic predictions, were dead. Kent turned back for more supplies. Gowans, weak from dysentery, was captured by a slave raiding tribal king and died a few weeks after his release. Kent got Malaria and eventually died from it. Three weeks apart, both of Binghams partners were dead. His faith shaken, Bingham went home. But in little time he says he again clung to the rock. He took medical classes and attended Simpsons missionary school. He pastored for a little while and then headed back to the Sudan with 2 new recruits. Again he got malaria and this time his two young recruits gave up. In 1901 he tried again and succeeded but within two years only one of the original 4 remained in Sudan. One had died and two had been sent home physically debilitated, never to return. In 1928 SIM had grown into Ethiopia and medical missionaries poured themselves into the work there with little result. In 1935 the Italian military forces moved against

4 The London times, April 9, 1978 10

Ethiopia, and things grew grim. The missionaries were told to leave immediately. There were 17 baptized believers there and the missionaries did not want to leave. They continued to fight to stay but 2 years later they were forceably evacuated—but it was enough time to see 48 believers in the church. The missionaries left in sadness wondering what would happen to the little flickering flame of gospel light that had been lit in the midst of so much darkness. They had only the gospel of Mark translated and persecution was sure to come. And it did. At one point 50 leaders had been arrested and put in prison when the Italians realized that their efforts to stamp out the church were only increasing it, they began to whip the leaders. 100 lashes for each of the leaders and 400 for one. Three died. And the church grew. Why? The warm love displayed by the Christians toward one another in times of severest persecution made a great impression on the unbelievers…This kind of natural, living, unspoken witness brought many to know the Lord. In 1941 when the war ended, missionaries were allowed to return. What they found was that the 48 missionaries they left 5 years earlier had grown to some ten thousand in over 100 congregations spread out across the province.

True discipleship costs. It cuts deep and it hurts. Jesus doesn’t say “Pamper yourself, don’t deny yourself anything, take up your wii and your sweet tea and follow whatever you feel like doing right now. He says, Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. 11

Come and Die: Not Ashamed of the Christ Mark 8:27-38

VIII. Some cultural expectations a. Follow your dream

b. Feed your cravings, spoil yourself, deny yourself nothing

c. Get a life

d. Don’t be ashamed…about anything apparently

IX. Mark’s purpose in writing

X. The turning point—they finally get it?

XI. They still don’t get it

XII. The rebuke of Peter—Jesus apparently doesn’t get it

XIII. A wrong view of Messiahship leads to a wrong view of discipleship a. What is denial

b. What is “taking up our cross

c. What is discipleship?

Discipleship is ______of self, ______of Christ, and ______of life.

XIV. The insanity of the call to discipleship