Following When It Costs You

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[0:01] Our first reading today comes from Isaiah chapter 50 verses 4 through 9. The sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he awakens me and opens my understanding to his will. The sovereign Lord has spoken to me and I have listened. I have not rebelled or turned away. I have offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pull out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting. Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will, and I know that I will not be put to shame. He who gives me his word will not be put to shame. He who gives me justice is near. Who will dare to bring charges against me now? Where are my accusers?

[1:04] Let them appear. See the sovereign Lord is on my side. Who will declare me guilty? And then from James 3 verses 1 through 12. Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for, we who teach will be judged most strictly.

[1:29] Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong.

[1:53] In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of darkness and darkness. It is a deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.

[2:34] And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right. Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring. This is the word of the Lord.

[3:02] Our sermon text today comes from Mark 8, verses 27 to 38. . . . Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, Who do people say I am? Well, they replied, Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets. Then he asked them, But who do you say I am? Peter replied, You are the Messiah. But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

[3:59] Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.

[4:21] Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples. Then he reprimanded Peter. Get away from me, Satan. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not God's. Then calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Let's pray.

[5:19] Our God, we thank you for this word. And we pray a blessing over you. Speak to each of us in our hearts through your Holy Spirit. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So there are some changes to Mark that happen in this passage. And actually, they happen over the course of a couple of passages in chapters 8 through 10. And we're about at the halfway point in the book of Mark. And up to this point, the only reference, the only reference of Jesus as the Christ or as the Messiah has happened in the very first verse of the very first chapter. And it wasn't Jesus who had declared it. It was the author. The author tells us this is the good news about Jesus the Messiah.

[6:13] So there's some foreshadowing. And there's some demonic powers in the book of Mark that declare Jesus as Messiah. But Jesus himself, doesn't declare it until this point. And it's a warning for us, it's an alert for us, that the demonic powers are the ones to announce it before he's ready. That means it's not meant to be known yet. It's not meant to be announced yet.

[6:43] Jesus himself hasn't said a word about his Messiahship throughout the course of his ministry. So it is a very important and important thing to know, defining moment when Jesus straight up asks his disciples, who do people say I am? And then gives affirmation to Peter's answer. Because up to this point, it's speculation at best. We know because we're standing way on the other side of this, but they didn't know. There were all sorts of whispers going around about who this Jesus was. And very few of those whispers included the word Messiah. In fact, Peter and the disciples say, well, some people say you're Elijah. Some people say you're John the Baptist. Some people say you're another prophet. There are all these whispers and speculations happening. But it's the disciples who know Jesus, who've been with him, who start to suspect, no, something deeper is going on here. There's another change that happens in this chapter, and it's subtle. In the next several chapters, it's going to seem like Jesus is always on the move. Before this, his big teaching points happened in what I suppose were more traditional settings. In a boat, on a hillside. But as of this point, Jesus is constantly on the move. Before this, his big teaching points

[8:16] on the way or on the road. We see these phrases a couple of times in the next few chapters. He's on the way. While they were on the way, he said this. Or while they were on the road to, this happened. It's important because Jesus is not just sitting in a spot and telling his disciples, you will go on the road and do this. You will follow this way. Instead, he's actually walking the way with them. And so he's not telling them what it would be like, but he's actually leading by example. So when they begin to face opposition, which also happens in these few chapters, eight through 10, Jesus is on the way through this. And so he's not telling them what it would be like to be on the road with them.

[9:13] So the way of discipleship is not going to be easy. And we discover this in eight through 10 also, just like Jesus hasn't spoken of his status as Christ. So he also hasn't spoken of what it means to be a follower of the Christ. But here's the first time that Jesus begins to predict both his death and his resurrection. And in fact, Jesus doesn't talk about his messiahship, without talking about his death and resurrection. The ideas cannot be separated.

[9:49] Now, Caesarea Philippi was also a unique place. It's a strange place to hold a conversation about Jesus as the Christ. He had plenty of opportunities before this. Like I said, we're halfway through the book. He could have chosen any point to talk about this, and he decided not to until they're at Caesarea Philippi. And it was obviously a strategic point for a spot for him to ask the question. It was located on the northeastern border of Israel, right on the division that separated the area, the land of the followers of Yahweh, from the land of the Gentiles. The city was said to be home to the gate of the underworld, where fertility gods frequently stayed and where the god pan lived. So there were great shrines all over. You can actually still see them today. They're etched into these rocks. As far up as the eye can see, you can just see shrines carved into the rock everywhere.

[11:04] Hundreds of them. So Herod the great had constructed also a shrine. In fact, he constructed some great a great temple to honor Caesar Augustus. And then later his son, Herod Philip, renamed this city after Caesar. So it was a bustling place and people came from far and wide to bring offerings to their God, even to honor Caesar by worshiping at his temple. And this was the place where Jesus finally decided to ask the question, who do you say I am? And that was an interesting choice in venues for this particular conversation. They were faithful Jews. This was a place laden with paganism and idolatry. The disciples probably would have been Jewish nationalists, expecting the Messiah to deliver Israel from the hands of Caesar. So why would Jesus want to stop teaching or just to stop teaching? So how could Jesus stop teaching if his disciples were endemic endemic endemic endemic endemic endemic nothing in Jesus's career up to this point to give any indication of Jesus's messiahship, at least not in the way that humanity would have expected or defined it at that point.

[12:51] He had made no claims to royalty. He displayed no political ambition. He had not shown any signs of wanting to take down the Romans. So perhaps Peter had hoped that when they got to Jerusalem, Jesus would finally take on this messianic role. And he had known Jesus for some time. He had seen his life. He had gotten better to know him better than most people.

[13:22] And most people would have said, yeah, Jesus seems like a prophet or John the Baptist or Elijah. But most people hadn't observed him as the 12 had. There was something in Jesus that Peter knew had come from God himself. And he knew Jesus was some sort of God-appointed, perhaps, messiah, but on some sort of God-appointed mission. So though there was nothing particularly militant or kingly about Jesus, the thought of messiah entered Peter's mind and he was very much concerned about Jesus. And there, as they faced Caesar's temple, something clicked. Oh, you are the Christ. You're the messiah. And Jesus affirmed this. He told Peter that this statement is what the church would be built on. So as they were there surrounded by all the pagan worship and idolatry, Jesus gave the foundation of true Christian worship. It wasn't necessarily about being surrounded by Caesar's temple as Peter thought it was. More, it was the fact that they were surrounded by all of these shrines built to other gods. And Peter was full of life and ready to rally behind this hero that suddenly he knew God had sent. So in the disciples' understanding, if Jesus was the Messiah, then he would have been the Messiah. But he was not the Messiah. He was the

[15:00] Messiah. He was there to defy Caesar, to overthrow the Roman rule of Israel, to raise Israel up once again. And of course, that's what Peter had thought. It was obviously not right, though, because immediately there was this clash between Peter and Jesus. And it was actually Peter who rebuked Jesus first. And that seems really strange to me. It throws me off a little, because I wouldn't think about rebuking Jesus. I'm sure you wouldn't think about rebuking Jesus. But Peter was just full of fight and fire. And he rebuked Jesus and he says, don't talk about your death. We're here surrounded by Romans who don't like you already. And you just said that you're the Messiah. Don't talk about your death. You're giving them ideas. That's a bad way to go. And Peter was there associating with Jesus. If Jesus was talking about being killed and Peter was seen as one of his disciples, surely things weren't going to go well for Peter.

[16:12] In Peter's mind, he didn't mind telling Christ off. He didn't mind being the one that told Jesus how it was supposed to go. Being the Christ meant to Peter that Jesus would deliver Israel and his people. So if you were to end up being the end for some for some for some for some for some for some place. But with God, true power blends with weakness. And while Peter was ready to rally behind a strong and powerful and heroic Messiah, he wasn't so sure he was ready to face opposition or death or rally behind a Messiah who seemed to be admitting defeat before even starting his journey at all. But integrity is following Christ, not just when it seems easy, but most especially when things get tough. So the disciples hadn't understood it yet, and it would take them time to get this point through their heads. The next two chapters will show a few rebukes of the disciples. This is only the first, and it's an important one.

[17:54] Because as Jesus was busy showing them what it meant to be and follow the Messiah, the disciples kept on clinging to their worldly understandings of power and importance. This very first rebuke was meant to be an eye-opener. It was meant to grab their attention. They had to learn to understand that they were getting things wrong. They were probably meant to get the hint after this first rebuke. But they would later get rebuked for not knowing what to do. And so, for some reason, some disciples were rebuked for competing for them.

[18:43] So even though Peter had gotten the technical definition for competing for them for was correct, he was terribly lost when it came to understanding what that truly meant. As they stood outside Caesar's temple, Peter envisioned Caesar being defeated and a freed Israel. But there, in the center of that pagan worship at the gates to the underworld, Jesus knew that his messiahship would free the world from bigger oppressors like idolatrous worship and death itself. And that was why Jesus's messiahship would be the foundation of the church.

[19:31] Without his suffering and his death and his resurrection, there would be no power to conquer sin or brokenness or death. So this was also the point in Mark where Jesus started to show his disciples that not only was his role defined by his death and resurrection, but the role of a disciple was also defined by his death and resurrection. And that's why he was so important in the life of Jesus. And that's why he was so important in the life of Jesus. And that's why he was so defined by those things, more in the way of self-denial and taking up your cross alongside him.

[20:02] And not just the 12 disciples, but verse 34 says that this is when he called out to the crowds. He called for the crowds to join the disciples and he invited any who wanted to join them, not to just join them by word, but to actually take up their cross and take up the cross. And that's why he called out to the crowds. And that's why he called out to the crowds. And that's why he called out to the crowds. And that's why he called out to the cross and follow him. If you want to see what it truly means for Jesus to be the Messiah, then you must follow him, go his way, walk the road with him.

[20:37] 34 says, then calling the crowd to join the disciples, he said, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way. Take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Integrity means not just following Christ when you think you'll gain the whole world, but following Christ when you know you'll lose it.

[21:18] Though the road he walked got more and more dangerous, as he went, he called people to deny themselves and follow. Jesus calls us to separate ourselves from what defines us and embrace new understandings of identity. And we see this in chapter 10.

[21:39] The rich man is asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, or the rich man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. And the rich man's identity is in his possession, and he follows the commandments to the letter of the law. But maybe he's not following the commandments to the heart of law. His identity is in what he has. So when Jesus says, all right, you're doing everything now, you need to give up your possessions and follow me, you need to put your identity in my identity, the man becomes greatly sad. And then Jesus says, I want to get to because he knows he can't do it. It's not an easy road to follow.

[22:31] I've been thinking a lot this week as I've been preparing this about privilege. How privilege is all about wanting what is beneficial to your own self and being in the position to obtain it, even if it comes at a detriment to others. Privilege includes never having to think about the fact that you are privileged if you don't want to, and never having to think about the disadvantage to others that you yourself have contributed to.

[23:01] If I look around me at my community, at the news, at TikTok or social media, or even at myself, I see examples of Christians who are not living to the full extent of Christ followers. We believe he is the Messiah, but we want that to mean that he died for our comfort. When we hear things like, take up the cross, we're suddenly dying on hills of self-righteousness and self-importance. And all the while we're bathing in privilege, refusing to give up our comforts for the sake of others. Because we don't know what it means to truly suffer for Christ, we tend to invent it. We believe that the most important thing in life is to be able to understand things.

[23:51] Wearing a mask on a crowded plane is not suffering, though many Christians today think that it is. And respecting another person's basic human rights is not suffering. Giving up your own privilege for the sake of fairness and justice is not suffering, even if we've become so accustomed to our own privilege that we feel strain in giving up such comforts.

[24:20] We believe that all those things are part of taking up your cross and following Jesus. We don't have to invent suffering out of minor inconveniences, and we also don't have to go and seek out true suffering or martyrdom in our own lives. We're not called to create drama or difficulty for others or for ourselves. The suffering comes when we face opposition from the world around us. 4. for standing up for Christ and his people. And that's not always going to be easy.

[24:55] It may not fit in with our understanding of what life should be, but we must do it anyhow because that is what following the Messiah means. Jesus speaks of losing our lives for his sake and for the sake of the gospel.

[25:09] Taking up our cross means being willing to suffer the consequences of following Jesus faithfully, whatever those consequences might be. It means putting Jesus's priorities and purposes ahead of our own comfort or security.

[25:25] It means being willing to lose our lives by spending them for others, using our time, our resources, our gifts, and our energies so that others might experience God's love made known in Jesus Christ. This is Christian integrity.

[25:44] Keeping on. Keeping on the way when the way gets tough. Let's pray. God, we pray for your strength. God, we pray for your strength to follow you when the way is easy and when the way is hard. God, we pray that we would glorify you with our lives. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.