Who Do You Say That I Am? "The Christ"

Good morning, church. It's good to be together, isn't it? And every time I get up here, I have this sense of gratitude that God has given us each other, that we get to come here together. And if you haven't gotten to experience that together, maybe you just show up and you just sit in a row by yourself and you don't really pay attention to anybody else. God gave us the gift of each other to come and live this life together, pursuing him together.

If we've never met, my name is Josh. I'm glad you're here this morning. And maybe you never have connected further than just showing up for a service. And if that's you, I want to challenge you and encourage you to do one thing today. To go out to the information desk out in the foyer and take a step.

Maybe it looks like getting to know some folks around here. Maybe it looks like asking a few questions. Maybe it's baptism, maybe it's joining one of our serving teams, whatever that is. I want to challenge you and encourage you that God is calling us daily, moment by moment, to keep taking steps toward him. And if it's been a little while, or maybe you just haven't taken a step here at all, I want to challenge you to take a step today.

If you've been with us over the last five weeks, you know, we've been walking through the Gospel of Mark, and we have one clear aim, one focal point, to see Jesus as he truly is and answer this pivotal question, the most important question that we will answer in our lives. The question that Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? And today we finally arrive at that moment, that moment in the Book of Mark where Jesus asks this question out loud. And we get to hear Peter's response. And it's a big moment for Peter.

Peter gets it right. Finally, somebody gets it right. He's the model student for a brief, shining second, until just as quickly as he got to be on top, he opens his mouth again and he face plants down at the bottom. Now, one of the biggest things I've personally learned studying through the Book of Mark is there is way more going on than there seems to be going on. What looks like these very quick, short, disconnected stories are really one giant, beautifully crafted narrative that Mark has put together.

I'm learning that more and more we're going to talk about some of that today. Up to this point in our study, Mark has been steadily moving us toward this confession moment, towards Peter's death, declaration of who Jesus is. But we're about to realize that Mark's been quietly walking us up an imaginary teeter totter. And once we cross over the midpoint, that fulcrum of Peter's answer, the entire storyline, the entire focus, almost violently tips over and comes smashing down on the other side. So far, we've seen Jesus revealing himself more and more and more and more.

And still everyone around him, seemingly especially the disciples, seem to be missing the whole point. He asked the disciples over and over, do you still not get it? How about now? How about now? He's like the eye doctor, how's this?

And he keeps flipping the lenses going, can you see? How about now? Can you see now? But they and everyone else are so blinded by their expectations, by their political and religious biases, by their hunger and sickness, and their egocentric worldview that they, they still can't see Jesus clearly. And I have to wonder, are we any different?

We have the added benefit of the whole story, and yet I think too many of us and all of us, at least in some measure, still can't see Jesus clearly because we're blinded and deafened by our political and religious biases, by our hunger and sickness, and by our egocentric worldview. Of course, this isn't new for us. It wasn't new for them either, if you remember that when Jesus explained why he speaks in parables, he quotes Isaiah, chapter nine. And he said that the people are ever hearing but not understanding, ever seeing, but not perceiving. And today, as we pull back, another layer of attempting to see and attempting to hear and understand Jesus more clearly.

I just want to pray and ask the Holy Spirit for some help. Will you pray with me? Holy Spirit, we ask for your help to see what the enemy desperately wants us to never see.

So whatever is in the way of that, whatever expectation, whatever wounding, whatever lens, whatever hurt, whatever egocentric thing is in the way, we ask in the name of Jesus, in the power of the resurrection, that you would release us of these things and help us to see what we cannot see. It's in his powerful name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Now, I said that we'd be looking at this pivotal moment of Peter's confession, but before we get there, let's back up a little bit and take the scenic view around. We'll start with some quick scenes that Jesus uses to set this whole thing up.

And we're going to cover a lot of ground very quickly because Mark covers a lot of ground very quickly. So miss this. Come stay with me. Stay sharp. Among these scenes are two miracle Scenes.

They're unique because they're the only two miracle stories that are included in the Book of Mark that the other Gospels don't cover. Think about this. With Mark's Gospel being the shortest of the four, with the way that he sparingly uses such short, no fluff stories to make his point, it should immediately stick out to us. It should immediately trigger our curiosity, like the parables we lean in to ask, why did he choose to include these stories when the others don't? So the first is one of these healing miracles.

At the end of chapter seven, Jesus and the disciples have come to the Decapolis. That's Deca Paulus. The Decapolis was a group of 10 Greco Roman cities. The Decapolis has a double meaning here. Yes, it is literally 10 cities.

But it also represents what we might call the world. It's the world outside of God. And as Jesus and the disciples are there, some people bring a deaf and mute man to him, hoping that he will heal him. Chapter 7, verse 33. After Jesus took him, the deaf and mute man aside away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears.

Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said ephphatha, which means be opened. At this the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly. So Jesus then tells the guy, don't tell anyone.

I mean, this is pretty awesome. And I can talk now, I'm telling some folks, right? But this is a theme throughout the first half of Mark. And Jesus is trying to keep a lid on some things because he's already getting inundated with people because all they're concerned about is his power to provide and heal. They're asking themselves, what can this guy do for me?

And that's getting in the way of what he's trying to accomplish. Now, right after this, we get another scene. Jesus miraculously feeds 4,000 people. And it's very similar to the miracle that we talked about before of Jesus feeding 5,000 people. But it's clear that this isn't a retelling.

This is a different story. It's a separate and second miracle of multiplying food. And Jesus is showing the disciples again. When I show up and I provide, I can provide from nothing, miraculously, and I can provide far more than is even needed so that everyone who is hungry will be full satisfied. Well, from here, Jesus has yet another run in with the religious leaders, the Pharisees, and.

And then it seems like he's frustrated and he hops in a boat once again to cross the Sea of Galilee. And we get another scene. It's in the boat. In the boat. The disciples realize they haven't brought along enough food to eat.

And they're talking about bread because they only have one loaf of bread to eat between them. Well, Jesus hears this going on and he takes the opportunity to have a deeper conversation. And he starts talking to them about yeast. And he explains to them, hey guys, this is a deeper thing, be careful. Because just like a little bit of yeast dramatically affects a loaf of bread, a little bit of influence from false teachers and the powers of this world can dramatically blind your view of things and affect your life.

And in true disciple fashion, they completely miss the entire point of what Jesus is saying. And they're like, anyway, getting back to the fact that we don't have bread, if you could, you know, that thing that you did, because we, that would be great, we would love to have that. So Jesus, maybe, maybe you could do that. Let's pick up in verse 17 of chapter 8, aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, why are you talking about having no bread? I'm reading the tone.

It's definitely, that's got to be the tone. Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? And we hear it again? Do you have eyes but fail to see?

And ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? 12, they replied. And when I broke the seven loaves for the 4000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? They answered seven.

He said to them, do you still don't get it? You still don't get it? Jesus is like, it's not about the bread, boys. Do you still think that feeding the 5,000 and feeding the 4,000 is really just about feeding them? And the disciples are like the deaf and mute man.

They have their spiritual ears plugged in. They can't articulate a clear answer to what Jesus is asking them. And then we quickly switch scenes again and get to the second of the two miracles that Mark only records. The second miracle is doubly unique. Not only is it only found in the book of Mark, it's the only miracle in the entire Bible that that isn't a one step miracle.

You'll see what I mean. Verse 22. They, Jesus and the disciples came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 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?

He looked up and said, I see people. They look like trees walking around. 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. Now remember, they are ever hearing and not understanding.

Ever seeing, but not perceiving. A deaf man and a blind man. Mark is doing this very much on purpose. Now, my first and biggest question for both miracles is, why does Jesus spit on them? Can we just agree that's weird?

This guy, he spits on the guy's eyes. He spits in his face. Next time somebody asks you for help, just spit on them.

Well, honestly, I studied this high and low. I read through all kinds of commentaries on this. And honestly, I don't feel like anyone explained it in a way that was satisfactory to me. So I am going to just stick with my best answer for times like this. I don't know.

I don't know. But second to that question, and even more intriguing to me, why did this take two tries? Are Jesus healing batteries just a little low that day?

I mean, is it just that much harder to heal a blind man than it is to tell a little dead girl to stand up and walk? Did he fall asleep during the eyes healing class in college? I mean, what's going on here? Obviously, that's not what's going on. Why did it take a second touch?

The man basically says, I can at least recognize that there are people, but my vision is still fuzzy. And then the second time, his vision is made perfect.

Now Mark just leaves us hanging with the answer to that question. And so we're going to do the same thing for just a minute. And the very next story that Mark tells is the big moment that Jesus asks the question we've been talking about since week one. Let's pick up. In verse 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? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah. And still others, one of the prophets. Their view of a political, governmental superpower Messiah was blinding them to their ability to even consider that Jesus might be the Messiah. They knew that he was from God.

They knew that he had power. And the best explanation that they could come up with was, he was one of these prophets of old. Reincarnate. But what about you, he asked, who do you say I am? Peter answered, you are the Messiah.

And that's it. Now, if you remember, from week one, we talked about the fact that Mark is writing this gospel, mostly from the firsthand account of Peter. So it's interesting and surprising to me that Peter's version of the story is so short. I mean, like, this is his shining moment. He nails it.

If it's me, I'm writing a whole lot more. Like, let's talk about how great I was in this moment. Well, thankfully, Matthew covers this moment in his Gospel with a little more detail. Here's what Matthew records in Matthew 16. Starting in verse 16, after Jesus asked Simon, Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God.

Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of Hades or the gates of hell will not overcome it. Who do you say that I am? You are the Christ.

Bingo. You win. You get it, Peter. Finally, someone is paying attention to everything that's going on. And, Peter, your gold star for winning the day is that you get a new name.

Simon was the name that his parents gave him. Jesus gives him the name Peter, or Petros, which means rock. And in a double meaning, Jesus says, I will build my church on this rock. Yes, Peter. He will be a spearhead in the birth of the New Testament Church.

But deeper than that, even more importantly, it's going to be built on the answer. Peter just gave the confession that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of God. Peter's confession of who Jesus is is the foundation on which the church will be built. But Peter's about to completely trip over himself, and he ruins this moment. But before we get there, I want to point out one more thing, because where Jesus asks this question is just as important as what he asks.

The place that Jesus takes the disciples and asks them this question is a place called Caesarea Philippi. This is no accident. In fact, Jesus took the disciples way out of the way from their normal stomping grounds. Caesarea Philippi is about 25 to 30 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. That's a day and a half to two days of walking to take them to a place that they would have been very uncomfortable to go.

Why? Because for well over a thousand years before this, Caesarea Philippi was widely known as a place of pagan Worship. First by the Canaanites who worshiped baal, and then by the Greeks who renamed this place Panaeus in honor of their God Pana. The little half man, half goat guy that plays the flute. That's their God.

Now, listen, I'm not old enough to tell you, and you're not old enough to hear me tell you what happened at Caesarea Philippi. But let's just say BAAL and Pan were both worshiped as gods of fertility and sexuality. The Canaanites believed some very deeply disturbing things about this place. And every year, the Greeks would have a giant, raucous drunken party honoring and worshiping Pan. They called it pandemonium.

That's where that word comes from. Caesarea Philippi was a place where restraint was the only sin. And the darkest human desires were not just tolerated, they were celebrated. But there's one more thing about this location that really adds color to this story. Both the Canaanites and the Greeks believed that a large cave there which was fed by a powerful spring of water.

They believed it was the entrance to the underworld. They called it the Gates of Hades or the Gates of Hell. This was a place soaked in. In evil and darkness, layer upon layer, generation after generation. And it's there, in the shadow of false gods, sexual excess, depravity, and spiritual rebellion, that Jesus turns to his disciples and says, who do you say that I am?

Why on earth did Jesus ask the question there, the darkest place he could take them to?

It's because it's the perfectly chosen backdrop to make his point. With all these competing voices, all these false gods, all these claims to power and happiness and pleasure and life with everything the world can offer you right here in front of your face. Who do you say that I am? And when Peter gives an answer, Jesus says, that's right. That's the truth.

I will build my church on that. And the gates of Hell. Everything represented in this place, the darkest darkness, the sickest sickness, none of it will ever be powerful enough to overshadow or overcome what I'm about to do.

And yes, Peter answers correctly, but he answers incompletely. And like the blind man, after the first touch from Jesus, began to see, but only in part, and needed a second touch from Jesus to be able to see clearly. Peter can see, but his vision is still blurry. See, he sees the outline of Jesus, but he doesn't yet fully see him. He sees that he's the Christ, the promised Messiah, but he doesn't yet understand the kind of king and the Messiah that he came to be.

And this is the moment that Jesus rips the band aid off. And he speaks plainly. No more parables, no more riddles, no mystery. And as he speaks with bold clarity, his words make the teeter totter tip over with all the weight on the one side and nothing to keep it from violently crashing down.

Mark 8, verse 31. Jesus 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. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at the 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 Son of Man, I, Jesus. Jesus must suffer. He must be rejected. He must be killed.

He must rise again. And Peter just cannot handle this. One moment, Peter is the rock, the model disciple, the one who finally gets it. And in the next moment, Jesus looks him in the eyes and tells him something that made him, I have to imagine, sick to his stomach. Get behind me, Satan.

The highest of highs crashes to the lowest lows. And Peter thinks he's protecting Jesus, but what he's really doing, he's just echoing the familiar sound of the temptation that Satan offered Jesus. In the wilderness. Take the easier path, Jesus. Skip the suffering.

Avoid the cross. There's got to be another way. Jesus knows that it is the Father's will for him to go to the cross. And any voice that says otherwise, no matter how well intentioned, is not from God. It is only from Satan.

Peter sees Jesus clearly enough to confess him as Christ, but he doesn't yet see clearly enough to follow him to the cross. And then Jesus turns the heat way up for his disciples and for us. And he paints a very clear picture for them as the whole Book of Mark pivots and crashes down. Verse 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.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world? You're looking at it right here in front of us. Caesarea Philippi.

It's the whole world. It's everything that your flesh wants to have. What good is it a man for a man to have all of this? And yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man, Christ, me, I will be ashamed of them when I come in my Father's glory with the holy angels. Jesus basically says, all of you only want to follow me for my power, for what I can do for you. You want me to heal your physical needs. You want me to fill your physical bellies. You want me to rule as a physical king who will make your short life on this earth more comfortable.

But if you really want to follow me, you guys want to see how different I am than all of this? If you really want to follow me, I'm going down a path that you need to understand. You want to come? Here's what you do. Deny yourself, take up your cross.

Which would not have landed as a poetic metaphor for them. They know very clearly what the cross is. Rome used it to terrorize and haunt these people from making any bad decisions. And there's a high likelihood that they would have been within seeing distance of a person hanging on a cross. Right then they would put them on the roads and on the edges of town.

And Jesus says, you want to follow me? Deny yourself, take up your cross. Let's go. And the whole rest of the Book of Mark shifts gears from revealing who Jesus is to showing us what it actually means to follow him. So where does all this land us today?

I think for some of us, the question, who do you say that I am? Is still a wide open question. We've never answered it. Maybe we've been afraid to. Maybe we've just got too many questions.

Maybe you don't see Jesus as the Christ. Maybe you don't yet trust him as healer and miracle worker and truth teller and savior. Maybe you're here curious or cautious or hurting. And if that's you, I need you to know that Jesus is not afraid of your darkness. He's not intimidated by your questions.

He's not repelled by the places in your life that still feel broken and dark and messy and beyond repair. He asked this question of his disciples at the gates of hell on purpose. And if Jesus can stand there and say, I'm lord over all of this and none of it can overshadow what I'm doing, then he can meet you right where you are. He can bring healing and forgiveness and new life. And maybe your invitation today is simply to let him touch you the first time and you can begin to see.

See him as he really is and trust Him. But what about the rest of us? Maybe especially those of us who have been walking with Jesus for a long time. I think the challenge is different. We already see Jesus clearly enough to confess him.

We know the right words, we believe the right things. Maybe we've experienced his power, his provision, his healing, his saving grace. But maybe today we need to realize that like Peter, our vision is still blurry.

We see the person of Jesus, but we haven't yet seen or believed or embraced the greater plan that Jesus has for our lives. Or we love the miracles, we love the healing, we love the salvation, we love the hope. But we struggle with the words, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And I would say if you don't struggle with those words, check your pulse.

I struggle deeply with these words, deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me. How about heaven and joy and grace and love and feathery haired, blue eyed Jesus? That is just nice all the time. I love that guy.

And maybe what we need today isn't a new belief. Maybe what we need is just another touch. Because while Jesus chose to bring complete sight to this blind man on the second, the truth is Jesus always has another touch. There's always bread left over. Another moment of clarity, another invitation into deeper trust.

Another step towards seeing him more clearly.

So let me ask you this question. When was the last time Jesus revealed more of Himself to you?

Is your picture of him the same as it was when you were a kid or 10 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 30 years ago? Maybe it's time to ask for another touch. And don't miss this. Peter's problem in this story isn't proximity. He is right there with Jesus.

It's not unbelief. He nails the confession part. Peter's problem is clarity. His picture of the real Jesus isn't growing sharper somehow, even though he's spending time with him. His ears are open, but he's not fully hearing.

His mouth can speak, but he can't fully articulate. And his vision of who Jesus is is still just a shadow. It is real, but it's a shadow. It's not yet clear. And the invitation Jesus holds out to us today is the same one he held out to Peter.

Lean in again.

Come closer.

Let him open your eyes even more.

But this invitation comes with a giant warning label.

You want to see him more clearly. It means denying yourself, taking up your cross and following him. No, not a literal cross, but follow him to a daily death of self. Follow him to the surrender of control, and the only way we can get there is letting go of the version of Jesus who exists to serve our every preference and fill our stomachs, and seeing clearly that following Jesus means laying down our lives.

Because clearer vision of Jesus always comes with deeper cost.

Clearer vision of Jesus always comes with deeper cost. So some of us are ready to see him for the first time. Some of us are ready to see him more clearly than we ever have. And either way, the invitation is the same. Come, come see Jesus.

But you're gonna have to lay down all of your presuppositions and all of your desires and all of yourself if you want to see Him. And you're going to have to confess that maybe you have a blurry view. Still, for some of us, our pride is in the way of that.