Modnay Night @ First B First B Jackson 2023-02-21 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Check. Check. Everybody. Welcome to another Monday night. And, a big thank you to the three g's, the Gameron girls group, for dinner tonight. Jumbelaya and cornbread, thank you so much. And they they said, hey. Do you think if we leave some sweets out here that they'd get eaten up? And I said, yeah. So please please grab some cornbread and some and some dessert too tonight before you leave. And glad to see you. Glad to see you on a Monday. Making our way through the gospel of Mark. Mark, it's conversation style, so keep that in mind. If you got a verse or a word of encouragement at the end during conversation time. Before we get there, though, how about we worship in song together? You wanna stand and we'll sing? We'll worship. God, thank you for this evening, for dinner, food for the stomach, but also food for the soul. God, as we approach you in worship, we do so with joy and and great expectation for what, what we would learn from you tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Lord, as we sing that song, I know that many of us can look back and see how faithful you have been, and, God, the evidence of of the... Of your goodness in our life. Things, God, we just didn't deserve, and yet you you gave so, graciously to us. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for being so gracious and so kind. Amen. Let's sing seated above. Worthy of honor and As we were singing that song, I thought, you know, never underestimate the power of your testimony. How powerful testimony is. By the blood of the lamb, so that's what Jesus has done on the cross, but also the word of our testimony about it, about how that has affected us. Don't be afraid to share that testimony. Just around the table, even tonight, to hear the testimonies, it's pretty powerful. Oh, wow. God did that? Thank you, Lord, for how you're working in this room, Lord. May we not be ashamed. And you show us that tonight that we wouldn't be ashamed because of the power of God at work saving those. We're believing. Amen. Amen. Amen. What a powerful song. So true. You can have a a seat here for a moment too. How are doing on a Monday, everybody? Doing alright? There was some snow and then some sunshine, and it's it's still winter. It's still winter out there, but it is... I... It's... What a blessing to be here. And this place fed and, warm, and, I just don't wanna take it for granted. Here we go. The gospel according to Mark. Tonight, we're in chapter eight, verse 27 through chapter nine verse one. This is where Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, and then Jesus predicts his death for the first time. He tells his disciples what's gonna happen with... To him. So, I wanna put this out in front of us again. Let me see if this works. Nope. I think I need some help, Blake. The Bible project, it gives a very, very good visual of Mark. And I I just... I'm a visual person, so I like to see something out in front of me, and and I think this is very, very good. Mark breaks the the gospel of Mark into three acts, act one, act two, act three. So we've covered act one so far in... I don't know. We've been studying Mark for months now. But we've we've covered act one, Jesus' ministry in Galilee where he does miracle after miracle after miracle. And there are diverse responses. Have you noticed some of these in Mark where, one says, he's he's possessed by Satan. And then another place in in in... It says, well, everything he does is wonderful. And we go, alright. So which is it? And it really begs the question, who is Jesus? That... That's... We should be asking that. Well, who is Jesus? There's so many different opinions about him here in the first act, these first seven chapters. Now in act two, which we're at tonight, that's the question that Jesus asked his disciples. This... Does this sound familiar? When Jesus says, who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am? And they kind of understand who he is, but they also kind of don't. That's what we see here tonight. So they get that he's the messiah, but they don't understand what messiah really means. Has anyone seen the movie, The Princess Bride before? Has anyone seen that movie? Okay. There's a line in the movie where he goes, I do not think it means what you think it means. Do you remember that that line? So that's what I see Jesus saying to his disciples, I don't think messiah means what you think it means, guys. So... And and this is why. For for the disciples, messiah means victorious, conquering king, line of David, overthrowing the Romans. And then following Jesus, they're thinking, well, who's gonna be the greatest? Who's gonna sit at his right and his left? And they even argue about it in in chapter nine. But what we'll see tonight, what Jesus really meant by Messiah was he would be a suffering servant. A suffering servant like Isaiah prophesied. Remember Isaiah 53? Despised and rejected a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Woah. That's a little different than the messiah they're expecting. And following him... Oh, catch this. That meant dying to themselves, picking up their cross, and following him. Something very, very different than they expected from Jesus. I like the way that this theologian right here said, he goes, Jesus is the expected messiah in the most unexpected manner. Because it's true. That's what tonight's about, but the scripture says it a whole lot better than I can. So can I share the scripture with you? So let's go ahead and read it. I'll share some thoughts along the way. And would you please take note of any thoughts or anything that grabs your attention so we can bounce this around and encourage each other at the end. Alright? So starting in chapter eight verse 27, Jesus and his disciples left Galilee, and they went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. So forgive my my terrible screenshot here, but I I have one for you. Again, I'm a visual person. This... Here's a visual of where Jesus has been ministering. So last week, we read that he restored sight to a blind man in Bethsaida near the Sea Of Galilee. Now he's going north with his disciples up to Caesarea Philippi. Alright? K. Here's a modern day picture of it. And at the time, it was a city where many many, little g gods were worshiped. And this being one of them, that that dude right there, the Greek God Pan. And I could just, I am just imagining the disciples, these good little Jewish boys with Jesus in this place where there's worship of all sorts of gods, and they're used to this right here from Deuteronomy. Fear the Lord your God. Serve him only. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the people around you. That's what these guys grew up hearing. And here, they're in this place where, like, goat man guy, red light district. Like, that... That's kind of what it was. That had to be a pretty eye opening experience. And here's the conversation that they have. So as they're walking along, Jesus asked them, who do people say that I am? So who do people say that I am? Well, they replied, we've heard. Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others say you're one of the prophets. And that's absolutely true from from Mark six. Herod said, well, he must be John the Baptist raised from dead dead, or others said, he's the prophet Elijah. Still others, he's a prophet of the past. So they're just they're just, okay. We've got this information. I'm giving it to you. But look how Jesus turns the conversation now. He goes, but who do you say that I am? How about you guys? You've been with me for a while. You've seen. You've heard. Who do you say? And Peter speaks up, and he goes, you're the Messiah. No doubt about it. The anointed one, the savior, the deliverer, the one the scriptures point to. But Jesus warned them not to tell anybody. Okay? So at this point, we'd go, yeah. They get it. They understand who Jesus is. Yay. But let's keep reading. Let's keep reading. So verse 31. Here here it is. Then Jesus began to tell them, the son of man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, the teachers of the religious law, and he would be killed. But three days later, he would raise from the dead. And so this is where I imagine the disciples going, wait, wait. What? Did you say suffer? Conquering king. Did you say suffer and... Did I hear die? That's what I imagine the disciples kinda going, wait. What? What about the conquering king and overthrowing our oppressors and all these things we've been... You know, we've heard our our whole lives about this coming messiah. That's the messiah they were expecting. And think about this. Up to this point up to this point in Jesus' ministry, they saw a whole lot of Jesus' power. Right? Like, they saw... They've seen Jesus casting out demons and healing the sick and calming the storm and walking on water. But suffering and dying? That didn't exactly fit their description of messiah. So verse 32, as he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside, and he began to reprimand him for saying such things. Oh, no. No. No, Jesus. That's not how this works. That's not... No. No way. You're not gonna suffer. You're not gonna die. That's not how this is gonna go. But look at this in verse 33. Jesus turned around and he looked at his disciples, and he reprimanded Peter. And look, I mean, look at this reprimand right here. Get away from me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. You're seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's. So you just have Peter go from, you're the Messiah, to Jesus going, you're Satan. Woah. Is this crazy? How right Peter is in calling Jesus messiah, but how wrong at the same time. He he didn't truly understand. And then in verse 34, Jesus describes what it really means for those disciples to follow him. Okay. You ready for this? 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. Other translations say, deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. Three demands that Jesus gives those disciples. One, give up your own way. Two, take up your cross. And three, follow him. The way that he chooses for them, not what they choose for themselves. Wow. And and here, verse 35, this goes on to say, here's more about discipleship, really, about following Jesus. What does it look like? Verse 35. If you try to hang on to your life, you'll lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you will save it. This is also known as the paradox principle. Have you heard this? Die to live. Die to live. And I I like the way that this communicates it, that when we die to ourselves and live for others and for the glory of God, that's where we find true life. It's what God did for us in Jesus, and he gives us an example to follow and the motivation to live it. And there's great rationale for it too. Check out 36. What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but you lose your own soul? He's saying, so so what? If you gain absolutely everything this world has to offer but you lose your soul in the process, what good is that? Is there anything worth more than your soul? God's gift of life. Is there anything worth more? And I would ask us, church, is there worth anything worth more than God's gift of life or the soul? Right now, at this moment, I I got to talk with Steve Baldock, and he's talking about a celebrity right now in the Awana, about a celebrity who has gained absolutely everything. He's got rings on every, every hand from Super Bowl victories and things like that. But also how, in some ways, how unhappy that person is. What good is it if we gain absolutely everything the world has to offer, but we don't know Jesus? And then verse 38, there's a warning here. He says, if any of you, disciples, followers, he says, if if any of you is ashamed of me and my message and these adulterous and sinful days, and imagine where they're at. This is why he's saying this because this is a place of of idol worship. They're worshiping everyone but the true living God. Right? The son of man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his father with the holy angels. And the message that I see in that verse is, guys, don't be ashamed of me. Don't be ashamed. Hold fast to Jesus. Hold fast to the good news of the gospel that while we were yet sinners, Christ has come and died for us. Hold fast to God's plan of salvation. Hold on to it with everything you got. Jesus was crucified in weakness but raised by the power of God. Don't be ashamed of it. Don't be ashamed of it. Romans Romans says it like this. I'm not ashamed of this good news. It's the power of God at work saving everybody who believes. And then we'll end in nine one. Jesus goes on to say, I tell you the truth. Some standing here right now will not die before they see the kingdom of God arrive in great power. So we're gonna start with that verse next week because I think what follows after it kind of maybe gives a a better explanation of it. So that will save it for next week. But for tonight for tonight, let's be reminded of this right here. What it really means for Jesus to be the Messiah, that Jesus would be crucified in weakness but raised by the power of God. And following him following him means living this principle right here, die to live. Die to live. When we die to ourselves and live for others and for the glory of God, that's where we find true life. That's where we find true life. And please, let's be encouraged by by this too, from Galatians. When we put our faith and trust in Christ and we say, okay, God, I want to live for you now. That is my desire. I want... I I want to deny just living for me. I've done that long enough. I wanna live for you now. I I want to live for your purposes. Paul reminds us, we've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer it's no longer us who live, but Christ who lives in us. We're a new creation. The old is gone, and the new is come. It's a process, though, isn't it? Right? The dying to self, it is a process. Does it all happen at absolutely one time? No. Do we do we mess up and sometimes go backwards? Yeah. And then we go forward, and then a little bit backwards, and then forward? Yeah. We know the process. We... Someone's been been in it for quite a while. Right? Paul reminds us, been crucified with Christ. No longer I who live. Christ lives in me. That's the key. Christ who lives in me. Christ who lives in us. Now we live in these bodies trusting in Jesus. Now we live in these bodies by faith, trusting in Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us. So those are a few few thoughts from scripture tonight, but I would love to hear yours too so we can encourage each other with this. Maybe a verse or maybe what some of these verses mean to you personally. But before you do, may I pray one more time? God, thank you for putting this in front of us tonight. I believe this is exactly what we need to hear this evening. What it really means for you to be the Messiah, crucified in weakness but raised by the power of God. And, Lord, as we trust you as we trust you, that's our story too. Crucified with you. We no longer live, but you are living in us. And now we live in these bodies trusting in you who loved us and gave yourself for us. Thank you. Thank you. God, in your power, in your strength, would we continue to follow you, not being ashamed of you. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright. Well, would anybody like to share thought, little verse, word of encouragement from these verses in in Mark, 27 through nine one. Have you got one? Mhmm. It's okay. It's just so people can hear it. Okay. So the disciples so the disciples were all Jews, and I wonder... I know that the Jews of today, a lot of them won't study Isaiah 53. So then they learn about what the messiah is really supposed to look like, and I wonder if that was the case for them back then. That is a great question, and I don't know the answer to that. We have a a theologian in the room. That's good. Daniel. So typically, what the... What they did with it then and what they commonly do now is the suffering servant passages don't really make sense. So they don't relate those to messiah. They relate them to the state or the nation. The common common nowadays is the nation of Israel common at that time was the oppressed people of the the Jew... Jewish people. So that's what they took it as. We as a people are being beaten without cause. Right? So that's that's the the typical way of understanding that. And today, it is the nation of Israel for for most Jews. Great question. That is a very good question. Who's next? Yep. I'm not sure if he's gonna answer, a little bit. I I was thinking that in in the old testament, messiah is portrayed as a warrior, someone that is gonna come and conquer the nations, and everybody's gonna rule with Jesus. That's why there there was a lot of battle between the disciples. They were thinking, who's gonna be next to you? Who's gonna... When you're gonna settle your your throne here, who's gonna be next to you? So most of Jewish people, they were waiting for a different messiah, the one that would conquer everything and peace will be around them. But as we just noticed right over there, so different. So different. Another awesome... The the right messiah, but with a different mentality to to win all the nations together by the blood of his own son of God. I think that's awesome. It really is. And it's so counterintuitive, the way that, you know, say we... Yeah. We we wanna see a guy in a big white horse and, you know, lots of armor, and he... He's just slaying all the enemies and things like that. And here, Jesus is a suffering servant, crucified in weakness, but raised in power. The... Amen to that. Pretty amazing. Yes. Yes. That's the story of the Bible. Yes. Any others? Any others? Barb, do you have one? So this isn't about that. But with the dying to self, I think the biggest struggle there is control. Because we all, I think, were raised and society says you have to be in control. You have to control your finances. You have to control your life. You have to control yourself. You have to control... Everything's about control. I want this. This is how I get there. This is how I work for this. And that's hard. I think that's the hardest part is giving up control and just having 100% faith, and letting Christ live through you rather than trying to be in control of that. That makes sense. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Amen. You get a resounding amen right there. These verses help me remember a situation on Christmas Eve and God says for us not to be ashamed of his word. And my brother is was my mom raised as Christian and he's not walking with the Lord. And so his children haven't learned who God is, but Christmas and Easter is the day that that most likely a non Christian is going to come to church. Two carloads go to the church. They're singing. They're they're almost towards the end of the service. They're gonna light candles for a silent night. My brother's six seven, stands up. His son is six three, stands up, and he goes, oh, I forgot to put the roast in. And they scoot out of the aisles and so I have to get out to let them out. I have a choice. I can go with them in their carload or I can sit back down and stay with the other car that came there for the service. And my choice in that thing was to be with them and comply with them. And as we were walking out to the car, my nephew said, I thought you would sit back down. He said, I thought that Jesus... I thought God meant that much to you. Why'd you follow us? And so it... I learned in that situation. I almost felt like Peter, he denied Christ in in in the same situation Jesus is telling us that I want you to see when you walk into these towns, the red light district, they really are watching you. They really do sincerely want you to stand up for your Lord because by doing that, that's teaching them something. My nephew, even that same night, he goes, how come and he leans in and goes, tell me more about this. How come I want to say amen when the rest of my family does it? So you know just for us to remember to not be ashamed of the gospel and to shoulder it like Christ shouldered the cross. Yeah. I feel like what stood out to me too is kind of what you both just said, just the Mark eight thirty four, that verse. And when he called the people unto him, his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And, like, when I read that, I just am reminded that it's not partial. Right? It's not like, hey. You can take up your cross in nine out of 10 areas. In this area, you can do what you want. And I feel like also there's a situation in my life where there's a temptation to kind of lean into what I want. And the people involved, anyways, the situation has kind of progressed, but our last encounter was that, was like, hey, I noticed there's something different about you. Like, you go to church on Sunday morning? Like, is there a lot of people there? And just questions and stuff and and just realizing, you know, leaning into, okay, what does God wanna do in this situation? It's more than what I want or maybe than what's temporary or what's enjoyable in the moment, but, like, God is doing something bigger and so yielding in that tenth area, so to speak. You know? And and... Yeah. So it's it's good and challenging. Right? And I feel like with these challenging verses, they don't make sense. There's a mystery in it until you walk in it, and then you experience that life. And then you're like, right. That is better. You know? So... Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Anybody else? Hey. Outside. You got a thought? Okay. I think that when you walk with Christ and you pick up the cross, it's you know, you definitely shouldn't be ashamed, but it is hard. There are times where it's hard, and we still live in this world. And there are times where, you know, it it does get hard. So I think that walking with Christ, it just goes to show that, like, us as... I feel like we're, you know, we're disciples too. So it's just us walking with him is going to be a challenge, tested, and that's where we kind of, he reveals himself to us in different ways. But, yeah, I think that picking up the cross is, like... It's so simple compared to what it actually means. I think that you... Turning away from your sin, it's like, you know, you're you're walking a certain way with the world. And then once you turn away from your sins, all of a sudden, you're walking the opposite direction from the world. So many people walk with the world. You know? So, yeah, I definitely... I think it's a challenge, but a beautiful one because with it, there's there's so many rewards, so many blessings with that. Yep. Yep. One with a hope and promise too because Christ, it is no longer like Paul said, no longer I live, but Christ in me. That really is the key there. It's Christ in us. And thank you. Thank you for sharing that. So I just wanted to share one thing that is going back to when Jesus responded saying that, tell him to get back Satan and stuff like that. It's just like you know, we're humans and we like to see things our way or they wanna see the Messiah a certain way. And here he is. Here he is himself. And, you know, we're still trying to control what we see of him or how we take his message. And I think the whole thing of, like, you know, sacrificing yourself, crucifying ourselves and letting Jesus live through us is something that you have to consciously be a part or be a part with him all the time. And when you start to forget that or try to take control or your opinion rains out, it's like you have to pull back the reins and go, okay, you know, let Jesus' word be done, you know, word of God. It's just, you have to, I just think always I get impressed by the apostles and how they like, you know, so quickly just like try to control everything even with Jesus. It's a reminder that we're human. Very well said. That's like the whole sermon right there in a minute. Thank you. Thanks for letting me share them. I'm out of towner so I can say whatever I want. Please. Yeah. Come on. You guys can kick me out. I can't come back. You know, some that stuck out to me that I'd never really thought of before was we said, who will lose my, lose their life and and for the sake of the gospel. It just struck me that the gospel, is the answer to what they're looking for in the Messiah. And it was like he was offering to them a life that didn't need a conquering messiah. And I guess when I reflect on what these words mean to me that really hits hits at home. It is... Jesus offers me a life where I no longer need the external answers in order to have a life. And he gives through discipleship, and I love that word of training, is he's trying to train these people to have a capacity for intimacy with God because he's about to make a way for that. Yeah. Yeah. And so we can actually be with him. And then the the the other thing that just I had to mention because I've struggled with shame is that he says the son of man will be ashamed. Well, he said that, obviously, with Peter in mind. And then Peter fails. We all know the story. And then he's literally saying, you're in shame, and we know Peter's in shame, and he's... Jesus assumed him. But we also know the other side of the story. Yeah. We know what it So how is that... So I guess that's what gives me a lot of encouragement in my walk because it's not will I experience shame, but it's also you will see the kingdom of God and and its power. And it's like both and. You know? Yeah. Amen. Yeah. This is why I love the conversation. Yep. Yep. Picking up from Peter, saying, I mean, we know Peter that he failed, but we also know he was restored. But the Peter that was always impetuous in the gospels by the time he gets to writing first Peter and second Peter, he's he's like, I exhort you just as a fellow elder among you. He... He's not he's not vaunting self. He's not trying to be first. And he... His exhortation right there was that you shepherd the flock of God that's among you, you know, for the elders. And then after that, he gets down to... Well, be careful lest you fall, obviously. Be humble. You could be wrong. There's that. But humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that in due time, he will lift you up. Right? It's really, really good and I'm pretty convinced that when when Jesus speaks to Peter and says, Satan's asked to sift you like wheat and he and he let him, right? He let him. He he he needed sifting. That was the whole point. He asked us if... So he sifted him and he says, but I've prayed for you and encourage your brothers, strengthen your brothers when you come back around when you're restored and he did. So that's that's really, really encouraging. Love it. And the process, again, the process, not all at one time. Are a couple failures there too, right? Should we close in one more song? I think Peter touched a chord for all of us tonight, and I really empathize with Peter a lot too. Like, how on fire is Peter for God all the time? And then he, you know, the rooster crows, and three times he denies him. And the verse that stuck out to me tonight is, like, Jesus deals with some some rotten folk and the devil himself. And that was maybe the worst rebuke that I've seen is he called Peter who's often on fire for him. You're Satan. It's like that's that's about as harsh as I've ever seen Jesus. So that just stuck out to me, but just how I think lots of us said it, we're all so human. Even Peter who loves him so much and is so on fire will deny him three times. Yeah. That gospel in 10 words, my favorite description is being deeply flawed or being flawed and deeply conscious of it, but also being deeply forgiven and deeply conscious of that too. So I really like that a lot, but that that was it for me, Peter. And also the back and forth of, like, control going to us controlling to God's provision, I think Peter could relate to all of us in the room probably. Shall we sing? I wanna know you. And I wanna end with this one before we part from Galatians because I think this is key that my old self has been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live. Let's be reminding ourselves of this, of gospeling ourselves and one another with this, but Christ who lives in us. We live in this earthly body by trusting in the son of God who loved us and he gave himself for us. Amen.