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Mar 13, 2016

Seeking, Saving, Losing, Finding

Seeking, Saving, Losing, Finding

Passage: Mark 8:27-38

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: The Story

Category: New Testament

Keywords: finding, jesus' mission, losing your life, lost, seek, jesus' nature

Summary:

This message looks at the central question every person must answer about who Jesus is and what our response to him will be as a result. It looks at Jesus' nature and mission as well as what the results should be in us depending upon the conclusion you reach about that.

Detail:

Seeking, Saving, Losing, Finding

The Story—Jesus’ Ministry

Mark 8:27-38; Luke 19:10; 15

INTO:  When I was a kid…in the days of black and white TV, there was a show called “What’s My Line.”  One way the show was played was to blindfold the panel of celebrities doing the guessing and then bring in someone famous who the audience would know right off.  They had guests like John Wayne, Alfred Hitchcock, Walt Disney and Salvador Dali.  The panel could ask as many questions as they wanted but only 10 questions that resulted in a “no” answer or the guest would win.

            I ran across this short 3 minute clip of someone many of us in this room remember…but not at the age you are about to see him.  In light of recent events and our text today, I thought this might be an interesting way to start this morning.  [Show YouTube clip #1 of Ronald Reagan at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5D6RnMbfHI]

            In the days before TV, the internet, and even print media, it was a lot easier to hide your true identity.  Few people would know someone from sight though more may have heard of their name and reputation. 

            In our 31 week chronological journey through the Bible called The Story, we’re in week #25 today.  We’re spending a few short weeks focusing on some of the more critical elements of the inexhaustible life of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is now in his early 30s.  He’s been performing miracles all over Israel.  He’s shown his power over nature and the laws of nature by turning water into wine, by strolling across the Sea of Galilee on top of the water and by healing incurable diseases.

He’s shown his power over spiritual forces by delivering demon possessed and oppressed people from self-destruction and isolation.  He’s shown his power over humanity by forgiving sins and raising days-dead people.  He’s demonstrated the heart of God for people the prevailing culture despised, marginalized and sometimes sought to destroy—turncoat tax collectors, outcast prostitutes, racial rejects, incurable unclean, religious bigots and destitute drains on society. 

            Yet, like the electorate in today’s American presidential election cycle, people were trying to figure out, just WHO WAS this JESUS anyway?  Is He amazingly humble or surprisingly arrogant?  Is he a really good man or a really bad one?  Is he a true-blood truth-teller or a chameleon shyster?

            For the duration of his 3½ year ministry and right up to the day he died, people were trying to pigeon hole him into some descriptive label that would answer their questions about WHO he really was.  Once they had determined that, they could either ignore him, follow him or seek to destroy him. 

APP:  That’s what we tend to do when we “peg” or “categorize” people, isn’t it? 

  • She’s a primadonna…so I don’t have to love her.
  • He’s a wealthy businessman…so I can stick it to him.
  • They’re a bunch of street kids…so I don’t have to try and get to know them.
  • She’s a liberal/conservative/libertarian politician…so I don’t need to respect them or pray for them.

The fact of the matter is, WHO we believe people are usually determines what kind of relationship/non-relationship we will have with them. 

Thankfully, Jesus never operated that way.  He related to people as individuals, not stereotypes.  He invited everyone to follow him.  He hung out with the rich and poor, the social elites and the social outcasts, the uppity-ups and the downtrodden, the terminally ill and the totally healthy.  And as God-in-human-flesh, he invited us to do the same.

            But in order to be able to have the vision and the nature to love like Jesus, every human being must first decide and determine WHO IS JESUS???  It’s a question he asked his closest disciples at one point in his ministry.  We find that Socratic lesson and method in Mark 8:27ff.

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

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

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

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Notice Jesus’ first question:  “Who do people say I am?”

            All of us, to some degree, make our judgments about others based on what other people around us say about them. 

  • Many of us are trying to determine who the Presidential candidates really are by what we hear reported about them. Have ANY of us had a sit-down coffee or beer with ANY of the candidates 1-on-1?  NO, I didn’t think so.  What others are allowing us to hear about them and say about them is having some impact on our determination of WHO they are.

When it comes to Jesus, we’ve all had the same challenge.  What we know about Him, hear about Him, and even to some degree have experienced about Him has a lot to do with who other people have said He is. Those people may be parents or siblings, professors or authors.  They may be the Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) or they may be atheists like professors Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, politician Carl Marx, or psychologist Sigmund Freud. They may be religious hypocrites like child-molesting clergy or spiritual giants like Mother Teresa or C.S. Lewis.  If we’re honest with ourselves, we must all admit that, to some degree, we’ve been influenced by what other people have told us about Jesus.

APP:  But what is important is to be honest about WHO it is that has influenced our opinion of Jesus, WHAT that influence has been and WHY it either carries so much or so little weight with you. 

            When the disciples were asked that question by Jesus himself, the answers they gave were the more common ones of their culture and day.

  • “Some say John the Baptist….” This was Herod Antipas’ opinion (the one who beheaded John the Baptist) as well as the opinion of some of the people (see Mark 6:14,16; Lk. 9:19)
  • “Others say Elijah….” This would imply that Jesus was the predicted forerunner of the Messiah according to Malachi 4:5.
  • “Still others [say] one of the prophets.” Matthew in his Gospel (Mt. 16:14) cites specifically the weeping prophet Jeremiah. 

ANY and ALL of these opinions were honorary in nature.  In other words, the general, overwhelmingly majority opinion of the people was that Jesus was definitely from God and/or closely connected to God.  Interestingly, ALL of their comments required that God was the god of the resurrection—raising His most notable prophets from the dead, from the past. 

APP:  That is one great difference between our culture and theirs. If we asked 100 people on the street today, “WHO do your friends and family say Jesus is?” I doubt any of them would suggest the people the disciples mentioned—ancient dead-and-gone Jewish prophets. 

But what are the answer you might get today about Jesus if you asked people on the street, “Who do you think Jesus was?”

Somebody did that in New York City and put together this montage of responses.  Please bear with the Simpson’s shorts scattered in.  They must have been visiting NY when the interviews were made.  J

YouTube Video #2-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=johNLhZ5y48

That’s all very interesting, but the real question is what Jesus asks His own disciples…and us.  Jesus’ question is in the plural—“But what about you (pl., ‘all of you’)?” he asked.  “Who do you (all) say I am?” 

Their answer to this question is just as important as what YOUR answer is today.  Before we see what they said, I’d like you to put pen to paper and write down your personal answer to that same question. Remember, the reason your answer matters is because WHO you really believe Jesus is will determine what YOU do with the rest of your day…week… year …life…and eternity actually.  [30 seconds silence]

WHO Jesus knew himself to be… and actually WAS…determined what HE did with his life too. Peter’s response that Mark records says (at least in the NIV), “You are the Messiah.” “Messiah” is a transliteration of the Hebrew which means “the Anointed One.”   Literally, the word “Christ” (Gk: Cristos) is used. (The parallel of Matt. 16:16 has the full title, “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”)

            Jesus was reluctant to publicize this title because of all the false political, militaristic and nationalistic baggage that came with it in many people’s minds of his day. 

In fact, this very passage goes on to show how even Peter, one of the leading disciples, misunderstood WHAT the Messiah would have to do. Beginning in vs. 31 the text tells us in Mark 8—

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

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

            It is possible to use the right WORDS to describe Jesus but not really have those words biblically informed from what the Bible says the Messiah will do.  If Peter had known his Old Testament like Jesus did, he would have known that Isaiah 53 predicted that God’s redeeming Servant would also be the suffering Servant—whipped, flogged, nailed, parched, beaten beard-plucked, Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Peter had room in his head for a triumphant, conquering, liberating political national leader who would sweep him to power with him and put him in some cabinet position.  But he didn’t understand “the concerns of God”—the millions of lost sinners in the world whose only hope is a sinless Savior who makes peace with Almighty God. 

But in this private setting of Mark 8, Jesus agrees with Peter’s statement that He is the Christ, the Messiah.  He simply warns the disciples not to tell everyone else about it. 

I think there could be several reasons for this.  First, with more knowledge comes more responsibility.  People needed to respond to Jesus, not other people’s comments or beliefs about Him.  Jesus wanted people of His generation to come to their own conclusions in their own time.  Secondly, as more and more people came to their own conclusions, it either brought them closer to Jesus in humble submission (the Samaritans in John 4, the disciples, the sick, etc.) or propelled them farther away in arrogant rejection, ridicule and indifference (the religious leaders, Roman leaders, etc.).  Jesus knew that rejection would lead to His death and it wasn’t yet time for that in God’s order of world events.

            Jesus knew that the more people had to confront the reality of WHO he was, the more life for him and his disciples would change.  He knew that eventually, the suspicion, jealousy and hatred people held in their hearts toward God himself would be directed at Him as God-incarnate.  His “time” was not yet up.  He had more to teach and model and do before the cross. 

But when that time come, Jesus neither dodged nor denied before his accusers just who He claimed to be: the only Messiah, Anointed One, Christ, Son of the Living God.

APP:  You see, what you actually believe about Jesus is a reflection of what you actually believe about God.  Because if you look honestly, thoroughly and seriously at Jesus Christ in the Gospels, you will be confronting the Living God in human flesh.  And either you will be drawn to Him and his loving life OR you will continue on your own, keeping Him at a distance, doing your own things, excusing His claims and un-phased by His call to you. That has been the response of humans throughout history to Jesus…one or the other.

            C.S. Lewis in his Christian classic, Mere Christianity, “book 2”, chapter 3, unmasks one of the favorite excuses of our culture for simply ignoring Jesus.  This is what he writes in the chapter entitled The Shocking Alternative:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus]: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who ways he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:  or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.”  [pp. 55-56, Mere Christianity, 1965.]

Liar…lunatic…or Lord; those are the only 3 intellectually honest conclusions about Jesus Christ given all the data we have in the Gospels and other historical sources.

Who do YOU say Jesus is?

            Well, we can know someone’s TITLE and still not be clear about their MISSION…just as Peter was. 

            If you go to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verse 10, Jesus’ mission becomes abundantly clear.  “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  Jesus was at a dinner hosted by Zacchaeus the Tax Collector and a bunch of his friends.  Zacchaeus was in the midst of that total transformation that comes when someone really accepts Jesus as the Christ, Messiah, Lord and God.  He knew that ALL he had and was no longer belonged to him.

            So he repented of his sin.  And one of those sins as a tax collector was the same sin tax-collecting governments and abusive taxing powers have used for centuries:  taking more than is fair and right, taking advantage of the power to enrich your own purse.  So Zacchaeus, convinced in spirit, responds, not with tears and a long face, but with joy and a generous heart.  (Honestly, that is probably what more “repentance” should look like in the Western church today with all the wealth we have.)  His response gives half of what he owns to the poor and pays back anyone he has cheated four times the amount he cheated them.  I’ll bet there was a run on the Zacchaeus Community Bank that day! 

            Jesus got all kinds of criticism from a host of quarters for just hanging out with “sinners” like Zacchaeus.  That’s when he tells them straight up the REASON why he came, his MISSION: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”   Jesus knew that such “seeking” and “saving” would be a life-consuming experience.  It would mean him giving his nights and days to seeking out everyone from the well-educated, highly respected Pharisee Nicodemus to the blind, the beggars and the “big” sinners like the woman at the well, like Zacchaeus and like the under-classed group called his disciples. 

            We don’t have time this morning, but sometime today or this week, read Luke 15.  It’s a chapter that has 3 parables about lostness in it.  In all 3 Jesus is talking about us. 

He starts with a parable of the lost sheep.  It’s a 1% parable.  What I mean is, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, tells us that he’s ready to leave the 99 “good” sheep who stay in the fold and don’t wander to go out and find the one-percenter…that 1 person out of 100 who has wandered off and needs rescuing.  But He doesn’t stop there.  When he gets home with that one naughty little lamb, he calls his friends and neighbors together (for a party…or a toast…or tea and crumpets) to CELEBRATE with Him.  Seeking and saving is all about the joy when the lost is found.

            The next parable is the 10% parable, the parable of the lost coin.  In that one, some woman loses 1 or her 10 coins, worth about a full day’s wage.  In other words, she’s probably lost about $100 in today’s terms…but in 1 coin.  So she does spring cleaning around the house and eventually finds it.  But it doesn’t stop there.  When she finds it, she throws a party too and tells everyone who is near enough to hear her good news.

            The last parable is the 50% parable, the parable of the Lost (or Prodigal) Son.  You know that one best…because we’re all in that parable.  You’re either the prodigal son who treats his father with unbelievable disrespect, squanders the blessings of the father and then comes to his senses and humbly returns home just asking to become one of the lowly servants OR…you’re the older son who gets really upset at the Father’s mercy, kindness and exuberant joy towards the prodigal son’s return when his father throws a lavish party, heaping undeserved blessings on the broken, formerly-rebellious son. 

            1%...10%...50%...Jesus is clearly telling us that His life and thus His heart is all about SEEKING and SAVING people who are lost.  And the only way He could do that was to lay down his life at the cross and make peace with God’s just judgment and wrath against our sin, something we could never accomplish in a million years of trying our best.  I can tell you, regardless of where you are with God today, that you are here because God is after you.  God is seeking you.  God knows you’re lost even if you don’t.  And the whole reason Jesus lived a sinless life and died a gruesome death and rose from the dead 3 days later is because God is all about seeking and saving YOU!

CALL:  So, who do you say Jesus is?  A liar?  A lunatic?  Or the Lord God he claimed to be and wants to be in your life? [Call to faith in Jesus.]

Now, go back to Mark 8:34 for how Jesus applies his seeking-and-saving heart to any of us who want to be his follower, his disciple. What does Jesus say should be happening to us and in us every day IF we have concluded with Peter and the disciples that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Only Son of the Living God, our Lord and Savior? 

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. 

            While salvation in Jesus is absolutely free and apart from human works, discipleship in Christ is absolutely costly and involves continual self-denial.  Jesus is using a shocking metaphorical picture here. 

ILL:  It’s akin to telling someone today, “If you are going to be a follower of Jesus, you will have to take up your gas can and lighter and follow Jesus into a painful death to your own personal comfort and desires through self-immolation/burning.”  That’s a shocking image, isn’t it.  We should be thinking to ourselves, “Why would anyone choose to suffer such a painful death?  And why would Jesus ask me to follow him into cross-bearing and suffering and death?” 

            So Jesus gives us the reason why we should make this kind of discipleship choice in verses 35-37.  

35) For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36) What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37) Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 

            Jesus is telling us, those who have truly believed that He is the Christ, God incarnate, the Messiah will only find our life in letting go of it ‘for [Him] and for the gospel.”  Following Jesus means…following Jesus.  It includes the ministry of loving unlovely people, of healing the “leapers” of our day, of teaching truth in a world of lies AND of following Jesus to the cross where our life is laid down…sometimes very painfully but always very powerfully…so that lost people can become “found”.

            It’s not about “going to some church building” one day a week. 

It’s not about reading the Bible a certain amount of time every day. 

It’s not about putting the fish symbol on your car or business card or bank checks.

It’s about laying down ourselves so that we can take up the life of Jesus. From His first act of kindness towards a couple at a wedding who ran out of wine to his last act of love at the cross for us who had run out of redemption, Jesus was all about laying down his life for others.

It is in those daily exchanges when we let go of self-desires in order to embrace Christ’s desires that we really “save” our lives.  My selfishly focused preferences to protect and save myself for myself must be exchange for Christ’s life of sacrificial giving of myself… and the “Good Message.” 

Notice the important balance here of losing one’s life “for Jesus” and “for the gospel” (lit. “the good message”).  Good words about Jesus need to accompany good actions done in Jesus. 

APP:  Too often the church has erred on one end or the other of this.  Jesus calls for BOTH self-sacrificing living in Jesus and Christ-clarifying speaking about Jesus.  But churches (and we, the people that make them up) tend to either do a bunch of self-sacrificing good works for others without getting around to talking about the need people have to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ OR we just talk about the Gospel but don’t DO what will help others see Jesus in action. 

APP: 

  • Which danger/extreme/omission is most prevalent in your life?
  • What is God asking you to DO to remedy that?

Illumination without application >> abortion/death.

Illumination with resulting life change >> life eternal to the full!

Jesus concludes his call to discipleship with these strong but revealing words about himself.

Mark 8:38—If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

This is really another verse that underlines Jesus’ divinity.  First, God the Father doesn’t share his glory with anyone. (Is. 42:8—I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another….”] But here Jesus says he will someday come “in his Father’s glory” and “with the holy angels.” So Jesus is claiming that God the Father’s glory will, in fact, be shared with him. This statement was as scandalous to a Jew’s ears as His claim to be the Messiah was to the Pharisees and teachers of the law. 

Secondly, Jesus is claiming that he will return.  There will be a “Second Coming” of Christ.  The New Testament is full of prophecies of that coming (cf. Matt. 10:23; 16:27-28; 24:3,27,30,37; 26:64; Mark 8:38-39; 13:26; Luke 21:27; John 21:22; Acts 1:11; 1 Cor. 1:7; 15:23; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:16; 2 Thess. 1:7,10; 2:1,8; James 5:;7-8; 2 Pet. 1:16; 3:4,12; 1 John 2:28; Rev. 1:7).  In the Second Coming of Christ, he will reign and rule.  He will be over all human governments and he will crush injustice and wickedness. 

            Thirdly, Jesus uses his favorite term for himself here, “Son of Man”, a term that is used in the O.T. in Ez. 2:1, Ps. 8:4 and specifically in Dan. 7:13 where the Messiah is implied. Listen to it.

 13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

So in this passage Jesus is alluding yet again to his divinity joined with his humanity in what we all the incarnation. 

Have you really decided on your own WHO JESUS IS?  If you have concluded with Peter and the other disciples that He is your Savior and Messiah, God in human flesh, then what is your next step in following Him in His MISSION? 

  • What do you need to let go of in your old life?
  • What is God inviting you to DO and SAY right now in life in order to proclaim Jesus and “the good message” of forever salvation in Him?

Let God speak to you as you watch this concluding clip, “WHO IS JESUS?” 

[3rd Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bZFoD0cG88, up to 2:45]