Mark-Follow-Servant • Part 9 • Sermon Transcript

Who Do You Say That I Am? / Mark 8:1-33

🎙️ Jerrod Rumley📅 June 14, 2015📖 Mark 8:1-33

🎙️Listen or watch the original teaching:

Well, hello, church. If you have your Bibles, open them to Mark chapter eight. If you don’t have a Bible, do us a favor after the service and let us know. We would really like to get you one. It is our desire that every week when we gather, we hear the opening of God’s Word and the pages being ruffled to get where we’re going. I know with technology now, you can bring it up on your phone, your iPad, or whatever, and that’s fine. But we want you to have a Bible. I prefer having something in your lap, something to write with, something where you can take notes or highlight. Get you a good one—get a nice dead animal on the cover that’s going to make you feel like it’s something special. We want to help you because every single week we are going to look to this book.

Following the Servant

We are in a series called Follow the Servant. The whole idea is this: there are common thoughts about who God is, thoughts about Jesus, thoughts about religion, and ways of life that all head in a certain worldly direction. But there is one person, Jesus, who has a view entirely different from all of those. He walks in the opposite direction and calls us to follow Him so that we look different than the world around us. It should be no surprise that when we leave this building and live as the church, we look different than other people. In fact, that is what it means to be holy, or set apart.

I know we are flying at a high level here in Mark. Some of you have expressed concern, asking, “Hey, are you skipping verses?” Let me let you in on a little confession from the teaching team: we know we are. We have sixteen weeks to teach through Mark, so we are flying at 30,000 feet so you can feel that overarching theme of Follow the Servant all the way through. There are things we’re going to miss, but hopefully we can come back and preach them again later. It doesn’t mean we believe those parts of the Bible are less true or in error. God’s Word is entirely without error and good for all of us for all time.

Here in chapter eight, we skip the first twenty-one verses. That section contains the feeding of the four thousand—another miraculous feeding with seven baskets left over for the disciples so they can learn to trust Jesus as their provision, their Bread of Life, the One who can do very much with very little. Right after that, the Pharisees demand a sign, and Jesus warns the disciples about the “leaven” of the Pharisees. He warns them that thinking your works, your efforts, and your religious checkboxes will earn favor with God is poison. Just as leaven permeates a whole lump of dough and causes it to rise, legalism corrupts everything.

When we reach verse 22, we see a picture of where the disciples are in their understanding of Jesus. At this point in the Gospel, all they know is what has happened up to chapter eight. Their belief is progressing, but they still don’t fully get it. For weeks, Jesus has been asking them, “How many loaves and fish do I have to multiply for you to see? How many sick people do I have to heal? How many miracles do I have to perform for you to see clearly who I am?”

Now we see a real-life miracle that symbolically illustrates where these disciples are spiritually.

Mark 8:22 (NASB)

And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him.

“Blind man” means he cannot see. People bring this blind man to Jesus. The Lord’s ministry is at an all-time high; the public squares are packed, and people are lining the streets hoping to touch Him or be healed. Here, good friends bring a blind man to Jesus.

Mark 8:23 (NASB)

Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’

Jesus takes the blind man by the hand and leads him out of the village. Now, as a pastoral note: what Jesus does next is not a recommended evangelism strategy for when school starts in the fall! Jesus spits on his eyes, lays His hands on him, and asks, “Do you see anything?” In that culture, spitting was just as offensive as it is today. Why did He do it? We don’t fully know. But He spits on his eyes, touches him, and asks if he sees anything.

Mark 8:24 (NASB)

And he looked up and said, ‘I see men, for I see [them] like trees, walking around.’

For those of you who are artistic, verse 24 is something you could meditate on and create a piece of art around. The man looks up and says, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.” He can only kind of see. It is blurry. Remember, this is a living picture of the disciples. They are only kind of seeing who Jesus is. Imagine the excitement for this man to see anything at all, even if it was blurry!

Mark 8:25 (NASB)

Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and [began] to see everything clearly.

One of the great traits of Jesus Christ is that He touched the untouchable, He loved the unlovable, and He drew near to those whom society cast out. If we are to become like Him, our ministry must also be to touch the untouchable, love the unlovable, and reach out to the rejected. Jesus lays His hands on the man’s eyes again, his sight is restored, and he sees everything clearly.

Mark 8:26 (NASB)

And He sent him to his home, saying, ‘Do not even enter the village.’

Jesus sends him straight home, telling him not to even enter the village. Why? Because his family is at home! Wouldn’t you run straight to your family if you received your sight for the first time? Imagine dinner that night. Mama cooks a meal, the kids are around the table, and the former blind man is just staring at his wife. She asks, “What are you looking at?” and he says, “You are so beautiful!”

That healing is a picture of the disciples. Up to this point, they have been looking through thick Coke-bottle glasses where everything is distorted and blurry. But Jesus is about to bring everything into sharp focus. What happens next marks a watershed moment in the Gospel of Mark. Everything shifts from this point forward.

The Road to Caesarea Philippi

Mark 8:27 (NASB)

Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, ‘Who do people say that I am?’

Jesus and His disciples travel twenty-five miles north of Galilee to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. That setting is critically important. Most of Israel consists of rocky hills, the Jordan River, and the Sea of Galilee. But twenty-five miles north, at the base of Mount Hermon, the landscape changes. It is lush with vegetation, running streams, and waterfalls forming the headwaters of the Jordan River.

Yet Caesarea Philippi was the most pagan, vile, and morally corrupt city in the region. It was like Las Vegas multiplied by ten. It was a center of horrific, perverse sexual worship dedicated to the god Pan—a half-man, half-goat deity associated with fertility. At the base of a massive rock cliff in Caesarea Philippi was a cave with a bubbling spring, which the pagans called the “Gates of Hades.” They believed Pan emerged from the underworld through this cave, and they engaged in grotesque rituals to summon him to bless their crops. The word pandemonium comes directly from the chaotic depravity associated with Pan worship in that city.

Jesus intentionally walks His disciples twenty-five miles into the heart of this dark, pagan stronghold to ask two life-changing questions.

Mark 8:27-28 (NASB)

Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ They told Him, saying, ‘John the Baptist; and others [say] Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.’

He starts by asking, “When people speak of Me, what are they saying?” If we went out into the community today and asked people who Jesus is, we would get a wide variety of answers. Ever since the beginning, humanity has tried to remake God in its own image.

The disciples give the three popular opinions of the day: John the Baptist (a prophet of repentance), Elijah (known for God’s power and a deep prayer life), or one of the Old Testament prophets who spoke God’s truth and was rejected by the culture.

Peter’s Confession

Then Jesus turns the question directly on them.

Mark 8:29 (NASB)

And He [continued] by questioning them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered and said to Him, ‘You are the Christ.’

In the original Greek, that “you” is intensely emphatic: “But who do YOU say that I am?” That is where it becomes deeply personal. It is easy to discuss what the culture thinks, but it is an entirely different matter to answer for yourself.

Peter speaks up: “You are the Christ.” Good old Peter—the first to speak and often the last to think! I identify with Peter. I’m often the guy who puts the cart before the horse, squeezing the toothpaste out of the tube before realizing I can’t put it back in.

To understand the full depth of this moment, we look to the parallel account in Matthew chapter sixteen. Matthew gives us additional detail and color.

Matthew 16:15-16 (NASB)

He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

Peter’s confession is crystal clear: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Christ is the Greek term for the Hebrew Messiah—the Anointed Deliverer. Calling Him the Son of the living God affirms His divine lineage and deity.

Matthew 16:17 (NASB)

And Jesus said to him, ’Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal [this] to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

Jesus tells Simon that no human source, no blog post, no popular book, and no radio song revealed this truth to him. The Father in heaven revealed it. Peter knew the Old Testament scriptures from childhood, and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the blurred vision cleared, and he saw Jesus for who He truly is.

The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail

Jesus then makes a profound declaration against the backdrop of Caesarea Philippi.

Matthew 16:18 (NASB)

’I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Jesus uses a play on words: “You are Peter (Petros, a small rock), and on this rock (petra, a massive bedrock—the confession that Jesus is the Christ), I will build My church.”

Notice whose church it is: it is His church. It does not belong to any pastor or leader; Jesus is the Senior Pastor and Chief Shepherd of the church. And standing right in front of the literal pagan shrine known as the “Gates of Hades,” Jesus declares that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church.

Gates are defensive structures, not offensive weapons. This means the church is on the offensive, advancing into the darkest, most broken places in the world, and even the forces of hell cannot stop the advancement of the kingdom of God.

Matthew 16:19 (NASB)

‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.’

Jesus gives the authority of the kingdom to His followers to proclaim truth, to declare what aligns with God’s kingdom and what does not. Standing in Caesarea Philippi today, you see only ruins where that pagan empire once stood, yet the church of Jesus Christ continues to advance across the globe.

The Rebuker Rebuked

Returning to Mark chapter eight, we see how quickly spiritual highs can turn into stumbling blocks.

Mark 8:31-32 (NASB)

And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.

Jesus begins to explain plainly that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, die, and rise again after three days. We have the benefit of knowing how the story ends, but for the disciples, the idea of a suffering and dying Messiah shattered their expectations.

Peter pulls Jesus aside and begins to rebuke Him! Here is some pastoral advice: never take Jesus aside to rebuke Him. It will not go well for you. Yet how often do we do something similar? In one moment we are submitted to God, and in the next step, we are acting entirely in the flesh.

Mark 8:33 (NASB)

But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’

Jesus turns, looks at the disciples so they can all hear, and rebukes Peter: “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Peter goes from being commended by Jesus to being called satanic. Why? Because Satan’s fundamental desire was to elevate his own will above God’s will. Whenever we try to reshape Jesus into what we want Him to be, or whenever we put human comfort and worldly agendas above God’s redemptive plan, we are thinking like the enemy. Jesus tells Peter: “Get behind Me. You are a follower, not the leader. Follow the Servant.”

The Question That Haunts Us

It is not enough to simply know the correct theological answers on a multiple-choice test. Following Jesus demands that we surrender our own agendas and take up our cross.

The question Jesus asked His disciples is the single most important question you will ever face: Who do you say that I am?

Are you trying to make Jesus into someone who fits your preferences and solves your immediate problems on your own terms? Or do you see Him as the sovereign Lord, the Messiah, the Son of the living God?

My prayer for myself over these past few weeks has been, “God, help me hear that question in the moments I need it most.” And honestly, it has haunted me. I hope that question haunts you this week:

When you are tempted in your relationships or compromising your purity, may the Spirit whisper: Who do you say that I am?
When you are tempted to cut corners at work or make a shady business deal for financial gain, may you hear: Who do you say that I am?
When you are scrolling through your phone late at night and facing temptation, may the Word stir in your heart: Who do you say that I am?

Let us pray.

Father, thank You for Your Word that speaks with such clarity. We confess that like Peter, we so often try to remake You into our own image. Help us to die to ourselves, to surrender our lives, and to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will stir in our hearts this week and give us the courage to declare with our lives that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Coming to the Table

Jesus taught His disciples that His mission required suffering and death. On the night before He went to the cross, He shared the Passover meal with His disciples. During that meal, He took the bread, broke it, and said, “This is My body broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Then He took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

For two thousand years, the church has gathered around this table to remember His sacrifice. As we prepare to receive communion, we invite all believers to participate. If you have not yet placed your faith in Christ, we encourage you to simply observe, watch the church worship, and consider the claims of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul instructs us to examine our hearts before coming to the table. If there is unconfessed sin in your life, bring it to the Lord. If you need to make peace with someone, do so. Take the time you need during this response time, and when you are ready, come forward to the tables, take the elements, and remember what Christ has done for you.