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The Book of Mark, Part 2: Servant

Sermon #7: Follow Me --- Mark 8:27– 9:4

Dr. Matt Cassidy --- October 16, 2016

Good morning! Thanks for the week off. I got to see my daughter up in New York City.

Good times!

We’re going to be back in the book of Mark. Let me start off by telling you that a long

time ago, twenty-five or twenty-six years ago, I had been married seven years. I’ve got to tell

you that the first five were pretty hard; the last two of those seven years, things were working

pretty good for us and then Melinda started saying, “I feel like we’ve kind of plateaued, we’ve

planed out, I want to go deeper with you.” And I kept saying, “Oh, well, there’s a problem with

that, because I’m a shallow person, and so this is it. Seven years --- you’ve got everything you’re

going to get.” And it was very frustrating for her, far more than it was for me. For me it was

threatening.

And it just so happened that we had brought in one of my old faculty professors from

seminary to do these marriage workshops which teach you how to talk to each other, which was

very helpful for so many other people. And we had him over for dinner, which I think was the

point of the whole seminar in the first place, and he helped us work through some of the

problems. And he said to me, “It seems like you’re afraid.” I said, “Yeah, I’m living a Tell-Tale

Heart experience with her because before I was a follower of Christ, I did a lot of terrible things

that I have tremendous regret for. And also, there’s a lot of shame that’s overreaching in all of

that. And guilt and shame --- it seems like they’re twins --- they’re always accompanying each

other in all of my emotions towards her, and so whenever she says, ‘I want to go deeper, I want

to know more about you,’ all I’m hearing is that she wants to hear all these gross things of

shame. Run! Just run! There’s still time!”

And so he said, “Okay, listen. Intimacy requires just two simple things. One is

experiences together and two is real, deep, gut-wrenching, scary honesty. That’s how

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relationships go deep. That’s how they work. Life together --- experiences together, and then this

real deep, gut-wrenching, crazy scary honesty. And so you need to make a decision right now

whether your marriage is going to die or live. Because if you think you can just leave it here in a

holding pattern for whatever, then that’s death – or you’re going to have to make a big choice

and tell her something. So let me ask you this: seven years you’ve been married --- has Melinda

shown herself to be a trusting person?” I said, “Oh, yes, absolutely, she is.” “Well, is Melinda a

forgiving person?” “Oh, almost to a fault, really, honestly, she’s that way.” And he said, “Well,

gotta go. Now it’s back to you.”

And so that night I learned a very powerful lesson. I didn’t know up until that night that

shame only has power over you when it’s kept secret. Shame can’t do anything to you once it’s

brought out into the light. And so I told Melinda some of my stuff and she said, “Okay. Now can

we move to deeper and closer?” I said, “Okay, that’s it?” “Yeah. Can we move forward?” I said,

“We absolutely can. You bet. We are.”

And that’s how relationships grow deep. You know each other more and then you trust

each other more and then you love each other more and then you’re experiencing deeper things

together. Now listen, the reason I’m telling you that is because we come here and do church not

because it’s a religion, but because we have a relationship with God. It’s a relationship. And a

relationship looks like this. You know these people more and then you trust them more and then

you love them more and then you get deeper experiences together and more intimacy with each

other. And that’s why Jesus, in the gospels, in the gospel of Mark, the biography Mark --- Jesus’

invitation to the disciples but also to you and me --- the ultimate invitation --- is Will you follow

me? That’s what He asks. He doesn’t say look, “Here’s my résumé, my pedigree, everything you

need to know about me, boom, right on the front end.” No, he says, “Come and see. Follow me

and here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to learn and have experiences together. Then

you’re going to learn to know me, and then you’re going to learn to trust me, and then you’re

going to learn to love me. And then I’m going to give you more experiences.” It’s a relationship.

And there’s two simple ingredients for a relationship: common experiences and gut-

wrenching, fear-inspiring, real deep honesty. That’s what He requires from us and that’s why

when we say we are in a relationship with God, that’s not a cliché. You hear that in churches. It’s

not a cliché. You can draw Him into your life and you can push Him away. You can draw Him

into your life and you can start every day with His Spirit, which dwells within us, and you can

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say, “Lord, I want you to be here today. I want to feel your presence. Your presence is here. I

want to feel that presence today. You can wake up tomorrow morning and before your feet hit

the ground, you can say, “Lord, I want you to be part of this.” Bring Him to work: say, “Lord, at

work I need help and I want your insight on how to resolve some issues at work or solve

problems or resolve conflict, whatever it might be. I want your help so that I stare into people’s

souls and not use them.” Or you can just say, “I’m going to be on the Internet for about thirty

minutes and I’m going to see things I shouldn’t see, I’m going to keep on going around until I

find myself, discontent and wanting something that doesn’t belong to me, looking for something

that’s not supposed to be seen by me. So you just run along.” That’s why we can say that our

spiritual life ebbs and flows. Those are real words. People try to put emotions to their

relationship to God and that’s a good phrase because it’s a relationship. You can draw Him in, or

you can push Him out.

Now in our story in Mark, we’re into their “follow me” part. He asks them to “follow

me.” And we’re into that now after seven and a half chapters, maybe as much as three years. And

this is where we end up. It’s a place called Caesarea Philippi. And it’s this giant gargantuan cave

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--- you can see that. And where this cave is, it used to have vast amounts of water just rushing

out of it during flood season and it was vomiting out of that, and it was powerful. And in the

Middle East in the desert, water is life, and in a cultic culture, you worship where the life comes

from. And so in the older Testament this would be a shrine to Baal and in Greek times it was a

shrine to Pan. There is where they thought Pan was birthed, here in this cave. Pan was a god that

was half-man, half-goat. He was disgusting looking and he was the god of chaos and disorder.

You would offer sacrifices there for your own protection from chaos and disorder, and you

would cast spells on people hoping that they would experience panic --- that’s where you get the

word, from Pan, pandemonium --- that’s him. And you can still see the crevices and indentations

where these idols were in the time of Jesus. That’s what was happening --- they were offering

sacrifices to him. Now there have been a couple of earthquakes since that period of time and now

there’s just a steady stream that comes out, but if you can imagine, they were unable to see how

deep this cave went and they called it the realm of the dead. When they offered sacrifices they

would offer them to the entrance to the Underworld. Could I present to you the gates of Hades?

That’s where Jesus is standing. It’s a creepy experience when you’re there, especially

back in those days. It was cultic in nature. And Jesus has now had experiences with the twelve

followers. They have fed thousands of men and women with just a few loaves and fishes. They

have seen Him walk on water. They have seen Him calm the sea. They’ve seen Him heal people.

They’ve had conversations about life, about God, about the Kingdom, about love, about

community. And then, right here, He says to them, “Who do you say that I am?”

And Peter says, “You’re the Christ.” And Jesus says this to Peter: “Jesus replied,

‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for you did not receive this by flesh and blood, but by my

Father in heaven. And I tell you this, Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates

of Hades will not overcome it.’”

Matthew 16:17-18 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. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

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What did Peter say? He said, “You are the Christ.” You are the anointed, you are the

Messiah. These are all synonyms. You are the great, chosen, promised king. You are the one that

I have longed for my entire life. My soul is looking for you. All souls have longed for you. You

are the fulfillment of our eternal dreams. You are the one that takes us back to Eden. You are the

king. You are the king of all things all the time. And Jesus says, “You are right. I am a king.”

Jesus is that king. And because of their time together and because of their trust together and

because of their love together, Jesus says, “You know what? We’ve had these experiences that

led to knowledge, that led to trust, that led to love … I’m going to give you another experience.

I’m going to go deeper in our relationship. I’m going to tell you things that I can’t tell other

people. I’m going to tell you why I tell everyone else after healing them, ‘Don’t tell anyone.’ I’m

going to tell you why I say that.”

Next verse: “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things

and that he would be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and

that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke this plainly” --- that means

clearly – “about these things.” Jesus says, “Oh, I’m a king. I’m a servant.” Jesus says, “I am a

servant as well.” Look at these sentences again. Look at the emphasis on the word must. “He

began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders of

the law, and that he must be killed and after three days raised again. He spoke this clearly. He

spoke it plainly.”

Now He’s using must two times. But the two times do not attach just to those two things.

It’s not that He must suffer and that He must die. Because of the way that it’s a parallel track,

those musts are modifying and controlling the whole list. In other words, Jesus is saying, “I must

suffer many things. I must be rejected by the leadership. I must die. And I must be raised again.

Mark 8:31-32 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 (clearly) about this …

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I’m going to be clear and plain about this.” They know what He’s saying --- it’s must. And why?

Why is He not saying I will? Why says I must.

And there’s four reasons He must do these things. And the first one is obedience. He

must die. He must suffer because that’s the will of the Father and He obeys the Father. If you

remember it says in Philippians that Jesus, though in the very form of God, did not use that

divinity as something to be grasped. He let that go --- for what purpose? So that He would

humble Himself to the point of being a man and die, even death on a cross. And that was His

assignment and so He is serving as a king. He’s a serving king and He’s serving the Father,

because that was His assignment from the Father.

The second reason He must do this is because God is just and justice will prevail.

That is the nature of God to do this. And so everyone will have a trial and no one is above the

law and there is no prejudice in the court. But know this. We have all sinned and there is none

righteous. Not even one. And the cost, the wage of sin is death. There’s a cost for forgiveness. I

know it’s pretty easy to roll out --- just forgive. That’s not how the economy works. Even on a

horizontal between you and me, forgiveness costs something. If you total my car, then something

is lost. Something costs. And so you can either restore that and pay for the car to be fixed or get

me a new one, or I can forgive you and then I absorb the cost. Now I’m paying for the car or

going without a car. But that’s just algebra. There’s a cost for justice. And at this expression here

the human race has to deal with this collectively and individually. Who’s going to pay for

justice? And Jesus comes as a serving king and serves humanity and says, “I will do that. I can

do that as an individual and I can do that as a divine human and pay for many people’s sins.” He

must do this for us to have forgiveness because forgiveness costs something. It costs life. It costs

death.

So He has to do this, He must do this for the extinguishing of shame. For shame to be

extinguished, Jesus must suffer many things. There are a lot of ways to kill a man and then

there’s a way to humiliate him to death. And so He will be beaten without clothes and He will be

paraded through town while He carries His own cross and hangs upon that on a high hill for

humiliation’s sake, for shame’s sake --- so that we can receive His honor, He must suffer many

things and die.

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He must do this to show the power of His resurrection over death and that’s why

He’s standing right here at the gates of Hades and He says, “You know what? People come here

and they fear death, they have feared death for too long. Death has reigned for this far, but no

further.” And Jesus says, “Oh, I must die and I must be raised again. Because I’m going down

into the bowels of Hell and I will wreck that place and I will come back to prove that I’ve been

there and won.” The sacrifice of death and the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ --- that’s why He

must do that. He must suffer many things, He must be rejected by the people in charge of the

law, He must die and He must be raised again. Jesus says that plainly, clearly.

And Peter, in his kindness, he doesn’t want to embarrass Jesus and so it says in the next

sentence that “Peter took Him off to the side and rebuked Him and said, ‘No, you can’t do that.’”

Here’s what Jesus says. “Jesus turned Peter around so all the disciples could hear this and he

rebuked Peter. He says, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God,

but merely human concerns.’”

After all Peter was doing to keep Jesus from being embarrassed, Jesus spins him around

and harshly rebukes him. Why so harsh? The first reason is because he says, “Get thee behind

me, Satan.” That’s not hyperbole. That’s not exaggeration. That is the source of that temptation.

It sounds very familiar to Jesus. You can have a crown without a cross. The only one saying that

is the Devil himself. That’s Satan speaking. This isn’t the first time He’s heard it. In the desert

while being tempted: “Turn the rock into bread! Bon appétit!” Then He wouldn’t be serving the

will of the Father. He did not use His divinity as something to be grasped. No, He’s going to

grasp all right --- you can have that crown without the cross. Jesus won’t have any part of it.

Peter and Jesus

Mark 8:33 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.”

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He’ll hear it again --- the last temptation of Christ is “You’ve saved others, now save yourself.”

Oh, I can. I could call in a legion of angels. We’ll start this whole thing over. But then I wouldn’t

be a servant to the will of the Father. So that’s why He calls this an utterance from Satan – it is.

And the second reason He reproves him and rebukes him in such a harsh way is

because this is what following means. We’re going to do the fundamentals of following. I’m

going to try and explain a single word to you – follow. He says, “Follow me.” And so far, here’s

where “follow me” has gotten us to. It’s gotten us to these experiences together, that they’ve

learned. Peter came to know who He was and he came to trust Him and love Him and He came

to the conclusion that He was Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the chosen King. What

does it mean to follow a king? Follow means, where He goes, you go. Did I lose anybody?

Follow means where He goes, you go. When the King says something, you do what you’re told.

You don’t rebuke the King, you don’t correct the King. He said it clearly, He meant what He

said, and Peter says, “You’re wrong.” That’s not following.

Let me try to be clear. Let’s make it a Texan thing, okay? Jesus says to Peter, “Follow

me. We’re going to Juarez.” And Peter kindly takes him aside and rebukes Him and says, “We’re

not going to Juarez. You want to go to Cabo San Lucas.” And Jesus pulls everyone around and

says, “No, no, no. This guy’s wrong. I said Juarez. What I meant was across the border from El

Paso --- Juarez. I’m clear, I’m plain, I’m going there. If you don’t go there, you’re not

following.” Right? If you don’t go there, you’re not following. At that point, Peter’s not

following.

Here’s our quick little application up to this point. When we look at a passage --- I don’t

know whether you’ve gotten to the point or not where there’s plenty of passages that are

confusing and you might not know what they mean --- you know what? Those don’t bug me.

Honestly. Here’s the ones that bug me. The ones that are plain and clear and Jesus says “Follow”

and this is where He’s going. When you read a passage of Scripture and it says to do something

and you don’t, you’re rebuking the King. When the Bible says to do something plain and clear

and you don’t go there, you’re not following. I’m just trying to define some terms here. The

passage is clear. You’re rebuking the Messiah.

Application: Peter is Not Following

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Now watch how nicely what He says makes perfect sense with what follows. What did

He say? He said, “I’m going to Jerusalem to find a cross where I’ll suffer and die. And He says,

“Follow me.” Therefore, it makes perfect sense that verse 34 would follow 33.

It says, “Jesus called a crowd --- all the crowd around Him with His disciples and said: ‘Whoever

wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.’” See, that

makes perfect sense. “’I’m going there and you’re following Me, so you can come with Me with

your cross. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. Whoever wants to lose their life for Me

or the gospel’s sake, you’re going to save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole

world and forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?’”

This is so simple, right? I am the King. I am going to the cross. You are following Me, so

you are going to the cross. Take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Me. That’s what

following looks like.

So what does that mean, to take up your cross? It means our souls are bent and demented

towards selfishness. We’re always right, we get our way, sometimes passively, sometimes

aggressively --- we’re trying to win. And all these things --- those rights, the constitutional right

to happiness, the entitlements that we feel like we have and sometimes we don’t even know that

we have them until they’re threatened or taken away. He says those are the things --- the selfish

you needs to die so that the selfless you can replace it. That’s what He means by that. Sometimes

it’s hard to know what those are until --- God’s going to send waves of experiences with this so

you can know Him more and love Him more and trust Him more.

Mark 8:34-37 Then Jesus 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. 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?

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I remember personally --- you probably did this too --- that firstborn child crying all

night. And you never had this thought before, but you thought, I have a right to a good night’s

sleep. Now the baby’s doing what babies do, so there’s no harm or foul there, but the anger that

you have when your sleep is disrupted is your right crying out to be crucified. When you have

teenagers --- now we have babies crying, but they’re bigger than you and you’re afraid or angry -

-- that is your illusion of control needing to be crucified. We have life experiences together with

the Lord and He’s trying to say, “Ooh, you could kill that. That would be a good thing to die to.”

In a positive way, you might know someone who has suffered long and well --- there’s a

tranquility with them because they have long given up the desire to be happy. They would rather

be holy. And so you can just see in their souls so much has been crucified. So much is dead that

they have given over their old self and taken on this new self. Here’s what the King says. The

King says, “This is how it works. You want to be reborn? You’ve got to be unborn. You want to

be resurrected? You’re going to have to die first. I’m going to Jerusalem. I will suffer many

things. I will be rejected by the people in authority. I will die and I will be raised again. If you

know Me, you trust Me and you’ll love Me and you’ll follow Me.

Now here’s the strange part of this story. Stay with us. Here’s the strange part of the

story. They go with Him. These men --- they leave with Him. At this point there’s a major pivot

in the book and He’s turning toward Jerusalem and towards this “must” destiny. And at this point

the twelve follow Him and they don’t even understand it. They definitely don’t like it. But

because they have made this choice, now look what happens when you experience something

with someone and you know them and then you start trusting them and then you love them ---

they give you another experience. They receive this as a gift of following --- more intimacy with

God like nothing else they have experienced in all of mankind.

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This is what happens, chapter 9, verse 2. “After six days” --- after following Jesus to

Jerusalem --- “Peter, James and John were with him and he led them up a high mountain, where

they were all alone. And then he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling

white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them

Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.”

The Old Testament is broken into two parts: the law and the prophets, and Moses is the

father of the law, and Elijah is the father of all the prophets. And so what’s happening here is the

fullness of all revelation is staring at Jesus in this transfiguration mode, this beaming mode, and

they are showing that all revelation from God is culminated into this man, this king, this servant-

king.

And then, as if that were not enough, this is what happens. The Father speaks and a cloud

appeared and covers them, and a voice comes from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love.

Listen to him!” And those three men fall face down and they were terrified. They were terrified.

Know this: God progressively reveals Himself to you when you’re ready to hear it. These

Transfiguration

Mark 9:2-4 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Mark 9:7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

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three men have experienced something no one else have ever experienced. They were able to see

this bright-as-the-sun, the fullness of Jesus on this planet. They were able to hear the approval of

the Father saying “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” They were able to fall face

down because it was beyond their comprehension. And in terror --- that’s another word for

worship. They experienced this worship, first of all --- and know this --- because they had picked

up their cross and they had been carrying it for six days.

You can’t get to that mountain without a cross. You can’t get there by rebuking Jesus and

trying to get Him to go to Cabo San Lucas. You get there by going to Juarez with Him. You get

there by denying yourself, taking up your cross, and dying. Intimacy with God comes by having

two things: experiences together and this gut-wrenching, fear-inspiring vulnerable truth and

honesty. They did that. This was their prize. God reveals Himself to you in progressive ways as

you’re able, as you follow. That’s what intimacy is all about. It’s a relationship.

It didn’t end on this mountaintop. They kept going to Jerusalem where they had another

tender, intimate moment with Jesus. This is called the Lord’s Table. If you’re one of the ushers,

go back and get the elements and pass them out as soon as you get to your place --- that would be

awesome.

Here’s how we do communion here, so that you know. One, we’d love you to join us.

You don’t have to be a member of this church. If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ --- you’ve

heard that definition, and as much as it’s up to you, you’re good with all men. If you’re having

conflict with other people, just pass this time and move on to the next. Make things right. It’s

communion. The second thing is, if you’ll pass the elements out, just hold them. We’ll take the

bread first all together because it’s communal, and we’ll take the wine together.

Let me get back to the story here because Jesus takes them to the Mount of

Transfiguration and then He takes them to Jerusalem. What do you do with intimate friends?

You eat with them. You dine with them. And this meal --- oh, it’s a closed meal. It’s by

invitation only. It’s just for the few, the select, the ones that have experiences with Him, that

know Him, that trust Him, that love Him. And He says, “Look, guys, this is the Passover meal.

For centuries I’ve been saying to people ‘Follow me. Just follow me.’ And I said that to Israel

when she was born. She was in captivity in Egypt and I said ‘Justice will now come to Egypt.

But if you follow me I will take you out of there and my justice will pass over you and I will lead

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you through a parted sea and you will become my adopted child. I will lead you out of justice

and into adoption.’ That’s what this is about. That’s what this meal is about.”

When Jesus took the bread, he said, “This bread --- it’s my body. It will be broken for

you. It must be broken for you.” I love this part of the story. When the men were face down and

in terror, Jesus went over to them and He touched each one of them and He said, “Don’t be

afraid. Get up. Don’t be afraid. Get up. This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.” What were

His first words? Don’t be afraid. Get up. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Let’s think about that while we wait to pass out all the elements. I’ll be right back.

[Music]

Let’s take that bread together.

On the same night of the Passover meal, He takes His cup and He said, “It’s going to be a

blood covenant. It will be my blood that will be shed. It must be my blood. It must be.” “This is

my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.” When? All the time. Where? Everywhere you go.

Let’s do this, for intimacy. It’s experience and honesty. Let’s invite Him here.

[Prayer]: I want you to be part of this moment, Lord. I want you to be part of tomorrow before

my feet hit the floor. You say, “Lord, I want you to be part of this day. I want to invite You into

this work experience. I want to invite You into this conversation. Lord, I am so focused inward,

that I need You, Your Spirit, to turn me out so I can see the souls of the people I run into. So that

I can enjoy them and I can serve them.

Listen to Him. Listen to Him all the time. Let’s think on those things. I’ll be right back.

[Music]

Let’s share the cup together with our King.

This was such an important, intimate event that Jesus said, “Listen, I want you to keep

doing that. Whenever you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you do this until I return in

glory.” You know, Jesus’ transfiguration ---- some have thought, you know what, we don’t know

what we get in that glory. When all is said and done, after the final judgment apparently we get a

new glorified body, because this body, it can never inherit eternity. The mortal can never inherit

immortality. This can’t endure the holiness of God. And so we get new bodies. And so some

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have thought that this transfiguration of Jesus is a picture of what we might have. And that’s why

we might have, for example, in Amazing Grace --- it starts off that “He saved a wretch like me.”

But how does it end? “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining like the sun.”

We are children of the light. It’s this picture of you and me, us together. As C. S. Lewis said in

The Weight of Glory, that if we saw each other for who we really are, the souls, we’re not bodies

with souls, we’re souls with bad bodies. If we saw that we would be inclined to worship. So we

long for that day. Let’s pray with that hope in mind.

[Prayer]: Lord Jesus, we are grateful. We love You because You first loved us. You started this.

While we were enemies you reconciled us to you. You died for us. You had to. And Lord, we are

grateful for Your obedience to the Father, for Your love for Your children, for Your desire to

give us honor instead of shame, and Your conquest of the grave. We are grateful for that. Lord

Jesus, I pray until the day we see You, until the day we get this glorified body that might even

shine like a thousand sons --- that we would live in relationship with You. That we would pursue

You. That we would not advise You or rebuke You. We would follow You. And we pray this in

Jesus’ holy name. Amen.