When I was at the grocery store, I saw a magazine with Jesus on the cover. I think we have a picture of the magazine right here. It was Time Special Edition, who he was, who he is. I was like, well, I'm interested in Jesus, right? So, of course, I'm perusing this magazine at the local grocery store, and they say in the magazine that they're going to try to figure out who Jesus is by going outside the Gospels. And as soon as they said that, I thought, you know what I want to do? I want to find out who Jesus is by going inside the Gospels. In fact, I would like to see Jesus through the eyes of the witnesses who were there, through the eyes, specifically of his disciples, when Jesus was intentionally teaching them who he was. That would probably be the best way to answer the question. And so, I invite everyone, if you want to know who Jesus is, to open the Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, verse 22, and we're going to see three episodes, three paragraphs here, in the life of Jesus with his disciples, where Jesus is teaching them who he is and what he came to do when he was here on planet Earth.
We have come to one of the epic passages in all of the Bible. It is often called the turning point of the or the hinge of the Gospels. It's in Matthew 16, it's in Luke 9, and it's here in Mark 8. It is the confession that Jesus is the Christ. And so, out of respect for God's Word, I invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture, and I encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention. I'm going to read from Mark 8:22, all the way to verse 33. This is the Word of God. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.
And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.” And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 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 said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab your seat. And there is in your bulletin a handout, if you want to take it out and take some notes as we're going to go through these verses together. You'll see we've got three points from the three different paragraphs of our text as we get to go through it, and we start in Bethsaida. So, we have a map here. We want to make sure you know where Bethsaida is. It's one of the three little villages or cities that get referred to the most in Jesus' ministry in Galilee. You can see, close to Bethsaida is Capernaum and Chorazin. It's those three cities that we hear about the most that Jesus did his miracles, his teaching, casting out demons. And so, even a disciple like Peter, his hometown is Bethsaida. And so, we're here in Galilee, where Jesus now has done a lot, and people bring to him this blind man. So, we we've seen this now, a man who can't walk. His friends lowered him through the roof. We saw even out by the Decapolis in the Gentile territory, a man who was deaf, he couldn't hear. He was mute, he couldn't speak, and his friends brought him to Jesus. Well, now this is the first time in the Gospel of Mark, we've seen that. Bring a blind man to Jesus, hoping that he can heal him and restore his sight.
So, one thing you need to know about these verses about this blind man and this very intriguing kind of two stage miracle, this is unique. This miracle only appears in the Gospel of Mark. It doesn't appear in any of the other gospels, and there's no other miracle like this, where Jesus heals somebody, then kind of asks, how's it going? Can you see? And then he does more healing. Well, no, we've seen Jesus do some miracles. We've seen some amazing healings up to this point, we've even seen people just touch Jesus and they're made well. We've seen people raised from the dead. We have seen all kinds of epic things. By this point in Mark, chapter 8:22-26, we know Jesus, he can heal the man's blindness. He doesn't need a couple of cracks at it. So, a lot of people ask, what is the purpose of this miracle? Why is Mark putting this in what's really a famous passage where Peter gives the right answer, “You are the Christ,” and then Jesus begins to teach them how he's going to die and rise again. This is the Gospel.
In this passage, the Gospel is the good news of Jesus, who he is and what he came to do. But for some reason, Mark, instead of really just running into that and emphasizing that, Mark wants to take you over here to this blind man, that Jesus takes him out of town and spits on his eyes. And everybody's like, why did Mark do that? Why did Mark put that in? Why the spit? What's going on here? Okay?
So, there are two miracles that are only in the Gospel of Mark, and they both involve spit. And so, there's a lot of speculation about why Jesus is spitting in these two miracles. One was back in chapter 7. I just referred to it. We just looked at it a couple of weeks ago. Chapter 7, verse 31 there, when he was in the region of the Decapolis in verse 31. They brought to him, the man who was deaf and he had a speech impediment. And we learned something really, really unique about this where, because this guy can't hear, Jesus touched his ears, and because he can't speak, Jesus got some spit, and then touched his tongue like, hey, I'm going to do something with your ears. I'm going to do something with your tongue. And then Jesus said, be opened, and the man was able to hear, and the man was able to speak, and they just went, and they were like, Jesus does all things, well, Jesus, he does it good. And they just began to go tell everybody how great it was what Jesus had done for this man. So that is something that Mark did.
Now, let's look at this blind man miracle, which is unique also to Mark. And Mark puts this before Peter is going to say that Jesus is the Christ. So, why does Mark include this here? What is the purpose of this two-stage miracle? When you see verse 23, he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village. So, notice he doesn't do the miracle in the village. He's not trying to get people's attention. He's not trying to gather a crowd and preach. He takes him outside the village. In fact, after the man can see, what does he say? Go straight to your home. Don't even go back into the village. Don't even go raise a ruckus. Don't even let people see that you can see. I wonder if Jesus is like buying time so he can make his getaway.
So, you see a shift in the ministry of Jesus from this point forward, that he wants to get away from the crowds, he wants to get away from the Pharisees, and he really wants to teach his disciples. So, this is a private miracle outside of Bethsaida, a meaningful place to some of the disciples, that that's their hometown, but we're going outside the village. And then it says here “And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes.” So, again, why would you spit on someone's eyes? Perhaps to get this man starting to have some feeling in his eyes, to draw attention to the fact that he can't see. He “laid his hands on him.” But then notice this, “Do you see anything?” See, we've never had Jesus ask anybody else he's done a miracle for any questions or like, is it working? How’re we doing right now? And so, I don't think this is that Jesus doesn't have the power to do it. I don't think Jesus is like wondering. I think Jesus must be making some kind of point. “’Do you see anything?’ And he looked up and said, ‘I see people, but they look like trees, walking.’”
So, this is very interesting, because is the man blind anymore? See, the answer to that question I think would be, no. But can the man really see? The answer to that question would also be, no. He's in this interesting state where you can see but you can't see.
And then, look at what happens. “Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, ‘Do not even enter the village.’” So, I have read so many commentaries on this passage, and I have listened to so many sermons about this text, and we believe in a literal translation of the Bible, a literal interpretation. What did the author intend to say to the original audience, in the language that it was said, in the context that it was said, that's what we want to really study. But everybody, they think there's some kind of symbolism in what Jesus is doing here. There's some kind of point that he's trying to make by helping this blind man. He heals him. The blind man goes away seeing the friends are rejoicing. But why did Jesus do one stage and then a second stage?
Now, let me remind you what we learned last week, if you were here. Go back to verse 21, what was the last thing Jesus said to his disciples before this story? “He said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’” See, we've been having this tension where it's kind of like the disciples are learning about Jesus in stages. Are these disciples following Jesus? We could say the answer to that is, yes. Do these disciples really know yet what it means to follow Jesus? The answer to that we could say is, no. Do these disciples know who Jesus is? Well, somewhat. They know who he is, but are they fully understanding? When he multiplies the bread and he walks on the water, are they really getting and seeing clearly who Jesus is? Well, no. That's why he's asking him all the questions that he asked them there, all the way from verse 17 to verse 21.
So, it appears that he's healing this blind man in a two-stage way. It's some kind of picture of where the disciples are at in their own understanding, their own ability to see Jesus. And so, the disciples here, we're going to see kind of what looks like a big change in how they see Jesus, but then we're going to see that still they have a hard time seeing the way of Jesus. So, that's about what's about to happen. And a lot of the conclusion is that Mark put this miracle in here to kind of give a picture that the disciples are going to see, but they're not fully going to see. Okay?
So, let's get this down for point number one: “Make sure you can see Jesus clearly.” Make sure you can see Jesus clearly. It is not enough just to be able to give the right answer of who Jesus is. There's a real way you need to know Jesus in a personal way, in God's way. In America, we will call you a Christian if you know who Jesus is, because a lot of people deny Jesus these days, and a lot of people believe other things besides Jesus these days. So, if you're like, well, I think Jesus is true. I think he died for our sins. I think he rose from the dead. Just because you think it's true, just because you know the facts, in America right now, today, that makes you a Christian. Because you're not a Buddhist or you're not an atheist, so therefore you must be a Christian. But see a lot of people that would call themselves Christians, are they really seeing Jesus? Are they really seeing who he is and what he calls us to do?
So, there's this idea that you can see, but you still can't see. And this is a theme in the Scripture. In fact, a prayer, a good prayer for everyone to pray, is Psalm 119, verse 18, open the eye. “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Open my eyes. We're talking about here my spiritual ability to perceive my Holy Spirit, given ability to understand the things of God. Open my eyes so that I can really see your wonders that are revealed about you. Going all the way back to the law of Moses. I want to see who you are. I want to see you in the Scriptures. Open my eyes. How about Ephesians, Chapter 1? Let's all turn over to Ephesians, chapter One, where Paul is writing to people, they're the church, they're the saints. He's referring to them as Christians. In fact, a big theme of Ephesians is that these people are in Christ, and yet, look at what he prays for them. Ephesians 1:15, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus.” So, he's saying, you have faith, and I know about your love toward all the saints. You've got the evidence of faith which is in your love for one another. Well, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Well, what is Paul praying for them? Verse 17 of Ephesians 1, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.”
See, he's calling them people who have faith. He's saying they have love for one another. He's saying they're in Christ. But what is he praying for them? That God would open the eyes of their hearts so they could really see who they are in Christ, all that they have in Christ. We have hope in Christ. We have riches in Christ. We have power, resurrection power in Christ. Can you see it? Or are you, like many people who believe, someone who can see, but you still can't see. So, what kind of attitude do you have? Do you have a show me your glory? I want to see you reveal yourself to me attitude? Or do you have this attitude like I already know it, I've already been there, I've already done that, I've already heard it, I've already studied it. I'm already good to go see. I don't see what this attitude of I have already seen it in the Scripture, I hear a lot of it at church. Growing up, going to church my whole life, I've heard a whole lot of people say they already know about Jesus, but in the Scripture, what I see is this prayer, I really want to see Jesus. I want to know him. I want God to give me the knowledge of him.
And so, I wonder, have you really ever seen Jesus for who he is? Or even if you have seen Jesus, are you content? Or are you like, no, show me more. I wonder if there are further things I could learn. You could write this down. 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 9 warns us that even as Christians, we can be, and I love this idea, nearsighted. I love this because I've lived most of my life nearsighted, and I had to wear glasses, thick glasses that made me very uncool in junior high school, I had to stab my eyes with contact lenses. And then people gave me this gift one time of Lasik eye surgery, and I once was nearsighted, but now I see, right? And so nearsighted, it's like, can you see? Well, yeah, I'm not blind, but can I see? Would you want me operating a moving vehicle? The answer to that would be, no, right? And so, I feel like there's a warning in the Scripture that you can forget you've been forgiven of your sins. You can forget that you're growing in the grace and knowledge of our God, and you can add to your faith, and you can work out your salvation. And you can really do something as you follow Jesus, and you can become very nearsighted. And so, what is Jesus doing in this two-stage miracle with this blind man that he leads outside of Bethsaida? And think about that, when the man says, I see people, people like trees walking, well, who is he referring to? Because he got Jesus right there close to him, and they've maybe it's the man's friends, or who else would be there with Jesus and the man and his friends? So, the disciples are all there watching Jesus open this guy's eyes, but not all the way open this guy's eyes. And it's coming off of this series of questions where Jesus is asking them, “Do you not yet understand?”
And then, Jesus is going to take them away from Bethsaida, even further to the north, to get away from the crowds, to get away from the Pharisees, and he's going to keep asking the disciples questions. Now what I think is, this isn't just about healing this man who is blind. It's about showing the disciples that you need to really see. Even though you can see, you still can't see. And so, we need to now understand this through the eyes of the disciples, and we need to be asking ourselves, do I see Jesus clearly? You should never assume that you're seeing Jesus clearly. You should take a good look in the book and see through the eyes of the eyewitnesses and make sure you're really beholding who Jesus is.
Now let's throw the map back up there. Go back with me to Mark, chapter 8, and let's put the map back up on the screen, because they go further to the north, to Caesarea Philippi up there, by Dan. And if you're familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, Dan, that's like the northernmost point of Israel. So, we went to Caesarea Philippi on our last trip to Israel a few years ago. It was my first time going there. I was very excited, and our guide made a joke that one of our people had gotten off the path and gone to Lebanon. That's how far north This is. And you probably don't just want to walk across the border into Lebanon. I would not recommend that. Okay, so this is way up there, the highest point of Israel that you can get. So, this is kind of a Roman territory, and it would still be considered in the nation of Israel, but it's to the uttermost, to the uppermost part of Israel. And so, this is where Jesus, it seems like, as they go to the north, he's now got this privacy to spend some quality time with his disciples. And on his way, it says in verse 27, “He asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’” And you get here three different answers to the question. Some people think John the Baptist has risen from the dead and now he's Jesus. Other people think it's Elijah, which makes sense, because Elijah was perhaps the most famous of the prophets of Israel, and he went up to heaven how? Does anybody know how he went up to heaven? On a chariot of what? Fire, up to heaven. So, maybe, Elijah is not done. Maybe he came back for some more. But see, this is just a kind of a Jewish answer that they're giving here, because in the mindset of the Jews, well, what are the options? Well, John the Baptist is an option. Elijah's an option, well, or one of the other prophets, or he's like one of the prophets, maybe a new one, like the old prophets.
Now we've already seen this. If you go back to Mark 6:14, Mark already showed us these different opinions about Jesus that were popular at this time, and we saw it through the eyes of King Herod. So, Mark doesn't give a lot of detail on that answer there, because it's a repeat of something Mark has already expressed in a very unique way, because it was like Herod and his counselors were hearing about the name of Jesus, and they were having a conversation about who Jesus was. And so, here in Mark, chapter 6, verse 14, it said, “King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known.” People are talking about Jesus. He's on the cover of the magazine in the local grocery store, and a lot of people are saying different things about Jesus and Herod's heard of it. The King is talking about it, and some said, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said he is Elijah, and others said he's a prophet, and he's like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. I know it's John the Baptist. He's come back. And then it tells us the whole story of how King Herod had John the Baptist beheaded in this brutal display of his quest for power and to please people and but we, but we already saw, wow, there's a lot of different varying opinions about Jesus. And the thing we want to notice is all of these opinions about Jesus compare Jesus to someone else.
Okay. Now, if you and I, if we went out on the streets of Huntington Beach, and did a survey in Stanton, if we went up to Seal Beach, if we went down to Fountain Valley, and we just started asking around, who is Jesus, we would get a wide range of opinions. There would be many different thoughts of who Jesus is, and people would compare Jesus, perhaps not to Jewish prophets, like they did at this time, but people would compare Jesus to other religions. People would compare Jesus to other historical figures that have had an impact in world history. People would even compare Jesus to other philosophies and ways of thinking. No, we would find many different comparisons. Jesus is kind of like this. He's kind of like that. He's kind of like one of these people. Well, go back now to chapter eight, and Jesus asked a second follow-up question, more important than the first question here in their conversation on the way to Caesarea Philippi. And in verse 29, he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” So, what are people saying? Well, people are saying these different things. But what are you saying? And Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” You are the Messiah, is another way you could say it. And we want to make sure everybody writes this down. This is not point number two, but put this above point number two, if you're taking notes. The Christ equals Messiah equals the anointed one. That's how you would translate it, the anointed or the one, would be how you would translate it, that God has one that is chosen, that is holy, that is anointed for a specific purpose, that is unique, one of a kind, one of one that's the Messiah.
Now, when they translate this word Christ, it's a Greek word Christos, that they don't translate this word into English in our Bibles, it just says Christ. It doesn't explain what Christos means. It just takes the Greek word Christos and it throws it into English, okay? But the translation of “Christ” is the Greek word “Messiah,” which, if you say it in Hebrew, it has this hard H sound on the end, so it doesn't sound exactly like Messiah, but Messiah is how you would say it in Hebrew. Christ is how you would say it in Greek. If you were going to translate it into English, we would be saying he's “the one,” he's the “anointed one.” He's the set apart, holy, chosen one of God. That's what it means that he's the Christ. So Christ is not Jesus' last name. Christ is not even a name. Christ is a title. Christ is someone who is unique in all of history. For Peter to say, “You're the Christ” means we need to stop comparing Jesus to anyone else, because Jesus is the one. There is no one like him. That's what Peter's saying. Peter's saying you're way above all the comparisons. You're the one, you're the Christ.
So it's very hard for us today in America to understand the Absolute profundity of what Peter just said, that Peter just gave, not just the right answer, but Peter just said, who Jesus really is, and he's the first person to say that here in the Gospel of Mark, except for the demons. The first human to really say who Jesus is. Eight chapters, twenty-nine verses into some of the most amazing teaching miracles and casting out of those demons that we could imagine. And finally, we get to the right answer here. You're him. That's what he's saying. That's how the kids on the street would say it today. He's him. That's how it is. He's the one.
That must have been an awesome moment to finally hear one of these disciples say it, that's who you are. You're way above everybody else. They have some respect for you, they have some opinion of you, but who you really are, it transcends what everyone else is. It's way beyond Time Magazine Special Edition. It's way better than what they're saying on the History Channel. It's way better than what that those nice meaning people down the street are saying about Jesus, or what that other religion is saying about Jesus. You are the one. You're the Anointed One of God.
So, this statement, let's get this down for point number two, you need to: “Stop comparing Jesus to someone else because he is the one.” Stop comparing Jesus to someone else because he is the one. He's not like a prophet. I mean, he does prophecy, like prophets, but the only one we can compare Jesus to is God. You can't compare him to other people throughout history. You have to compare him to God. He is the Son of God. He became flesh. He put on flesh, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So, who is Jesus? He's God's anointed one. And so next time somebody says, well, Jesus is like this, or Jesus is like that, or they use Jesus Christ in vain, I want to encourage you to say to them, let's just stop that right there. That's not anything like Jesus. Jesus is the Christ. And then maybe you can explain to them what that really means. And go with me to a couple of passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. Let's start with Psalm, chapter 2. And if you're reading through the Psalms with us regularly, in the Psalms, we come to prophecies about Jesus. In fact, Psalm, chapter 2, intentionally, is the second Psalm to begin the Psalms, and it's about this prophecy, this epic prophecy of the Messiah. And so, you need to see that. You need to understand this identity of the Messiah. And it's dropped here and there. There are hints of it in the Hebrew Scripture. And over hundreds of years, it becomes a legend. It becomes an expectation. It becomes something that you talk about. And it gets passed from generation to generation that a one is coming, a chosen and anointed one is coming. And when he comes, he will reign his king. He will establish a kingdom. The nation of Israel will be in the place where they are the envy of all the earth. They will be above all the other nations. That's this legend that has been developing over hundreds of years in the mindset of the Jewish people, and it comes from passages like this Psalm 2, “Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples plot in vain? Why do the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against Yahweh and against his” what does it say there, everybody? It says, anointed. That is the word Messiah.
So, the nations of the earth, the kings and the rulers of the nations, they're against God, and they are against his Son. We can do whatever we want. We don't need to listen to God and his anointed. “’Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’” So, so that's this side the Messiah, this anointed one, he's going to be God's King, and he's going to be over all the other rulers, all the other nations. In fact, look at verse 7. “I will tell of the decree that Yahweh said to me, ‘You are my” what? “My Son.” So, this Messiah is the Son of Yahweh, the Son of God. “Today I have begotten you, ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.” Like, I'm going to give you the whole planet. I'm going to give you all the peoples. It's all going to be yours. So, you can see how, in the Jewish mind, reading and hearing people talk about passages like this, you get this idea of the one who is coming, and he's going to be king, and he's going to reign over the nations, and that's what Peter is saying. You're the one, not just one of the people coming in the name of God. You're the one coming in the name of God. You are God.
Go with me to 1 Samuel 2. This is not as common. And the understanding of the Messiah from what Hannah prays here in 1 Samuel 2, I don't know how much you've studied 1 Samuel, but it's the story of David being anointed the king. So, in Israel, there were three different offices that were anointed. The priests were anointed, the prophets were anointed, and the kings were anointed, because they all had a special role from God. So, it starts in Leviticus, this idea of priests being anointed. And then here in Samuel, it develops that idea of priests being anointed, and then also King David being anointed. But here, Hannah is praying. Hannah, maybe you know her story, a barren woman who wants to have a son and says she will give her son up to the Lord. And so, she is praying. If you go to 1 Samuel, chapter 2, you can see ten verses kind of put maybe differently in your Scripture. That is this Hannah's prayer, sometimes referred to as Hannah's song, oftentimes compared to Mary's Magnificat in Luke, one who's also talking to God about the news that she's going to have a son. Here's Hannah, a barren woman, praying for a son. And there are some similarities to Mary, a virgin hearing how she's going to have a son. And so, Hannah is an excellent example of faith in Yahweh. And you can go and read this beautiful prayer that she prays, but let's get straight to the climax of it in verse 10, where she says, “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” So, what I mean, wow, this lady who's praying that she could have a son, a baby that she could devote to the Lord, well, she's not just praying for that. She's praying for God's glory to be exalted in the heavens, for his glory to be over all the earth. She's saying, all these kings and all these rulers and all those in high places of power, they're all about themselves. But I know how it's going to go. I know that Yahweh, he has a king. He has an anointed one, and he's going to reign over all. Oh, wow, that's awesome faith that this woman has. In fact, if you keep going through Samuel, and you know the story that the priest at that time, Eli, and his wicked sons, they get rejected from being the priest and Hannah's son, who actually is the name Samuel, the name that the whole book ends up getting. Well Samuel, he becomes God's priest, who then anoints God's King, who is David. And there's a line that may be the theme of the entire book of Samuel. It's chapter 2, verse 35. Jump ahead to verse 35. This might be a great messianic prophecy that you're sleeping on, that you might really want to study Samuel. And know this verse as a great reference to the Messiah. And this is a fascinating verse. It's even hard to understand a little bit in English. It says in 1 Samuel 2:35 as he's rejecting the priesthood of Eli with his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, that and that they're going to die. And then, here's what it says. Verse 35, “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.”
This idea that there's going to be a faithful priesthood, that has to do with the anointed of God for all days, that's a very fascinating concept, that there is an anointed one who will establish this priesthood the way that God wants it to be, that there is this idea of one who is coming, and when he comes, he'll establish the Kingdom, he'll establish the priesthood. He's going to make it the way God wants for God's people. And so, from passages like this, in the Psalms and in Samuel, the legend of the Messiah would grow among the Jewish people. And so now, if we go back to Mark 8, now hopefully, that gives you some context for what Peter is saying here, that he is saying you are the anointed. You are the one. “You are the Christ.” He is saying that Jesus is the one who will shut down all the nations and shut down all the rulers and kings, and he will reign. And he's saying that Jesus is the one who will establish this way to God, this sure priesthood, this faithful priest. He's saying you're the one. All these themes that have been developing are leading to a climax that are culminating in Jesus. That's what Peter says. Man, do you believe that Jesus is the one? I mean, and let me just make this very clear, whether you believe it or not, Jesus is the one. Can I get an amen from anybody on that?
The question is not if Jesus is the one, the question is, who do you say that Jesus is? Do you say that he's the one? Are you on the right side of his story? Do you agree with what the prophets have spoken and what the witnesses now are saying? This is very important that Peter is saying, we have seen, we know you are the Christ, and Peter often serves as the spokesperson of all of these guys. And something is happening in them, because they're going from, “Do you not yet understand,” to now understanding we know we see, we get. We don't want to be the guys who kind of see we see you. You're the one. Have you said that? Have you said that to Jesus? Have you said you are the one, you're the one that God sent, the one that God set apart. You're the only one that can bring me to God. It's you. And there are a lot of different ways that you can say this, besides the idea of Messiah or Christ, one way that Jesus said it is he said, “I am the way. I am the truth, and I am the life. no one gets to the Father except through me.” Have you said that? Jesus, you're the one, not just the one for me. Don't let our culture make you think everybody can believe what they want, and you're just going to believe what you want. Jesus is the one for everyone. Just some people are going to acknowledge that, and some people are going to deny that. Have you acknowledged it? Have you confessed?
I was talking with a man the other day, and this man, we were talking about the real things of his life. In fact, he'd been involved in this Bible study, and he'd come to realize that this Bible study was not about the things of God. They were misleading him, misteaching him. And so now he wants to really study the Bible. And so, he and I begin from how Mark begins, Repent and believe in the Gospel. And one of the things that this man had to process if he was really going to turn from his sin, and he was really going to trust in the good news of Jesus is, he had to consider his other relationships in his life, because he had other people that he loved in his life. A lot of us, we have people that we deeply cherish in our lives. Some of us really honor and respect our parents. We value our parents. Some of us love our spouse, our spouses, our favorite person ever. Some of us, it's like, could be our kids. We are so thankful to God for our kids. And here's this man and I having, like, the most important conversation of his life, because he's got many people in his life that he loves. But the ultimate question is, is Jesus the one? Do you love Jesus more than these?
We went to Matthew 10, where Jesus says, If you love this person more than me, you are not worthy of me. See, out of all the options, I'm choosing Jesus. I'm believing it's Jesus. I'm trusting wholeheartedly in Jesus, because I know Jesus is the anointed one that God sent to save me. Jesus is the one. And you've got to know that. Nobody else can know that for you. You have to know that in your own heart. It has to be true between God and Jesus and you. And so, I'm asking you, do you know Jesus is the one? Can you say what Peter's saying here? You're the Christ. Can you say it to him? Can you acknowledge him?
And let me just say that's why we're here at this church. I can personally tell you this is why I come to this church, because I'm here with other people who believe that Jesus is the one. And so many people, they want to talk about all these things, about church, and all these things we can disagree on. Well, we need to all start with the reason that we're here at Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach, the reason that this is our church is because we all believe together that Jesus is the anointed one of God. He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. Can I get an amen from anybody else on this? This is why we're here. This is the main thing, and we’ve got to make sure that the main thing stays. The main thing that it's him. We're not here for you. We're not here for me. We're here for him. Are you saying Amen, right now?
There's another paragraph. Let's keep going here in Mark, chapter 8, let's keep going because it goes from like Peter's best moment in the history of his short life to being called Satan. Oh, this has got to be rough, right here. Verse 31, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man.” Okay, so we've seen this title Son of Man. This is a way that Jesus loves to refer to himself, and Mark loves to talk about Jesus this way. And so just to review very quickly about the Son of Man, you could write down Daniel 7:13-14. “There's one like a Son of man riding on the clouds who is given all authority.” That kind of sounds like King, Messiah, Jesus we were just talking about. But then, if you also study the book of Ezekiel, I don't even remember how many times God calls Ezekiel the Son of Man. And that's like, when Ezekiel sees a vision of the glory of God, Ezekiel can't handle it. And that's like, yeah, you're just a human. You're not on my level, Ezekiel, you're a son of man. So, there's also a way that this title is used in Ezekiel, chapter 1, and going into chapter two, and throughout the whole book, that really shows the humility of this title, Son of man. So, Son of Man is a very unique title, because you can see Jesus on the clouds, or you can see the humility of Jesus down here on Earth, being a man, putting on flesh. And so he's referring to himself here when the Son of Man. And here's what he wants to teach them, okay, they say you're the Christ, yes. But now this, the Son of Man must underline, this circle this, if you're taking notes, write this down. Circle it “suffer”. The Son of Man must suffer. Key word here, for the gospel of Mark, suffer. In fact, the Son of Man must suffer not a little bit, not sometimes, but the Son of Man must suffer many things, specifically, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be what, everybody? And be killed. And after three days, what? I don't know if they even heard that part. I don't even know if they got past suffer. Definitely don't think they got past killed.
Wait. We just had this epic moment. You're the one. You're the anointed one of God, and we went straight from that to suffer and the enemies, the scribes, the Pharisees, the ones you were warning us about their leaven, to have nothing to do with them. They're going to win. They're going to kill you. This is not what they were expecting of the Messiah, the Christ. The anointed one doesn't suffer and get killed by his enemies, the hypocrites, the false teachers. So, once they acknowledge who Jesus is, you can see very clearly verse 31, “Jesus began to teach them.” So, this is why I think that two-stage miracle with the blind man is so important. I don't think it's about how they didn't understand him before. I think it's about what's about to happen, that you're about to see something about me, you're the Christ, but then there's going to be something about me that you're having a hard time seeing.
You're ready to say who I am, but you're not ready to see what I came to do. And what Jesus came to do is die on the cross to pay for our sins and to rise again, that everyone who believes in him could have eternal life. That's what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to die, the glory of God came to suffer, the holy and anointed one, came to lay his life down for you. This is the mission of Jesus and the disciples who are ready to see who Jesus is, are not ready to see his mission and not ready to see that they would follow him in his mission. And so, Mark 8, from this point in verse 31 right here, Mark 8, Mark 9 and Mark 10 are all about Jesus teaching his disciples to see that he came to suffer and to prepare them to follow him in suffering. So, this is where I think we can get an amen on who Jesus is. But can we get an amen that Jesus came to suffer and we're all here to follow him on his mission of suffering, because that's what he begins to teach the disciples. Yes, you know who I am. Now, let's talk about what I'm going to do. And Peter doesn't have the right answer for this one. Look at verse 32 he said this plainly.
So, this is not a parable. This is not some kind of teaching here where they have to kind of think about it. No, this is just how it is. This is what's going to happen. “And Peter took him aside and began to” what does it say there, everybody? And right away, you know, that's not a good idea for Peter to do that. Okay, now I want to show you how Jesus predicts or prophesies his own suffering three times in the Gospel of Mark, and it's in chapters 8, 9, and 10. Go over to chapter 9, verse 31. Okay, so Jesus is in three chapters. Mark is going to quote Jesus saying this to the disciples three times. I would go so far as to say, if we're going to learn Jesus saying the same thing three times in three chapters, we should probably all pay very close attention to what this is. So, Mark 9:31, “for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.’” And then, what does verse 32 say? “But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.” So, do the disciples now understand who Jesus is? Yes, do they understand what Jesus has come to do? The answer to that is, no, not yet.
So, we've made a step forward in understanding, but we haven't really come to understanding. And I just want to take a time out right here, and I want to talk to everybody here, because I want to share with you something. I've seen this happen so many times in Huntington Beach, where people take a step towards Jesus, but they're not really following Jesus. Okay, let me show you two great examples that I've seen of this. One is when people have been living a life where they have been addicted to drugs or alcohol, and then they get sober, and then they start going to church, and it's such a big change in their lives. These things that were controlling them are no longer controlling them. Now they're going to church. Now they're reading the Bible. A lot of times, people equate sobriety with salvation, and even though it's a great thing to be sober and to have that clear level of thinking and even to be checking out Christianity, just because you're sober and checking out Christianity does not mean you're a new creation in Jesus Christ. Let me tell you, I've met a lot of people at this church that have come from Buddhism, they've come from atheism, they've come from some other belief, some other way of thinking. And now they want to read the Bible. Now they want to come to church. Now they want to learn the way of Jesus. Well, welcome. We're so glad you're here.
Jesus is the way. He is the truth. This is the best possible thing you could learn. But just because you change your allegiance from some other religion to the religion of Jesus does not mean you know Jesus and are following him. Many people go to Christianity, but they're not Christians. They just go to church. They're not really following Jesus. So, it seems like they see something. Look, they're sober. Look, they believe in Christianity now, but they don't really see. I've seen so much of this. I want to make this very clear, in case this is anybody here, like, hey, well, praise God, you're not there. But hold on. Do you really see it all the way through though? Are you really now following Jesus? Because that's where chapters 8, 9, and 10 are going to go. We've come to the turning point, the hinge, the pivot of the gospel of Mark. We're done focusing on who Jesus is, and now we're going to he's going to begin to teach us what he came to do. And I think a lot of people are wanting to learn who Jesus is, but they're not prepared for what he came to do.
And are you prepared for what he came to do? Peter is not prepared for what he came to do. Here, Jesus, let's talk about this. You're the one, you're the Christ. You're the King who's going to reign. You're the priest that's going before God forever. You're not going to be killed by these guys. You didn't come here to suffer. You came for glory. You came for a lot of people. If it's like glory, sign me up; if it's victory, sign me up; if it's suffering, no. I don't know if I want to sign up for that, but if you're following Jesus, that's what you're signing up for.
And so, look at what Jesus says to Peter when he rebukes him. And notice the perspective of Jesus here. And notice how Mark puts this line in here in verse 33 because we want to learn who Jesus is through the eyes of his disciples. But turning and seeing his disciples, it's like there's a moment there where Jesus and Mark want us to see that they're all watching Peter rebuke him. And so, I wonder what would Jesus have said to Peter if it was just Jesus and Peter? But it seems like whatever Jesus says to Peter is not just for Peter, it's for all these disciples. And he says, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of” what, everybody?
So, you can know who the Christ is and still have the complete wrong mindset. That's what we're learning here. You can see something, but you still can't really see. And this is a man's way of thinking. And a man's way of thinking is, Jesus came for me, and he's going to be king, because it's going to work out for me. And God's way of thinking is what a cost it was to send his Son Jesus. And Jesus's way of thinking is, what a burden it is to pay for all of our sin and take the wrath of God in our place. So, God is looking at it from one perspective that the Scripture gives us. “God so loved the world he gave his one and only son.” But then sometimes we're like, I just want the eternal life. Can I just sign up for that?
So, how do you view what Jesus came to do by suffering, being killed, and rising on the third day? Do you view it from God's way, or do you view it from man's way, your own way? Because we have seen in our lifetime in America that you can get rich and you can get famous, and you can fill stadiums telling people that Jesus came for their blessings, for their health, for their wealth, for their prosperity. We can take the name of Jesus, and we can make it all about you. But let's just be very clear here today that the name of Jesus is not about you and it's not about me, it's about him. And so, I have to be in it for him. I have to be here to follow him, even if it's going to cost me, because it most definitely cost him, to suffer, be killed, then I'll rise on the third day. That's the plan. He said it again in 9:31-32. Go over to chapter 10, and look in chapter 10, verse 33 and 34. He keeps telling this to the twelve over and over again here for these three chapters. Mark 10:33, “saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem.” Okay, we're moving towards the end. Now, see, so that's why people say this is the turning point in the Gospel of Mark, because once Peter says he's the Christ. Now we're here on the mission. Yes, you know who I am. Now let's go to Jerusalem for what I came to do. And so, they're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death, deliver him over to the Gentiles. So, it's the Romans who will actually kill him. They will. We're getting more detail now. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him, and after three days, he will rise.
Now, if you keep reading, you'll notice that right after Jesus just gave the fullest description in Jerusalem, the religious bad guys are going to hand me over to the even greater bad guys in the minds of the Jews, the Romans, who are ruling over us, who are oppressing us. In the Jewish mindset, the Messiah would come and overthrow the Romans. Well, actually, the religious hypocrites are going to hand us over to the Romans, and the Romans are going to mock me, they're going to flog me, which means whip me, and they're going to kill me. And then do you know what happens after that? “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’” Guys, what part of mocking, spitting, flogging and killing did we not hear?
So, there is going to be in these three chapters a massive disconnect between what Jesus is on a mission to do and what the disciples are thinking. And my concern is that that massive disconnect still exists in the Church of Jesus to this very day that people are ready to receive all the blessings of the salvation that comes from Jesus. But what cost of discipleship are you willing to pay to follow Jesus? What have you left behind? What have you given up? What have you denied? What burdens have you carried? Would you be willing, if it came to it, to die for Jesus? Would you lay down your very life for Jesus? And if the answer to that is yes, would anybody believe that about you, because they see how you're doing it every day?
This is what it really is to follow Jesus. This is an advanced Christianity. This is the only kind of following Jesus there ever has been. And Peter, he gets this mindset. He doesn't have it in Mark, chapter 8. I don't even think he has it in Mark 9 or Mark 10. But eventually, Peter begins to see Jesus not through man's way, but through God's way.
So, let's get that down for point number three, we want to: “See Jesus from God's point of view, not your own.” See Jesus from God's point of view, not your own. And I want everybody to turn with me to 1 Peter, chapter 2, once you're done writing that down, that's the question there. Do you see it God's way? Do you have God's mindset on it, or do you have man's mindset on it? Because you might know who Jesus is, and you might know what he came to do, be killed and rise again. But how do you see it? Do you see it from God's perspective, or do you see it from your own point of view? Well, Peter, who gave the wrong answer in Mark 8, and Jesus had to say in front of the disciples, “Get behind me, Satan,” that's the wrong mindset. That's man's mindset, not God's mindset. Well, look at what Peter writes in 1 Peter. In fact, I don't know if you've ever studied the book of 1 Peter. We got to study it here at our church. It's one of the clearest teachings on suffering you can find in all of the Scripture. This book has probably helped me to mature in my mindset and to understand that I am going to have to suffer and I am going to have to submit, and I am going to have to go through hard things, even if I'm doing what is right. Even if I'm trying to do what is good in this world, I'm going to go through a lot of suffering. You know, who helped me really understand that? Peter did? Because Peter did get the mind of Christ, and he did start seeing it God's way. In fact, look at what Peter writes here in 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 21 he kind of he goes right into it here. “For to this you have been called.” He's talking about servants obeying their masters, even if their masters aren't good. And then he launches off into 1 Peter 2:21, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
When we go to Israel, we follow in his steps. Then we go to the Antonia Fortress, and we go sit in this ancient prison. And our guide, Shafiq, he starts talking about what happened there in the fortress, and he starts saying things to you like the very floor you're sitting on right now is the same floor where the blood of Jesus was falling when they punched him in the face, when they whipped him up, when they mocked him and spat in his face and said, “And prophesy, who hit you.” You're in that place right now. See, those are the steps of Jesus, the steps of suffering. And he's saying, that's an example. See, here's the thing, you can't just believe that Jesus suffered. If you're going to follow Jesus, you are going to fellowship or share in his sufferings. Yes, we want the power of his resurrection, but we also need to be willing to share in his sufferings. And so, look at what he says here. Verse 22, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, He did not revile. In return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” What did he do? He saw suffering from God's point of view, not man's.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds. You have been healed for you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the Shepherd and overseer of your souls. Is anybody here thankful that Jesus suffered for you? Is anybody here thankful that Jesus cares for your soul as a shepherd, that he watches over you to protect your soul, overseer. Basically, Peter is saying that Jesus is the real pastor, that everyone has the real one who cares for you, the real one watching over your soul, that he came, that he suffered, that he died for he did it all for you. And Peter's saying, it's an example that you would follow in the steps. You don't just receive the blessings of his suffering. You follow in his suffering.
So, I just want to make it very clear that if you come back here next week, you're going to hear the call of Jesus telling you that if anyone comes after me, he must deny himself, take up his what? And follow me. And people, ever since Jesus said that, have been trying to make up a kind of Christianity where you don't have to do that, and if you're thinking that way, you need to change your mindset, because that's man's way. That's not God's way. God sent his Son to suffer. Jesus came willingly. And if you want to say, I'm with God, and Jesus is the one, and I'm going to follow him, then you just signed up to what? Nobody ever told you that before? I apologize. But if you think we can be Christians without suffering, Jesus has something to say to you. Get behind me who? That's the lie of the devil. And he's got plenty of people going to churches in Southern California thinking they're going to heaven without suffering here on Earth. Don't be one of those people. If you're a part of this church, we all have something in common. Jesus is the one, and we will all share something with him as well, and it will be suffering. And I would love to go through that together with all of you. Let's pray.
Father in heaven. We come before you, and we thank you so much for this trip up north that Jesus took with the twelve Disciples, and how they took the blind man aside and how he healed him, but not completely. The man could see, but he couldn't see. And then, Peter could see that Jesus is the Christ. He's the anointed one of God. And there's this great moment of knowing who Jesus is. And then Peter can't see what Jesus came to do, that he would be killed and rise on the third day. And so, thank you for showing us this turning point in the Gospel of Mark, where the disciples could see something true about Jesus, but they couldn't really see the way of Jesus. They were looking at Satan's way, man's way, not your way. The way of Jesus is the Way of glory, but there's only one way to get to glory, and it's the way of suffering. And so, I pray that you would teach us that as we go through Mark 8, 9, and 10, I pray that this would be the best study we've ever done at this church. I pray that there would be nobody here who's deceived, nobody thinking, I'll just take Jesus and get the best thing this life has to offer, but that everybody will actually see Jesus, the anointed one, the one with all the glory, the one reigning above. But where is he on a cross? Mocked, despised, shamed. Not what the Jews were thinking was going to happen. And not even maybe what we thought was going to happen when we signed up to follow him. We thought Jesus would just save us, and that would be awesome. We didn't maybe understand the suffering that comes along with the resurrection. And so, God, I pray for all of us that we would have clear expectations, that we would hear Jesus speaking plainly that Jesus knew what he was doing every step on the way to Jerusalem, and we need to be willing to suffer every step of following Jesus for the rest of our lives, and that we will suffer and in those moments and the hardest moments and the most painful moments of our lives, some of us will end up saying that those were the best moments, because in those moments of suffering, we were not there alone, but we saw Jesus. We saw what he went through for us, and how he was calling us to follow him. God, please. We don't want to be nearsighted. We don't want to see but not see. We want to see Jesus. We want to worship his beautiful name. We want to see him in his glory and in his suffering. Please show us who Jesus is. We pray. Amen.