An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson of Mark 8:31-9:1, “Followed,” for Sunday, October 8, 2023. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:  Just after Calvin Coolidge became President in 1923, Secret Service agent Edmund Starling was out for a morning walk with new president. “A few days after he moved into the White House we struck out at the usual early hour, just as a gang of laborers was going to work … The Irish foreman, seeing us, said to one of the Detail who was standing nearby: “What a fine looking man our new President is! So tall and straight! Who’s the little fellow with him?” He was told that the little fellow was the President. “Glory be to God!” he said. “Now ain’t it a grand country when a wee man like that can get to be the grandest of them all.” From that time on President Coolidge was to us and all the members of the White House staff, the “little fellow.’’ (Edmund W. Starling, in Katharine Graham’s Washington, p. 490) 

Calvin Coolidge was not what people expected a presidential leader to look like! 

??? Can anyone share someone you were surprised at, who was not what you would have expected???

(I once had a speaker at our church, who was very well-known nationally, and whom God had used in some amazing ways — but when I met him in person, he was not at all like I had expected; just very meek and mild.  

In our passage for today, Jesus’ disciples see that in many ways, His mission as the Messiah was not what they expected — and neither was their role as His followers!

CONTEXT

After Jesus’ trip to Tyre, and the Decapolis, that we studied last time, Chapter 8 now shows Him feeding 4000; then He has another confrontation with the Pharisees, and He heals a blind man. Then in :27 Jesus takes His disciples to Caesarea Philippi, a city about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, at the base of Mt. Hermon (you might show this on a map). 

ALSO: be sure not to confuse Caesarea Philippi with Caesarea (Maritima) on the coast, that Herod the Great named in Caesar’s honor. Herod the Great’s son Philip also named this current place in Caesar’s honor, so it is called Caesarea Philippi (after Philip). 

On the way there, the Bible says Jesus asks His disciples Who they say that He is, and Peter confesses “You are the Christ.” But is this “Christ” going to be what he expected? This brings us to our focus passage for today: Mark 8:31-9:1, where Jesus begins to prepare His disciples for the idea that His mission as the Messiah was not going to be what they thought it was.

OUTLINE

I. The Astounding Prophecy  (:31)

II. The Misguided Disciple  (:32-33)

III. The Call To Discipleship  (:34-38)

IV. The Soon Coming Kingdom  (9:1)

I. The Astounding Prophecy  (:31)

:31 “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.”

This may be the single most amazing statement in all history.

Here is this Man who tells all these people that He is going to DIE — but don’t worry, because then He is going to rise again from the dead. 

Many of us have heard this so often, that we have become used to it. This is outlandish! It’s fantastic! Jesus proclaimed BEFOREHAND, that He was going to die, and come back alive — and He DID!  

This remains THE single most compelling fact about ANY religious leader who ever lived: that Jesus rose from the dead, and appeared to 500 witnesses, many of whom went to their deaths, testifying that they had seen Jesus alive. NO OTHER RELIGIOUS LEADER has this claim. 

So many people ask: “There are so many religions, how can we know which is the right one?” — as if there was no answer to that. But there IS: of all the “messiahs”, “gods” and “Christs” all through history, only ONE rose from the dead. It’s like God was saying, “I’ll show you which one is the true One — the One who will rise from the dead.”  Which is exactly what Romans 1:4 says, that He “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” 

Don’t lose the power of this in our familiarity with this verse. This is perhaps the most amazing statement in all history: that Jesus predicted His own death, and “called it” in advance that He would rise from the dead! 

Now: a couple of other important things about this verse:

— Note that Jesus uses the phrase “Son of Man” here. Some think He used this term to “disguise” that He was the Messiah. But Biblically literate Jews knew the prophecy of Daniel 7:13 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. (:14) And to Him was given dominion, glory and sovereignty, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” 

You might read, or have someone read that passage, and then ask your group:  ??? Does this like a “humble” name, “disguising” that “the Son of Man” is the Messiah?”

(Of course the answer is NO! 

— He’s coming with the clouds of heaven!

— to Him was given dominion, etc. 

— ALL peoples will serve Him

— His kingdom will not pass away

So this “Son of Man” is the Messiah. Jews who had studied their Bible knew this. So it was NOT a “disguise” term at all. Jesus was very clearly claiming to be the Messiah.  

BUT this is also part of what threw Peter and others off. The “Son of Man/Messiah” was going to be much different than they expected. He would NOT be (at least immediately) be a “conquering hero” who would defeat the Romans and set up His glory in the world. Jesus was saying, the “Son of Man” is going to DIE. I am going to DIE. This is what I came for; this is My mission as the Messiah. This was a mind-blowing thing to them. It is not what they expected. This is one of the reasons why Peter reacted as he did in the next verse. 

— Then also: notice WHO it was who was going to reject Him?

“The elders, the chief priests, and the scribes”

— “elders” = “presbuteron”, “elders” (used of Christian “pastors” in the N.T.) This refers to Jewish religious leaders in general.

— “chief priests”: consists of present and former chief priests, and the “high priestly hierarchy” that’d developed in Jerusalem.

— “scribes”: men learned in the Law of Moses, a teacher.

??? What do these men have in common??? 

(They are all religious leaders!  These are the very people who should have been the first to accept Him — but they ended up becoming the ones who would crucify Him.

There is a principle here: often the ones who SHOULD be the followers of God, end up being the very ones who reject Him; and it is some “outsider”/unexpected person who ends up coming to Him.

— +x Matthew 8, after Jesus heals the centurion’s servant, He adds: I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness.” The ones who SHOULD have accepted it, will be cast out, while others (like this Gentile centurion) come to the Kingdom instead. 

— You see this all the time in churches: people who grew up in church, who should have been the leaders, end up falling away;  while somebody without that background, gets saved and becomes an integral part of the church.

— Or the “religious establishment” of a church is often the ones who are most closed to the work that the Spirit of God is doing in the church.

Let’s be careful NOT to be the new “elders/chief priests/scribes” who oppose what God is doing — just like they did in Jesus’ day.

II. The Misguided Disciple  (:32-33)

:32 “And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”

Peter was like, NO Lord, the Messiah is going to come on the clouds of glory, and put all the rebels of the world in their place, like Psalm 2 says. And you can kind of see where he’s coming from, right, when you read Psalm 2 and some of the other Old Testament Messianic passages. (They just overlooked some of the other ones, like Isaiah 53!)

Still yet, this would seem to be the height of arrogance, right? Peter rebuking Jesus and telling Him that HE was wrong?! It just makes you cringe to even talk about it; who would have the gall to do that? So often, you just shake your head at Peter.

But here’s another good application for us today: WHO would have the gall to speak to the Lord, as if they knew better than Him?  WE would! All the time, when we “give God suggestions” or question why He does things — as if WE know better!  

??? Can you think of some examples of things that WE would “rebuke” Jesus about today?

— Why did You take this person; it seems too early

— Why did You allow this sickness; it’s not right

— Why don’t You make it rain?! (That’s a good one in TX now)

— Or are there times when WE misunderstand OUR mission: to gather numbers instead of make disciples; to make money instead of minister to people, etc. 

But the point is, if we think it’s the height of arrogance for Peter to rebuke Jesus — let’s make sure that WE are not doing the same thing to Him, by questioning His wisdom/actions/timing in our own life situations! Let’s trust that He knows what He’s doing.

:33 “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.” 

THIS IS A GREAT VERSE TO MEMORIZE and use when you are tempted. Ephesians 6 says “the sword of the Spirit is the word of God.” We can use the word of God to fight off the attacks of the enemy. This is just a little “short sword” that ALL of us can memorize and pull out whenever we need it: “Begone Satan!” “Get behind me, Satan”! 

This is my “go to” verse when I’m tempted to look at something, or say something, or think something, or do something that I shouldn’t: just quickly say “Begone Satan!” And  chase that out of your mind. Jesus used it here — and of course He’s always the best example for us too. Let’s use what Jesus said here to fight our temptations too.

AND: Jesus specifically rebukes Peter’s “worldly thinking.”

To say that He would NOT be killed was worldly. This was God’s plan, that the Messiah would die for our sins. This is Isaiah 53, “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” The whole gospel depends on this. (You might share the GOSPEL at this point:

— How God created us to know Him and live with Him in glory (John 17:3)

— But we all sinned, and fall short of that glory (Romans 3:23)

— So Jesus came to die for our sins on the cross (Isaiah 53:6)

— And whoever will call on His name will be saved (Romans 10:13)

But all of that depends on Jesus dying on the cross! There is no gospel without that. Jesus came to die. He had to die. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.” It is what His whole mission was about.

But Peter wasn’t thinking about God’s plan. All he could see was the “typical worldly view” that “dying is bad,” and the Messiah when He comes is going to be a conquering hero. You don’t want your leader to die. The problem was, he was thinking “natural, worldly” thoughts, instead of spiritual thoughts in line with God’s word and His plan.

And isn’t this our problem a lot of the time too? We think just like the world instead of according to God’s word.

— We think that “success” as Christians means we become well-known instead of becoming anonymous servants.

— We think organization and methods are the most important thing, instead of seeing PRAYER as the most important ingredient in our success.

— We think of accumulating treasures on earth instead of treasures in heaven.

— We think of what is good for US personally instead of what is good for the Kingdom of God.

(And on and on — you/your group can think of many more.

The point is, one of our biggest problems is that we are just like Peter; we are setting our minds on MAN’S interests (our own interests) instead of GOD’s.

So one of our biggest challenges is to “restructure” our minds; to think GOD’S way instead of the way of the world. 

And again this is hard to do when we’re bombarded by the media 24/7, and they are “programming” us how to think like the world. Most of us need to spend a lot less time with worldly media/input of all kinds, and more time in God’s word “transforming us” and “renewing our minds” like Romans 12 says.

 

III. The Call To Discipleship  (:34-38)

To me this is really the heart of this passage: 

:34 “And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

First notice: ??? WHO is this call to??? “The CROWD with His disciples”. Jesus purposefully summoned not just His disciples, but also “the crowd.” Which just emphasizes: This call is for anyone; whoever will respond to it.  NOTE several instances of this all through this passage:

— :34 “the crowd with His disciples”

— :34b “If ANYONE wishes to come after Me”

— :35 “For WHOEVER wishes to save his life … WHOEVER loses his life for My sake … will save it.”

— :36/37 “a man” here basically means “anybody”

— :38 “WHOEVER is ashamed of Me and My words”

Jesus’ invitation here is for everyone: the crowds, “whoever”, “any man”/any person. We saw last week that Jesus was open to people of other nations and backgrounds: the Syrophoenician Woman, the Man from Decapolis. We see this again this week: Jesus’ call is to anyone; “Whoever.” As Romans 10:13 says, “WHOEVER will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Revelation 22:17 says, “Whoever wishes, let him take the water of life without cost.” Jesus’ call is for all to come.

— Whoever you are, the call is for YOU

— Whoever you know, the call is for THEM

— Anyone in the world, the call is for them too. Jesus’ call here is for all/everyone.

NOW:  what does He call “anyone” who will, to do? We see this in the 2nd part of this verse:

— “Deny himself.” This doesn’t mean like “deny yourself chocolate” or something like that. It means deny your SELF. Mankind’s biggest problem is we’ve taken God off the throne of our lives, and put OURSELVES there. “The Big I” is on the throne. We have to deny that “self,” and put Jesus back on the throne of our lives.

— “take up his cross” — “the cross” of course was the instrument of the death penalty in Jesus’ day. So He’s saying, you have to put your SELF to death, in a sense. Your life is not all about YOU any more; you die to yourself, your plans, your self-promotion, your ideas. The “old you” dies. 

— “follow Me”: For the disciples then it was literal: follow Him. And He taught them, and sent them out (as we a couple of weeks ago in Mark.) For us it is spiritual: follow Him. Follow in His steps. Do what He did. Live like He lived. Serve Him by doing the kinds of things He did: “worshiping, reaching, teaching, and caring” for people; “seeing needs/feeling compassion/doing something about it” like we saw a couple of weeks ago.

So this is Jesus’ call to all these people: “the crowd with His disciples”. It’s His call to EVERYONE who would follow Him.

This is important, because some think that it is one thing to get saved, and another to be a “disciple” of Jesus; that not every Christian is a disciple (almost like “disciple” is another “level” of Christian.) That’s not so. THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP IS THE CALL FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN!  

When Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28, He said, “Make DISCIPLES, baptizing them ….”. Who does Jesus say we baptize?  DISCIPLES! Every Christian, everyone who gets baptized, is a “disciple.” A “disciple” is not another “level” of Christian; a disciple is what a Christian IS. If you are not a disciple, you are not a Christian!  

So Jesus’ call here is to every person, whoever will respond to Him. Every Christian is to “deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him.” If you aren’t attempting to do that, you are not a Christian at all. And I’d emphasize, it’s NOT that we’re saved by what we do; but this is what people who are genuinely saved by grace do. Jesus’ command here is for all of His disciples. 

So these verses are not only for “lost people,” but are the continued call of Christ to us as we follow Him. After we come to Christ, we STILL need to “deny that SELF, take up our cross (daily as Luke says) and follow Him. This is not just a “one-time thing,” but our daily commitment as disciples of Christ.

As we continue to follow Christ, “denying that SELF” will be one of our biggest struggles, because the “old man,” the old way of thinking, keeps rising up. So we need pray and recommit ourselves every day to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. 

There was a little tract that was popular a generation ago called “Not I But Christ”.  It began with the words:

“Lord, bend that proud and stiffnecked “I,”

Help me to bow the neck and die”

And the tract goes on to pinpoint many of the signs of the “SELF” life. I’m not going to take the time to read that whole tract here, but I’ll post the words to it on my blog at www.shawnethomas.com and you can read/copy/print it from there. 

I plan to hand out a copy to my class Sunday, for them to take home and use in their own time with God, to search their hearts about confessing and repenting from areas of SELF. You can use that as God leads you.  

Of course, giving up your life like that doesn’t sound that great to a lot of people. That’s not a very appealing “sales pitch” in a way. So Jesus explains it in :35-37: 

:35 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul. (:37) For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

He says, listen, if you reject this, and try to “save” what you have of your life, you are just going to lose it all in the end. But if you do give up your life for Me, you will save it in the end. 

A great historical illustration of this happened when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul (France) in 58 B.C. The leader of the Gauls, Vercingetorix, had a brilliant strategy; it was a “scorched earth” policy: burn their fields, cities, etc. as Caesar approached, so there was nothing for them to capture or feed on. It almost worked; the Romans were starving and about to lose — but as they approached the city of Bourges (BOOR-jez), the Gauls pleaded with Vercingetorix not to burn their most beautiful city. So he had to try to defend the city instead; which he could not do, as the Romans had a superior army. So they lost the city, and everything they had, and became slaves to the Romans.  Because they weren’t willing to sacrifice some things for a greater cause, they lost everything in the end. (Ina Caro, The Road From the Past, pp. 21-22)

And this is what many people do spiritually, too. They don’t want to give up their possessions or pleasures or their self will to God — they want to “save their life” — but because they won’t, they will lose it all in the end anyway, and are lost forever. 

But if you “lose” your life for the Lord, you find a new life, even better than what you might have had — and eternal life as well. But only the one who is willing to lose his life to Jesus, will really find it.  

Verses 36-37 have those haunting words: “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” What is your soul worth? What in this world is worth losing your SOUL over? 

And YET people do, don’t they? The fact is, people DO give things in exchange for their soul.  ??? What are some of those things people end up taking, in exchange for their soul??? (Things that hold them back from following Christ)

— Monetary/business success. They give their time, allegiance, ethics, compromise, to make money, come out ahead — and make all that more important than Christ. They have given that in exchange for their soul.

— The pleasures of life. How many people do not want to follow Christ because they know they’ll have to give up something if they do? I read the testimony of an atheist who flat out said he didn’t want to believe in God, because he didn’t want to change his life. He’s basically trading his soul for those worldly pleasures he doesn’t want to give up. 

Then Jesus concludes His call to discipleship here with a call to IDENTIFY with Him:  :38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

He says, do not be ashamed of Me. Stand for me in this world. 

In the Roman Empire, the Roman soldiers had tattoos of the Imperial Army branded on the back of their hands, so as to identify deserters. So the Christian sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper were seen as the “brand”, the identifying marks of those who had followed Christ.  (Peter Brown, Augustine p. 219)

One of the most important ways for us to be “branded” for Christ, is to confess Him publicly is in baptism. That is what baptism IS: a public confession of Christ as your Lord & Savior. Baptism was the New Testament “profession of faith.” When I baptize our folks, I ask them: “Do you confess Jesus as your Lord & Savior?”, and give them an opportunity to confess Him publicly. Some of your class members need to take this important step; it should really be the first step of obedience as a disciple. Encourage them to commit today to confess Jesus publicly in baptism. 

???What are some other ways we can “not be ashamed of Him AND HIS WORDS ” in this life???

(— bringing up His name in personal conversations

— not being ashamed of what His word teaches — He specifically mentions “HIS WORDS” here — don’t hesitate to  share what His word says with others

— associating with other people who are followers of Jesus)

This is a strong statement, and it ought to challenge all of us: If we are ashamed of HIM now, He will ashamed of us when He comes.  

And that brings us to the final point in 9:1 (honestly, with all that is packed into that passage in Chapter 8, I seriously doubt I will get to 9:1 with my class — and remember: our goal is not just to “cover a passage” or “finish a lesson,” but to help our group engage with God’s word in meaningful way, that applies to their life. If you truly impact their lives by engaging with ONE VERSE, that is more important than just “finishing the lesson” in a way that they don’t really engage/apply. But briefly on 9:1

IV. The Soon Coming Kingdom  (9:1)

9:1 “And Jesus was saying to them, ‘Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not see death until they see the Kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

Some think, Oh, Jesus messed up here. He didn’t come before all these people died. But evidently that’s not what Jesus meant. But there are a couple of other things He could have meant by “the kingdom coming in power”:

— First, it is very interesting that the NEXT verse, :2, introduces the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. In fact, Matthew, Mark, and Luke ALL THREE have that incident immediately after these words of Jesus about “coming in power.” Does this have something to do with what He just said? Possibly; it seems to be more than a “coincidence” that the Transfiguration immediately follows that statement.  

— But others suggest that His kingdom came “with power” in Acts 2, after His death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit came and worked on earth to spread the gospel. The kingdom of God was among men, in the power of the Holy Spirit. That could very well be what He meant here. And it is certainly true that many of those disciples standing there that day, did indeed the Kingdom of God come, in the power of the Holy Spirit, on earth. It wasn’t the “kingdom” many of them expected — but that is what God had planned. 

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