Teaching Disciples: Part 1 - 240307

SPEAKER A Hello, I'm Rosemary Malkiewycz. Welcome to let God speak. Jesus had been ministering for more than two and a half years when he posed the question to his disciples. Who do you say I am? This is a simple question, yet it has profound implications depending on how it is answered. This was an important time in Jesus ministry as he focused on teaching his followers the cost of discipleship. Join us as we continue our journey through the gospel of Mark. On our panel today we have Cassie Sollano and Christopher Petersen. So welcome, Cassie and Christopher. Let's pray before we get going. Father in heaven, we thank you for the message of the book of Mark. Please bless us today as we discuss the end of chapter eight and chapter nine. Be with us in our discussion. Give us clear minds, clear speech that the people at home will be able to receive the message you have for us in these verses. We thank you for your word and for the Holy Spirit's help. In Jesus name, amen. Today we're going to discuss the last part of Mark, chapter eight and chapter nine. Knowing that the cross was less than a year away, Jesus retired from his public ministry in Galilee. He shifted his focus to teaching the disciples about his mission and began talking about the cross. He also gave lessons on discipleship. So we're going to start looking at these verses today in Mark 822 25, which I am going to read. Mark 822 25. Then he came to Bethsaida and they brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. So he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything as he looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. Then he, Jesus put his hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. So who was the one who initiated the healing of this man? Cassie? SPEAKER B Well, in verse 22, it says that others brought the blind man to Jesus and they earnestly appealed for him to heal this man. While it could have been the man's blindness that prevented him from coming to Jesus, it may also have been a lack of faith. Mark says he was brought to Jesus because of the faith and desperation of his friends, not necessarily of the man himself. SPEAKER A That's true. So, Chris, why did Jesus take the man by the hand and lead him out of town? That's a strange thing for him to do. SPEAKER C It's an interesting detail in the story, isn't it? SPEAKER A It is. SPEAKER C It looks like this was a problem that happened in Jesus ministry as he got more popular and people heard more about his miracles. Whenever he'd come into town, crowds would surround him. It was just Jesus couldn't escape it. And so it seems that Jesus wanted to take this man away from the crowds, away from the hustle, the bustle and the chaos, so that he could really just concentrate and focus on this encounter with Jesus. This was going to be a life changing experience for this man. And so it looks like Jesus really wanted it to be a quiet time of reflection and quite personal and intimate, not with the. These crazy crowds all around them. SPEAKER A Being a blind man, his hearing would have been exceptionally good. SPEAKER C Yeah, sure. SPEAKER A He would have picked up on things, so maybe. Yeah, it would have been very distracting. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A If he was still in the tone. SPEAKER C Having to hear everything. SPEAKER A Yeah, yeah, that's right. So Jesus healed this man in two stages. Cassie, why would he have done that? SPEAKER B It doesn't seem obvious because, of course, Jesus had the power to heal the man immediately. But the two phase healing might have been to strengthen the man's faith. If we think that's what he's coming from, that he needs his faith strengthened. We don't know if he was blind from birth or if it happened throughout his life, but we can just imagine the joy he feels as he sees the shapes and colours begin to be before him. Then once he's completely healed, he will really have this full belief in Jesus as the messiah because he had the time to really dwell on what's happening to him and appreciate the gift of his healing. SPEAKER A Yeah, because when I read it, he says, I see men like trees walking and it must have been an amazing thing. And I sort of think to myself, he knew what a tree was and so maybe he wasn't born blind, though the text doesn't tell us. But, you know, it's just that thought in my mind in regard to that. So there's a lesson for us, for us personally, in this miraculous healing of the blind man. So what would that lesson be, Chris? SPEAKER C I think there's a parallel to really the spiritual journey that all of us go on where we don't come into a knowledge and understanding completely of God and who he is in a snap second. It's not something that happens in a moment time, it's a journey. And so this man, as Jesus heals him, his sight slowly, piece by piece, comes together. And it's the same with us. Our spiritual insight, our ability to understand the word of God. It's not something that boom, it happens overnight. It takes time. And I think that's God being merciful to us as well. I think if we could learn everything in a snap second, that'd be quite a daunting experience. It'd be overwhelming, be a shock. It'd be a big shock. But God just takes us gently, step by step, and we grow in that spiritual journey. I think that's one of the spiritual lessons we can draw from this story. SPEAKER A Well, Cassie, Jesus fixed his focus on something else. At this time, we leave the blind man, but he started to look at the faith of the disciples. So how did he do that? SPEAKER B Well, I'd like to read still Anhe mark 827 29, which say now, Jesus and his disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi, and on the road he asked his disciples, saying to them, who do men say that I am? So they answered, John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets, he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said to him, you are the Christ. By this time, the disciples had been with Jesus for two and a half to three years. But this was the first time he actually discussed his messiahship with them. They had seen his miracles, they had heard his teachings, witnessed his character in prayer life, while they've been close to him and follow him now, he was putting that experience to the test. SPEAKER A Hmm, that's right. He asked. This, we can see in the text near the town of or the towns of Caesarea Philippi. It's an area just at the foothills of Mount Hermon in the northern Galilee part of Israel. And it's also the place where the God pan, the pagan God, the greek God pan, was worshipped. And I've actually been there. And so it's interesting to see it and know that this is where the question was asked. And why do you think Jesus would have chosen this time to ask this question? SPEAKER C Well, we're going to see later on, Jesus is going to give some more information about what it means for him to be the Messiah. As we keep reading the passage, this is one of the instances Jesus we see as he gets closer and closer to the time of his crucifixion. He keeps telling his disciples, bit by bit, something is going to happen to me and this is part of my role as being the Messiah. And again, the disciples didn't quite understand. Jesus was trying to give them spiritual insight piece by piece. And so Jesus, knowing they're going to see him go through something that they don't expect, he needs them to realise I'm not just a teacher. I'm not just a prophet. I'm actually the Messiah, the Christ or the anointed one. And as the messiah, I have a special role I have to fulfil. And we're going to see in the following verses he tells them. And here's what's going to happen. And they're not quite a fan. An understatement. SPEAKER A That's right. They're sort of a bit fearful, but they're afraid. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER A Yeah. I think the fact that this is the area where pan was worshipped and prior to that baal, I think this makes this whole region a more interesting place for him to ask, who do people say that I am? And who do you think that I am? And so to be, for Peter to say the son of God in this area is very, very important. This area of pagan worship. I'm going to read Mark, chapter eight and verse 30. This is very interesting. Then he strictly warned them that they should tell no one about him, to tell no one that he's the messiah. Now, before he has healed people and on many occasions said, don't tell anybody I did this. Don't tell anybody I was the one who healed you. But now he's telling the disciples to not tell anyone that he is the messiah. So, Cassie, why would he have done that? SPEAKER B Yes. It doesn't seem to make sense. Why wouldn't he want them to tell people? But if they did, the Jews wanted a political messiah. So this word would bring to mind a leader, a political ruler who would remove the Romans from Israel and rule an earthly kingdom like King David. They didn't want one who would willingly die on a cross, which is what jesus came to do. If the disciples went and publicly proclaimed Jesus as the messiah, the Jews would have misconstrued all of Jesus ministry as fulfilling their political expectations, and it would hinder his work of proclaiming the gospel and people's reception of his message. SPEAKER A Mm, that's right. Him as the messiah. I mean, I can imagine that when Peter, who always had to have the. He always had to say something, you know, as we will see further on too. But he always had to have something to say about every situation. Well, he's the one who first says something here, but I can imagine all the other disciples saying, yes, yes, we agree. But how did Jesus bring them back to reality after saying, yes, he's the messiah? SPEAKER C That's right. Specifies what his role as Messiah is going to be. As Cassie said, they're thinking, oh, he's going to have this earthly kingdom and we're going to be sitting on his right and left hand in this kingdom. It's going to be great for us. But listen to what Jesus says. In Mark 831, it says, he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again. You can imagine, for the disciples, that's a shock. They're thinking, jesus is going to defeat the Romans. We're going to be living in freedom. And Jesus says, no, actually, as Messiah, as the son of man, I'm going to suffer. I'm going to be betrayed and rejected. I'm going to be killed. Now he does say as well, he's going to rise in three days. But they kind of get caught up on the rejected, killed part and they go, this is not what we expected, but the disciples should have known better. When you read the Old Testament, there are many references to different aspects of the Messiah's ministry. Isaiah most famously talks about this suffering servant in Isaiah 53 seven. Here's what it says would happen to the Messiah. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth. You can read through the entirety of this chapter, and it's just all about the Messiah is going to suffer. And here it says, he's oppressed, afflicted, he's led to the slaughter, he's going to be killed. The disciples should have known that this was part of the Messiah's role. But they had their own expectation. Jesus had to remind them, no, I'm going to do the suffering servant part first, the being a king and ruler. That will come later in glory. SPEAKER A That comes later, which they didn't understand. No, it didn't fit in with the plan. I'm just going to read Mark, chapter eight, verses 32 and 33. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Now, that seems a bit harsh when he says, I'm going to be killed. And Peter says, no, don't let that happen. And then he says, you know, get behind me, Satan. Cassie, why would he say that? Did he think that Peter was possessed? SPEAKER B No, he didn't. It's again, Peter's block and understanding that Jesus is the Messiah and he's going to die. That's just not according to what he thinks the Messiah is. Satan, of course, wanted Jesus ministry to fail. He didn't want him to go to the cross and die, and for that to be done. So he tried to discourage Jesus from doing it through Peter, because Peter was speaking the ideas of Satan, which is contrary to God's plan for humanity's redemption. That's why Jesus addressed Peter as Satan. SPEAKER A He didn't like the idea that he just says, you're the messiah, and now you say you're going to die. But like I said before, Peter always had to be the first to speak and say something in every situation. This time he got it wrong, which he did on many occasions. Unfortunately, Jesus then told the disciples to take up their cross and follow him. And so I'm going to read verse 34, mark 834. When he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So what does this mean, to take up your cross and follow me? Chris? SPEAKER C Yeah. Jesus is using this idea of picking up a cross as a metaphor for what discipleship is. If you really want to follow Jesus, you have to follow in the way he did. Jesus took up his cross. He submitted or surrendered to God the father, even going as far as obeying to the point of death. So Jesus is saying, if you want to be a true follower of me, a true disciple, it takes that surrender, submitting to God and letting him guide you, as Jesus said in the garden of Gethsemane, not my will, but your will to the father. And that should be our attitude as well. God, it's not what I want. I'm going to follow what you want. That's what it really means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. SPEAKER A Jesus then goes on to say, to save your life, you must lose it. So how can you save your life though you lose it? SPEAKER B Cassie? Let's read mark 835 to 38. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, the son of man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his with the holy angels. This is Jesus explaining this concept that to follow Jesus and to surrender to him means losing our own life in terms of we're losing our earthly desires and our will to follow our own way. This is the life we must lose. We can call it the paradox of christian faith, that losing one's life means to give up our own plans and desires and to find life is to follow and walk with Jesus. So, yes, we don't want to be following our own desires and gaining the things we can in this world when there is an eternal life that we can claim and seek instead. SPEAKER A That's right. Next, Jesus makes the most unusual prediction. Chris, can you tell us about that? SPEAKER C Yeah, let's go into chapter nine. We've wrapped up chapter eight, the first verse in mark nine. Jesus said to them, assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power. Now, some people read this and jump to the conclusion, he must be talking about the second coming. But that's a bit of a problem. None of those disciples, they all died. They all died, right. It's clear what Jesus means because we get the story of when this was fulfilled. The story goes on to describe Jesus taking three of his disciples up onto a mountain, and there he's transfigured. That means his glory was shown, the brightness of his glory was revealed. And so that's when these disciples before. Before they tasted death, they saw the kingdom of God present with power. When they saw Jesus revealed with the glory that he had, they saw that glory. That's it. SPEAKER A Amazing transfiguration, as they call it. So during this amazing event up on the mountain, why do Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus and talk with him? SPEAKER B I just like to read from mark nine two four, because this describes this event. It says now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up on a high mountain, apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining exceedingly white like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. It's specifically Moses and Elijah. And it's very important to understand who they were in their lives because Moses was the great deliverer and leader of God's people from bondage in Egypt. And similarly, God used Elijah to deliver Israel from great apostasy. In crisis, both Moses and Elijah were taken to heaven because of their faithful service. Moses was raised from the dead, and Elijah never saw death, but was translated directly to heaven. Together, they represent the two groups of people who were saved at Christ's return, his second coming on the mount. They bore witness to the divinity of Jesus. And Luke even says they spoke with him about his coming death in Jerusalem. SPEAKER A That's amazing. So the next morning, they came down from the mountainous, but there was a huge commotion going on amongst the disciples who were left behind and the people who were there. So, Chris, what was going on? SPEAKER C Yeah, as I was reading this passage, I kind of put myself in the shoes of those disciples, and I thought this would be an incredibly stressful experience. Their master, their teacher, Jesus, has gone with three of the disciples. And then something crazy, crazy happens. There's a father. He brings his son to the disciples, and his son is demon possessed. The demon is preventing the child from speaking, making him mute. So it's a very tragic situation. And so this father, he appeals for help to release the boy from this possession. Let's read what happens in Mark 917. Then one of the crowd answered and said, teacher, I brought you my son, who has a mute spirit. So now he's speaking with Jesus, who's come down from the mountain. Verse 18. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not. Now, this is interesting because in mark six, jesus sent out his disciples, and he gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits. So it's clear that they had done this in the past. When they were approached by this father, they probably expected to be able to do the same. But then it didn't work, and they had to wait for jesus to come down from the mountain for help. Then we see the resolution in verse 22. And often he was thrown. Often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. This father is pleading for the life of his son. He's pleading to jesus, look, I know your disciples couldn't help, but you as the teacher, the rabbi, can you please set my son free from this demon? SPEAKER A So, Cassie, how did jesus respond to this terrible situation? SPEAKER B Well, it's in verse 19. It says, he answered him and said, o faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. And he says this. And we find out in verse 23, which says, jesus said to him, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Jesus knew that the reason that they could not heal this boy was the lack of faith in his disciples and in the scribes and the crowd and the father of the Boyden. And he knew if they had that faith, then it would be possible. SPEAKER A So what was the father's response when jesus said that if you had faith? SPEAKER C Yeah. It seems that the father felt convicted in the same way we read in Matthew 924. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, lord, I believe, help my unbelief. It seems the father recognised that he also lacked sufficient faith. He was making an appeal, but he didn't trust that Jesus could actually follow through and heal his son. And so what we see here is jesus is successful. Jesus rebukes the demon, the boy is set free. And this becomes another public example of Jesus victory over the forces of evil and over Satan. SPEAKER A Yes, very much so. I just want to go to the verses in mark 943 to 48. I'm not going to read the whole thing because it is a long passage. But it's talking about Jesus saying that if you sin, it is better to cut off your hand or your foot if it causes you to sin, or to pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin, than to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. This is a very strange saying. So is he telling us to cut off our body parts? SPEAKER B No, he isn't. He is not teaching self mutilation. Deuteronomy 14 one says, you are the children of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. I and Jesus isn't about to contradict that. He's simply using a bit of exaggeration to drive home his point. If losing a hen foot or eye on this life is terrible, how much more of a disaster is it to hold on to one little sin and lose heaven and eternal life? No sin is worth losing heaven over. SPEAKER A That's so true. So was Jesus in these verses teaching unquenchable fire, eternally burning hell. SPEAKER C It's one of the unfortunate misinterpretations that people have of scripture when it uses this, we could say, hyperbolic or exaggerated language of eternal or unquenchable. I think Jude seven really clarifies this. It says as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Sodom and Gomorrah, they were two evil cities that God destroyed with fire. And it says it's with eternal fire. But Sodom and Gomorrah are not on fire today. I think we'd all. SPEAKER A They don't exist. SPEAKER C We would have heard about that if it was. Instead, the consequences of that fire did last forever. The people perished and unfortunately that was it. God warns us, don't miss out, don't suffer eternal death except eternal life. SPEAKER A Yes, because it's the result of the fire. It's not the fire itself that's burning forever. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER A A fire doesn't keep going when the fuel is all gone. SPEAKER C That's it. SPEAKER A So that's one of the important things we've got to learn from the Bible. So being a disciple of Jesus requires a knowledge and spiritual insight into who Jesus is. It requires faith that he is who he says he is and a personal relationship with him. Just as Jesus mission and teachings challenged the twelve disciples, so they continue to confront us today with the deep cost and yet highest reward of following Jesus. We're glad you joined us today on let God speak. Remember all past programmes. Teachers notes are available on our website, 3abnaustalia.org dot au. Email us on [email protected] dot au and join us again next time. God bless. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from you.