566 in my Bible and it probably is in yours. 1-5-6-6. Mark is writing about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. We start at verse 22. They came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people, they look like trees walking around. Once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, don't go into the village. Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he asked them, who do people say I am? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets. But what about you? He asked. Who do you say I am? Peter answered, you are the Christ. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan, he said. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Then he called the crowd to him, along with his disciples, and said, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it what good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul what can a man give in exchange for his soul. If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." And so reads God's Word and we're going to be focusing mainly on verses 27 to 38. Let me pray that God would speak. through me. Father we thank you for your word which is true, clear, we thank you that the Holy Spirit who gave the word is also our teacher and we pray now that we won't merely hear a man speaking. Holy Spirit please speak to us, teach us, reveal truth to us, change us, we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness, safe return doubtful, honour and recognition in the event of success. Perhaps some of you have heard that before. It was an advert that Ernest Shackleton is said to have posted in the London Times. He was recruiting men for an expedition to the Antarctic, and they were going to go in this ship appropriately called the Endurance. And he managed to recruit people on the back of that advert. And off they went, but disaster struck. The ship became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed. The crew finally escaped in their lifeboats and eventually reached the island of South Georgia, 720 nautical miles away. And that proved to be Shackleton's most famous exploit. But what can we say? Well, we can at least say that his advert was honest. So, my question for you is, are you a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? If you are, are you clear about what that means? What have you signed up to? Have you counted the cost? Perhaps you're here and you're still mulling that over. You're not sure. Are you going to follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, I hope after this sermon we will all be clear about what the terms are, but also the certainty of victory on the adventure. So I've read to you from Mark 8, and we're at this point that is often known as the Peter's confession of Jesus as Christ. And it's a pivot point in Mark's gospel. It's a real turning point in the narrative. It's harder for us to appreciate because I guess all of us here have read to the end. We all know about Jesus' death and resurrection. We know the whole story. nearly 2,000 years of church history as well, but if we think about how this was revealed chronologically, we can see just what a turning point this was in the gospel. It was the first time when someone revealed Jesus's identity as Messiah. Before that we just get Mark's editorial comments, of course he's written those after the event, and we get Jesus's own words. So this is the first time when someone other than Jesus says, aha, I know who you are. It's a turning point in the revelation of who Jesus is. It's also a geographical turning point because so far Mark has had Jesus and his group of disciples marching northward. They're going northward, northward to Caesarea Philippi. But at this event, at this revelation of who Jesus is, they turn around and they start going southward. Jesus announces that he's gonna die. And instead of going further north, he turns around and goes straight towards Jerusalem, straight towards his crucifixion. I've got three questions that we're going to ask of the text and the last is the longest. The first question then, who is Jesus? Our passage opens with this mildly amusing guessing game. You can imagine someone going along with a microphone to the crowds at the latest Morrie poll. Who do you say I am? And they told him, John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others one of the prophets. John the Baptist, well he was a radical wasn't he? John the Baptist, the radical who dared to speak up and had his head chopped off. What a radical to stand up, what a daring person. Maybe this is John the Baptist back from the dead. No, others say it's Elijah. Well, there's another radical for you. Remember Elijah, who dared to stand up to another wicked couple, Ahab and Jezebel. What a mighty man with that great showdown against the prophets of Baal. So we can see that public opinion has Jesus standing out from the crowds. A radical, worthy man of God, or a mighty man of God perhaps. But the problem is that is just too small. That just isn't big enough to describe who Jesus actually is. And Jesus asked the disciples, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are the Christ. And then here's the kicker. He strictly charged them to tell no one about him. Isn't that strange? Peter, always the spokesman, he gets up and he gives his answer and it's a brilliant answer. You are the Christ. So why then ban the press statement? Why would leaking the truth be damaging? Why would you think this was false news? You are the Christ, and he says, tell no one about him. You see, Peter was absolutely right to declare that Jesus is the Christ. That means the anointed one, the Messiah, the long-promised rescuer of God's people. But the problem was that Peter still had far too small an idea of what that meant. He was right in the label, he didn't understand the content. Now, Mark doesn't formally link this, but I think it's very suggestive in the way that he puts his narrative together. Just before this, we read about this miracle of the healing of this blind man in Bethsaida. And it's a two-stage miracle, isn't it? Firstly, the man could see people walking like trees, and only afterwards does he see it clearly. I wonder whether Mark is alluding to that with Peter, who could see something of who Jesus is, but not yet clearly. Who is Jesus? He's the Messiah. But what does that mean? Question 2. What must Jesus do? Verse 31, 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. He said it plainly. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 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. Again, because we know the whole story, it's harder for us to understand the bombshell that this was for Peter. Finally, he declares that you are the Christ, and we're told by Matthew that that was by the spirits working. But then he goes on to, Jesus goes on to give a completely different idea of what that will mean. Jesus taught plainly that he would die. He would be rejected. He would suffer. And Peter says, no, no, no, you've got that all wrong. Don't you know what the job of Messiah is? You are a rescuer. You've come to be victorious. You're gonna smash all of God's enemies. You're gonna raise up God's people. You're gonna make Israel great in the world. And all the kings will come and see how you have been victorious. You see, we know that you're not John the Baptist. We know that you're not Elijah. You're greater than that. You're the Messiah. And we all know that Messiah means victory, not defeat. There's going to be a greater kingdom even than David's, don't you see? It's as if he was going through this in his mind, was Peter, toward Jesus. You have more authority than the Sanhedrin. We've heard your teaching already. You have the authority to forgive sins. You said it earlier on. And you have authority over the Sabbath. In fact, you know, you have so much authority, so much power, that you raise the dead. You've just done it with Jairus' daughter. How can you tell us that you're going to suffer and die when you say you are Messiah? And then Jesus rebukes him. You're speaking the lies of Satan. Now, it's perfectly true that Peter and the other disciples had all the theological material in the Old Testament, in the Scriptures, to have had a right understanding of what Messiah would do. But we need to be careful not to be too hard on them. Because Paul, later on, doesn't he, in his letters, explains just how counterintuitive the gospel really is. For the Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles. The idea that God would bring salvation through the suffering of one man on a cross, was offensive to Jews who thought that no Messiah would be cursed by God, and just plain foolish to Gentiles who thought about the cunning outmaneuvering of the mind and the human genius, not the willing submission to a death in weakness. We have to remember just how radical that message is, that Jesus is the Messiah who will suffer and voluntarily die and then tell us to go and do likewise. Because that's our next question, how do we Follow. Perhaps this is where the penny drops for us. I often find myself tut-tutting them for not realizing in Isaiah 53 that it was said that Jesus would die. But I find it so hard to realize that I must die as well. Surely I have some exemption. But look what Jesus says. He calls the crowd in verse 34 and says, if anyone would come after me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father and his holy angels. We follow by denying ourselves, dying to self and giving all to Jesus. I want to unpack that call for you if you're a follower of Jesus. or if you're considering it, what exactly is Jesus calling us to do? Well, firstly see this, so there are three sub points to this third question. Firstly see that it's not a call to give up things as much as a call to give up ourselves. That's what Jesus says, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself. I don't know if any of you have ever practiced Lent. Have you heard of Lent? It's a custom that some Christians have not to eat certain things in the build up towards Easter. Traditionally, people have quit all the sugar. That's why we have Shrove Tuesday and the pancakes. It's a modern twist on it today. You give up Facebook for Lent. Give up something so that you can focus your mind on Jesus and his death. But you see, the Bible says you don't have to do that. You don't have to give up caffeine or coffee. I wonder whether actually, well, that's why it's so popular. We get to choose what we'll give up for a few weeks. But Jesus isn't in the business of getting us to give up things as much as ourselves. Of course, sometimes he does, did with the rich young ruler. to rid an idol from his heart, but the radical teaching is not to give up things, but to give up ourselves to Jesus. That's radical self-denial, the control of our own life to someone else. If you were going to physical crucifixion, you didn't have plans for tomorrow. your life was quite literally in someone else's hands. And Jesus calls us to give up our self-ownership to him as our Lord. So the call is not to give up things as much as to give up ourselves, but secondly, the call is to give up ourselves for Jesus' sake and the gospel. Listen again to what he says, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. Because the idea of giving up ourselves is not an exclusively Christian thing. I would wager that there are hundreds of people living around here in Poplar who radically practice this self-denial for their kids. or for a political ideology, or for a social justice campaign, dot, dot, dot. People are empowered. They feel that they want to give up themselves for a greater cause. They'll deny much for their kids and their education. They will go out and march on long hours to save X, Y, or Z. But you see, Jesus is calling us, over and above our kids and our careers and whatever else, to surrender our lives for His sake and for His gospel. To submit all of our life, all of our plans, all of our decisions to Him. That's how radical the call is of the Christian gospel. We're called to die to self-glory, die to self-determination, die to self-serving. So what might that look like? I don't know you, you don't really know me, but let's in broad brush terms think about this. With two big things, big ticket things, our time and our money. So what's the common view? What's the idea out there on the street? is this, work hard, do your chores, and the rest of your time is for you. That's how it works, isn't it? You work hard, you do your chores, and then it's me time. And that might mean that when Sunday comes, I've earned it. me time, the weekend, the holiday, or whatever. But you see, Jesus says something really radical. He says, no, even in those times, will you be thinking about how you can be serving me and the gospel? No, no, he's not saying that there's no time for relaxation and for things that you enjoy, hobbies and stuff. But he is saying that even in the thinking of those, we are to have a mind for others who we might bring in to share time with, or we might be investing in with a holiday or other help. To invest all of our lives in thinking about how might this serve Jesus and his gospel. It's a radical difference, isn't it? Of not saying that I work hard, do my chores, and then it's me, but to say no, all that I do. I will do with an eye to serving Jesus. How might that change the way you live this new week? What might you change in the way that you plan your time or you think of others so that you might be bringing glory to God in all that you do? We could repeat that, couldn't we, with money? You pay all the bills, you save a little, What about that that's left? Are you going to think of how you might use that for the glory of God, for the blessing of others? That's the radical call, to give up ourselves for Jesus' sake and the gospel. But thirdly and lastly, the call only makes sense because of the resurrection. It only makes sense because of the resurrection. Look, let me offer you two options here, figuratively. Option one, save your life now. Option two, lose your life now. What are you going to take? Save your life now. or lose your life now. It's a no-brainer, isn't it? You're going to save your life now, of course. If that's all that's on offer, lose it or keep it, carpe diem. Follow your dream. Live for today. But now, let me change that offer. Save your life for a few years, but lose it eternally. or seem to lose your life for a few years, but gain it eternally. You see, if there is a conscious eternity, if there is, as we were reading in Revelation, another world, then it makes all the difference to how we live now. You see, the resurrection is the game changer. What did Jesus plainly teach Peter and the other disciples? 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 it plainly. Why could Jesus turn around in Caesarea Philippi and walk towards Jerusalem? How is it that he could walk towards what he knew would be an agonizing death on the cross? Because he knew that he would be victorious. He knew that his father's plan was that he would suffer and die for his people. But he knew that his father would also raise him victorious, vindicated, defeated over death and the devil. And it was because he could see that, that he was willing to walk back to the cross. And Jesus wants us to see that for ourselves today. We need to hold on to the resurrection of Jesus as the down payment, the proof of our own resurrection, and then as we deny ourselves for these few years, We do so in the certain hope of our own resurrection to a glorious life with him in that new world that we were reading of. Do you see how the resurrection changes it? If we're thinking like the average secular person that this is all it is, then why would you want to give up just even an hour on a Sunday morning when you could be lazing in bed? Why would you want to do that? But if you know that this is not all there is, there is a life to come, there is a reality that we don't see but is real, then when Jesus says, trust me as I trusted my Father, that the way of suffering leads to glory. then we are able to follow him and deny ourselves. Some of you will have heard this quote from Jim Elliott, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep. to gain that which he cannot lose. And that's what we need to be thinking and speaking to ourselves through our week. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? And the implied answer is nothing. It would be a disaster. For what can a man give in return for his soul? Implied answer, nothing. to save your soul, you must give it to Jesus, surrender all to him. You know, there's something completely different about Jesus. He's the only leader that never asks you more than he's done for you. Jesus has died for you. And when he calls you to die to self for him, He calls you to follow, not pioneer. He calls you to suffer, but nowhere as much as he ever did. You see, the call to die to self only makes sense because of Jesus' resurrection. We've got eyewitness evidence, we know it is true, and therefore we can base our lives on following Jesus in the hope of our resurrections. So the call to you and me is to give up control of our own lives, to hand that over willingly to Jesus and to say, I want you to teach me, I want you to guide me, I will go where you lead me for the good of your name and your gospel. I won't hold on to pockets of my time and money or whatever else for me, but I'll gladly share and use it for you. and when I'm tempted to think that this is a con this is not worth it I'll remember what you have done and the glory set out before me when you come again in your resurrection power and I expect that like me part of you says yes that's what I want to do yes But there's a part of you that says, but I find it so hard when push comes to shove. Isn't that the struggle that we all face? We hear a sermon like this and we feel, yes, I want to be sold out. I want to live for Jesus. I've seen what he's done. I know the certainty of what is ahead of me in him. And yet that whisper comes into my ear, live for yourself. Store up for yourself. So we need to pray, don't we? Oh, Father, would you help us? Would you wean us off those idols that trap us, that con us? But you know, it is a little bit easier when we remember that we don't need to do it on our own. You know, that's why I'm so passionate about the local church. The local church is God's good idea, because it's hard on your own, but it's a little easier when you walk with others, and you pour out your burdens with them, and they pick you up, and they dust you down, and they lend a hand, and they give you some encouragement, and together as a community, we learn what it is to live for Jesus. That's why the church is so important. Imagine if Shackleton was on his own on the boat trying to go out to the Antarctic. He had others with him, others that would no doubt come and help in those times of danger. So can I encourage you, stand together, sit together, mix your lives up together. A church is like a ball of spaghetti, you know, a pot of spaghetti, all mixed up lives together, everyone involved in everyone else's life. That's how to live this sacrificial life for Jesus. So that's the gospel paradox. The paradox is this, the losers are the keepers. That's what Jesus says. Lose your life for me and you will keep it. It's the safest thing you can do. You know, there is actually some doubt as to whether Shackleton ever posted that advert. There's been some inquiry. No one seems to be able to find a copy of that advert in the Times. We don't know. But, you know, all Shackleton could offer people was honor and recognition in this life. but everything else will be lost. But there's no doubt that Jesus has given this advert, he's given this invitation, this command to follow him and there's absolutely no doubt that when we do we will receive a blessing and a reward in the world to come. Let's pray. Father we We understand what you say to us. We understand that Jesus gave up all trusting you and that you followed through and he was raised from the dead and he is now seated at your right hand. And yet, Lord, we struggle to apply that to ourselves and fully trust you. Please help us to truly submit all that we are all of our ambitions, all of our gifts and skills, all of our time and money, everything willingly used for you and your glory. Help us to work out what that actually means. We thank you for one another to teach us and guide us to be able to do that rightly, not rashly, but wisely. Lord, we pray that you would help us to trust you and to surrender our lives willingly to you and we pray that as you do that we would grow in our love for you and we would together bring much glory to your great name. Hear us we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. We're going to sing our last hymn which is on one side of your