Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Go ahead and open your Bibles to

Last week, we saw that the disciples were finally starting to understand who Jesus was.

They recognized that Jesus is the Messiah, he’s the one God sent to establish his kingdom over the world.

As we will see, though, they still didn’t understand what that would look like.

Jesus is redefining for them what the Messiah is supposed to be, and as he does so, he gives us some of the most challenging statements in the New Testament on what it means to be a Christian.

I have really struggled with how to present this text, because there are no words that can convince you of the weight of his call here.

With that in mind, would you pray with me?

I am sure by now, you have noticed the objects up on stage with me.

If you are a regular here, you know that this cross is up here most of the time, although it is moved up a little closer this morning.

What about this, though?

Why a mirror?

As I wrestled through the message for this morning, I wanted to do something that would look a little different, perhaps to give you something that would help this particular message stick in your mind.

Throughout our walk through Mark, we have been attempting to see what the Bible really teaches us about Jesus.

We have been trying to pull away our society’s confusion about Christianity and get back to a clear idea of who he is and what he did and what it means to follow him.

Today, we see one of the clearest places the Bible’s definition of a disciple, or a follower of Jesus, a Christian, differs from what our society teaches.

We can narrow this down this morning by one phrase: You have a choice: you or Jesus.

You have a choice: you or Jesus.

You have a choice: you or Jesus.

When it comes down to who is in charge, where your life is headed, and where you find your identity, you are either going to find those things in yourself or you are going to find them in Jesus.

I hope it’s obvious that we want you to find your identity in Christ, but we’ll see that more as we dive in to the text.

Let’s read the text this morning...

We’re going to divide our message into two parts this morning, and they line up with our choice.

You can either focus on you, represented by this mirror, or you can focus on Jesus, represented by this cross.

1) Focus on You.

What does it look like to choose you?

Well, Peter gives us a great example.

Look back at verses 31-33.

Well, Peter gives us a great example.

Look back at

Now that they believe Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is having to show them what it really means.

As we have said throughout our study, the Jews were anticipating a special person to come from God, throw off the Roman oppressors, destroy all the wicked people, and set up an earthly kingdom.

In his first coming, though, Jesus wasn’t coming to do that.

In fact, as he starts explaining to the disciples, he is coming to die.

Instead of winning over the religious leaders or taking over for them, he was going to be put to death, although he would rise from the dead on the third day.

We know the end of the story, that he actually did all this, so it isn’t shocking to us.

For the disciples, this would have been unbelievable!

There had been other men who claimed to be the Messiah, and all of them died, but none of them came back from the dead.

If Jesus died, they thought that would be the end of him, just like everyone else.

Peter, as the spokesman for the group, decides that it is time to intervene, so he begins to rebuke Jesus, calling him out for how wrong he is.

I imagine he said things like, “You’re going to be the king; you can’t die!

This isn’t how it works, Jesus.

You need to get your head on straight.”

Knowing Peter, he probably assured Jesus that he would do whatever it took to make sure he didn’t.

How did Jesus respond?

By commanding Peter to get out of his sight and calling him Satan, the very enemy of God.

This isn’t how it works, Jesus.

Peter was trying to do the very thing Satan had tried to do when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness: he was trying to get him to avoid the cross.

Jesus’ next words are a powerful rebuke for us all: “You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”

Is that true of you?

Peter thought he knew how it was all supposed to happen.

In reality, he was thinking about life from his perspective and completely ignoring God’s.

Peter was focused on himself, not on Jesus.

He was trusting his understanding, not God’s.

What does that look like?

How can we know if we are focused on human concerns instead of God’s?

The easiest way to sum it up is in one word: me.

Let me point you to some passages where we see a difference between our way of looking at life and God’s:

In , the prophet Samuel is trying to figure out which of Jesse’s sons he is supposed to anoint as king.

He assumes it is the strong, handsome, oldest son, and God rebukes him: (Outward appearance vs heart)

In , James rebukes the church for giving preference to richer people and neglecting the poor.

Just before that, he reminds us that...

James 1:

True religion isn’t giving honor to the wealthy, it is in looking after the poor.

(Showing partiality vs. impartial)

Later in , he contrasts worldly wisdom, the way we look at life, with godly wisdom, showing that our wisdom is selfish and God’s is pure.

(Selfish vs pure motives)

In , we see that God doesn’t view time the same way we do, and he works when he knows is best.

(Late vs. Perfect Timing)

In , we hear that our sin nature fights against God, leading to all kinds of sin, where living a life controlled by the Spirit of God causes us to live out love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

In , we hear that our sin nature fights against God, leading to all kinds of sin, where living a life controlled by the Spirit of God causes us to live out love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Jesus tells us in that most people spend their lives worrying about what they will eat or wear, but God provides all those things, so we need to focus on his kingdom first and the rest will fall into place.

(Food & Clothes vs Kingdom)

Finally, humanly speaking, it is usually the smartest, fastest, strongest, biggest men and women who make it to the highest positions of leadership.

In , though, Jesus tells us that the most successful people in his kingdom are the ones who are regarded as the least by the world.

(Climb the ladder vs. serve the most)

Human Concerns Vs.

God’s:

Outward appearance vs. heart ()

Showing partiality vs. impartial ()

Selfish motives vs. Pure motives ()

God is late vs. God works at the perfect time ()

Sin & anger vs. Love, joy, peace… ()