Mark 9:1 - True Power

Verse 1 causes some problem because it is assumed that Jesus is referring to His return. Clearly this cannot be the case. Others see it as referring to the transfiguration. Given that we immediately get an account of the transfiguration there is something to be said for this.

So let's look at what has just happened. The disciples have just realised that Jesus is the Messiah, they have then had the shock of Jesus saying He would be killed (the bit about the resurrection seems to have washed over their heads). Then, as if to make matters worse, He has gone on to say that anyone who follows Him (ie the disciples) must be prepared to endure a similar fate. And let us remember that while for most of us "carrying our cross" is a metaphorical term, most of the apostles dies for their faith.

On the surface this messiah business is not as attractive as it once seemed! Yet they would realise that there was true power in the cross, that the cross was the most powerful act of any man in history.

Romans 9-11 - Israel and the wisdom of God

A sermon on Romans 9-11 can be found here. Naturally there is an awful lot of Romans 9-11 that is not covered! It looks as at how Israel fits in to God's plan of salvation.

Mark 8:34-8:38 - The way of the cross

Notice that Jesus rebuked Peter in private, then He called the crowds and began to teach them. The supreme purpose of the cross was to win our salvation, to pay the price of our salvation and to conquer death. However, the cross is also an example. The life of Jesus is an example. Just as Jesus went the way of the cross to see God's purposes fulfilled, so we too must go the way of the cross if we want to see God's purposes fulfilled in our lives.

The root of sin is rebellion against God, of putting ourselves in the place of God, instead of giving Him His rightful place. When we turn to God we must deny ourselves, ie we put God first, we seek first the kingdom and His righteousness.

When we rebel against God we think we are gaining freedom, we think we are getting what we want, but nothing could be further from the truth. The paradox is that when we deny ourselves, when we lose our life, we actually gain it.

Making ourselves gods is based on a lie. Atheism, humanism, secularism, all ism's which put man at the centre are based on a lie. A moments thought should show that we are not gods. We had no say in whether or not we were born, we had no say in what sort of person we would be, we had no control over when we would be born. We did not create the universe. We have precious little control over when we will die, and we certainly cannot avoid death altogether. We rebel again and again against God being Lord, but it is actually the only thing that makes sense, and our lives only start to make sense when we acknowledge Jesus as Lord of all.

And in this life we must acknowledge Christ as Lord before men. 

Mark 8:31-33 - And not seeing

Receiving revelation is not the end of the matter but only the beginning. How do you know if some so-called "revelation" is really from God? One sign is that it will challenge you. If all it does is challenge everyone else except you, then it is probably not from God.

So the disciples, and Peter in particular, had just realised that Jesus was the Messiah. Now Jesus begins to tell them what that really means.

Jesus uses the term "Son of Man", a term used of no-one else in the New Testament. In the Old Testament it is sometimes used just to mean someone is a human being, but in Daniel (Dan 7:13) it is a messianic title. There are several messianic passages in various parts of the Old Testament. However, Jesus focuses on aspects the messiah that probably got overlooked! Namely the fact that Isaiah said that the Messiah would have to suffer. (Similarly some so-called prosperity teachers overlook rather a lot of the New Testament teaching.) 

In particular Jesus tells them that the Son of Man must be killed, and then will rise again. He spoke plainly, but Peter rebuked Him. Jesus then rebuked Peter  with the famous words "Get behind me Satan". Peter had in mind the things of men, not of God.

There is much to learn here. One is that revelation most certainly does not mean we now know it all. Peter's understanding was still very much lacking. Moreover, our mind's are very easily focused on the things of men, not the things of God. We need to let our minds be led by the Spirit, not by the flesh.

Mark 8:28-30 - Seeing (2)

It is perhaps no coincidence that this section comes after the blind man being healed. For first we have an instance of physical blindness being healed, then we have an example of someone receiving spiritual sight, shortly followed by a further example of spiritual blindness!

The disciples had seen many things happen, and Jesus was wary of the crowds who wanted to make Him king. It was vital that the disciples understood who He really was. So Jesus asks them "who do people say I am?" The people had various answers, all of them wrong, but being inspired by some aspects of who Jesus really was. Essentially they all thought he was a prophet of some sort. Malachi talks of an Elijah figure coming in the last days.

Jesus then addresses the question to His disciples, "Who do you say I am?" This is the key question that all of us have to answer. Peter replied "you are the Messiah". Matthew's account tells us that Jesus commended Peter and informed him that it was God who had revealed this to him.

Jesus warns them not to tell anyone about Him, for this would hinder Jesus' ministry.

Mark 8:22-27 - Seeing (1)

Here we have another spitting healing. Funny that you don't see too many people these days with "healing ministries" who make spitting part of their ministry!

Again we see the need for the person to be touched by Jesus. We also see Jesus taking the man outside the village. Sometimes Jesus healed someone in full view of a crowd, in particular when the Pharisees or some similar group were trying to trap Him. But at others Jesus took them away from the crowd. In Israel's history there were many times when God led them into the wilderness in order to deal with them.

I think this is the only incident in the gospels where someone is initially healed partially, and then completely healed. Jesus tells him not to tell anyone, not even to go into the village.

Jesus' instructions to people who get healed is very different from the one we have today. If someone is healed we would want them to broadcast the event in order to get people interested in knowing more about Jesus. So are we wrong to do this? Perhaps not, but there are things we can learn from Jesus' approach (surprise, surprise!). Jesus also told demons not to declare who He was, now clearly we are absolutely right to declare who Jesus is, and our failing is not doing this enough. However, we should remember that Jesus' emphasis, as we have seen, was on teaching. The healings etc backed up the teaching. The focus should always be on the truth of who Jesus is.

Mark 8:14-21 - Worry about the right things

The disciples forgot to take bread with them when they crossed the lake. Jesus made a comment about yeast. This bore no relation to the lack of bread, but was a reference to the teaching and attitudes of the Pharisees and Saducees. However, the disciples were convinced that Jesus was angry with them for not bringing any bread.

This reveals a lot about human psychology. If we feel guilty about something then we are very sensitive to anything that might possibly be construed as being related to that area. The disciples assumed Jesus was annoyed with them.

It also contains teaching on daily needs. The feeding of the 4000 and the 5000 (and, by the way, this comment by Jesus confirms that they were two separate incidents) shows that immediate lack of food is not a problem. We very easily let concerns  about daily needs distract us from what really matters. They can consume our minds, making it impossible for us to think straight.

The disciples then did understand what Jesus was really talking about.

As an aside, just because you feel guilty about something, does not mean that God is getting at you on that matter. He may be concerned about something altogether different.
[These comments can also be found on my post on the parallel passage in Matthew].