Jesus' Announcement and Peter's Rebuke

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, June 8th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. We return this morning to our studies in the Gospel of Mark. I would therefore ask you to turn in your own Bibles to the 8th chapter of Mark's Gospel and follow as I read, beginning with verse 27, and conclude the reading at verse 33. If you have a paragraphed version, you will notice in some of them that verse 33 is just part of a larger paragraph, but others, I believe, rightly suggest that the unit of thought that is completed with verse 33 should find verse 34, a new paragraph. And so we read, beginning with verse 27, the passage we previously considered in our last exposition, as well as the paragraph beginning with verse 31. And Jesus went forth and his disciples into the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

1:23 And on the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Who do men say that I am? And he said, And they told him, saying, John the Baptist, and others, Elijah, but others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, But who say you that I am? Peter answered and said unto him, You are the Christ.

1:54 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must, 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 spoke the saying openly. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him.

2:25 But he, turning about and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan. For you are thinking not the things of God, but the things of men.

2:43 Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer and ask God that by his Spirit we may know everything we have expressed in the language of the hymn. We have just sung together the unction of God upon congregation, upon the word, upon the mind and lips of the one who would seek to expound that word. Let us together plead with God for his blessing.

3:13 Our Father, we come in the consciousness that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. And we confess that we will be as blind to the words of this text as Peter was to the words of his Savior, unless you come by the Spirit and open the eyes of our understanding. O Lord, incline our hearts to your word and not unto covetousness. We pray with the psalmist, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of your law.

3:57 Come then with unction and with power. Grant us the blessing of the Spirit's presence with the word. We ask for the sake of your beloved Son. And for the good of our souls.

4:13 Amen.

The Dividing Line of Mark's Gospel: Jesus' Messianic Method

4:19 Now in our last meditation in Mark's Gospel, we considered together verses 27 through 30, a paragraph in which there is given to us the record of the great confession that Peter made with reference to the precise identity of the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Up until now in Mark's Gospel, Peter made a record of the great confession that Peter made with reference to the precise identity of the person of Jesus of Nazareth. There had been no clear confession on the part of the disciples with reference to the identity of Christ. There are some suggestions here and there.

4:57 There was the witness of John the Baptist. There was the encouragement of the early days of the discipleship of some of these men. But at this point in Mark's Gospel, our Lord draws forth the acknowledgement of what has now become a settled conviction with respect to his identity that he is none other than God's Messiah, the Son of God. Now having drawn forth a true confession with respect to his person, we move on in our meditation this morning to verses 31 to 33, in which our Lord underscores not the identity of his person, but the method by which he will accomplish his great messianic work. If he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then the question arises by what means will he accomplish his messianic purpose. If he is God's anointed prophet, priest, and king, by what means will he carry out those functions? If he is God's anointed prophet, priest, and king, then the question arises by what means will he accomplish his messianic work?

6:18 And it is that issue that is addressed in the paragraph that is before us. This paragraph is of tremendous importance in the Gospel of Mark. Most commentators are careful to point out that it marks in a very real sense the dividing line of the entire book of Mark. Everything from 1.1 through to 8.1, 8.30 leads up to the great confession of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth as God's Messiah and God's true and only Son. Everything from 8.31 onward points in the direction of the method by which, as Messiah, he will accomplish the redemption of his people.

The Teaching of Jesus: Novelty, Substance, and Manner

7:13 As we come to the paragraph, we will notice the three basic units of thought. First of all, we have the teaching of Jesus in verses 31 through 32a. Then, a brief account of the response of Peter in verse 32b. And then in verse 33, we have the rebuke of Jesus.

7:37 So, very simply, the teaching of Jesus, the response of Peter to that teaching, and then the rebuke of our Lord. First of all, then, the teaching of Jesus that is given at this time, and Mark records for us three things concerning that teaching. First of all, he directs us to its novelty. And he began to teach.

8:05 And the word for began points to something that is introduced, and I'm using the word novelty in that strict sense. That which is new or the first of its kind is novel. And the teaching that Jesus begins to give at this time to his disciples is new teaching. New in its concentrated substance and new in its form with respect to that substance.

8:37 And so Mark is careful. He is careful to underscore that this does indeed mark a threshold, a new beginning in our Lord's interaction with his disciples. In keeping with the purpose of this relative period of retirement in the very northernmost regions of Palestine, our Lord is concerned to give to his immediate followers concentrated teaching on vital matters relative to the teaching of Jesus Christ. Relative to his own person and work.

9:14 And then having drawn our attention to the novelty of his teaching, we then have the substance of his teaching at this time. 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. What is the substance of our Lord's teaching at this time?

9:48 Well, in summary, the substance was that there was an inescapable necessity for him to travel on to Jerusalem. We learn that from the parallel passage in Matthew 16, 21. And there, before the ruling body of the life of Israel, that is the Sanhedrin, three things, would happen to him. He would suffer many things.

10:17 He casts a veil over the particulars. Those subsequent passages indicate he knew what many of those particulars would be. He simply gives a summary statement that he would suffer many things. Secondly, he would be rejected.

10:39 And the word for rejected is the word one would use and the word for rejected is the word one would use and the word for rejected is the word one would use if he were testing a coin to see if it were the real thing and upon discovery that it was counterfeit would cast it aside as worthless. It speaks of a rejection preceded by an official or formal evaluation. It is the word used again and again in the New Testament whenever we find the statement, the stone which the builders rejected. And those of you who have watched amazing work, you know, what that means.

11:14 Someone is looking for a brick to fit in a strategic place and it must be a perfect brick and he goes through the pile of brick that are before him and he looks at one after another and one after another is rejected until that brick that is properly to be placed or that will fit properly and blends in with the given setting of that particular course of brick is chosen. Well, that's the whole connotation of this word. He must be rejected. There will be a formal, legal trial and in the face of that trial he will be cast aside and then the rejection will lead to his murder.

11:57 He will be put to death and that which no doubt came as a tremendous shock to the disciples was that our Lord tells them that this suffering, this rejection, and this being killed will lead, will come at the hands of the highest court of the spiritual leaders of Israel. The very court that ought to welcome and promote the cause of Messiah will be the court that will cause him to suffer, to be rejected, and to be put to death. For when he says that these things will happen by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, he was describing the three major components of that group called the Sanhedrin who constituted the ruling body in Israel there in the area of Judea. And the Sanhedrin would be the official instrument of bringing about this rejection, this suffering, and this death. Now, of course, he also said that he would rise again on the third day. And though he said it, there seems to be little indication that the disciples heard it or allowed these words to sink into their hearts.

13:25 But our Lord does teach them that his rejection and suffering and death would be followed by a glorious resurrection. So the substance of his teaching, very simply stated again, is this, that there is a necessity, that he laid upon him to die and to be raised from the dead in his official capacity as God's anointed one. The words of confession, in a sense, were still reverberating at this time. You are the Christ.

14:04 Blessed are you, Simon. Flesh and blood is not revealed unto you, but my Father. And at this point, he begins, in a new way, to set out before them the absolute necessity in fulfillment of messianic function for him to suffer, to be rejected, to be put to death, and to rise on the third day. But not only in the substance of his teaching are we instructed, but also its manner.

14:37 Its manner. Its novelty he began. Its substance, and now its manner. Notice what Mark tells us.

14:46 He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed, and after three days rise again, and he spoke the saying openly. As to its manner, it was unmistakably clear. This word openly means without spokenness, frankness, or playfulness, of speech. It is speech that conceals nothing and passes over nothing.

15:23 Now those of you who are acquainted with your New Testaments will know that prior to this incident, our Lord made veiled references to his death. Destroy this temple, he said, and in three days I will raise it up. He was speaking of his death and subsequent resurrection. He had spoken of the similarities between Jonah's experience as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish.

15:52 So shall the Son of Man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. He had spoken of the necessity of his death in the parabolic language of John chapter 6. But up until now, there had been no open declaration of the necessity of his suffering, of his rejection, of his death, and of his resurrection. But now, and from here on in, he speaks in a manner that is unmistakably clear.

16:28 And there is a strong suggestion in the tenses of the verbs that it was repeatedly or continuously emphasized. When we read in verse 31, he began to teach. You have a present infinitive. And when, verse 32 tells us, he spoke the saying openly, you have an imperfect.

16:50 He was speaking this saying openly. So that as to its manner, it was not only unmistakably clear, but it was repeatedly or continuously emphasized. Now that's the teaching of Jesus at this time. Its novelty, its substance, and its manner.

Peter's Response: The Rebuke

17:14 Now then, Peter responds to this teaching.

17:18 And his response is recorded in the latter part of verse 32. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. You have the action of Peter and the words of Peter. The action of Peter, Peter took him.

17:34 Better translated, Peter took him aside to himself. It is the picture of what we often do in a group of people when we have something that we want to say. That is of a more private nature. And we may tap someone on the shoulder and say, come here, I'd like to have a word with you.

17:52 Well, after Peter hears these words of Jesus, he draws the Lord Jesus aside to himself. And then, his words are described very simply in Mark's Gospel as follows. He began to rebuke him. Now this word rebuke is a strong word.

18:16 It's one of Mark's favorite words. It's the word used to describe what Jesus did when he spoke to the demons and told them to come out of the bodies and spirits of those they inhabited. It's the word used when Jesus spoke to the angry seas and he rebuked the winds and the waves. Peter was typical Petrine in the manner in which he spoke to our Lord.

18:44 Though he takes him aside to speak to him privately, the subsequent context indicates that everybody all around heard what he said because the Lord used it as a springboard to say some things to everyone who heard. But at least Peter, let's give him credit, he tried to show some courtesy in expressing the concern of his mind and heart and he draws the Lord Jesus aside and he begins to rebuke him. Now the substance of his rebuke, what he actually said, is given to us by Matthew in Matthew 16, 22. And a literal rending would be, Mercy on you, Lord!

19:20 This shall never be to you! Mercy on you, Lord! The indication being, may God have mercy upon you that what you have said is necessary will never, never, never come upon you.

19:38 So with very agitated vehemence and with strength of language and apparently of volume as well, Peter responds to this clearly, Peter, teaching of our Lord in the manner of rebuke, suffering, rejection, and death, never the same spirit manifested when later on he says, if all men should forsake you and deny you, I will never forsake you. Here is Peter, true to his own God-given identity and character with great vehemence, rebuking the Lord Jesus. Obviously he does it out of his love to Christ. Obviously, he does it out of what he conceives to be Christ's best interest.

Jesus' Rebuke: 'Get Behind Me, Satan'

20:26 Obviously, his motives at this point appear to be above reproach. But nonetheless, his words are words of rebuke. Now then, in the third place, having looked at the teaching of Jesus, the response of Peter, now the rebuke of Jesus, verse 33, But he, that is the Lord Jesus, turning about, and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter, and said, Get you behind me, Satan, for you are thinking not the things of God, but the things of men. Now in this rebuke of Jesus, Mark gives us this little stroke of its setting. Notice the language, but he turning about. Peter has taken him aside. Now no sooner does Peter begin to rebuke him, but, that Jesus turns about and seeing the other disciples, and the strong, the compelling inference being that they have heard Peter's rebuke, in the setting of all the disciples, he then rebukes Peter in this way.

21:42 Get behind me. You have taken me aside, and now you would stand between me and the necessity of my suffering, my rejection, my death, and my resurrection. Peter, you're in the wrong place. You are between me and the cross.

22:01 Get behind me.

22:04 Turning about, seeing the disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me. And then he uses this strong word, Satan. Now the word Satan most often applied to that personal being called the devil. That fallen spirit who stands as chief over all the powers of darkness means, this word means, adversary.

22:36 And our Lord did not say, Get behind me, devil. Get behind me, serpent. Terms that are used, names that are used to designate that foul spirit. But he chose this word which means adversary.

22:54 Get behind me, devil. Get behind me, Satan. Adversary. Get behind me.

23:02 For in speaking as you speak, Peter, you reflect one whose mind is thinking not the thoughts of God, but the thoughts of men. Get behind me, adversary, for you are thinking not the things of God. With reference to how I shall be, I shall accomplish my messianic mission. You are not thinking God's thoughts which regulate my life and my necessities and my commitments.

23:38 I've told you, and I've told you plainly, that the Son of Man must suffer. He must be rejected. He must be. He must be raised from the dead.

23:50 Now, Peter, you are saying, Have mercy upon myself. Take pity upon me, or may my Father, take pity. This shall never be. Peter, you're an adversary.

24:01 Get behind me. Don't stand between me and these necessities. Get behind me. No longer be an adversary.

24:10 You are thinking thoughts that are rooted in carnal reasoning as to how I shall accomplish my messianic purposes. In your way of thinking, Peter, suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection don't fit into the scheme of messianic accomplishment. But, Peter, you are thinking as a man. You are not thinking the thoughts of God.

Lesson 1: The Need for Spiritual Illumination

24:40 Basically, that's the substance of the text. Now then, what are we to learn from this passage? And here I trust that God, by the Holy Spirit, will indeed come and help me to get out of my heart, which has been brewing in it, and get into your hearts and into your minds. Now, I'm going to give you a few of God's people vital lessons that I believe are so fundamental to our maintaining even the semblance of Biblical Christianity.

25:10 The first is this. We learn from this incident that the most lucid, simple, forceful teaching of divine truth has no inherent power to gain a sympathetic entrance into the human heart. Do you see the difference? The difference is that the most lucid, simple, forceful teaching of divine truth has no inherent power to gain a sympathetic entrance into the human heart.

25:30 Do you see Do you see that? The most lucid, simple, forceful teaching of divine truth has no inherent power to gain a sympathetic entrance into the human heart. Jesus is speaking so lucidly, so simply, so forcefully, that Peter cannot misunderstand his words. But the problem was that those words did not gain a sympathetic entrance into his heart.

26:07 They fell upon the ear, they registered upon the brain, and they created a violent reaction of rebuke that made Peter an adversary of Christ.

26:21 In no uncertain terms, in a similar context, tells us in Luke 18.34, this most telling thing, Luke 18. Notice the similarity of setting.

26:39 Luke 18.31, And he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man. He shall be delivered up to the Gentiles, shall be mocked, shamefully treated, spit upon. They shall scourge and kill him, and the third day he shall rise again.

27:04 You see, that's simple. Lucid, clear, forceful. And they understood none of these things. And this saying was hid from them, and they perceived not the things that were said.

27:21 Could they not understand?

27:29 Well, they didn't. This saying was hid from them. They understood the form of the words, but they did not see how what Jesus said fit in to their understanding. They understood the form of the words, but they did not see how what Jesus said fit in to their understanding.

27:45 And though there are some fundamental differences this side of Pentecost, and the outpouring of the Spirit, and in one sense the most immature, simple believer under plain gospel preaching knows and understands more and the moment of His spiritual birth than Peter understood here, I understand that principle. Yet, nonetheless, there is an, undergirding spiritual reality here. And that undergirding reality is that any truth from whatever instrument that comes to us, however simply, forcefully, lucidly, does not gain a sympathetic entrance into the human heart without the attendant presence and power and ministry of God the Holy Spirit. For it was, this very same Peter, who after Pentecost, had so much remaining prejudice that God had to give him direct revelation to get him to go and preach the gospel to a Gentile. And even later on, he had to be rebuked when he backslid in some of his nationalistic and racial prejudice against the Gentiles. And dear people of God, if we understand this, we will never pick up our Bibles,

29:14 we will never come, we will never come to Sunday school, we will never come to any preaching service without that disposition that makes us cry with the psalmist, Lord, open Thou my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy love. Lord Jesus, all our sense and sight lie in deepest darkness till Your light comes and breaks in upon us. And though those, those of us who stand to teach You publicly must attempt in our teaching to be lucid, to be simple, to be forceful, and that's why we labor at clarity of structure, clarity of expression. That's why we pour our entire being into the proclamation of the Word. That's our task. But dear people, we have no silly notion that lucid, simple, forceful teaching of any divine truth has any inherent power, has any inherent power, has any inherent power, has any inherent power, has any inherent power, has any inherent power, has any inherent power, to gain a sympathetic entrance into any one of your hearts.

30:21 It takes a mighty, present, personal, internal operation of the Spirit. And if we believe that, then not only will those of us who preach and teach be men of prayer, crying to God that the Spirit's work would be mightily present and operative where the Word is taught, but it will put you in the posture where you too plead as the psalmist and the psalmist pled, Lord, open my eyes. Otherwise, instead of the clear, lucid teaching producing a response of faith and obedience, it will produce a response that will make me an adversary to Christ.

31:06 And that's what happens in this place Sunday by Sunday. Some sit and receive the Word as meat and drink to their souls. And others go out to it. And they've heard the same words.

31:22 Why? Some have heard by the illumination of the Holy Spirit in a heart prepared to receive the truth and to be given up to the implications of the truth. And others have rejected through prejudice and pride and a host of other sins that very truth that would do them so much good if it were perceived and received under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But then I hasten to underscore a second great lesson of the passage.

Lesson 2: Friends as Adversaries to God's Will

31:58 And again, pray as I even articulated that God will write it on your heart. And here's the lesson of the passage. Our most intimate friends can sometimes become the most formidable and outspoken opponents to our doing the revealed will of God.

32:22 If the passage teaches us anything, it teaches us this, that our most intimate, intimate friends can sometimes become the most formidable and outspoken opponents to our doing the will of God. What was the will of God for Jesus? Suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. Who was Peter?

32:49 One of his most intimate friends. He was part of that inner circle. Peter, James, and John. He had just, perhaps, minutes before, or hours before, a short time before, he had said, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah.

33:07 He had spoken of Peter's unique and peculiar place in the coming kingdom and in his church.

33:19 This one who would be mightily used by the Lord Jesus in the building of his church, in the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles. This very Peter, he must now, I'll say, adversary, Satan. This is the very words that he used in the wilderness temptation. He has to say to Peter at the point that you stand between me and my accomplishment of the revealed will of God, you are an adversary.

33:52 You are not my friend. You are not one who in any way I can countenance as worthy of consideration. Peter, get behind me. Satan.

34:06 Now let me ask you a question. Did Jesus love Peter when he called him Satan?

34:15 Of course he did. He was on his way to the cross to die for Peter's sins, including this sin of presumptive attempts to interrupt the cross.

34:25 Sure he loved him. He loved him just as much as when he said, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. I give to you the keys of the kingdom.

34:38 Just as he loved him when he pronounced blessing, he loved him when he said, get behind me. Satan. Our Lord would not allow the most intimate friend to stand between him and his doing of the will of God. And should we expect that if the adversary, the great adversary, Satan, would attempt to use a close friend of Jesus to impede him in his determination to do the will of God for our salvation, should we be surprised at the attempts to use close and intimate friends with us?

35:21 The revealed will of God is made plain to us in Scripture. And it may be that as a wife you set your heart upon doing that will of God. And there is an adversary in the person of your own husband or vice versa. It may be as a husband you're determined with Joshua to say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

35:44 And you're determined that in the sphere of your household, biblical principles will reign in the training and discipline of the children. In the use of money and things and TV and everything else, you're determined under God. And who does the devil put in your way as his mouthpiece? Perhaps your own wife.

36:05 Some close friend who says, far be it from you to go down this course. That's too strict. That's too self-denying. My friend, listen.

36:15 Jesus says, he that loves father, mother, brother, sister more than me is not worthy of me. He calls us to a life of discipleship in which we will allow no one, no matter how intimate or close the relationship to stand between us and our doing of the clearly revealed will of God. And we need to pray for the disposition of the Lord Jesus to be our disposition. That when anyone, no matter who he or she may be, would stand between us and the path of obedience to say, get behind me, adversary, I will not countenance your opposition. You'll be accused of being harsh. You'll be accused of being heartless. Had you simply dropped on the scene out of a helicopter and heard Jesus say to Peter, get behind me, Satan, you would have thought him harsh as well.

37:20 But if you stayed around long enough and didn't take off in your helicopter, and saw the story unfold, you would have realized the best thing Jesus could do for Peter was to say, get behind me. Satan, I must suffer. I must be rejected. I must die.

37:38 I must rise, or you'll have no Savior.

37:42 The best thing you can do to your dearest friends who would, with the best of motives, who perhaps with the best of motives would stand between you and the revealed will of God is to do the same thing. Deal with them exactly as our Lord dealt with Peter.

Lesson 3: Human Wisdom is Devilish in Redemption

38:01 And there is a third lesson to be found in the passage, and it's this.

38:06 In the accomplishment of God's purposes of redemption, human wisdom is always, is always devilish. It is adversarial to Christ and His purposes. In the accomplishment of God's purposes of redemption, human wisdom is always adversarial to the purposes of God and of His Christ. Note how forcefully it's put in the text.

38:39 Get behind me, Satan, for I'm treating you with such apparent ruthlessness, Peter, because your thought patterns are dictated by human wisdom. You are thinking not the God, but the things, men. Now notice the antithesis is not between God and the devil, but between God and men. Do you see that?

39:10 You're not thinking the things of God, but the things of men. You're thinking as a human being at a human rationalistic level, your mind is influenced by mere human perspectives on how I should accomplish my messianic goal.

39:34 And the Scripture tells us that God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. The Scripture tells us that His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways. And with reference to the work of the church and the work of the ministry and the forwarding of the cause of the gospel, who can measure the harm that has come when men have applied mere human wisdom to the work of God in the fold? The forwarding of redemptive purpose.

40:08 God delights to confound human wisdom. He takes the weak things to confound the mighty. And the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are. Having just confessed Him to be Messiah and surrounding that concept of messianic identity are all the thoughts of messianic kingship and messianic rule and the subjugation of enemies and the salvation of His people.

40:39 In Peter's mind, there was no way that suffering, rejection, and death fit into that messianic scheme. But in the mind of God from all eternity, it was by means of that very humiliation and suffering unto death, even the death of the cross, on that the messianic kingdom would be founded.

41:05 Peter's attacking the very foundation of that kingdom when he says, pity on you, Lord, mercy on you, this shall never be to you. And he speaks that way because in all sincerity he is thinking like an ordinary human being. Dear people of God, beware, beware, beware of mere pragmatism in evaluating the issues of God's kingdom.

41:35 Beware of importing the principles of worldly business into the church. Beware of importing the world's concepts of success and importance and all these other things that were offensive to our Lord then and they are offensive now. Self-sparing and self-promotion are the devil's creed. Spare yourself and in that way be Messiah.

42:08 One perceptive commentator has written as follows, for the whole aim of satanic policy, is to get self to be recognized as the chief end of man. Satan's temptation aims at nothing worse than this. Satan is called the prince of this world because self-interest rules the world. He's called the accuser of the brethren because he does not believe that even the sons of God have any higher motive.

42:38 He's a skeptic and his skepticism consists in determined, scornful unbelief in the reality of any chief end other than that of personal advantage. What did he say to God? Doth Job, or even Jesus, serve God for naught? Self-sacrifice, suffering for righteousness' sake, fidelity to truth, even unto death?

43:00 Ha! It's all romance and youthful sentimentalism or hypocrisy and hollow cant. There's absolutely no such thing as a surrender of the lower life to the higher. All men are selfish at heart and have their price.

43:14 Oh, some may hold out longer than others, but in the last extremity every man will prefer his own things to the things of God. All that a man has he'll give for his life, his moral integrity and his piety not accepted. Such is Satan's creed. The adversary's creed, you see, is rooted in this whole concept of spare yourself.

43:39 And I can testify over the years the people I've met who have prodded me on, by life, by example, by precept, by exhortation, the people I've met who've prodded me to greater devotion, to greater zeal, to greater sacrifice, to greater earnestness, to greater prayerfulness. They have been few and far between. But those who said, spare yourself, I can number them by the dozens.

44:13 You'll grow old before you're 30 in my 20s. I took seriously a life of discipleship. Took seriously having a tender conscience. You'll grow old before your time.

44:29 You're too serious.

44:33 And when I preached with passion and preached until I was exhausted, you'll kill yourself. God doesn't call upon you to do that. You'll be dead before you're 40.

44:44 Take it easy. Kill yourself.

44:48 My friend, that language comes from the adversary. We need to treat it exactly as our Lord did. Whoever the mouthpiece may be, whatever plausible excuses may be given for it, in the accomplishment of God's purposes of redemption, human wisdom is always adversarial. It is devilish.

45:17 And we'll see that next week in that great paradox. You want to save your life, then lose it. You want to lose your life, then spare it. The quickest way to lose your life is to spare it.

45:28 The only certain way to gain it is to lose it. You say, that's nonsense. Yes, it is. According to man's thinking, but not God's.

45:38 It's the very law of the kingdom in God's realm.

Lesson 4: The Cross as the Touchstone of Christian Teaching

45:44 But then there is a fourth and final observation on the text that I wish to make this morning, and it's this. In assessing all professed Christian teaching, make the cross the touchstone of your assessment. In assessing all professed Christian teaching, in assessing all professed Christian teaching, make the cross the touchstone of your assessment. Anything that opposes or neutralizes the necessity of the cross for man's salvation is of Satan and not of God.

46:27 It is necessary for Jesus to suffer. A necessity rooted in the divine character of God, in the divine purpose, in the nature of man as sinful, beware of anything that undercuts the necessity of the suffering, the rejection, the bloodletting of the Son of God.

46:52 Assess preaching by the place given to the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is it central as men hold out the crown of our salvation? Is it central as we are pressed to motivation, to holiness? Does all of the truth eventually flow from and back to and out of the cross?

47:19 That's the great touchstone. And here our Lord in seed form announces that this plain teaching of the necessity of His suffering, His rejection, His death and resurrection became, as it were, the catalyst to show how far even His closest disciples were from perceiving the central issues of how He would accomplish His messianic task. One has written so perceptively, an inability to accept a suffering Savior involves the refusal of the will of God, whose sovereign resolution of the problem of sin and human rebellion fails to conform to the niceties of human expectations. Jesus shows no inclination to justify the ways of God to man. He simply affirms that the way of the cross is the will of God. And we are not so foolish as to think that when we preach in the sophisticated twentieth century that God is infinitely holy and God's law is inflexibly just and righteous and that if man, the sinner, is ever to be forgiven, that law must be satisfied.

48:46 We are not so silly as to think that that meets with the hoorahs and with the approval of natural, sophisticated twentieth century men. We know that the cross is still an offense. It is a stumbling to say to man God is so holy and man is so sinful that there is no way in which the sinful man can justly appear before God forgiven without sin being punished by the bloodletting of the incarnate God. We know it is not popular but it is true.

49:20 It is true until God steps down out of heaven and changes His gospel. It is true and He will never do that. It is the everlasting gospel. And in assessing all professed Christian teaching, make the cross the touchstone.

49:37 What place does the cross have? And not the cross as mere symbol. Not the cross in some mystical way. But the cross as a symbol.

49:47 The cross as a symbol. The cross as a symbol. The cross as a symbol. The cross as a symbol.

49:47 The cross as a symbol. The cross as the instrument upon which the messianic task of saving sinners does the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God.

50:04 The cross is the great test of a man's religion. Sitting here this morning, can you say that amidst all of the dogmas that you profess to believe, amidst all the duties you seek to perform under the name of Christianity, can you say with Paul, God, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross? Can you say that Christ crucified is the only ground of my hope that I shall be accepted as righteous in the presence of a holy God and chains of obligation forged, as it were, in the congealed blood of Christ? Bind me to God and to His law and to His ways so that for me to live is Christ. And to die is gain. Thank God God wasn't through with Peter. And before he was done with him, he understood what he didn't understand at this point.

Peter's Transformation and Our Call to Resolution

51:07 And it's to Peter's credit that if he was or if he were, and there's every indication that he was indeed Mark's mentor, it's to Peter's credit that in the gospel that Peter preached so often in the presence of Mark, Mark heard him tell a story of how he was an adversary. But God didn't leave him in that adversarial position. He wonderfully nurtured the seeds of faith which he had planted in his own heart until on the day of Pentecost this Peter could say, Him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by wicked hands have crucified and slain Him. No longer is He an adversary standing between us. Between His Lord and the cross. But He is now a true disciple standing behind His crucified and exalted Lord and pointing men to Him and telling them that in Him and in Him alone was there to be found any true hope of salvation.

52:16 And that is our message to you today. Thank God that Jesus did not allow human friendship to dictate the path He would tread. If so, we would have no redemption. No salvation.

52:30 No forgiveness. Blessed be God for a resolute Savior who is prepared to appear a bit harsh out of love for your soul and mine. And may God make us like our Savior for the best service we perform for the salvation of other men is not being bandied about by their whims based on human reasoning as to how best we can serve Christ. For the salvation of our children, the salvation of our neighbors is to live with a conscience

53:13 even if it means we walk in paths that are utterly abhorrent to those that are near and dear to us. It's the best thing we can do for their salvation. May God grant that in the manifold applications of that principle, each of us in the meditations of this day will be shut up with our God and with His Word, and have heart dealings with Him. Let us pray.

Concluding Prayer

53:50 Our Father, we thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for that resolute determination implanted in His own holy heart that He would not be turned aside from the imperative of the suffering, the rejection, the cross to be followed by the triumphant resurrection. We bless You that human friendships, human relationships, sincere efforts could not turn Him aside. And oh, how we pray that You would make us like Him, that trusting only in that which He accomplished in His sufferings, we may be prepared to suffer, that we may not spare ourselves, that we would learn how to stick our fingers in our ears to the many voices that would tell us not to be too serious, not to be too earnest, not to be too devoted, not to be too devoted. Oh, Lord, help us. Help us, we pray. We confess we have not begun to love You with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength.

55:06 We confess the paltry measure of our love and our zeal and how spotty and how inconsistent is our obedience. Oh, God, work in us in the sight of our blessed Savior, determined to walk the path that would lead to the cross, looking and gazing upon Him. Work in us by the Spirit something of that same resolution that out of love to Him we shall allow nothing or no one to stand in our way of doing Your revealed will. Hear our prayer and write Your Word upon our hearts.

55:49 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.