Defining Disciple
Download MP3Good morning. Y'all doing alright? Good? Wonderful. It is, a joy and a privilege to be opening up God's word with you this morning.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna be, continuing our study of Mark's gospel. Believe it or not, we we started this study of Mark's gospel in September. And we are in chapter 8 this morning. So 3 or 4 more years, and, we will make our way. We are in Mark chapter 8.
Jeffrey Heine:Picking up where we left off last week, where last week we looked at the scene of confession by Peter, which the gospel writer Mark has been building up to for 8 chapters. Mark records that Jesus asks his disciples who they believe him to be. And Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. And following that confession, Jesus explains to the disciples about His coming suffering, His death, and His resurrection. And that's where we're gonna be picking up, here in Mark's gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:Chapter 8, beginning in verse 29, we'll read through the end of the chapter. Let us listen carefully for this is God's word. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are the Christ.' And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he, Jesus, 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 3 days, rise again.
Jeffrey Heine:And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But 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. And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, 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 gospel's will save it.
Jeffrey Heine:For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. This is the word of the Lord. It is to your prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray together. Holy and almighty God, we come today to this moment. We open your word and hope to meet with you, the living word, to behold your greatness and graciousness, to receive the words of life, to remember that you are sovereign over all, even our restless hearts. We know that we are not in control so much in life reminds us that we are not. But today, we strain our ears, our hearts, and our minds to hear you say again that you are indeed lord over all.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, spirit, meet with us and speak what only you can speak. Will you speak to our deepest needs the unending grace of Jesus, that today we might trust you anew and surrender all that we have and all that we are to the glory of Christ our lord. So would you speak, lord, for your servants are listening? We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:I've always been fascinated with words. I can remember when I got my first dictionary, as I'm sure you can as well. I, I got the dictionary in 2nd grade, for my favorite class in elementary school, and, we had these workbooks called Wordly Wise. Did anyone else use those? Maybe some homeschool folks?
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. I was horrible at spelling, but I loved Wordly Wise, because it was all about the meaning of words and how they can be used. And I found over the years as a pastor that one of the biggest challenges that I face when talking about the Bible with people is that we often grow accustomed to our own understanding of words. But not everyone uses the same words in the same way. A dictionary offers the accepted definition or definitions of a word, but a glossary goes a step further.
Jeffrey Heine:It defines words in a specific context. People, will often ask me what translation of the bible I use or recommend. And and they, in asking that question often will lament that there are so many different English translations of the Bible. And the simplest reason that there are so many different English translations is that while the Bible doesn't change, language is always changing. If our modern English words mean different things than they did 25, 50, a 100 years ago, then we have to keep rearticulating the unchanging word of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And that can be very challenging. It can be very challenging having these conversations when we think we know what a word means, and someone else thinks that they know what that word means, and yet we don't mean the same thing. It's like this. If I if I were to say the new record, most of you would be like, of course. I I stayed up until it came out, and I listened to it all day Friday, the the new Pearl Jam record came out.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the 12th record in 34 years. That's pretty impressive. It's a joke, Swifties. Please don't hurt me, because I know you can. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:We can use the same words, but we don't always have the same meaning. And that problem is playing out in real time here in Mark 8. Jesus asks His disciples who they believe He is. Peter speaks on behalf of the disciples, and he says, You are the Christ, which means Jesus is the long promised messiah. It means Jesus is the promised and pros prophesied king, the the holy one anointed and sent by God to bring about blessing and redemption to the people of God.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus says, you're right. I am the messiah. Jesus begins to explain the mission of the messiah to the disciples. And Jesus says that the messiah must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. 3 days later, rise again.
Jeffrey Heine:And Mark records that Jesus said these things to his disciples plainly. Jesus speaks so plainly about what must happen to him that Peter takes him aside and begins to disagree with him. Peter argues with Jesus, saying, no. No. No.
Jeffrey Heine:No. That is not what messiah means. You cannot go to Jerusalem to suffer. The messiah goes to Jerusalem to reign, to take power back from Rome, to reestablish the throne. The messiah isn't supposed to die.
Jeffrey Heine:That's not what messiah means. And Jesus says that's exactly what Messiah means. Jesus looks over, and He sees these other disciples watching this confrontation happen. And He knows that if He does not stop this now, if He doesn't address this, the other disciples, they're gonna join in with Peter in disagreeing with the mission of the Messiah. Jesus knows why the Father sent him.
Jeffrey Heine:He knows what he has been sent to accomplish. And as Joel said last week, Peter's eyes are still blind. So Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And what Peter is saying comes from a mind that's set on the things of man, meaning the temporary physical world. His mind is on what is passing away, not on the things of God, not on what's eternal.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus is defining really, he's redefining what Messiah means for his disciples. He's giving them a new glossary grounded in the things of God. The disciples think that they know what the word Messiah means. They say it with conviction and expectation. But according to the things of God, it does not mean what they think it means.
Jeffrey Heine:And while Peter and Jesus both used the word Messiah, they have 2 different definitions. Everything in Mark has been leading up to this moment of revelation and confession. But why this moment? Why this confession? Why is it so critical?
Jeffrey Heine:This moment is so crucial because it's separating out those Jerusalem leaders, the scribes, and the priests who they say that Jesus is and who his followers have come to know and to believe about Jesus. In Matthew's account of this interaction of Peter and Jesus, Matthew records that after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus responds to him saying this. Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. Jesus says that the father has revealed this truth to Peter, that Jesus is the messiah, the Christ. But knowing who he is does not mean that Peter understands what he came to do, what Jesus must do.
Jeffrey Heine:He must suffer many things, even death, and rise again from the dead. The consequences of this redefinition extends beyond just the word Messiah. And as we will see in our passage today, it goes further to redefine the word disciple. If Jesus is the Messiah and the disciples of Jesus are followers of the Messiah, then a redefined Messiah means a redefined disciple. In other words, if Jesus is redefining Christ, He's redefining Christian.
Jeffrey Heine:The first reshaping of the disciples' definition of Messiah is that Jesus came to suffer, to lay down His life and to be raised from the dead. Suffering and death were not part of the definition of the Messiah that the disciples had in their minds. Jesus is instructing them that it must be so, and not only will the Messiah suffer and sacrifice, but the disciples must likewise follow his path. So at the end of Mark 8, Jesus redefines messiah and disciple, Christ and Christian. And as we explore this passage, these especially read letters today, like Peter, we need to be ready for our definitions and Jesus' definitions to conflict.
Jeffrey Heine:How do you define disciple? How do you define Christian? Is it an add on to your life, an afterthought, a benefit? Is it someone who follows a set of moral convictions, staying away from certain habits or practices? Or does disciple mean someone who commits themself to working hard in spiritual disciplines and activities?
Jeffrey Heine:How do you define disciple? Is it the same way that Jesus defines it, or are you using the same word with different definitions? We need to be ready today to ask the spirit to help us to lay down our definitions and receive what Jesus has to say about what it means to follow him, for you to be a disciple. So let's dig into our passage together. After being rebuked by Peter, Jesus rebukes him right back, and Jesus gathers the 12 and others in the crowd, and he leads them in redefining disciple.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look at verse 34. And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. You may notice here that the statement begins with the phrase, come after me, and ends with the phrase, follow me. Another way that that can be translated is, anyone who follows me must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me. Jesus' redefinition of disciple is that a disciple follows him.
Jeffrey Heine:And to follow him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross. The only way to be a disciple is to follow, and the only way to follow is to deny oneself and to take up our cross. This is the very first time we see the word cross in Mark's gospel. It won't be used again until the crucifixion, but the method of crucifixion was the Roman, the Gentile mode of execution. The Jewish leaders did not use crosses, so Jesus is being quite specific here as he redefines disciple and describes where he is heading as the Messiah.
Jeffrey Heine:The cross at this time, to these disciples and to everyone around, it was not an image of salvation. It was not a picture of God's power or redemption or hope. It was not something anyone would wear around their neck as jewelry. It was grotesque and horrific, like a guillotine or an electric chair. The disciples would have known this practice by the Romans, punishing criminals by forcing them to carry their own cross to their execution.
Jeffrey Heine:They would have seen this brutality play out time and again. Carrying a cross meant knowing that you were heading to the end of your life. It would be like Jesus saying to us today, if anyone would come after me, if anyone would follow me, deny yourself, dig your own grave, and follow me then. Just as the phrases come after me and follow me are synonyms restating the same thing, Denying yourself and taking up your cross are the same thing said twice. To take up your cross is to deny yourself.
Jeffrey Heine:It means putting to death the self focus, self obsession, selfish ambition. But why is Jesus saying this? Why why does this matter? Well, Jesus offers 4 statements that unpack this mandate. So if the mandate is verse 34, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me.
Jeffrey Heine:If that's the mandate, the next four statements are all about clarifying what that means. The next four statements unpack that mandate. Each of the statements begins with the word for, which indicates that these are elucidating, clarifying statements. And we're gonna take time to look at at each of these in sequence. The first of the 4 clarifying statements is in verse 35.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look together. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. Self preservation, self protection, it's the opposite of self denial. It's valuing one's comfort and ease over following Jesus. Now Jesus is not dismissing the good and the natural will to live.
Jeffrey Heine:No, Jesus is highlighting that a life that is self first, me first is not the life of a disciple. And not only that, but whatever loss may come from following Jesus is incomparable to the life gained in following him as a disciple. If the messiah is not seeking his own comfort, his own security, if his path is not self first self fulfillment, but a path of selflessness, then that is the path that His followers must follow as well. Then Jesus poses a question in verse 36. He asks, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus contrasts the gaining of the whole world with the loss of the soul. If you gain everything but you lose your soul, you have lost everything. Let me say that again. If you gain everything, but you lose your soul, you have lost everything. And this is a recalibrating truth.
Jeffrey Heine:And so much of the Bible is is full of things that it's easy to nod our heads and half heartedly affirm and agree. But if you stop and actually think about what is being said, it's hardly a quick approval. This rhetorical question of Jesus is one of those truths, and it's is a truth that is challenging to comprehend, especially in our culture. Because today, gaining the whole world, gaining material goods, wealth, possessions, accomplishments, recognition, that's certainly still the pursuit of humanity. But our modern culture has little concept, little regard for the soul.
Jeffrey Heine:I would argue that most people, and perhaps a number of us, function day in and day out with countless thoughts about gaining the world, or at least a portion of it, yet without a single thought of our own souls. If we want to receive Jesus' definition of what it means to be a disciple, then we need to recover the understanding that we are more than just bodies. We we are more than just our physical selves. And we have to see that we are endowed with a spiritual immaterial soul. The human is both body and soul.
Jeffrey Heine:And Scripture routinely highlights that the soul is the most valuable aspect of the human being. Jesus articulates this in His teaching in Matthew chapter 10 when He is teaching on fear of the Lord when He says this. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. The disciples face the same temptations that we do, to focus on the physical, neglect the spiritual, prioritize the temporal, ignore the eternal.
Jeffrey Heine:And so as Jesus is redefining messiah and what it means to be a disciple, he explains the necessity of self denial, which is of good to the soul. It it might be, fearful to walk into that self deny because it might cost us in the temporal. But that as we are seeking that self denial, it is good for the soul. And he asks, what is truly gained? If you get the whole world, you lose your soul.
Jeffrey Heine:The answer, you gain nothing. If in the end, you've got every material thing that you've ever wanted, you've accomplished thing you've ever desired, and you've lost your soul, you have less. Less than if you had your soul and no other gain. Self preservation, self gain at all costs ultimately leads you and leaves you with less, which means that your soul is more valuable than you probably ever imagined, which is Jesus' next point. Jesus rhetorically asks a second question in verse 37.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look together. He asks, for what can a man give in return for his soul? It's nothing. There's nothing a person can give in return for their soul. There's nothing valuable enough in all of the world that a person could offer it for their soul.
Jeffrey Heine:But who gets to say what a soul is worth? Well, it can't be us. Right? We don't get to determine the value of a soul any more than a banana can say that it's worth $10. I'm glad a few of you got it, and I'm not mad at you that didn't.
Jeffrey Heine:What do you say? Who gets to say what a soul is worth? There's only one answer. The one who made it. It's God alone, the creator and giver of your life.
Jeffrey Heine:He is the only one who gets to say what your soul is worth. And God has demonstrated, he has demonstrated the worth that he declares over your soul. He has demonstrated to you your soul's worth by how much he was willing to pay for it. Your soul was purchased by nothing less than the incalculably precious blood of Jesus. I've encountered lots of people in my life that I didn't think were worth a dime, And I'm sure a number of people have thought of me that way too.
Jeffrey Heine:But we don't get to determine the value of a person, the value of a soul. We did not make it, nor can we purchase it. So we have no authority to determine its value. Not in others, and hear this, not in yourself. You don't get to say what your soul is worth.
Jeffrey Heine:God does. And he says that your worth, according to his will and his decree, your worth is worth the sacrifice of his son. Is that wild? Yes. Is that unbelievable?
Jeffrey Heine:I think so. And I think that's why it takes his power for us to believe it. After asking these two rhetorical questions, Jesus concludes his teaching with a warning. It's a warning about disciples who ultimately aren't disciples, followers who don't follow, those who are ashamed of Jesus and his teaching. And he says this.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look together at verse 38. For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. It's a startling warning. But as Jesus is redefining disciple, we're learning what a disciple is and what a disciple is not. Another translation of this verse, and this might be what you have in front of you, It's denying Jesus and denying his words results in the Son of Man denying the individual before the Father.
Jeffrey Heine:Denying Jesus is not what a disciple does. A disciple denies themselves, not Jesus. A disciple denies themselves, not Jesus' words. So what's Jesus getting at with all of this? These comments, these questions, this warning, let's let's remember that mandate of verse 34.
Jeffrey Heine:That's where all this began, that these past 4 verses have been trying to bring clarity and explanation and color. When he said, if anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. A disciple follows the messiah wherever the messiah goes. And Jesus is explaining to the disciples that the path of the messiah is not an easy one. It is a path of self denial and self sacrifice, and it's especially hard to follow because everything around us in the world encourages economies built on selfishness, self focus, self fulfillment, But a disciple cannot let the temporary things around us distract us from what is eternal.
Jeffrey Heine:So we cannot let what appears to be valuable distract us from what is infinitely valuable. The disciple Mark, the writer of this gospel account, we've said this a couple of times during this study. He was influenced by his spiritual mentor, Peter. The guy who was just rebuked by Jesus personally and received this teaching about being a disciple from Jesus directly. Mark was mentored by him, and he received so many of these different stories from Peter personally.
Jeffrey Heine:And Peter will soon learn a great deal about the pain that comes when one fails to deny self and instead denies Jesus. Peter will have 3 particular occasions to deny himself, to pick up his cross and follow Jesus. And on each occasion, Peter will choose to deny Jesus, not himself, to be ashamed of Jesus. Cristoforo da Pritas was an Italian artist in the 1400. He was one of 6 boys born into a family of artists.
Jeffrey Heine:His older brother, Giovanni, would become a well known Renaissance painter. And the family even hosted Leonardo da Vinci as a guest when he was in Milan visiting. But very few of Cristoforo's works survived the last 600 years, just a handful. But one that is preserved is of Peter, after he just denied Jesus for the 3rd time. After Peter denied Jesus that third time, the gospel account says that Jesus turned in the midst of the crowd.
Jeffrey Heine:So Jesus, he's in the midst of his trial. These soldiers were here. He is being slapped and spit upon, mocked. While all of that is happening, Jesus turns his attention and meets the eyes of Peter, who has denied him for a third time. And Peter immediately runs out into the night, into the empty streets of Jerusalem, weeping bitterly.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's the painting. I use this image on our bookmarks, for the reading of the gospel of Mark during the season of Lent. It's a pain that captures so much, for me, the heart of the gospel of Mark. I can't read a passage in Mark's gospel without thinking about Peter. And I think of him from 3 different vantage points.
Jeffrey Heine:One is Peter in that moment, as he's interacting with Jesus, or a miracle is happening. Peter, right there with dirty, dusty feet in Jerusalem, watching Jesus, listening to Him speak. The second vantage point is Peter, years later, recounting the stories to Mark as he's writing his gospel. And then 3rd, I think of Peter carrying his literal cross to be crucified upside down because he would not be ashamed of Jesus again. Young Peter, zealous, confused, unashamed.
Jeffrey Heine:Old Peter, zealous, wise, now restored. Peter at his crucifixion, carrying his cross, resolute, still zealous, following Jesus where he had gone before him. I wonder if Peter, when he was weeping in the streets of Jerusalem, if he remembered this warning, this warning from Jesus about what it means to deny him. I wonder if he remembered that Jesus said that if you deny me before man, I will deny you before the father. And I wonder if that's why he was weeping so bitterly.
Jeffrey Heine:But ultimately, that's not what happened. Right? That's not how things unfolded. Peter was not a follower in name only. He didn't just like the title Christian.
Jeffrey Heine:He failed, for sure, but he was a follower. But Peter wasn't a follower of Jesus because he was good at it. Peter wasn't a follower of Jesus because he was wise, or because he was strong in faith, or because he was righteous. Peter was a follower of Jesus because Jesus called him to follow. We read that at the start of Mark's gospel in chapter 1, passing along the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon Peter and Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately, they left their nets and they followed Him. And it would be along that same shoreline of the Sea of Galilee where the resurrected Jesus would call out to Peter once again and restore him. By redefining messiah, Jesus redefines what it means to be a disciple of the messiah. In John 14, Jesus says to his followers, I am the way and the truth and the life.
Jeffrey Heine:No one comes to the Father except through me. Through him. Through him, we follow a path, a path that he has already walked of self denial. We pick up the cross of death to self every day, but we must keep in mind that the cost of being a disciple of Jesus, it's not ours to pay. Christ alone has paid the cost of you being a disciple.
Jeffrey Heine:How do we know that? Well, because what could you possibly have? What could you possibly gain to pay the price for your soul? Nothing. You were obtained by the blood of God.
Jeffrey Heine:That is the cost of your soul. That is the cost of you being a disciple. You could never pay it, and yet it is paid in full. Now we live in the consequences of that cost being paid, the consequences of being made a disciple. Now we live, and we experience the costs of discipleship.
Jeffrey Heine:We live as living sacrifices, daily picking up our crosses to die to self, that we might live unto him. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. That is why we can pick up our cross daily without fear or burden, because followers follow, and we must be prepared to follow where Jesus has gone. And you may think to yourself, this is this is too difficult. The consequences of being a disciple are too great.
Jeffrey Heine:Well, you wouldn't be the first person to come to that conclusion. In the 4th century, a minister named, Caesarias of Arles, you know, he reflected on this passage from Mark chapter 8, and he wrote these words, and I'd like to read them for you. He said this, quote, when the Lord tells us in the gospel that anyone who wants to be his follower must renounce himself, the injunction seems harsh. We think he is imposing a burden on us. But an order is no burden when it is given by one who helps carrying it out.
Jeffrey Heine:To what place are we to follow Christ if not to where he has already gone? And we know that he has risen and ascended into heaven. There, then, we must follow him. There is no cause for despair. By ourselves, we can do nothing, but we have Christ's promises.
Jeffrey Heine:Heaven was beyond our reach before he ascended there. But now, if we are his members, why should we despair of arriving there ourselves? Is there any reason? End quote. Jesus has paid the cost of you being a disciple by making you daughters and sons of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus does not call you anywhere that he himself has not already gone. And even more, he does not call you anywhere that he will not go with you by his spirit. And the consequences, the denying of yourself, the picking up of your cross and following Jesus, that will cost you daily, often more than you would like. But whatever the cost, it will never be more than the cost of your soul, never more than the cost of you being a disciple, never more than what Christ has already paid to secure your ransom from sin and death and hell. And when we fail, and we will fail, he will be faithful and just to restore us as we turn to him in repentance and confession.
Jeffrey Heine:Why? Because we are his, and he has made us his very own. Let's go to him now in prayer. Oh, Lord, by your spirit, would you help us to behold Jesus? Would you help us to turn, to look full in his wonderful face so that the things of this earth, the things around us, the temporal things that encourage such selfishness that they would grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, Spirit, help us to turn our eyes. Help us to see. Help us to to surrender all that we are and all that we have that we might follow the giver of life. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
