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04/26/2009 - Who Am I?, Mark 8:27-33

When I was in high school the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar was released written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It first came out as an album and then later became a Broadway musical that received mixed reviews. From the beginning it was controversial and criticized for the liberties it took with the gospel accounts and the way it ends up with Jesus dying on the cross without any mention of the resurrection. It's certainly not the first place you want to turn if you want to learn the true story of Jesus, but it does a good job showing the confusion that swirled around his identity. Every character seems to wrestle with the question, "Who is Jesus Christ?" especially Judas Iscariot.

The title song "Superstar" is sung by Judas who, like everybody else, is trying to figure out who Jesus is. And so he says,

"Every time I look at you I don't understand why you let the things you did get so out of hand. You'd have managed better if you'd had it all planned. Why'd you choose such a backward time and such a strange land? If you'd come today you would have reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication. Don't get me wrong. I only want to know.

"Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ who are you? What have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ Superstar, do you think you're what they say you are?

"Tell me what you think about your friends at the top. Who'd you think besides yourself is the pick of the crop? Buddha, was he where it's at? Is he where you are? Could Mohammed move a mountain, or was that just PR? Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake or did you know your messy death would be a record breaker? Don't get me wrong. I only want to know.

"Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ who are you? What have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ Superstar, do you think you're what they say you are?"

Who is Jesus Christ? That's the question the characters wrestle with in Jesus Christ Superstar. That's the question that people have been wrestling with all through the gospel of Mark. And that's the question we all have to wrestle with ourselves. I'm not sure I can think of a more important question in life because the answer we give to that question will ultimately determine the quality and the destiny of our lives.

At one point Jesus said in John 11:25-26, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?

Do you believe this? I believe that what we do with Jesus Christ is the most important decision we can make. And what we do with him depends on who we believe him to be. Was he a Jewish carpenter? Was he a rabbi? Was he a political activist? We he a misguided revolutionary? Was he a superstar? Or was he something more?

This morning we resume our series through the gospel of Mark with a teaching I've called "Who Am I?" If you have a Bible meet me at Mark 8:27.

Last week we came to a turning point in Mark's gospel. Jesus healed a blind man in the town of Bethsaida, Fishtown, the town that Peter, Andrew, and Philip were from, a town Jesus would later condemn because of their lack of faith.

In Matthew 11:21-22 he says, Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

There was a lot of unbelief swimming through Fishtown. The people there had seen a lot of miracles, but they hadn't repented of their sin or of their false views of Jesus. And they would be judged for that, severely Jesus says.

But that doesn't stop Jesus from healing a blind man there. The man begs Jesus to touch him and so he gently takes him by the hand and leads him out of the village and away from the crowds so they can be alone. He then spits on the man's eyes and heals him in stages. At last the man can see, but every thing is blurry. He sees people, but they look like trees walking around. So Jesus put his hands on his eyes again and this time his vision becomes crystal clear. He can see perfectly. And the first image he sees is the smiling face of Jesus! And the guy is so excited he can't wait to go back to town and tell everybody, but Jesus says, "No. Don't. Don't go back to the village. Just go home. Let's keep this between us."

This was a very symbolic miracle that Jesus performed, because like the blind man the disciples had been blind too. Jesus had just said to them, "You have eyes, but you fail to see. You have ears but you fail to hear." They couldn't figure out who Jesus was. Their vision was blurry at best. And so Jesus has to take them away from the crowds, like he took the blind man, so that he can give them a second touch so that they can clearly see who he really is. And after he does that he's going to tell them the same thing he told the blind man, "Don't tell anybody. Let's keep this between us, at least for now."

So we read in Mark 8:27, Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"

One thing I think we've all learned in this series is that geography matters. Jesus does strategic things in strategic places and Caesarea Philippi was a strategic place that would have brought up nasty images in the minds of the disciples. Once again Jesus steps over the barbed wire and leaves the Promised Land goes deep into Gentile territory.

Caesarea Philippi was a two day walk from Bethsaida, about 25 miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee. It was a place that Jewish people didn't go. There was no reason to go to Caesarea Philippi. It was sin city. Nothing good could come of that place. The gates of hell were there, a cave that some believed to be the entrance to the underworld where the Canaanite god Baal was worshipped.

It was an unclean, pagan, idolatrous place, the kind of place that no self-respecting Jew would dare to go. But it was just the kind of place that Jesus had to go to get away from the crowds, to get away from his critics, to get away from the people who wanted to see him dead. And so he takes his disciples there.

I've been to Caesarea Philippi a few times and this is what you'll find there today. Not much, just a ruin at the base of a cliff near Mount Hermon. There's a natural spring there that flows out of that cave and becomes one of the three sources of the Jordan River. There's evidence everywhere of buildings and temples and streets and marble steps because in Jesus' day Caesarea Philippi was a splendid city. It was an important city with a dual name. Caesarea comes from Caesar Augustus, the Roman emperor who ruled the world when Jesus was born and who was considered a god to be worshiped. And Philippi comes from King Herod's son, Philip, who ruled that territory when Jesus was alive.

But before it was renamed Caesarea Philippi it had been called Panias after the Greek god Pan. Pan was the mythical god who was half man and half goat. He was the god of shepherds and of music and was worshipped there. Elaborate niches were carved into the rock to house statues of Pan and other Greek gods. And of course all of this idol worship and emperor worship and the immorality that went along with it were disgusting to the Jewish people. And so the disciples must have been thinking, "What in the world are we doing here? Don't send any postcards back home! Nobody can know we've been here!"

Besides all that the city had a reputation like Gettysburg or Waterloo because it was the sight of a famous battle. The Syrians had won a battle there about two hundred years earlier that had made life miserable for the Jewish people because soon after that the Greeks tried to force their religion with its pantheon of gods on them.

Caesarea Philippi represented everything that was offensive to the Jewish people. It was the intersection of all the forces of evil that God's people were up against which made it the perfect stage for Jesus to teach his disciples their most important lesson yet. Jesus takes his friends right into the belly of the beast to give them their final exam in the course called Jesus 101.

He's coming down to the last nine months of his life. He's been with these twelve men for almost three years. They've seen him do countless miracles, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, feed thousands, still storms, walk on water. They've been in the crowds and seen the mixed reactions of the people. There were those who wanted to crown Jesus king and others who wanted to bury him under a pile of rocks. They've been on the street and had heard all the buzz about Jesus.

Now it's time for them to draw their own conclusions about who Jesus is. So he gives them a two question exam. The first question is subjective and the second question is objective.

So Jesus asks them, "Who do people say that I am?" Look at verse 28, They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."

"Some are saying that you're John the Baptist come back from the dead because they hear the same message coming from you that came from John, 'The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!'

"Others say, 'No, he's not John the Baptist, he's the prophet Elijah.' John the Baptist didn't do miracles, but Elijah did miracles and the Scriptures say that Elijah is going to come again before the Messiah arrives so a lot of people think you're Elijah.

"And others think you're one of the prophets. We've heard people say that you're Jeremiah the weeping prophet because you're so passionate. There's a lot of chatter out there, a lot of rumors, a lot of theories."

"Okay. I hear you. I've heard that too and that puts me in some pretty good company. But let me ask you this." And here's the second question. Look at verse 29, "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

At this point I can only imagine that there was a long, awkward silence. Jesus had never asked them that question before. And there was a lot riding on their response. Last week we talked about the Jewish view of the Messiah and how Jesus just didn't fit the mold. Sure he did miracles but he wasn't out to destroy the Gentiles. He wasn't looking for a showdown. He wasn't talking about a political kingdom. He wasn't doing the things or saying the things that everybody expected the Messiah to do and say. And so he wants to know, "Do you buy into any of those theories or do you think I'm something more?"

And now their palms are sweating and their hearts are pounding and they're all looking at each other wondering who's going to answer? Nobody's looking at Jesus and nobody's putting their hand up until Peter breaks the silence. Peter answered, "You are the Messiah." What? What did he say?

In Matthew's account we read in Matthew 16:16-17, Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." ¹⁷Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven."

Yes! Peter got it right. But it wasn't because he was brilliant or smarter than everybody else. It was because God had opened his blind eyes to see the truth about Jesus, just like Jesus had miraculously opened the eyes of that blind man.

Maybe there was hope for the disciples. Maybe they could embrace a brand new understanding of what the Messiah would be like and what his kingdom would be like. Maybe the three years that Jesus had invested in them weren't wasted after all. Peter got an A on the final exam in Jesus 101.

And so in the midst of Caesarea Philippi with it's gapping cave that many considered to be the gates of hell and surrounded by images of Caesar and Pan and all kinds of competing, false gods, Peter makes the profound and dangerous statement that Jesus is God's promised Messiah, the anointed one, the liberating king, the son of the living God. He alone is worthy of our worship and of our complete allegiance.

Matthew adds these words of Jesus in Matthew 16:18, And I tell you that you are Peter (Petros in Greek which means stone or rock), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

This is the first time that Jesus uses the word "church" in the New Testament. He's going to build his church, his following, his called out people like you and me, on the words of Peter that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of the living God. That's the bedrock truth on which the church is built. And the gates of Hades, that is death itself, will not overcome God's church.

What did Jesus say at the beginning of this teaching? I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?

Nothing. Not Caesar. Not Satan. Not death itself can stop God's church from being built. And Jesus is still in the process of building his church. And every time a person comes to faith in Christ a little more of his church gets built. In fact, Peter will later say in his letter of 1 Peter that Jesus Christ is the foundation, the cornerstone of the church, and we are all living stones that are being built into a spiritual house. Nothing can stop God's church!

But again Jesus doesn't want them to tell anybody that they got the right answer. Look at verse 30, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

We've read this before. Just like Jesus told the blind man not to go back to the village and tell anyone about his healing, so Jesus tells his disciples not to tell anyone that their eyes have been opened because it's too dangerous right now and there are still too many misconceptions and false expectations that are being placed on Jesus. So for now he wants them to keep it quiet. Jesus doesn't need any more attention than he's already getting. He's got nine more months of work to do before the cross.

And he starts that work right now. They've just passed the final exam and established the bedrock truth that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of the living God. But that was just Jesus 101, the basics. Now he starts Jesus 201 which is a course on suffering.

Look at verse 31, 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.

What? The Son of Man must suffer and be rejected, be killed and rise again? What's that about? That's not what they wanted to hear. Jesus starts telling them things that they've never heard before and it doesn't go over very well.

Look at verse 32, He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But 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 merely human concerns."

Jesus 201 doesn't get off to a very good start. Peter, who was just used of God to reveal the truth about who Jesus is, now becomes a tool of Satan to tempt Jesus to avoid the cross and the suffering that he must go through to accomplish his mission of saving the world. Peter was putting into words the very temptations that Jesus was trying to resist. Jesus didn't want to die on a cross, but he knew he had to to accomplish his mission as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So Jesus still has a lot of work to do with these guys. Their view of the Messiah did not include a cross. And so he'll talk about his suffering and death a second time in Mark 9 and then a third time in Mark 10 trying to prepare his disciples for what's on the horizon, but when it finally happens it will still be a shock.

But for now he's pleased that the Father has opened their eyes to see that he is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. They've passed Jesus 101. Who is Jesus Christ? That's the question we all have to answer. And when we believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of the living God we have life in his name. That's his promise, not because we're smart or because we have a high IQ, but because God in his grace has opened our blind eyes to see the truth that's in Jesus.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.