The Confession – part 3
043 The Confession – part 3
Mark 8:27-38 (30-31)
May 31, 2026
As we return to our text tonight in which we are examining the Christian confession, perhaps it will help us to start with a question.
If what you always believed about Christianity was wrong, would you want to know it?
If something you had been taught or always thought proved to be inaccurate, would you be willing to change your beliefs?
THAT IS SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER.
Especially when we serve a God who clearly says:
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Or a God of whom Scripture says:
Romans 11:33-34 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?”
Or a God of whom Scripture also says:
1 Corinthians 2:9 “but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
In short, we serve a God who does not think like us.
· His thoughts are higher.
· His thoughts are so high that we would never guess them no matter how hard we tried.
Because that is true, it only stands to reason that
There will be times in which what we thought was true
Gets corrected by God.
AND THE QUESTION is whether or not my heart is humble enough to change my way of thinking in order to believe what God says is true?
I BRING THAT UP BECAUSE
That is exactly what the disciples are about to be faced with.
As we saw our last two times together,
· The disciples have now confessed Jesus to be the Christ.
· And, they are confessing Him as the Christ in spite of what the culture thinks.
· They are convinced and they are not ashamed to state it publicly.
· They are not afraid to go against the grain of the culture.
And that is good, for that is necessary.
We have said that the Christian confession:
#1 RESIST CULTURE
Mark 8:27-28
#2 RECOGNIZES CHRIST
Mark 8:29
The disciples have done both.
But what we find as we move forward is that
The world’s thinking is not the only thinking
They are going to be asked to reject.
They will also have to reject their own logic, tradition, and expectations.
For they are about to learn that
Their plan and God’s plan don’t quite line up.
Just for illustrative purposes, the same happened to John the Baptist.
Matthew 11:1-6 “When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
· The forerunner of Jesus
· The first to recognize Him as the Messiah
· The man filled with conviction unto imprisonment
AND HE WAS DOUBTING
Unfulfilled expectations will do that to a person.
John, from prison, sent word to ask, “Are You the Expected One?”
And the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
But what is revealed is that
While Jesus was absolutely the One the prophets expected,
He was not the One John expected.
· Perhaps imprisonment was not part of John’s expectation.
· Perhaps a low-key personality in Jesus was not part of John’s expectation.
· Things were not going as he had expected and it caused him to question.
Jesus gave him a very soft, but serious rebuke.
“blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
John had to deal with that question I asked you at the beginning.
If something you have been taught, or perhaps expected, proved to be wrong, would you be willing to change your beliefs?
If you confess Christ, there will be times that you will be forced to.
· Christ will alter your thinking.
· Christ will at times expose your ignorance.
· Christ will change your expectations.
TRUSTING CHRIST WILL REQUIRE YOU TO ACCEPT THAT.
SO TONIGHT we come to the 3rd reality of the Christian confession
It Resists Culture
It Recognizes Christ
#3 REFORMS CONVICTIONS
Mark 8:30-33
We discussed this a couple of weeks ago,
But we start here with the somewhat peculiar statement in verse 30.
“And He warned them to tell no one about Him.”
We understood it when Jesus forbid demons from speaking,
· He certainly would not want a demon to set the narrative on Him.
We understood it when Jesus told those He healed not to speak,
· We saw how the chaos ensued and even hindered His preaching ministry.
We understood when the disciples were previously told not to tell anyone,
· After all, they were still confused as to who He was.
But now they have confessed Him accurately.
Now they have confessed Him in spite of the culture.
Now they have chosen to confess Him even if they are alone.
AND THEY KNOW WHO HE IS.
So why would Jesus still tell them to “tell no one about Him”?
Because even though they can accurately identify Him,
They are still confused as to why He came.
· They know who He is.
· They are confused as to what He came to do.
AT THIS POINT
· They could certainly accurately proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah
· They could point to many miraculous proofs and fulfilled prophecies to support that claim.
But what they didn’t understand was WHY He came.
We read many prophecies this morning that the disciples no doubt were aware of.
· We read Isaiah 9 – the child born to us
· We read Isaiah 11 – the Spirit-filled ruler
· We read Isaiah 35 – the opener of blind eyes
· We read Isaiah 61 – the one who sets prisoners free
· We referenced Micah and the Bethlehem birthplace.
· We referenced Zechariah and the donkey’s colt.
· We referenced Jeremiah and the righteous branch.
The disciples knew those and rightly applied them to Jesus.
But there were many prophecies in the Old Testament
That they had failed to comprehend and had failed to apply to the Christ.
Psalms 22:11-18 “Be not far from me, for trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me, As a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.”
Isaiah 50:6-7 “I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord God helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.”
Isaiah 53:1-3 “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Psalms 16:10 “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”
There were also all of these PROMISES of a suffering servant.
One who would be rejected, would suffer, would die,
Would be buried with a rich man, and would rise again.
There were even EXPLANATIONS regarding why this Servant must suffer.
Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
All of that was right there in the Old Testament.
No doubt they had read them all.
But they had never been able to associate such prophecies
With the Messiah.
Most Israel today, and we would therefore assume in their day,
Attributed those passages to the suffering nation of Israel.
They see themselves as the suffering servant
And the Messiah simply the One who would come
And deliver them from that suffering.
So when the disciples realized that Jesus was the Messiah,
It is most likely that they were ready for Him
To deliver them from their suffering.
WHAT THEY WERE NOT READY FOR
Was to learn that the Messiah was in fact the suffering servant revealed in Scripture.
· Their belief was wrong.
· Their theology was misguided.
· They needed to have their convictions reformed.
JESUS WAS ABOUT TO DO THAT.
(31) “And 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.”
And we might even add:
(32a) “And He was stating the matter plainly.”
That is to say, there was nothing cryptic in the way He spoke.
· No parable…
· No analogy…
· No illustration…
Jesus just straight up told the disciples who had confessed Him
Where He was headed.
And of course you will see that
What Jesus taught totally contradicted what they believed.
In fact (32b) “And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”
But Jesus didn’t come to be the Messiah Peter expected,
Jesus came to be the Messiah God promised.
Peter’s convictions would need to be corrected.
He was right on one count, and terribly wrong on another.
And before we get into the details of what Jesus began to teach here,
I want you to understand that.
The world today is filled with so much bad theology regarding Jesus.
· They are confused about who He is.
· They are confused about why He came.
· They are confused about what He did.
· They are confused about what He accomplished.
· They are confused about what He desires.
THERE IS A LOT OF BAD DOCTRINE.
Unfortunately some of that bad doctrine
Is stuff that some of us even grew up with.
Some of it is stuff we were taught in church.
Some of it is stuff that have been traditionally held beliefs for years.
But part of the Christian confession
Is to yield to the teaching of Christ about Himself.
To study what Christ taught and be willing to have our minds changed.
To study what Christ did and be willing to be corrected.
I can certainly attest that I grew up in churches
That undoubtedly taught a form of Armenianism.
They never claimed to be Armenian, but they were.
· I was taught salvation was a decision or a choice I made.
· I was taught that Jesus was outside knocking just wishing I would open up
the door of my heart to Him.
· I was taught that responding to Jesus was within my power and simply a
matter of my free will.
· I was taught that evangelism was really just a matter of emotional motivation
or intellectual debate.
· I was taught that if you could get a kid baptized you then reassured them by
telling them to never doubt it again regardless of the immoral lives they
would go on to lead.
I was never taught anything about the Holy Spirit.
I didn’t know anything about regeneration.
I didn’t know anything about God’s sovereignty.
I was basically taught that salvation was about my comfort,
Not God’s glory.
AND THESE WERE AREAS THAT CHRIST HAD TO CORRECT IN ME.
That’s just coming from biased Baptist upbringing.
Some have come from other denominations.
· Some are taught LEGALISM, that their works contribute.
· Some are taught LIBERALISM, that there is no real standard of justice.
· Some are taught CEREMONY and tradition as though the power is in routine.
· Some are taught EMOTIONALISM that God is felt, not known.
· Some are taught PAGANISM wrapped up in Christian clothing.
And the list could go on and on and on.
But this all stems back to that point we made
That your confession must be an accurate one.
You must accurately confess the Biblical Christ.
That is what the disciples were trying to do,
But before Jesus would commission them to proclaim Him
They needed correction.
· They had no room in their minds for the reality of the suffering of the Christ.
· And Jesus is about to introduce that here.
· Their convictions had to be reformed.
· They needed to know the real mission of the King.
And we certainly want to examine that.
Jesus lists 3 main things here,
But do not miss the fact that He says these things “must” happen.
That is important to grasp.
These 3 events are not optional.
· If Jesus is going to save sinners…
· If Jesus is going to complete His mission…
· If Jesus is going to accomplish the purpose for which He came…
· These things “must” happen.
But that’s also an important word because
We’re going to see Him use that word again in verse 34
When He tells His followers what they also “must” do in order to be saved.
“must” is a big word here.
First applied to Christ and then applied to us.
But let’s first see what Christ “must” do in order for us to be saved.
1) HE MUST SUFFER REJECTION
“And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes,”
I realize you could probably break that into a couple of different events,
But in reality this is one requirement.
Matthew’s gospel actually adds:
Matthew 16;21 “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.”
· Matthew adds “go to Jerusalem” to the list of musts.
Going to Jerusalem and suffering and rejection
Are NOT 3 distinct things which must happen,
But rather one corporate thing.
Jesus must suffer at the hands of the religious leaders in Jerusalem
HE MUST BE REJECTED.
Let’s talk about this for a moment.
LET’S JUST START WITH SUFFERING IN GENERAL
Why was it necessary to suffer before He died?
Why couldn’t He just die?
Surely there must be a purpose.
We’ve talked about why He had to live for 33 years before He died.
· Why He couldn’t just descend from heaven on Thursday, die on Friday, be raised on Sunday, and ascend on Monday.
That was because of the necessity of His ACTIVE OBEDIENCE.
· He had to fulfill the Law.
· He had to earn the righteousness He would give us.
· We remember that.
Well certainly His suffering comes with a reason as well.
WHEN HE DIES,
· He does not die a noble death.
· He does not die by what is viewed an honorable death.
· He isn’t even viewed as a heroic martyr.
HE IS SUFFERING AS HE DIES.
WHY?
The writer of Hebrews answers this question for us:
Hebrews 2:10 “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.”
It is an interesting statement there made by the writer of Hebrews.
Especially since we think only of Jesus being perfect.
· We know Him to be the God-Man.
· We know Him to be without sin.
· We know Him to be holy, undefiled, set-apart.
So it seems strange to us to read the phrase that
GOD would “perfect Him” as though He was not already perfect.
As though He was in need of sanctification like we are.
But the work to perfect Christ had nothing to do with
His character or moral purity, for indeed He was perfect.
The need to perfect Him had to do with His mission / His ministry.
The writer would go on to say:
Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
· It had to do with mercy and sympathy.
· He had to do with experience.
He had to experience suffering to effectively minister as a merciful priest.
It had nothing to do with being unworthy.
The fifth chapter seems to answer this tension:
Hebrews 5:7-10 “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Clearly there He suffered.
· We read of “crying and tears”
But we also see that God heard His prayers “because of His piety”.
· That is to say, God heard Him because He was so holy.
And then we learned that even in that holy state,
· He still “learned obedience from the things which He suffered”
He didn’t learn to obey, He learned why obedience is so difficult for us.
· He faced suffering.
· He faced temptation.
· He knows what it is like to face pain when contemplating obedience.
· He knows what it is like to obey when it is costly.
That is certainly part of the necessity of His suffering.
But that is really just suffering in general.
The gospel writers speak of A SPECIFIC SUFFERING.
One that happens in Jerusalem, at the hands of the Sanhedrin.
And if you’ve read the gospels you know that
Jesus was on a mission to get to Jerusalem for His suffering and death.
Luke 13:31-35 “Just at that time some Pharisees approached, saying to Him, “Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’ “Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! “Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
It wasn’t just suffering, it was suffering in Jerusalem.
And it wasn’t just suffering at the hands of sinners,
It had to be at the hands of the Sanhedrin.
He had to be “rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes.”
THIS IS BOUND UP IN WHY HE WAS SENT.
TURN TO: Mark 12:1-11
· He is quoting there first from Isaiah 5 regarding those who ruined God’s vineyard
· And secondly from Psalms 118:23 about the Messiah being rejected.
The point is that there was animosity between God
And those who had mistreated His people.
TURN TO: EZEKIEL 34
· It is a prophetic chapter about God’s disdain for Israel’s terrible shepherds.
· We’ve read it a number of times especially those bad shepherds who malign the flock and feed themselves without feeding the flock.
(READ: 1-6)
Now, God was so angry at those shepherds
That He promised to remove those shepherds
And shepherd the sheep Himself.
(READ Vs. 10-12)
(READ Vs. 23-24)
THERE WAS A BATTLE GOING ON THERE.
Listen to Zechariah:
Zechariah 11:7-8 “So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.”
There again is His disdain and opposition to the false shepherds of Israel.
THE POINT IS that Jesus could not be chummy with them.
· These were God’s enemies.
· These had attacked and mutilated God’s children.
· He couldn’t be at peace with them and peace with God at the same time.
The rejection of the Sanhedrin was a validation of Jesus’ ministry.
He had to be rejected and rejected by them.
But there is even more to His suffering than that.
He had to go to Jerusalem, be tried by the religious authorities,
BE CONDEMNED AS A SINNER, AND EXECUTED IN LIKE MANNER.
And the key word here is: IDENTIFICATION
Luke 22:37 “For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, ‘And He was numbered with transgressors’; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment.”
· That is a quote of Isaiah 53:12
It’s all a part of His identification with us.
He is being treated as though He lived our life.
· This is why you see Him arrested as a criminal.
· This is why you see Him tried as a blasphemer.
· This is why you see Him crucified between sinners.
He is identifying with us.
He is stepping into our shoes.
He is taking our place.
Isaiah 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
· He is suffering in the place of criminals.
· He is suffering in the place of thieves.
· He is suffering in the place of sinners.
Romans 5:6-8 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
That is why He had to suffer.
If He doesn’t suffer, there is no identification.
If He doesn’t suffer, there is no practical sympathy and mercy as a priest.
If He doesn’t suffer, there is no opposition to our adversary.
When you read the gospel accounts
One thing that is absolutely clear is that the religion of the Sanhedrin
And the religion of Jesus are not compatible.
They are not the same.
· Jesus did not rub elbows with them.
· Jesus did not endorse them.
· Jesus was a thorn in their side.
· Jesus was a finger in their eye.
He totally offended them, and to the point that
They were not content with anything less than making Him suffer.
If you want to talk about a Savior who is “All In”, well that’s Jesus!
Imagine being a prisoner of war in some foreign country
And being treated terribly.
And then a delegate from the United States comes to discuss your release.
· But all he ever does is spend time with the dignitaries of that foreign
government.
· He enjoys their company, their hospitality, their friendship.
· He sympathizes with them instead of with you.
Are you going to view that delegate as friend?
But what if he comes over and pitches a total fit!
· What if he won’t even listen to their side of the story?
· What if he has no interest in their friendship?
· What if he would prefer to be in the cell with you?
That’s a friend.
Do you see why Jesus had to suffer at the hands of the religious elite?
IT WAS ALL ABOUT IDENTIFICATION.
· He took on your sin.
· He took on your shame.
· He took on your pain.
· He took on your suffering.
· He took on your enemy.
· He took on your condemnation.
“the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes…”
Anything less than that would be a betrayal of His mission.
TONIGHT I WANT YOU TO MEDITATE ON THAT.
I want you to see that when Jesus came
It was not to gain worldly fame or comfort.
He did not pursue advantageous relationships
Or the comfort and ease that comes
With compromising with wicked men.
· Jesus was resolute.
· Jesus was determined.
· Jesus totally offended those who maligned you.
He was on your side!
What a wonderful Savior is He!
And just let that reality sink into your mind
The next time you are tempted to gain influence or rub elbows
With those who hate Him.
Think about how resilient and loyal He was to you
The next time you are tempted to be disloyal to Him.
Perhaps this is an area where our convictions need to be reformed.
It is certainly an area that confronted the disciples.
This is one of the reasons why Peter is going to pull Jesus aside.
(32b) “And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”
Throughout the gospels Jesus never gets along with the religious elite
And the disciples are always shocked by it.
Perhaps they thought
· That following Christ would be acceptance and popularity.
· Following Christ would mean acceptance among the religious elite.
IT DID NOT.
They needed their convictions reformed.
They needed to see that following Christ
Was not a path to fame, it was a path to rejection.
DO YOU SEE THAT?
· Do you see that friendship with the world is enmity before God?
· Do you see that following Christ was never meant to cause you to gain the world or its respect and admiration?
· Do you see that we are called to lose this life and gain the next one?
Somewhere along the line the church has started to believe
That Christ is the means of gaining the world and its respect.
HE IS NOT.
The true Christian confession understands that
Following Christ is to be rejected.
The true Christian confession reforms our convictions
And our understanding to know that
Following Christ means exclusion from the world.
And maybe we need our convictions altered in this way.
We cannot be men and women of compromise.
· This Savior never compromised.
· He took your shame and your suffering all the way to death.
And we’ll talk about that next time.