He Calls us all to follow and change our thinking
Mark 8:31-37
"Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep." Romans 12:15
In a world filled with both joys and pains, with triumphant deliverances and gross injustices, this is what the Bible tells us to do. This is the kind of thing that sets genuine followers of Jesus apart from those just playing at religion. I say this because this verse expresses the way Jesus lived.
Jesus the Reconciler Enters In to the Brokenness of Our Lives
What this requires, of course, is the quality of empathy, a quality we see in Jesus. The world we live in has so much brokenness and pain. But the pervasive message of Scripture is that God loves the world so much that is now engaged in a rescue effort to heal what is broken and to take what has become hostile to him and toward one another and make peace. When he is done, all things will be made right. There will be no more brokenness, no more injustice, or death. The ministry that leads to this kind of world is what we call reconciliation.
For Jesus to do this, he had to enter into our world. This is always the first step Jesus took in his reconciliation ministry to people. We saw this in our message last week, the first Advent Sunday, as Jesus entered into the life of a woman others would have ignored – a woman from a broken and demonized family (Mk 7:24-30). And he set her free. Jesus always did this. He entered with compassion and respect into the lives of people no one else would enter into. He mourned with those who mourn. And he rejoiced when people found hope and a new life through faith in him. You see, there can be no reconciliation without relationship – and Jesus is ready to enter into anyone's life to bring peace – anyone who will receive him.
Jesus Calls Us to Change – Beginning with Our Minds
Jesus rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not thinking the way God thinks but the way the world thinks (8:33)!"
For brokenness to be healed and peace to be made, things cannot stay the way they are. And, according to Jesus – and to the entire New Testament – God's changing our lives begins with him changing our minds. Do you know how the Apostle Paul put it? He said, "Don't be conformed to the patterns of this world but be transformed..." How? It begins with the "renewing or your mind! (Rom 12:2)."
Today, we come to Mark 8. Up to now, Mark has reported that Jesus does what only God can do. He heals, he stills storms, he raises the dead... And then -- this powerful one entered into broken people's lives with compassion. With all that happening, in v.27, Jesus asks his followers, "Who do people say I am?"
As a person who has taught a lot in my life, I picture this as a teacher in front of the class with the students excitedly raising their hands, "I know, Jesus! They say you are a prophet. Or, John the Baptist returned from the dead. Or – even better – you are Elijah! They're saying great things about you, Jesus!"
"But who do you say I am?" And Peter got it right. "You are the long-awaited Messiah." Matthew tells us that Jesus told Peter, "This truth has been revealed to you not by any human being but by God."
It's at that point that the Bible tells us Jesus began to teach about what he would have to do in order to set people free and give people a new life. He taught that he would have to suffer, be rejected and then be killed – though he would defeat death and rise again. In v. 32, we are told Jesus said this "plainly".
But, the disciples, even though they were beginning to see who Jesus was, still thought the way the world thinks. In v.33, Peter rebuked Jesus! Essentially, Peter told Jesus, "Jesus, we love a lot of the things you're doing. But, you don't seem to be thinking right. Dying won't do us any good. You need to overturn those in power. You have to take the reigns of leadership and give us power alongside you. (All this comes out in ch.10.) And, Jesus, if we follow you when you're headed toward death, then we might die too!"
Jesus rebukes Peter in the strongest words found in the Bible, "Get behind me Satan. "That's the way the world thinks, Peter." So, it's clear: We have to learn to think like Jesus thinks.
The Way Jesus Thinks about Life – The way to find your life is to give up your life
The world thinks life is found in getting something for myself – or by holding onto temporary things that grip our lives. But, Jesus declares this: If anyone would come after me..."
Let me stop there. Who is in that "anyone"? Read through the life of Jesus and you'll learn that anyone can be in that anyone. A hated tax collector – a part of the system they all detested. A Jewish synagogue leader too. A woman trapped in prostitution. A man filled with leprosy... If anyone would come after me..." Sometimes, I think there are some of Jesus' anyones that we don't want in our anyones. The beauty of the message of Jesus is that there is hope for a new life for anyone.
Let me say this plainly to you: That part of the Bible's message is applauded by our culture. Jesus is willing to enter with respect into the lives of any person – regardless of political ideology, documentation status, criminal record, sexual preference, addictive behaviors... Our society rightly loves that part of Jesus.
What our society does not love (and the disciples did not love at first) is that the compassionate Jesus will not leave us living the way we are tempted to live. He calls us to find a new life – and that means we cannot just keep living our old life. He calls all of us to change. Look at his words: "If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save his life (Mk 8:34-35)."
Jesus is saying here to Peter – and to anyone: "The way the world thinks is that you will find your life by having more power, more prestige, more pleasure as you long to have it. No, the way to find life is to follow me – whatever you may have or not have, wherever I lead you, and whatever I call you to do." Basically, Jesus says, "You have to trust me. You have to place your faith in me. You've seen how much I love you. If you follow me, you will find real life. But you cannot keep being self-directed. You have to let me take control. Follow me and you will find life."
I'll take up this matter of how following Jesus changes our lives next week. This week, I want us to focus only on how following Jesus changes the way we think about our world and our lives.
The Way the World Thinks about Life – If I can have my deepest desires, I'll find life.
All week, I've been asking what most people in our world think they need to find life. Let me show you just a few of the responses:
• A young wife: "I used to say that I only needed to get married to be happy. Now that I have that, I think I've added that I need children too."
• A college senior said: "I need to find a good job and then be successful at it."
• An empty nester said: "I think I need to be near my grandchildren."
• Several said: "Most people think it has to do with physical wholeness -- good looks, fitness or health." "If only I have my health, then that's the main thing."
• Several more said: "I think most of us want to be accepted – to be liked."
• Many who have immigrated to our country sacrifice everything so that their children can go to Cal Tech or Princeton or Harvard. They think they will find their lives in and through their children's success. They long for it. Sacrifice for it.
• Most people I asked with spoke of achievements: professional, academic, athletic... "If only I could achieve a certain thing, then life would be great.
Notice that those things people said to me are not bad things. In fact, they are good things. (Of course, I'm a pastor. So, I know people don't always tell me all that they long for.). But let me say something to you that you already know: You could have all those things and still know that something is missing.
The Bible uses a word for this deep longing to find life through temporary things in this world: epithumia. Pastor Tim Keller translates it, "Over-desire." It has to do with longing for something so much that it takes the place of ultimacy in our lives. We can desire something so much that it takes the place of God in our longings. Listen to me: Human beings are made in the image of God. You are made to have your inner being filled with the knowledge of God. When you try to put anything into God's place, it will let you down. That job you wanted will not be all it promised to be. That person you wanted as a life partner will prove to be far less than perfect. Those achievements will bring no enduring satisfaction. And, it that's all there is, eventually death will take it all away. All thinking human beings know this. So, why do we keep trying to fill up our inner beings with temporary things?
The Life We Find when We Follow Jesus
Whoever holds onto his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save his life (8:35)."
I'm sure you see that Jesus used the word "life" in this verse in an unusual way (to our ears). The word he used was "psyche" – the word from which we get our word "psychology." It has to do with what is at the core of our inner beings. Jesus is talking about what is at the heart of your identity. He says very clearly that life is not going to be found in those places the world tells you it is to be found. You won't discover who you are and the life you long for in anything in this world. If you put any temporary thing at the center of your soul, it will let us down. It will not last. God must be the first thing. Other things can be wonderful if they are the second things. As George MacDonald wrote: When first things are put first, second things are not diminished but enhanced."
Jesus promises that if you will follow him -- letting him shape your thinking, your living and your identity, you will find life. "Other things promise so much but they end up stealing, killing and destroying. I have come that you may have life and have it to the full (Jn 10)." Do you believe him?
Following him will involve denying yourself – you must be ready to give up those things you think you have to have – those "epithumia" – simply because you believe Jesus is asking you to do it. You will sometimes bear a cross. Jesus had to carry a cross in his path to bring us life. People scorned him for what he was doing. So, like Peter, people may say, "This death and sacrifice you've endured makes no sense." So you must trust that Jesus can turn the most difficult times into the greatest victories – that, for Jesus, even a physical death is not an eternal death.
And you must follow him. When you do, all the brokenness of our lives begins to be healed and you will begin to experience the peace Jesus came to give. This is what reconciliation is all about. Jesus enters into broken lives and calls us to follow him. We die to self and find life in him. That's the Christian message.
Our Privilege and Our Calling: To Make Peace as Jesus Makes Peace
Jesus calls us out to live like he lived. Jesus sends us as he was sent. We become those who are to be Jesus' ambassadors for reconciliation in our broken world. Wherever we go, we are to enter into people's lives with respect, we are to care about their pain and to be involved their healing, and we are to call people to find their lives by giving up their lives in faith to the Jesus who died for them. And, for us as for Peter, the new lives we are to live begins with thinking about things in ways different from the way the world does. I believe this has application to all the broken relationships you may have in your own families, places of work, and neighborhoods. I think it has a lot to teach us about how followers of Jesus must think and live as brokenness in our nation has become so evident with what has happened in New York, Cleveland and Ferguson. We all agree that when young people are shot, this is not the way heaven will be. But, we are so polarized – so divided. We need to think the way God thinks about this – not the way the world thinks. But, I'll take that up next week. (That's my "teaser" to get you to return.)
But, this week, as we mourn with many who mourn, we as a church family rejoice with those who rejoice. For over two years now, we have been weeping with our church family members, Matt and Grace Huang and with their children Immanuel, Josiah and Gloria – and their extended family. I remember as the Huang family left the San Gabriel Valley for Matt to practice his engineering profession and for the family to take up a new place of living in Doha in the State of Qatar in Western Asia. Then, we mourned as we learned of the struggles little Gloria was having and we mourned more when we heard of her death. And, then we mourned in a different way -- with a sorrow blended with rage and confusion -- at Grace and Matt's imprisonment. We have mourned and we have prayed. And today we rejoice. The Huangs are home! And surely many are thinking, "The Huangs can really live again."
There is a measure of truth in that. We celebrate that they are free and are with us. We are grateful for all who have prayed so fervently for this day. We are thankful for all those who worked in the political and judicial systems to make this day possible. We will never know most of the hours that many people spent. But to all who did whatever you did to make this day possible, we say thank you, thank you, thank you!!
We have prayed and watched from afar as Matt and Grace have been forced to deny self, carry a cross of unjust accusation and imprisonment, and seek to be faithful to Jesus. In the midst of what surely must have been times of confusion, frustration and uncertainty, I pray that you have found God to be who he says he is, "A refuge and strength. A very present help in times of trouble so that we need never be ashamed."
We all will have times in which the life the world tells us that we simply must have is taken away. We need something in this world that cannot be taken away. We need something that imprisonment cannot steal. Something that even little Gloria's death cannot rob. And that's what we find in Christ.
So, I will simply leave us with one of the greatest words of Scripture that tells us that nothing can take away this life the Jesus died to give us. The words are from the Apostle Paul who so frequently was unjustly imprisoned and falsely accused. Listen to his words as if you have never heard them before:
What, then, shall we say in response to the things that happen to us in this world? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things we need? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us. What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (from Romans 8:31-38).
To His glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
Greg Waybright • Copyright 2014, Lake Avenue Church