March, 1938
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
109
Points and Problems 1. “ Whom do men say that I am?” (Mk. 8:27). W e have here the central question of Christianity. It is not, What did Jesus teach? but, Who is He? If we go wrong on this point, we shall be wrong everywhere else along the line. It often has been said superficially by modern religi ous teachers that Jesus was not concerned at all about theology, not concerned about what men thought, but rather about how they lived. But they are wrong. If they were right, then our Lord would have gathered His disciples together and asked, “What do men think of My Sermon on the Mount? Are they keeping the Golden Rule?” As a matter of fact, men are not much concerned about the Sermon on the Mount until they find out that it was uttered by One who is no less than the Eternal God. Christ always puts first things first. 2. “ And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer” (Mk. 8:31). This statement marks the grand division between the two distinct phases of our Lord’s teach ing ministry. Up to this point, He had been preaching the gospel of the kingdom, showing by great signs and wonders that He was the promised Messianic King. From here on, He will speak of His re jection, suffering, and death. Matthew marks the dividing point still more clearly by the statement, “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must . . . be killed” (Matt. 16:21). And whereas His royal claims are now to be no longer uttered for a season, the proclamation o f His death and resur rection is to be spoken "openly” (Mk. 8:32). 3. “Peter took him, and began to rebuke him” (v. 32). Certainly it was a most amazing thing for a human disciple to do, and there is no excuse for him. Yet I think that some o f the commentators on this passage are a bit too smug in their judg ment of Peter. Peter was so obsessed with the Lord’s kingly rights and glory that he could find no room for any thought of His suffering and death. And some o f Peter’s modern critics not only fall far below the exalted estimate of our Lord’s death to which Peter finally came, but the same critics are just as blind to His kingly glory which must come as surely as His suffer ings came. And they deserve the same re buke: “ Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men” (v. 33), even though they may be regarded as verit able pillars of the church. John Williams, when an apprentice in London, made an appointment with another lad to spend a certain Sunday evening in folly. He was hurrying along the street to meet his companion when he met his master’s wife. “Where are you going?” said she, and he told her. Then the good woman said: “ That would be a wrong way to spend the Sabbath; come to chapel with me.” He went. The preacher spoke from Mark 8:36. The lad heard the voice of God and obeyed it. He became a Christian, then a student Golden Text Illustration M ark 8:36
of the Bible, and in the end the great South Sea missionary, John Williams. In the “ loss” of his life as a martyr, he gained for Christ a company of believers the number of whom can only be known in heaven. — 1,000 Acts and Facts, by Pickering. Memory Verse: “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). Approach: The Lord Jesus was now in the last year of His life. He knew that He was soon to die. He was ready to die, What Peter Found Out M ark 8:27-38
for He had come into this world, sent by the Father, to do this very thing, to die for the sins of the people, that those that believe might have life. Jesus had been with His dis c i p l e s f o r t h r e e years; He had talked to them often about
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Himself and about God, His Father, and He had worked many miracles among them, but He wanted them to say that they understood just who He was. division Lesson Story: So one day He asked them, “Whom do men say that I am ?” And His disciples told Him the different people that others were saying that He was. Mostly the people thought that Jesus was one of the prophets raised from the dead. Then the Lord Jesus asked these disciples that all-important question: “ But whom say ye that I am V% And right away Peter an swered: “ Thou art the Christ”—meaning the Anointed One whom God had promised would come. Jesus knew that these dis ciples must be told more of what He had to tell them. He began to explain that He must suf fer and be rejected and killed and must rise again. Now the disciples didn’t like to hear this. They had thought that Jesus had come to establish immediately His kingdom on this earth and to free them from their enemies. They didn’t want to hear Him talk about dying on the cross. Peter spoke up and showed that he wanted Jesus to stop saying such things. Then Jesus turned and rebuked Peter and the other disciples. God’s plan was that Jesus, His Son, should die for a lost world. The only way the disciples could be saved was to follow God’s plan, not try to change it. Many of them were to suffer for this gospel’s sake, too. Jesus told them that, but He told them also that though they must suffer and follow Him, their souls would be saved, and they would live through eternity with God. Don’t you think that that is worth a few years of suffering in this life?
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Troublous Times Ahead
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