Mark 8:31-9:1 - The Messiah s Shalom

Mark 8:31-9:1 - The Messiah s Shalom Follow up from last week - Peter just confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah! And Jesus strictly told His disciples to not tell anyone. And today we now see what Jesus does with that. 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 he said this plainly. Now that Jesus disciples knew/recognized who He was, the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus needed to inform them of all the implications that being the Messiah entailed. He didn t pull any punches - He said this plainly Jesus was helping the disciples to understand that the Messiah was the suffering servant, that the Messiah was not a socio-political deliverer, but a theo-spiritual deliverer. But to be this, He would have to 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. Jesus was so blunt that it took His disciples by surprise and completely befuddled them. Imagine if this took place today. I came in and said, Next week, when I go to Boise to go shopping at Costco I m going to be arrested, the trial is going to be rigged, snopes and

FBI are going to present a lot of false evidence against me, the fake media is going to make up stories about me, they re gonna let in a bunch of prison guards to come in and beat me to a pulp, the courts are going to sentence me to death, and they re gonna kill me live on Channel 7 KTVB. But it s cool three days later I m gonna open the refrigerator door and walk out of the city morgue. Then one of you would stand up and take me aside and say Alan, stop talking like that, don t be stupid, that s never going to happen. The disciples have NO cognitive frame of mind through which to understand what Jesus was telling about what He was about to do. What is at stake here? For the disciples - It was the life of their Messiah, the leader of their movement who would establish them as the kingdom of Israel again, re-establish the borders, fill the temple with the presence of God, and things would Go back to how they were in the golden glory days of the 1050 s BC For Jesus - it was the very THE KINGDOM OF GOD that was at stake!! In order for Jesus be able to say It is Finished / It is accomplished He must fulfill ALL of the OT prophecies about Him Prophecies like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 MUST BE ACCOMPLISHED! Imagine if Peter s words came true and Jesus didn t submit to the Father s plan. There would have been: No betrayal No mocking

No being scorned by mankind and despised by the people No man of sorrows and acquainted with grief No beating No man like a sheep before its shearers is silent No wounds that would bring us healing No stripes No crushing for our transgressions No being smitten by God and afflicted No hands and feet being pierced No being poured out like water None looking upon Him whom they have pierced No making his grave among the wicked No grave with the rich man No bearing our iniquities No death No burial No resurrection And NO ONE would be made righteous. But hey, maybe Jesus will be able to live a long happy life, get married, have some kids, preach happiness, good morals, and faithfulness to the law, hang out with the disciples and continue making the Pharisees mad. It s not that Peter was being evil or diabolical in rebuking Jesus, he was simply mistaken and off base in his understanding of the person and work of the Christ, hence Jesus rebuking Him saying Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. The thinking that the Messiah was not the suffering servant come to die was the thinking of man. There are things I COULD say about this rebuttal to Peter, but I wanna press on...

I want to settle into the second part of the passage as our focus this morning. We get to the call of Jesus This is the climactic come to Jesus moment for those who had been following Him. It was coming time to put up or shut up. This is basically Jesus saying, things are about to get real. This was the time that Jesus, as it says in Luke, was turning His face toward toward Jerusalem. Because of the divine revelation made to Peter, the Messianic secret is now out and things are about to get dramatically more difficult for Jesus and His followers BECAUSE the truth about Jesus title as Messiah was about to become well known, not just by His words but the increasingly more glorious and miraculous works of Jesus, culminating with the raising of Lazarus from the dead. What does the world today praise as the ultimate good? Happiness / Comfort / Peace (meaning no wars, no conflicts, just people being in a state of blissful happiness) It s not that God is the polar opposite of this. It s simply that the happiness, contentment, people s good feelings, and status quo of humanity is not God s #1 priority.

However, don t think He s a tyrant who wants us to be unhappy and suffer. That s the enemy - the enemy wants God to suffer - his goal is to corrupt and turn God s creation against Him. Jesus call to the crowd was to change their way of thinking. To crucify their perception of the world, its logic, its ways of thinking, its wisdom, its lifestyles, what is important, what is praiseworthy, what the world thinks, feels, approves, encourages, and how the world - even the religious world - thinks about God. What is God s desire for His people? Let s look at Jeremiah 29 For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. God s desire for His people is Welfare/Peace - Shalom - this word in the Hebrew means flourishing things as they should be, as they were created to be when God created all things good God desires flourishing! God s not saying I have a wonderful plan for your life and it s all about making you happy and feel awesome! The southern kingdom including Jerusalem is about to be destroyed!

They are about to get an almighty righteous spanking! God is saying this is not what I wanted for you!! Basically God is saying something to the extent of My plans for you are to bring you back to a place and dwelling like Eden, a place of flourishing, back to the time when I walked and talked with mankind. I will fulfill the promise I made to Abraham, to give my people a hope and eternal glory. Compare this to the words Jesus spoke to His disciples in the Upper Room on the night of the passover. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace ( Shalom) I leave with you; my peace (My Shalom) I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. These words on the eve of His crucifixion seem very reminiscent of God s prophetic words to Israel on the eve of their exile. Things are about to get dark... REALLY dark and you re going to think that I have abandoned you, but take heart, I m going to the Father, I go to prepare a place for you, because I have a plan, to re-establish shalom - the way things were meant to be from the beginning, by sending the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to walk, and talk, and dwell within my own people like I did in the garden. Shalom I leave with you, my Shalom I give to you.

Not as the world gives - the world has NO IDEA what my creation was supposed to be like! I know, because I was there, I AM the creator God who CREATED the world and everything in it! So take peace, shalom, in knowing that I AM is with you, not simply in a tabernacle or temple made with human hands, but is with you, IN YOU. Think about how the greetings and the salutations of most of the epistles and letters in the NT are written. Grace and Peace be with you. May the Peace of Christ be with you. May the God of Peace be with you/your spirits The LORD is still very focused on His peace in the new covenant, the new covenant in His own blood! He has offered Himself as our peace offering to the Father for all time! The different derivatives of the word Shalom in the OT law have connotations of peace and that which brings peace. Restitution for people The owner of an accidentally killed ox is paid restitution Oil is sold to pay off a debt A man who sleeps with a virgin who is not his wife paid the bride price for her to her father. Sacrifice is made on the altar to make restitution to God for sin

In the law, an act of shalom brings shalom The act of peace making brings peace. Shalom - A state of completeness and harmony or rather un-dividedness, prosperity, health, safety Flourishing There are a lot of connotations to this in scripture Whenever it speaks of our state before the Father under the new covenant it ALWAYS speaks of it in words like Perfect / Complete / Accomplished / Finished - the finished work that is both brought about by shalom and the end result OF Christ s finished work IS shalom. Humanity is fallen, depraved, unholy, wicked, corrupt; we are at odds with, and enemies, of God! ENEMIES!! There is animosity between humanity and God, He has delivered humanity over to their corrupt passions and perversions of what He created good. The law can no longer keep ANYONE in check. Scripture says in Hebrews 7, the law couldn t make anything perfect, but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. It says later in Hebrews 12, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect/complete

Here we get to the great call of our passage today! Here we get to the core, the very essence, of the gospel message! Jesus called the crowd to him with his disciples, Meaning, Jesus is with His disciples and they re facing the crowd. This is basically Jesus drawing a line in the sand between Him and His disciples and he crowd... And Jesus said, 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. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? 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. He s talking to the curious crowd! He s not talking to post salvation Christians, saying you need to pick up your cross (pull yourself up by your bootstraps - do better), and follow me. Jesus is appealing to those who were curiously following Jesus, PRE-new covenant, PRE-crucifixion, to those still under the law, those still under the curse of sin, those still lost and without the Spirit of God dwelling within them. This call has been fulfilled in Christ through His passion! This is the gospel message we take with us to the ends of the earth!

Christians are those who have been made perfect or made complete We are no longer under law, but under grace. We are not saved to continue to sin, but freed FROM sin, so that we can walk in the Shalom of Jesus, the Peace of God that rules in our hearts! How do I know? Listen to Paul s words to the Romans: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. That we may walk in the Shalom of God! For if we have been united with him in a death (a peace offering) like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. And in another place he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Christians are those who have been justified by Jesus blood on the cross, made holy by God, brought from death to life, filled with the promised Holy Spirit, and glorified into His eternal heaven Kingdom- we are the ones Jesus is speaking of here who have denied ourselves, picked up our crosses and followed Him! We have made the ultimate spiritual peace offering by offering ourselves fully and completely to God and He has laid all of our sins upon Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, and now we are righteous, FOR ALL TIME, before God the Father - we have PEACE with God - we have Shalom with our heavenly Father! As Christians, our lives are now marked - not by law, sin, death, and dead works - but by flourishing, abundant life, freedom and joy! The author of Hebrews says, in reference to Jesus - He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. Our King is no longer a Prince but IS the King of Salem - the King of Righteousness, and the the King of Peace, the KING of Kings and the LORD of Lords. James speaks to Christ followers, A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. We are righteous, we are sowers of peace - we bring God s shalom - we bring the flourishing of the Eden of God to earth in our everyday lives! And the life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God

It s kinda like Star Wars... Have ya ll seen Episodes 1-3 of the Star Wars Saga? - not 4-6 the first Star Wars movies, but the newer episodes with Liam Neison and Ewan McGreggor. There s this Droid Army - an army of robots! They re all led and controlled by the Control Ships of the evil Trade Federation. So the goal of battle during these wars was not simply to try and fight the myriad of droids that were attacking, but to find and destroy the control ship because once they did, the enemy before them ceased to have any power and flopped into lifeless piles of scrap metal before their eyes. Jesus is the conquering King whose victory will be won over not only the Romans (the Droids) - like they had always assumed and believed - but over the power of the entire Spiritual realm, the forces of this present darkness, the GREAT enemy, Satan and His dominion - by which the present physical enemies were being lead and controlled. Once Jesus took out the powers of darkness and their control over this present world, as soon as He bound the strong man He was now able to plunder His goods, take dead lifeless people and bring them to life.