Tag Archives: a prophet

MARK’S GOSPEL…MESSIAH – 19

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Mark 8:27-29 NIV

“Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

Before we examine the details of this conversation, we must understand its setting. “Caesarea Philippi”, is just a name to us but it was of major significance to Jesus and His disciples. This was Israel’s “ red light” district…a place of unimaginable debauchery. At a shrine near the source of the Jordan River, at the base of a massive rock, there was a temple built to Pan, the goat-god who was worshipped by having sex with goats. There were many pagan superstitions surrounding this geographical site, situated near the city of Caesarea, a Roman city dedicated to the worship of Caesar. 

Jesus purposely took His disciples there to illustrate an important truth to them. Using this  offensive site as background, if they really understood who He was, they would believe that faith in Him would change the hearts of the most depraved people from the “yoke” of slavery to sin to the “yoke” of disciples of Jesus. This rock, at the base of which the temple to Pan was built, would become the very place where Jesus would build His church.

To the disciples, this would be a vivid illustration of the power of Jesus’ yoke…His teaching based on who He was. 

So, in the environment of unspeakable evil, Jesus asked…

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

For once, motor-mouth Peter got it right! Always the first to blurt out an answer!  Was Peter speaking for the group or did he, in a flash of inspiration, really understand what he was saying?

First, Jesus’ reply suggested that Peter was sincere in his understanding of His identity, even if he only partially understood the implications. 

We must remember that the disciples shared the common expectation that the Messiah would come to Israel as a conquering king, dispatching the Romans from their land and setting up His kingdom in the pattern of David’s kingdom. 

Shortly before Jesus’s ascension, they still had the same expectation. 

Acts 1:6 NIV

“Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

So, when Peter confessed that Jesus was their Messiah, he was anticipating that Jesus would act like a conquering hero.

The exchange that followed blew that idea out of the water. Jesus was quick to introduce the other side of Messiah’s role, that of the “suffering Servant.” However, whatever Jesus told them at that moment, and repeated many times in the following days, fell on deaf ears. 

Mark 8:31-33 NIV

“He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

In one moment, Peter moved from “inspired by God” to “mouthpiece for the devil.”  How could that happen? His limited understanding of Messiah came right out of his mouth. It would take the death and resurrection of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to complete his understanding of who God’s Messiah really was in all His fullness. 

Jesus intended to reveal to His disciples that the power of the Gospel lies, first, in His identity. Every believer must be convinced that He is the Son of God. Believing in Him means that we receive and honour Him as Lord – as Supreme Authority. 

Second, there is no power on earth greater than He…therefore, every demonic power must bow and give way to Him. There is no place or people on earth too evil to be saved by believing in Him as Lord. 

WE KNOW EVERYTHING!

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WE KNOW EVERYTHING!

“Then they turned again to the blind man, ‘What have you to say about Him? It was your eyes He opened.’ The man replied, ‘He is a prophet.’

“They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. ‘Is this your son?’ they asked. ‘Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?’

“‘We know he is our son,’ the parents answered, ‘and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age. He will speak for himself.'”

“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That is why his parents said, ‘He is of age; ask him.'” John 9:17-23 NIV.

Poor Pharisees! They had hard evidence in front of their eyes but, no matter how hard they tried they could not make the evidence or the witness go away!

First, they questioned the blind man. “Who do you think He is? After all, it was your eyes He opened?” Without hesitation the blind man put Jesus into the category of “prophet” which was unpalatable for the Pharisees because prophets were revered by the Jews even though their ancestors had failed to heed them and even killed them.

Then they called for his parents and questioned them, hoping that by some miracle they would say there had been some mistake and that he was not their son or that they didn’t really know whether he had been born blind or not! That didn’t work for them either. The man’s parents freely acknowledged that he was their son and that he had been born blind. They threw the ball back in their son’s court. ‘He is old enough to speak for himself!’

Now the Pharisees were in a dilemma. All the evidence pointed to the fact that the man had been born blind and now he could see. Somehow Jesus was in the mix and they could not make any of the facts go away. They had already decided to penalise anyone who dared to confess that Jesus was the Messiah.

The man’s parents bowed to that one but the problem was that any explanation other than that Jesus was who He claimed to be would make nonsense of the evidence. They sidestepped the issue by putting the onus back on their son so as not to fall foul of the Pharisees. They also refused to acknowledge that Jesus was more than just a man.

“A second time they summoned the man who had been born blind. ‘Give the glory to God by telling the truth.’ they said. ‘We know this man is a sinner.'” John 9:24 NIV.

How do you make the evidence go away? By assassinating the character of the one who did the miracle! They still had another hurdle to get over but this one they ignored. ‘We know,’ they said, as thought that settled all the arguments. On what ground did they base their knowledge? Had they witnessed Jesus practising sin? Had anyone else witnessed His sinful behaviour?

They had no answer for His challenge, ‘Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?’ and yet they were now declaring, as though they were the final authority that He was a sinner, and on those grounds, they could dismiss the miracle He did as the work of a sinner! How did that work?

There are religious groups today that declare that the Word of God is not true because it has been corrupted. Does that make their claim true, simply because they said it? Try as anyone may, truth is indestructible. Since Jesus declared that the Word of the Lord will never pass away, and since no one has ever proved Him a liar, Jesus and His Word are still reliable and dependable. Hallelujah!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

NAILED!

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NAILED!

“He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’ ‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’

‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.'” John 4:16-20 (NIV).

O-oh! This conversation is getting a bit uncomfortable. How did Jesus know that?

If this woman was to admit her thirst and come clean, she had to open up the cupboard and get all the skeletons out. Jesus didn’t pussyfoot around. He could read her like a book. Why did He expose her, just like that?

First of all, they were alone at the well. There was no-one around to eavesdrop on her private life. Jesus would never have exposed her in front of His disciples. It was not His intention to shame or embarrass her but to open up the lines of communication between her and Him so that He could speak to her heart.

Secondly, as long as she kept secrets, there would be a wall between them. He knew and she knew but, until she knew that He knew, she would not hear Him or receive what He was offering her. He told her that He knew exactly what was going on, not to accuse but to show her that her lifestyle was a symptom of her real thirst. She thought she needed a man to love her but what she really need was to reconnect with the God who loved her unconditionally for who she was.

She did what every person does when faced with having to own up to what they are doing — she became religious. ‘This is scary. You must be a prophet. We Samaritans go to this church, but you Jews insist that your church is the right one. So, which one is the right one?’ A convenient “red herring” to take the heat off her!

However, whether she liked it or not, her interest was aroused. This was not just a casual conversation – small talk at the well while she was getting water; this man was getting very personal and she had to change direction before He embarrassed her even more. Let’s talk religion. That’s safe ground, so she thought.

But her question got Jesus even more fired up. This exchange was going somewhere and He was nudging it on. “‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is of the Jews.”’  John 4: 21, 22 (NIV).

‘It’s not about where you worship, but who you worship. It’s not about this church or that denomination. It’s about worshipping the Father.’ That must have startled her. Her religion was a hotchpotch of religions, man-made and futile because it was not the truth. Her problem began with a false idea about God. She had no foundation upon which to build her life and so she was doing what Adam did — making her own rules which didn’t work and left her heart empty and thirsty.

Jesus gently took her back to basics. ‘Who are you worshipping? There is only one God and He is your Father, the source of your life. All other gods are products of someone’s imagination, and worthless substitutes for the true God.’ 

She had to learn that God was neither an intrusion nor an add-on to her life but the source and foundation of everything that would provide peace and wholeness. Her life was in tatters because she had no Father to give her identity and stability, no one to worship and honour, to follow and obey and to be the authority in her life. Like a captain-less ship, she was trying to navigate life without knowing who she was, where she was going and who was in charge, and it wasn’t working for her.

Only the Creator knows how His creation should function. Without Him, nothing works. You have to get reconnected. Have you?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.