“Who do you say that I am?” Mark – Part 8

“Who do you say that I am?” Mark – Part 8

Who Do You Say I Am? Part 8 “You are the Christ” Mark 8:22-38 February 19th, 2017

 

I. The TRUTH coming into FOCUS. (v.14-30)
A. Do you “…FAIL to SEE?” (v.18)
B. Sometimes SEEING takes TIME. (v.22-26)
C. But WHAT about YOU? (v.27-30)

We have seen Mark shows a lot of intentionality in the way he chooses to arrange these
stories of Jesus. This week is no exception. We’ve come to the centre of the book, and
Mark reveals the question he has been pointing to the whole way through. Yet even as
the question comes to light, Mark wants us to know that the answer may take some time
to fully grasp.

1. Have you ever thought you fully understood an issue and later come to see that you
didn’t. What was that like for you?
2. When have to had an experience where you were slow to see or understand what
God was doing?
3. When has Jesus pushed you to from “thinking” about Him in a general way to
challenging you about something very personal and specific?

II. Peter has the RIGHT answer WRONG. (v.31-33)
A. Didn’t SEE this COMING. (v.31)
B. Our THINKING shapes our SEEING. (v.32-33)

This interaction between Jesus and Peter is one of the more familiar parts of Scripture.
Jesus personalizes the question by asking pointedly, “But what about you? Who do you
say that I am?” Peter gets the right answer…but in what follows we see that while he
has the right words, he misses the actual meaning of what he says.

4. Put yourself in Peter’s shoes (sandals). What might this experience have been like
for him? How would you have reacted to Jesus harsh words?
5. How can we know if we have in mind “the things of God” or “the things of men”?
6. What are some characteristics of “the things of God”? How can we know what those
things/thoughts are?

III. The PATH to seeing CLEARLY. (v.34-38)
A. UNLEARN, EMBRACE, and FOLLOW. (v.34-35; Rom 12:1)
B. Settle the QUESTION of VALUE. (v.36-37; Mt. 13:44-46)
C. LISTEN to the One who KNOWS. (v.38; 9:7)

After Jesus speaks those powerful words to Peter, He turns to the rest of the crowd and
gives some basic teaching about how we learn to see clearly who He actually is. You
see our ways of thinking and the “things we have in mind” (v.33) are so radically
different than God’s that we need to go back to the very beginning. He lays out a path
toward clarity for us, if we are willing to follow.

7. What might be some things you need to “unlearn” or “embrace” in order to better
follow Jesus?
8. What do you truly value and how can you know? Make a list of the things you value
and ask how can you know for sure that you are actually valuing them.
9. What does it mean to be “ashamed of Jesus and His words”? What might that look
like?
10.What is God saying to you through this series in Mark? How will you respond to
Him?