Bibles to Mark chapter 8 verse 31. Mark chapter 8 verse 31. The title of our message this morning is God's Way, Not Our Way. God's Way, Not Our Way. You know, ever since the Garden of Eden, there's been this battle between man and his creator over just who is in charge. Now, God always wins these battles because he is in charge, he is sovereign. But that doesn't stop people from thinking from time to time that their way is the best way. And at this point, in Mark, we're gonna see that brought out in a, Maybe a surprising way for some. The disciples have, as we've seen, have come to learn some blessed truths. As they have seen Jesus perform miracles, they've heard him teach and preach about the kingdom of God. And as we saw last week, they've come to the point where Peter says, when asked who they think he is, Jesus asked the disciples, who do you think I am? Jesus said, you're the Christ, the Messiah. And so they've come to that understanding, they believe that. But as is sometimes the case, when you arrive at a little bit of knowledge, that can cause you to think you know everything. And we see that played out for us here in our text this morning. So let's read our text, Mark chapter eight, starting at verse 31. And he began to teach them. that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Let us pray. Our kind and most gracious Heavenly Father, O Lord, we just pray for your Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts concerning this passage and concerning the things that we must learn from this passage, knowledge that we might attain, but also the right use of that knowledge. And Lord, help us never to put ourselves, exalt ourselves above you, particularly because of some knowledge that we gain. Lord, help us to understand the lessons of these three verses. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, as we look back to verse 31, the first thing I wanna bring out is that God's ways and his teachings are sometimes very hard, very harsh. They might even take us by surprise. They might cause us to become very uncomfortable, might take us outside of our comfort zone, if you will. And that's exactly what happens here in verse 31. I think after we read verse 30, and what we just read before this, that the disciples must be thinking almost on a kind of a top-of-the-mountain kind of joy, closeness to God, look at what we just learned, here's the Messiah, because they have longed for the Messiah just like their people had their whole lives. And they've been taught that the Messiah, the Christ, is coming. and that he's a king, and that he's going to reign over them. And so they're looking for that, and now they've come to this point, and it's sinking in, Jesus is the Messiah. And it's at this moment that the Lord takes things a whole nother step, and he begins to teach them something that he hasn't spoken of yet, He begins to tell them about how he must die. Verse 31, and he began to teach them. You know, so far in the chapter eight, and it's true throughout Mark's gospel, throughout all the gospels, but Jesus is often teaching the disciples. And he has very important lessons for them to learn. And this is one of those. And he began to teach them. that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. The first half of Mark finds Jesus introducing himself as the Messiah, as the Christ. And he does this through his miracles and through his teachings. But now, and this marks a shift, and the latter part of Mark tells them, he begins to tell them and teach them, and then he actually does suffer and die and be raised again. So in the last half, he begins to assume that place as the Christ, and all that leads up to that. Oh yes, he came. Messiah and King. Just as the Scriptures said, but the Scriptures had said something else that these disciples and the rest of the Jews had missed. You see, when he begins to tell them that he must suffer, that he's going to be rejected, that he's going to die, and that he's going to rise again, that must have sounded very strange to their ears. Because what were they looking for? They were looking for, according to the traditions of men that had crept up among them, they were looking for a king who would physically reign on David's throne. At this point in their history, they're looking for a king that's gonna overthrow those hated Romans and run them off and out of the country and take their country back for them again. They're looking for a physical king. And physical kings don't get anywhere by suffering and dying. So this goes contrary to everything they expected in their Messiah and in their Christ. And what he's telling them here is that yes, he has come, he is there, and that this fulfilled scripture, but also other scripture must be fulfilled. And that is that he would die for the sins of his people, and that then he would be a king of a spiritual kingdom that has no end. So in verse 31, and he began to teach them that the son of man must, must, I want you to note that word, suffer many things. Jesus is going to suffer He's going to be beaten. He's going to be humiliated. He's going to experience the humiliation of the cross and the curse of the cross, being nailed to a tree. He's going to suffer many things, it says, and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes. The religious leaders of that day would reject him. The scriptures say the builders would reject the chief cornerstone. And that's exactly, that had been prophesied, by the way, in the Psalms. And that's exactly what's gonna happen here. Now, that must have been surprising, too. You know, we look back on it, and yeah, those old Jews, they hated Jesus, and they didn't get it, and they didn't understand what they were doing, and all that. That's natural to us. But I want you to think about it for a moment from the perspective of these disciples. Ahead of all that actually happening, they're being told that their religious leaders, the nation essentially, is going to reject their king and kill him. Now that's not at all what they expected. What they really expect at this point is that those very religious leaders would finally see the light and would rally behind Jesus as he assumes that physical throne that they thought he was going to assume. And the whole nation would get behind him and the glory of old Israel, the Old Testament would come back. That's what they thought was gonna happen. And then he's telling them he's gonna be rejected by these people? That just didn't make sense to them. Sure didn't make sense to Peter. And then he says, and be killed. They're gonna kill me. And they're like, that must have really blown their mind. Because I think they're understanding he's the son of God. How can God die? That's crazy. It's an impossibility from their standpoint. But Jesus tells them, I'm going to die. And after three days, rise again. Now I want to go back for a moment to that word must. Let's first, in good John Gill order, tell what it does not mean. It does not mean that he had no control over what was about to happen. So when he says he must suffer, he must be rejected, he must be killed, it's not that he's gonna be out of control, and that it's gonna happen over him, over his wishes, or that he's helpless to stop it. I'm gonna tell you something else it does not mean. It does not mean that he must die in order to give the world a great example of self-sacrifice and self-denial, as is taught today by a lot of people. There are a lot of people that fall short of accepting Christ as who he is, the King of kings and Lord of lords. And all they will allow is that he was a good man, a good teacher, he set a wonderful example for us all. And there are so-called Christians that take that viewpoint, and it's wrong. That's not why he must die. And he says here, I must die. Must here means that he must die because without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. He must die so that he could be that propitiatory offering for sinners so that they might have life. He must be delivered up for our offenses and then raised again for our justification. For those reasons, he must die. He must suffer, he must be rejected, he must die, he must rise again. Those reasons go way above the understanding of the disciples at that point in time. And it causes some confusion among them. These are difficult doctrines because there are people today who don't accept this. There are preachers who preach from pulpits and will not mention anything about the shedding of blood. They won't talk about the death of Christ on the cross. All they talk about is he's a good man and they may say that he's Lord, but all they want to focus on, he's going to give you everything you want. I'm going to tell you something, folks. Jesus didn't die on that cross so that we can have all the material things that we want. He did not die on that cross so that we could have perfect health. And my defense of that statement of that argument is this, there's not a one of us that does have perfect health. He didn't die for that. Now, can he heal? Yes, absolutely. And we ought to seek him out in times of need and when there's illness and so forth. We should seek him for that and he may choose to heal. But the reason he died on that cross was not for material things or physical things. It was for the very spiritual need of a people who were dead in their trespasses and sins. And the only way that they could have life is if he die in their place. And then by rising again, he promises to all who are his, that you shall have everlasting life. So for those reasons, he had to die. Now that can be a difficult doctrine, and these disciples certainly are struggling with understanding this, and they will continue to do so. But I say to you that this is a precious doctrine that is the foundational truth of all of scriptures. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus coming here and dying for the sins of his people. Everything in the New Testament explains that to us and clarifies that for us and helps us to look forward to what he did die for, and that is to spend eternity with his people in glory. This is a precious doctrine. Jesus dies. on that cross for the sins of his people so that they might have eternal life. But sometimes when we attain certain knowledge, we become prideful. And in verse 32, we see our second point for this morning. A little knowledge can lead to self-exaltation. Verse 32, and he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. He spake that saying openly. You know why the scriptures say that? How often did Jesus speak in parables? A good bit of the time. Much of what he revealed, as far as spiritual truth is concerned, he revealed through parables. But in this case, he's not giving them a parable. And he wants them to know that. He's speaking very openly and very clearly. And they can't doubt his words, they can't try to figure out the meaning of his words because they're very plain. He must suffer, he must be rejected, he must die, he must rise again. Nothing to misunderstand there. But the problem is, they've acquired a little bit of knowledge, a little bit of understanding, Enough to know that he's the Messiah, and that was enough for them to think that they had it all figured out. In their minds, when they come to that point, like in the previous verses last week, we saw this, when they came to that point, you're the Christ. Peter says it, I think all the disciples believed it with him. But when he says that, it's like light bulbs begin to go off in their heads. Okay, that means he's the king. That means we're gonna overthrow Rome. And they jump to all these conclusions. And then the very next words out of his mouth are totally the opposite of their expectations. And the scriptures say, and Peter took him and began to rebuke him. If you want to turn to Matthew chapter 16 verse 22, Matthew's account tells us what Peter says. Here we're just told that he rebukes him. We're given the words that he uses in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 22. Verse 22, then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee. What is Peter saying? Well, he's saying what they're thinking. Be this far from me. No way, okay? This is the exact opposite of what you're supposed to have happen. This can't happen. And he looks to the Lord, and with a tone of rebuke, Says, this shall not be unto thee. Now, who's telling who what's going to happen here? This is Peter telling his master how things were going to be. Why? Well, he's been given a little knowledge here. And he begins to tell Jesus how things are gonna be because Peter knows. Need I say how dangerous this is? Need I point out how foolish this is? Need I remind us how often we do the same thing or something similar? We disguise it in our prayers. We dress it up with a little false humility. We choose the right words. But how often do we tell God how something's gonna work out? We're faced with some problem, some difficulty, we're praying about it, and we explain to the Lord how this is gonna come out. It has to. because that's the way I see it. That's the same thing Peter's doing here. Folks, that's dangerous. It's not just dangerous, it's wrong. Never should we take that kind of tone with the Lord. Now, we may not take a tone of rebuke as Peter does here. We may dress it up and make it sound a little nicer. But we're essentially doing the same thing. But we never should take God to task. over something that's happening or has happened and try to explain to God how it ought to be different. Who gets to make that call, by the way? The sovereign God of the universe. And we need to acknowledge that. And we need to understand that. And we need to respect that. We need to fear God in that. You know what Peter offers up here is the same thing that Satan essentially offered up during the temptation in the wilderness? What he's offering to Jesus here is a crown without the cross. That's what Satan was trying to do. Hey, I'll give you this everything, you know, just bow down to me. Forget that cross. That's what Satan is saying. He didn't want Jesus to go to the cross. And that's exactly what Peter's doing here. Now, Peter is not, Satan understood better what he was doing and what he was tempting Christ with. Peter has good intentions. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But that's exactly what he's telling Jesus. No, you're gonna be king. You don't need to die. Folks, if he were to be the king that we must have him be, He had to die. He had to die. He couldn't be the spiritual king we need if he had not died. But Peter's trying to shortcut that. And I gotta tell you, I'm very thankful that God's way prevails and not Peter's. Peter can't imagine a king who must die. He's fashioned the Messiah to suit his own preconceived ideas. Peter knows just what kind of Messiah Jesus needs to be, and it sure doesn't involve suffering and dying. You know what, this has been and continues to be a real problem among believers. By presuming to tell Jesus how things would be, Peter has given in to his fleshly desire to elevate himself above God. Folks, you need to understand this. If you're dead in your trespasses and sins, it's this way anyway. But even if you have been born again and been given spiritual life, you still have a flesh to deal with. And that flesh is always going to seek to elevate itself above God. That's why pride is such a big deal. And it is, and it's a problem that must be dealt with by every one of us. But that flesh is always seeking to elevate itself above God. And that's what Peter's doing here. Whether he understood it that way or not, that's what he's doing here. We must be careful that we don't elevate or exalt ourselves above God. Martha did this. If you look in Luke 10, verse 40, we have Martha and Mary. Jesus has come by to visit. And you remember the story, Mary is spending her time at the feet of Jesus, soaking up all that he has to say, loving him, worshiping him. Meanwhile, Martha's back in the kitchen. I can just see the picture, got her apron on and flour all over her face and hands, and she's back there busy just trying to take care of all that's gotta be taken care of. And she's working. Boy, she's working. And that's what we see in Luke chapter 10, verse 40, but Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou, now look, this is being presumptuous here. This is elevating herself above the Lord. She's telling the Lord how it is. Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. Reckon the sisters had ever had that argument before? Wait, sisters argue, right? I'm looking out here at various sisters. You argue, right? I reckon they've argued about this kind of thing before, right? And now Martha takes it to the Lord. But in so doing, she's rebuking the Lord just as Peter did a while ago, what we saw a while ago. Peter would actually fall into this same thing himself again on the occasion when Jesus washes the disciples' feet. You remember that? In John 13, verse six, then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, what I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, thou shalt never wash my feet. What? You're gonna tell the Lord you're never gonna do something? Raising children, one of the things that would make me angry quickest is when my kids would tell me what I was gonna do and what I was not gonna do. Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Now that changes Peter's tune, because then he's like, Lord, wash my whole body. So to his credit, he rebounds there and gets right there pretty quickly, but he still had the gall to question the Lord. Then verse 33, back to our text, verse 33, and the last point. The Lord does not suffer rebuke from his people. Now sometimes people wanna give this image of Jesus as being so nice, always so calm, you know, never says a harsh word. Oh yes he did. And that, by the way, is not out of character with him being God. As God, he can rebuke who he wants to. And that's not a sin, because he's sovereign. He's the one that calls the shots. Remember the title of the message, God's Way, Not Our Way. Verse 33. So by the way, back to verse 32 for just a moment. It says, and Peter took him. And what we should understand from that is Peter pulls him aside, takes him off, just the two of them. I mean, not far away, but out of earshot of the other disciples. He's gonna do this the right way. And he rebukes Jesus. Verse 33 now. But when he had turned, this is Jesus, when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, He rebuked Peter. Did he pat him on the head and say, oh, it's okay, and is that how he rebuked him? I want you to look at the words he uses here. Saying, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Get thee behind me, Satan. Are we reading it? Did he just call Peter Satan? Yeah, he did. Not that Peter is Satan. What Jesus is referring to here, or making observation of here, is that Peter was doing the same thing that Satan had been trying to do to Jesus. Now let me make a few observations here. Jesus turns and looks at the disciples. Why does he do that? Peter's in his ear here rebuking him, and the first thing Jesus does, by the way, I don't think I could do that. I don't think I could do what Peter, I'd be afraid a lightning bolt was gonna come out of heaven and strike me down, right? But Jesus doesn't respond that way. He does respond with a harsh rebuke. But he doesn't do so immediately. He first looks at the other disciples. And why? Because I think those disciples knew exactly what Peter was telling him, because it's the same thing they were thinking. And Jesus wants them to understand he knows what they're thinking. And that although Peter's the one who has spoken it publicly, and Peter's the one that's about to receive the rebuke, from the mouth of our Lord. Those disciples need to hear this too. So he looks at them, because they're thinking the same thing Peter's thinking. Two, Jesus rebukes Peter by treating him like he was Satan. Three, his rebuke is clear and harsh. He clearly points out that they're savoring the things that are man-made. man-made ideas about who the Messiah should be and this king should be. But they're not the ideas of God. They're not the plans of God. They're not the will of God. For this should be very humbling to us. because this is Peter after all. And we should learn from this that the best of saints can be very fallible at any given moment of time. No one of us is above error. No one of us will ever get at that point where we know enough that we will never go into error that pride will never take over, if but for a moment. None of us are above that. Peter wasn't above that. So this should be humbling to us. Fifth, we need to see the ignorance of Peter in this. He's basking in this knowledge that he has. Oh, you're the Christ. He's still there at that point. But he should understand what he doesn't know. We don't know everything. You don't know everything there is to know about God. I don't know everything there is to know about God. None of us, listen to me, ever will know everything there is to know about God. But oh, Brother James, when we get to heaven, we're gonna know not everything. There are things about God we will never know because he is God. And we're not omniscient like he is. Our knowledge will increase, I think probably a whole lot more than we may expect it's going to when we get to heaven, okay? But we're still not gonna know everything there is to know about God, even then. And we shouldn't, sure shouldn't think we do now. And we need to understand that we can be very ignorant of some things, just as Peter was. Six, we see self-conceit in Peter here. He actually thinks he knows better than Jesus what was right, what was best for the Messiah. Seven, we see Peter, or in Peter, the best of intentions. I want you to understand that for a moment. As we talk about Peter here, let us understand this. When Peter did what he did, it was with the best of intentions. His motives are pure. He means well. He's quite zealous and earnest. But get this. Good intentions are never an excuse for error. Never. Should our intentions be good? Yes. But that should be acted out in obedience to God, in fear of God, in respect of God, in worship of God. where we submit ourselves to God and not exalt ourselves above him. So as I close now, I wanna close with two little thoughts, two little things that we need to learn from this. One, humility. Each one of us is just one poor decision or just one step away from error. We should pray daily that God would teach us, that he would keep us, and that he would not let us go wrong. It can happen just like that. Be on guard. Be humble. Be humble. That's an important key right there. Put pride in its place. Get rid of it. And be humble. And secondly, we should learn charity toward others. We must not be quick to cast aside a brother who makes mistakes. The brother may have a good heart, just like Peter did here, and like Peter, be turned aside for a time. Now, when I say this, we need to make a careful distinction here. When one goes off into an extended time of sin and rebellion against God, that must be dealt with, and it may require that we turn away from that person. But there is a method and a way given to us in the scriptures that we should follow exactly in that respect. So I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about something that's become like a lifestyle action on the part of that person. I'm just talking about simply someone making an error, someone getting turned aside for a moment. It can happen to all of us. And we should be quick to help bring the brother, the sister back. Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Something I've noticed over the years is when someone gets to accusing someone else of something and pointing the finger, you can pretty well count on it. It's not gonna be very long before that person is doing the same thing. We've gotta be careful and we gotta be on guard against this. Above all, we need to remember that all things work according to God's way and not ours. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, oh Lord, we do thank you for these words that we've read here. And I pray, oh Lord, that the spirit of our hearts would always be one of respect towards you, oh Lord, that we would never, ever dare to rebuke you or exalt ourselves above you. We thank you for your patience and your care for us. And Lord, I just pray that you would help us to grow more humble, and be more graceful, full of grace towards those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, this is not always so. When we pray for your forgiveness, when we violate this, Lord, I pray that you would continue to open our eyes. To the beauties and the wonders of Christ. Who he is, what he is already come and done for us. And what he, our Savior, is yet to do for us as he consummates our final salvation. Our eternal life. Let us worship Christ. as a body of believers and individually, and may that be a characteristic of our lives. I pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.