Mark 8:27-9:1
January 8, 2017
preached by Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it…”

~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American writer, philosopher, abolitionist and naturalist

“When God justifies us in Christ, he directly counteracts our whole self-involved strategy for living.”

“The primary barrier to displaying the beauty of Jesus in our churches comes from the way we re-insert ourselves into that sacred center that belongs to him alone. Exalting ourselves diminishes his visibility. That is why cultivating a gospel culture requires a profound, moment by moment ‘unselfing’ by every one of us. It is personally costly, even painful.”

~ Ray Ortlund, American pastor and writer

“Comfort is the god of our generation, so suffering is seen as a problem to be solved, and not a providence from God.”

“Until Christ is our treasure, any other motivation we have to suffer for him is a fool’s errand.”

 ~ Matt Chandler (1974-present), American pastor and writer

“When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves – that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.”

~ N. T. Wright (1948-present), British New Testament scholar and retired Anglican bishop

“Those who suppose that the doctrine of God’s grace tends to encourage moral laxity are simply showing that, in the most literal sense, they do not know what they are talking about. For love awakens love in return; and love, once awakened, desires to give pleasure.”

~  J.I. Packer (1926-present), Professor of theology at Regent College in Vancouver

“The Christian life is simply a process of having your natural self changed into a Christ self, and that this process goes on very far inside. One’s most private wishes, one’s point of view, are the things that have to be changed.”

 ~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) British writer, theologian and apologist

Sermon Passage

Mark 8:27-9:1 (NASB)

²⁷ Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?”²⁸ They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” ³⁰ And He warned them to tell no one about Him.

³¹ And 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. ³² And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

³⁴ And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.³⁵ For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Chapter 9

¹And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”