Who Do You Say I Am?

My text for tomorrow night will be Mark 8:27-38. 

Read the text, then we will go through these questions.

Who do you say that Jesus is?  Who do most people say that he is?  (Talk about each thing they mention.  Possibly write it down.)

What did Peter say that made Jesus say happy things (Matt. 16:17-19)

 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock^[b] I will build my church, and the gates of hell^[c] shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed^[d] in heaven.”

What is the Rock on which Jesus builds his church?  Peter?  Why would you think so?  So what is it?  Christ built the church on what Peter said: you are Christ son of the living God.  What does all that entail?  And what will happen to all the believers who are in the church together?  The gate of hell will not prevail against them.  It means the Church will never fall apart.  Is this true today with our denominations?  Do we have lots of churches?  Why?  We have denominations today, but the true believers believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  He unites us all under one Church.

Read Mark 8:31-38:  What did Jesus’s Christ position entail? v. 31

Name some things.  Discuss. 

How did Peter react?  He did not like Jesus’s idea.  Why? 

How did Jesus respond?  v. 33 He called him Satan.  Why?

Read Matthew 4:8-10.  How is Peter reminding Jesus of Satan here?

Satan clearly did not want Jesus to give up his life on the cross for the Church.  He wanted Jesus to bow down to the devil and find an easy, painless way to win the world.  What would have happened if Christ decided not to die but find another way to save us?  What do we need to be saved from?  What will happen if we still die in our sins, in our rebellion against God?  How could we ever get to heaven?  Live a perfect life or suffer God’s wrath for eternity.  How long is eternity?  We’ve all made at least one sin that can never be erased from our record.  That one sin makes us candidates for hell.  Without help, nobody can come to God without suffering his wrath.  What’s the solution?  Jesus had to live the one perfect life, and he took the punishment of all who will be saved on the cross.  What was Satan wanting Jesus to do again?  Then he would not have died to save humanity.  If this had happened, we would still be dead in our sins.  We’d have nobody to pay our debt for us.