The Every Man                            Mark 8:27-39

I think you’ve heard me say, or at least some of you have; that Peter is absolutely one of my favorite people in the Bible. And I really think you just got to love this guy. I know he is a fisherman but I can easily see him in a pair of jeans, cowboy boots and driving a pickup. To me Peter is the                “every man.”

We all have times in our lives where we feel close to God and those times when we can wonder where God disappeared to. We all have times when our faith is strong and times when we have doubts. And it’s because of this I wanted to look at Peter with you. All through the Gospels it’s Peter that wavers. It’s Peter who waffles between steadfast faith and human doubt.

It’s Peter who in Matthew 14 walks on water with Jesus. And then lets fear and doubt into his mind and starts to sink. Matthew 14:31 records Jesus saying, “You of little faith…why did you doubt?”

And it’s at the Last Supper, when Jesus explains how he is about to die that Peter tells him in Luke 22:33, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” And then just a short time latter

Peter lets fear again take over and denies he even knows Jesus; and not just once but three times.

Today we see Peter rising to the greatest height of announcing Jesus is the Messiah. Then true to form, just three sentences later Peter falls to the depth of rebuking Jesus. When you read this in the Greek original text you see Peter is not just questioning Jesus, Peter’s criticizing him. Peter is trying to take control of Jesus ministry out of God’s hands and place it in human hands.

I want you to think about this scene. Peter is basically telling off God; not the place I would want to be standing. And we see that Jesus did get angry but it’s what he does with his anger that shows us a lot. First thing to note is Peter is still breathing. I mean think of what Jesus could have done. “Three years, three years and you still don’t get it. I’m done. I’ve had enough!” Poof, Peter’s a pile of ashes. “Now, anybody else feel like yelling at me?” But Jesus doesn’t do this.

So we know Jesus gets angry. Look at what he says, verse 22, “Get behind me Satan.”

This simple statement can be looked at in two ways. One, Jesus is calling Peter “Satan.” Some seminary professor’s point to this exact line to prove the Bible is true, They say that if you were to write about your time with Jesus you would probably leave out the part where he called your leader “Satan.” They say that because it’s included it proves the Bible is true and unbiased.

Being called “Satan” by Jesus is not where I would want to be so let’s look at this in a different way. As I prayed over this passage I saw Satan tempting Peter; tempting him to look to himself and his wants. Satan is trying to get Peter to put his desire of continuing as they have been; traveling with Jesus about the countryside, ahead of Jesus ministry and destiny. Satan is turning Peter’s head away from God and God’s plan. Satan is trying to use Peter to keep Jesus from going to Jerusalem and completing his work at the cross.

“Get behind me Satan.” By the power of God Jesus is pushing the devil aside, binding his power

and preventing him from interfering with God’s Holy plan for man’s salvation.

As I was meditating on all of this I started to see something else, something personal. Jesus and Peter are in a relationship. They are deep friends. God wants us in a relationship with himself and here is an example of that relationship.

Jesus loves Peter and he knows God has big plans for Peter. Peter will be the leader of the early church. Peter will argue for and bless Paul’s mission of bringing the message of Christ to the Gentiles. And even though we may not see it, Jesus knows Peter will bring glory to the Son through his eventual death. When Peter confronts his own cross and crucifixion he asks to be crucified upside down. He does this to show his killers and the world, that he is willing to die for Christ, but that he is unworthy to die in the manor of Christ. By doing this he brings glory and praise both to Christ and to the Father. By binding Satan Jesus is clearing the path Peter will take, allowing him to fulfill all that the Father has planned for him.

We need to see that this event is a major turning point in Jesus ministry. Up to now very few knew Jesus true nature. In fact it really has been mostly demons that knew who Jesus was. In Mark 1:24 Jesus drives an unholy spirit out of a man and it declares, “I know who you are – the Holy one of God.” And in Matthew 8:29 a demon asks, “What do you want with us, Son of God?” But today, men know who Jesus is.

I see three great moments in Jesus ministry that are intertwined; the beginning, this moment     and the cross. In the beginning Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. He was offered all the riches and power of the earth if he turned from God. We know this tells us a few things: that temptation is not the sin, acting on it is, and that no matter who we are, Satan will send temptation our way.

Wealth and power are powerful weapons used by Satan to distract us from our destiny from God. Many people, many Godly people have given in to temptation. Jesus knows we will be tempted and today’s reading shows us Jesus is willing to corral Satan so you can live out God’s plans for you. Jesus will push Satan aside so you can fulfill the destiny God has for you.

And the cross? The cross is Jesus taking our punishment for sin. But it also demonstrates for us that we need to be willing to do what God asks us to do. And this is not always an easy thing, in fact it can be downright hard.

Jesus knows it can be hard, Gethsemane shows us this, Remember he asked if there was a way for God’s plan to be fulfilled some other way than him at the cross. This is why a little further in Mark 8     verse 36 he says, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

The devil can only tempt us with what is in the world and to resist him all we need to do is keep focused on God; keep Jesus in your mind and in your life.

We take the Lord’s Supper as a way to remind ourselves of Jesus and what he did for us at the cross, but a fact of life is that the devil is working hard to hide the cross from us. The devil will tempt us, the devil will lie to us, and the devil will use our own desires against us.

Satan works hard at this because it is on the cross that Jesus died, and defeated the devil, the world and our sinful nature.

It is on the cross that our savior died so we may inherit heaven for eternity.

It is at the cross that they gambled for Jesus robe so we can wear a robe of righteousness. It is at the cross that Jesus wore a crown of thorns so we can wear a crown of glory. It is at the cross that God the Father turned his back on his son so through our faith God will never turn his face from us.

It is because of the cross that the curtain meant to keep men out of the Holy of Holies in the Temple was torn from top to bottom so by our faith we can stand in the presence of God the Father.

Amen.