Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Last week, we talked about how it seems like no one can agree on who Jesus is. He is the most prominent figure in history. More has been written about Him than any other single person to ever walk on this planet. And yet, it feels like no one can agree on who He was and who He is. That’s actually nothing new, as we’re going to see in our text today. Today, in the second week of our Vintage Jesus series, we’re going to explore how Jesus is pictured in the book of Mark. Mark is the second gospel book in the New Testament. It’s also the shortest of the four gospels. And it’s probably the simplest to understand. Whenever someone tells me, “I want to read the Bible, but I just don’t know where to start,” I always tell them the same thing. “Start with the book of Mark.”It’s short, which means you won’t get bogged down. A lot of it is easier to understand than the book of Matthew. It’s not as detailed as Luke. And it’s all about Jesus. You really can’t find a better place to start exploring the Bible. Last week, we kicked off our series in the book of Matthew. One of the primary themes in Matthew is that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Savior, and He is the only one. We might try to find a pseudo-Jesus or a mock messiah, but it’s always going to wind up being a disaster. Nothing and no one is equipped to be Jesus to you except Jesus Himself. Today as our series rolls on, we’re going to look to the gospel of Mark. And in this book, Mark gives us a very clear picture of who Jesus is. Jesus is Lord. Today we’re going to go to the middle of the book of Mark. We’re going to explore the verses that really are the crux of the whole book. In a very real way, everything in Mark centers in on this text. It’s the hinge point of the whole book.  That text is found in Mark 8, starting in verse 27. “Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” (Mark 8:27-29, NIV)It seems like no one today can agree about Jesus. That’s not new. Same thing was going on during Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am? What’s the word on the street about me?”The answers were varied. “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” There was incredible disagreement about who Jesus was. But Jesus didn’t care what the rest of the world thought about Him. He cared what His followers thought about Him. So He asked His disciples, “But what about you? Who do You say I am?”And Peter, as usual, served as the spokesman for the group. He responded very simply, “You are the Christ.”There was a ton of disagreement about who Jesus was, just like today. Everyone believed something different about Jesus, just like today. But Peter was able to see through all of that and get at the truth. He saw that Jesus was more than people were making Him out to be. He was the Christ. He was the Son of God. He was the Lord.

The people of this time were debating about Jesus’ identity. They knew He was different. They knew He was special. That was easy to see. But their perceptions of Jesus still fell short. They said He was John the Baptist. Or Elijah. Or a prophet. In other words, Jesus wasn’t an ordinary man. He was a great man. He was a powerful prophet. He was a wonderful teacher. But He wasn’t God. He wasn’t Lord. Absolutely nothing has changed. Nothing at all. A lot of people today are still able to recognize that Jesus is set apart from the rest. And they say things like, “He was a wonderful teacher.” Or, “He was a good man.”Some even go further than that. They believe Jesus was a prophet. Did you know that Islam believes and teaches that Jesus was a prophet inspired of God?

The Qur’an states that “Christ Jesus the son of Mary was an apostle of God, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in God and His apostles.” (Qur’an 4:171)Lots of people from lots of different faiths recognize that Jesus was different. He was unique. He was special. Some even believe that He was prophetic. But here’s the problem…none of these beliefs take into account what Jesus said about Himself. Check out this scene from John 10. Starting in verse 30, Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”“We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:30-33, NIV)Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews who were there fully understood how audacious this claim was. Jesus was saying, “I am God.”That’s the problem with the beliefs that, “Jesus was a good, moral man,” or, “He was a wonderful philosopher,” or “He was a great teacher,” or, “He was one of many prophets.”Jesus doesn’t leave those options open to us. Jesus claimed to be God. In his classic book called Mere Christianity, C.S Lewis wrote, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”Lewis came up with what he called the Trilemma. Jesus very clearly and very directly claimed that He was God. C.S. Lewis said that gives us only three options about Jesus. He was a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. Those really are the only three options. Either Jesus was simply lying about who He was. Or He was out of His mind. Or He really is Lord. The one thing you can’t do is minimize Him to a good teacher, or a nice, moral man. When you think about the claims that Jesus made about Himself, that’s just not an option. Go back to our text in Mark 8. Peter was able to see that. The people all around him were trying to make Jesus out to be some sort of good guy. Maybe even a prophet. But Peter knew this was impossible. And Peter staked his life on this statement. “You are the Christ. You are God. You are Lord.”And we have staked our lives on this truth as well. Before we baptize anyone here at Amelia, we always ask them what they believe about Jesus. We don’t always say the same thing, but we ask them something along the lines of, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? And do you want Him to be your Savior and your Lord?”We want people to know that, when they commit their lives to Christ, they are not making a commitment to a teacher or philosopher or super nice guy. They are committing themselves to Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Last week, we talked about Jesus as Messiah. He is THE Savior. There is no other. We can’t save ourselves, and no one or nothing else can save us. Jesus is the one and only Savior. But you can’t have Jesus the Savior without Jesus the Lord. It’s not a “take what you like and leave what you don’t” kind of deal. When it comes to Jesus, it’s all or nothing. Either He is your Savior AND your Lord, or He is neither. Jesus the Savior is awesome, because He saves us. But a lot of people struggle with Jesus the Lord, because if Jesus is truly Lord, then He gets to tell me what to do. I’ve heard Brian describe it like this. Jesus is my Savior, therefore Jesus is the boss of my life. That’s a pretty good, simple description of Jesus as Lord. He’s the boss. He gets to call the shots. Check out the story that comes right before our main text in Mark 8. Starting in verse 22: “They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village." (Mark 8:22-26, NIV)That’s an amazing story of compassion and healing from Jesus. But, did you notice this? The first thing Jesus did after He healed this man was to tell Him what to do. Right after Jesus healed the man, the first thing He did was give him orders. “Don’t go into the village.”A lot of us want Jesus to heal us. We want Him to fix everything. We expect Him to be the superhero that swoops in to save the day. But don’t you dare tell me what to do, Jesus. Jesus, I need to you fix everything. I need you to be my superhero. But don’t even think of telling me what to do. You heal me while I continue to go my own way. It doesn’t work that way. The healing of Jesus and the commands of Jesus are welded together. You can’t separate them. When we choose to be disobedient to Jesus, we negate His healing power. He can’t heal us if we won’t obey Him and end that broken relationship. He can’t heal us if we won’t obey Him and seek help through a counselor. He can’t heal us if we won’t obey Him and forgive the person that hurt us so deeply. Think about how crazy we can be about this stuff. We want God to heal our finances, but we don’t want to obey Him and be generous. We want God to heal our marriage, but we don’t want to obediently serve our spouse. When we are living in direct disobedience to Jesus, we short-circuit the healing power of Jesus. That’s why I will beat this drum to my dying day: You can’t have Jesus the Savior without Jesus the Lord. I’ve met so many people who get so mad at God for not healing them. “God just isn’t coming through. He’s not fixing things in my life.” When all the while, the person is living in direct contradiction to the will and the Word of God. And when you live in disobedience to God, you usually stop the healing power of God. Proverbs 19 says, “People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.” (Proverbs 19:3, NLT)Isn’t that true? We ignore the commands of God. We live in direct contradiction to His ways and His Word. And the end result is that our life blows up like an atomic bomb. And we get mad at God because of it, when all the while, He was warning us, begging us, pleading with us to turn around.

When we were on vacation earlier this year, we visited Baltimore for a day. I found a parking garage and pulled in. I had put our massive luggage carrier on top of our car for our vacation and so, obviously, our car was a lot taller than normal. When I pulled into the garage, I hit that metal bar that hangs down to tell you how much clearance you have in the garage.

As soon as I hit that bar, I knew I had to do a U-turn. If I didn’t, I was going to smash into the concrete girders and totally demolish our luggage carrier.

But what if I chose to ignore that warning? What if I said, “Oh, that bar doesn’t know what it’s talking about. We’ll have plenty of room. And who is that bar to tell me what to do anyway? I’ll do it my way, and that bar better not try to stop me.”

What’s going to happen? I’m going to destroy our luggage carrier. Now, if I did that, how much sense would it make to blame the bar. “I can’t believe that bar let this happen to me. That bar had better fix this mess, because it’s all the bar’s fault.”

That wouldn’t make any sense, and yet it’s EXACTLY what we do with God. God warns us. He tells us that there is danger ahead. He gives us commands to help us avoid disaster. Then we ignore them. Then a train wreck ensues. And then we blame God for allowing it to happen.

Jesus is Lord, which means that He gets to tell us what to do. And it means that there are huge consequences when we ignore His commands. The commands of God are there for our good. Not to spoil our fun. Not to ruin our good time. They are there to keep us from ruining our lives.

Let’s go back to the story of Jesus and the blind man in Mark 8. If we were writing the story of Jesus healing the blind man, it would have just been a healing. The poor man needed help, and Jesus healed him. That’s where we would have stopped. That would have been it.

But that wasn’t it. That miraculous healing was followed by a direct command. “Don’t go into the village.”

And did you notice that Jesus never explained His command? After He healed the blind man, He simply said, “Don’t go into the village.”

He didn’t say, “Don’t go in the village, and here’s why.” He just said, “Don’t go into the village.”

We’ve said that the commands of God are given for our good, but there are still times when God’s commands don’t make sense. Sometimes we don’t get an explanation. Sometimes we are left to wonder why.

But the sovereign Lordship of Jesus means that He doesn’t have to explain Himself. He didn’t have to explain Himself to the blind man, and He doesn’t have to explain Himself to us.

Every parent has, at one time or another, said the phrase, “Because I said so.” You know you have.

When I was younger, I always swore that I would never say that to my kids. I would always give them a patient and loving explanation for every instruction that I ever gave them. Of course this was before I had kids.

You know what I figured out? You want to know what I learned about explaining absolutely everything? It’s exhausting.

When you have a two-year old who asks, “Why?” 100,000 times a day, it wears you out. And it wasn’t long until those dreaded words, “Because I said so,” came out of my mouth. The first time I said it, it felt so bad…and yet so good.

The more I thought about it, the more I’ve realized that it’s not always a bad answer. Now, it can definitely be given in a bad tone. It can be given in anger and frustration. And that’s something that we need to work on as parents. But the answer itself is actually pretty good sometimes.

There are times when my boys need to trust me and obey me just because of who I am. I am their father. There are times when that is really the only explanation they need.

Same deal with God. He is our Father, and we need to trust Him and obey Him just because of who He is. Sometimes He gives us an explanation for His commands. Sometimes He answers the “why” question. And other times, the only answer we get is, “Because I said so.” And that needs to be enough for us.

The bottom line is that, whether the command makes sense to us or not, we are called to obey. We can’t just say, “I love God,” and still live disobediently to Him.

I remember one time when our son, Ryan, got in trouble. He was about three at the time. I don’t remember exactly what he had done, but I do remember that he had directly disobeyed me. And I was about to spank him. Right before I spanked him, he looked at me, tears his eyes, and said, “But Daddy, I love you!”

And for one second, I thought, “Wow. That’s awesome.” And then I thought, “Don’t be a moron. This three-year-old is trying to con you.”

And I said, “Son, if you love me, then you will obey me.” And yeah, I spanked him.

You might think that’s cruel, but I’m telling you that it’s right. Love means obedience, doesn’t it parents?

Why would we think that God, our Father, would be any different? Look at what the Bible says about this.

In Deuteronomy 11, the Bible says, “Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.” (Deuteronomy 11:1, NIV)

Do you see the connection between love and obedience? Love the Lord your God and keep his commands.

And in John 14, Jesus Himself said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15, NIV)

That’s pretty easy to understand, isn’t it? Nothing complicated there. It’s so simple. You can’t claim to love Jesus if you refuse to obey Jesus.

If you want a Jesus who saves you, who fixes everything in your life, who heals you of all your brokenness…but not a Jesus who tells you what to do…then you really need to look somewhere else. Don’t keep coming to this church, because that’s not the Jesus you’ll meet here. Don’t keep reading the Bible, because that’s not the Jesus that you’ll find there.

But if you want to get to know the authentic, real, vintage Jesus, then you have to accept that Jesus is both Savior AND Lord.

Yes, He saves you. Yes, He heals you. Yes, He rescues you.

But then, He wants to sit on the ruling throne of your life. But He wants to rule in your life so He can redirect your life. So He can stop you from wrecking your life.

In 1 John 5, the Bible says, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…” (1 John 5:3, NIV)

We can only claim that we love God when we are willing to obey God. But He hasn’t given us commands to burden us. He doesn’t attempt to spoil our fun or ruin our lives with His commands.

Just the opposite…His commands are given to us for our good. They may seem hard at the time. At times, they are without explanation. There are moments when they make no sense whatsoever. But they are given by a loving Father who really knows and really wants the best for us.

We’re not talking about rules being handed down by some cosmic dictator on a power trip. We’re talking about commands given by our loving Father. By a God who was willing to give up anything and everything for us. By a Savior who willingly laid down His life for ours.

That’s Vintage Jesus. Does Jesus save you? Heck yes. Does Jesus want to tell you what to do? Heck yes.

The choice is ours. Jesus has told us, “Here’s who I am. Here’s what I want.”

We get to choose to accept it or reject it. Either we accept Jesus as our Savior AND our Lord, or we reject Him altogether. You accept Him completely or you reject Him completely. But there is no fence to ride. There is no middle ground to stand on.

That’s who Jesus really is. And we have to really decide what we’re going to do with Him.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Jesus, Lord, Mark, obedience, Vintage Jesus