Get behind me…

27 Jesus and his disciples went into the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 They told him, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.” 29 He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” 30 Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” 32 He said this plainly. But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him. 33 Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.” 34 After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. 35 All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. 36 Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? 37 What will people give in exchange for their lives? 38 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:27-38, CEB)

Who do you say that I am?

You are the Christ, the one we are waiting for, the savior of the world. Peter said this because he knew it was true. And then when Jesus started talking about what was going to happen to him and it didn’t fit Peter’s thoughts, Peter said it would never happen.

And Jesus responds with the words he said to Simon and Andrew way back at the shoreline, Follow me. Is that what Jesus said to Peter here?

The translation here is get behind me. But if you look at the Greek, the same phrase is used. In Mark 1, when Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to follow him, Jesus says, “ὀπίσω μου” and here in chapter 8, Jesus says to Peter, “ὀπίσω μου,”. Looks the same to me, and it means get behind me, or follow me. We think that when Jesus calls the disciples it is a come along with me and walk beside me. And it is really a get in line behind me and do what I ask you to do. These are not suggestions and your way is not the right way. Jesus really is a my way or the highway kind of guy.

And he continues on after his reminder to Peter of what a disciple is. You have to take up your cross and follow. If you lose your life and live the one Jesus gives you you will have life, but if you fight for your life, you won’t even get that.

Give up and look for the back of Jesus’ head and know that is the best place for you.

Love People. Love God.

Tricky

23 When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to him as he was teaching. They asked, “What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus replied, “I have a question for you. If you tell me the answer, I’ll tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. 25 Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he get it from heaven or from humans?” They argued among themselves, “If we say ‘from heaven,’ he’ll say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But we can’t say ‘from humans’ because we’re afraid of the crowd, since everyone thinks John was a prophet.” 27 Then they replied, “We don’t know.” Jesus also said to them, “Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. 28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. Now he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 “‘No, I don’t want to,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went. 30 “The father said the same thing to the other son, who replied, ‘Yes, sir.’ But he didn’t go. 31 “Which one of these two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first one.” Jesus said to them, “I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God’s kingdom ahead of you. 32 For John came to you on the righteous road, and you didn’t believe him. But tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Yet even after you saw this, you didn’t change your hearts and lives and you didn’t believe him. (Matthew 21:23-32, CEB)

How do you live your life?

Like the chief priests and elders? Tricking people into answering questions in ways you can use against them?

Do you try and manipulate people so that you can maintain your status quo?

Neither of the sons here did what the father asked. One told the father no and then even though he went, he still told the father he wasn’t going to, and the other just out right lied.

We need to live our lives with integrity and not trickery. We need to be above board on everything.

Live in a way that you life shows God’s grace in every and all things.

Love People. Love God.

See faith?

17 In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. 18 Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action. 19 It’s good that you believe that God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear. 20 Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? 21 What about Abraham, our father? Wasn’t he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. 23 So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and God regarded him as righteous. What is more, Abraham was called God’s friend. 24 So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. 25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guests and then sent them on by another road? 26 As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead. (James 2:17-26, CEB)

How can I see your faith apart from your actions?

How do I believe you have faith when you tell me you have faith, especially if your life does not point to faith?

If you tell me you have faith in God, and yet your actions show you are selfish and don’t care for others, your actions show me that you do not have faith.

We must live our lives so that God is seen in the things we do. We do not do the things we do to earn God’s love, we love and care for others to show the faith and love we have for God.

Love People. Love God.

By Faith

17 By faith Abraham offered Isaac when he was tested. The one who received the promises was offering his only son. 18 He had been told concerning him, Your legitimate descendants will come from Isaac. 19 He figured that God could even raise him from the dead. So in a way he did receive him back from the dead. 20 By faith Isaac also blessed Jacob and Esau concerning their future. 21 By faith Jacob blessed each of Joseph’s sons as he was dying and bowed in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph recalled the exodus of the Israelites at the end of his life, and gave instructions about burying his bones. (Hebrews 11:17-22, CEB)

Hebrews Chapter 11 is about our fore fathers and their faith.

They lived by faith in the promises of God.

They are an example for us to follow.

We can know that God will be there because God has been there and has fulfilled many promises, and we too can live by faith.

Live by Faith.

Love People. Love God.

Little faith

14 When they came to the crowd, a man met Jesus. He knelt before him, 15 saying, “Lord, show mercy to my son. He is epileptic and suffers terribly, for he often falls into the fire or the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.” 17 Jesus answered, “You faithless and crooked generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Then Jesus spoke harshly to the demon. And it came out of the child, who was healed from that time on. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and said, “Why couldn’t we throw the demon out?” 20 “Because you have little faith,” he said. “I assure you that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Go from here to there,’ and it will go. There will be nothing that you can’t do.” (Matthew 17:14-21, CEB)

If you had the faith the size of a mustard seed you could move a mountain.

Who wants to move a mountain? I actually am fine not moving a mountain. And we always seem to read this passage as saying they didn’t have enough faith. But they have enough to do a lot of things.

Faith the size of a mustard is a little faith, and even less is still enough.

Use the faith you have to do what God is leading you to do.

Love People. Love God.

God loves us

3 Think about the one who endured such opposition from sinners so that you won’t be discouraged and you won’t give up. 4 In your struggle against sin, you haven’t resisted yet to the point of shedding blood, 5 and you have forgotten the encouragement that addresses you as sons and daughters: My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline or give up when you are corrected by him, 6 because the Lord disciplines whomever he loves, and he punishes every son or daughter whom he accepts. 7 Bear hardship for the sake of discipline. God is treating you like sons and daughters! What child isn’t disciplined by his or her father? 8 But if you don’t experience discipline, which happens to all children, then you are illegitimate and not real sons and daughters. 9 What’s more, we had human parents who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? 10 Our human parents disciplined us for a little while, as it seemed best to them, but God does it for our benefit so that we can share his holiness. 11 No discipline is fun while it lasts, but it seems painful at the time. Later, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it. 12 So strengthen your drooping hands and weak knees! 13 Make straight paths for your feet so that if any part is lame, it will be healed rather than injured more seriously. (Hebrews 12:3-13, CEB)

This is an interesting passage, because it says we are to endure discipline. Which we should. Actions have consequences and we must face those. Our parents punished us for the things we got caught doing, and God will also help and correct us as we go about our lives.

This doesn’t mean we should endure abuse from those who abuse us. Or that we should stay in situations because this is what I am supposed to endure.

Discipline is one thing to help us grow, but abuse is not something anyone should endure. God loves us and will always guide us to be the person we were created to be.

Live in love and love as you go.

Love People. Love God.

By faith

29 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if they were on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were drowned. 30 By faith Jericho’s walls fell after the people marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute wasn’t killed with the disobedient because she welcomed the spies in peace. 32 What more can I say? I would run out of time if I told you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. 33 Through faith they conquered kingdoms, brought about justice, realized promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 put out raging fires, escaped from the edge of the sword, found strength in weakness, were mighty in war, and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured and refused to be released so they could gain a better resurrection. 36 But others experienced public shame by being taunted and whipped; they were even put in chains and in prison. 37 They were stoned to death, they were cut in two, and they died by being murdered with swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats, needy, oppressed, and mistreated. 38 The world didn’t deserve them. They wandered around in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground. 39 All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. 40 God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us. 12 So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, 2 and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne. (Hebrews 11:29—12:2, CEB)

By faith our ancestors walked and were right with God.

By faith we make our way through life. Not by sight or shear power. By Faith.

When we fix our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter, or as I memorized that verse, “Fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” I had a t-shirt in my early 20s that said cross-eyed, with Hebrews 12:2 on it.

We should be so focused on the cross, and who Jesus is too us and how our life will be what God intended it to be when we walk in faith, that we are cross-eyed.

Focus on Jesus. Live by Faith.

Love People. Love God.

Don’t tell

24 Jesus left that place and went into the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know that he had entered a house, but he couldn’t hide. 25 In fact, a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him right away. She came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was Greek, Syrophoenician by birth. She begged Jesus to throw the demon out of her daughter. 27 He responded, “The children have to be fed first. It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 “Good answer!” he said. “Go on home. The demon has already left your daughter.” 30 When she returned to her house, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone. 31 After leaving the region of Tyre, Jesus went through Sidon toward the Galilee Sea through the region of the Ten Cities. 32 Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged him to place his hand on the man for healing. 33 Jesus took him away from the crowd by himself and put his fingers in the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking into heaven, Jesus sighed deeply and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Open up.” 35 At once, his ears opened, his twisted tongue was released, and he began to speak clearly. 36 Jesus gave the people strict orders not to tell anyone. But the more he tried to silence them, the more eagerly they shared the news. 37 People were overcome with wonder, saying, “He does everything well! He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who can’t speak.” (Mark 7:24-37, CEB)

Have you ever known something that was so good you had to tell others about it, but the person who did said not to tell anyone? Do you tell or not?

It is hard to keep a secret, let alone a secret that can be beneficial to others.

Would you have told others about Jesus healing everyone?

I probably would have. Jesus was restoring people to community. He was giving people relationships back.

What can we do to restore community and help everyone live in grace filled relationships?

Love People. Love God.

Did he just…

21 From there, Jesus went to the regions of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from those territories came out and shouted, “Show me mercy, Son of David. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.” 23 But he didn’t respond to her at all. His disciples came and urged him, “Send her away; she keeps shouting out after us.” 24 Jesus replied, “I’ve been sent only to the lost sheep, the people of Israel.” 25 But she knelt before him and said, “Lord, help me.” 26 He replied, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and toss it to dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off their masters’ table.” 28 Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith. It will be just as you wish.” And right then her daughter was healed. 29 Jesus moved on from there along the shore of the Galilee Sea. He went up a mountain and sat down. 30 Large crowds came to him, including those who were paralyzed, blind, injured, and unable to speak, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them. 31 So the crowd was amazed when they saw those who had been unable to speak talking, and the paralyzed cured, and the injured walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. (Matthew 15:21-31, CEB)

Jesus just called the Canaanite Woman a dog…

Now Israelites didn’t like Canaanites. This was not a term of endearment.

But the disciples were probably thinking it, and the people of that time wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but aren’t we supposed to love everyone? So calling someone a dog is not really loving them.

There are things in the Bible that don’t make sense. So what do we do with them?

This one I usually say Jesus here shows us humanity, where he messed up, and then the woman makes a comment and he says, you’re right, you are a part of the kingdom.

We all mess up. How do we handle the saying we made a mistake.

Fess up and own it in a loving manner.

Love People. Love God.

Knowing vs Doing

12 Those who have sinned outside the Law will also die outside the Law, and those who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law. 13 It isn’t the ones who hear the Law who are righteous in God’s eyes. It is the ones who do what the Law says who will be treated as righteous. 14 Gentiles don’t have the Law. But when they instinctively do what the Law requires they are a Law in themselves, though they don’t have the Law. 15 They show the proof of the Law written on their hearts, and their consciences affirm it. Their conflicting thoughts will accuse them, or even make a defense for them, 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the hidden truth about human beings through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:12-16, CEB)

It really isn’t about knowing the rules.

It is about how we live.

We live in light and love and we are accepted. If we live for our own wants and desires, God will know the true nature of our heart and we will not stand.

Let light and love flow from God through your life.

Let you life point to grace and mercy of God.

Love People. Love God.