Satan, Get Behind Us (Mark 8:31-39)
Sunday, March 1, 2014 - 2nd Sunday Lent
Jesus, in a private session with his
disciples, explained that he, their teacher, the one they had watched calm
storms at sea and conquer demons, must suffer.
The religious leaders and legal experts would reject him. He would be killed. It was coming. It was inevitable. Mark says in verse 32 that Jesus said this
openly. Throughout Mark’s gospel people heard
Jesus but did not know what he was saying.
Misunderstanding was a consistent theme, but not here. This was not cryptic. Nothing was left for interpretation. They would have no trouble getting the
message, just difficulty swallowing it.
Especially Peter. It was too much. He heard Jesus say, “the son of man must
undergo great suffering … and be killed,” and that is all Peter heard. Jesus said more, but Peter could not hear any
more. I imagine he grabbed Jesus by the
arm and pulled him off to the side for a one-on-one session.
Lord,
you can’t say stuff like this. You can’t
lose your nerve, not now. You’re scaring
the other disciples. I just stood up
among everyone and put myself out there.
I have thrown my lot in with you.
I declared you the Messiah. The
Messiah restores Israel. Don’t you know
the stories, Jesus? The Messiah makes
things right. The Messiah does not
die. We’ve followed you this far. Now don’t lose the message. No more talk about suffering. You are Israel’s Messiah. You can’t die.
Peter missed a key part of what Jesus
said. He mentioned being rejected,
suffering, and being killed. Right after
that he said the Son of Man, which is how Jesus refers to himself in Mark,
would rise from death. But none of them
expected the Messiah to be resurrected prior to the last day. So novel was the idea of the Messiah’s
resurrection preceding the general resurrection of all people the disciples
simply did not hear it when Jesus said it.
Peter’s worldview demanded that he see everything in existence as
it related to God’s selection of Israel as of his special people. Sure, Peter wanted God to heal the sick,
bring justice, and make the world right.
But that would happen when God set things right in Israel through the
Messiah. The world would be redeemed
after Israel was established as the center of all human activity. The Messiah would do this. Peter believed Jesus was that Messiah.
In fact Jesus was going to make the
world right, but not in the way that Peter and most people in first century Israel
anticipated. The crucifixion was
absolutely necessary. Jesus had to die
for us so we would not be eternally separated from God by our sins. The resurrection was absolutely necessary
because it was the signal that the death of our bodies would be a prelude to
our resurrection. Jesus gave the
disciples the entire plan so that after he rose, they could understand the
gospel and carry it throughout the earth.
By sharing the plan with the
disciples, Jesus was giving them a part in it.
Satan could not prevent this, but Satan could distract the disciples so
that they failed to receive the invitation they had been given.
Oh, you have been invited to
follow this guy and to tell everyone that their sins can be forgiven when they
turn to Him, give their hearts to Him, and follow Him. Don’t believe it. That’s the lie the enemy, the devil, whispered in the disciples’
ears. He’s telling you the Messiah has to suffer and die at the hands of the
religious leaders? Whoever heard such
nonsense? That’s Satan. He can’t hurt Jesus or those under Jesus’
protection. But the disciples still had
free will and could freely walk away from Jesus or impede Jesus’ progress in
carrying out God’s design. Satan could
not get to Jesus, but could he derail Jesus’ followers?
Can he do so today?
We live as Christ followers in a family, a church family. We don’t just come here because we like
coming. We come because we are invited
by God. God has purposes for us that are
the same as those he gave the disciples.
We continue the work begun in them.
Our mission is to announce that Jesus is Lord and to help people become
His followers. We are to follow Him and
help others join us as His disciples. We
are commissioned by the same Holy Spirit that formed the church in Acts chapter
2.
Our focus has to stay on who we are in Christ and who He is
calling us to be and what He is calling us to think, say, and do. Satan can’t stop us, but can put other
thoughts in our minds. We have to say to
whatever distraction arises, “Get behind us, Satan! For you are drawing our minds not to divine
things, but to Human things.” We need to
keep our minds on the divine work God has given and the holy lives to which God
has called us in Christ.Satan is right now trying to seduce HillSong into
ignoring God’s word for us and instead focusing on human things. We have to agree to say together, “Get behind
us Satan.”
An example of Satan’s tactics can be seen in our church’s
finances. The report is in the bulletin
each month and if you read that then you know we are way behind for January and
February. HillSong’s receipts are made
up your tithes and we also have income from students who rent parking spaces,
and outside groups that use our facility.
From these receipts we pay salaries, fund missions, pay the light bill, and
any other costs that arise. Currently
our receipts are behind our costs.
The leaders of our church need to know this and pay attention to
it and we are. Satan wants our leaders
to obsess about it. Satan tells the truth,
but manipulates it. You know, since the beginning of last summer, eight families have left
the church and they are all faithful tithers. [i] That is true. And our giving is down and it is quite simple
to put the two together and say, we can’t
hire a youth pastor right now. We can’t
fund a mission trip or expand our ministries right now. We need to focus on belt-tightening. That’s
what the enemy wants.
Yes, focus on the finances. And the enemy wins.
Our focus is on our mission to help people to become disciples of
Jesus. That’s our focus. That is our mission. It involves doing what we need to do to have
a high quality youth ministry because we know that most people who make a
decision to follow Jesus make that decision between the ages of 11 and 25.
Part of doing our work is taking care of our money. So, we stand before God and name the concern
– our receipts and tithes are low. We
ask you, the church family to join the church leaders on our knees before God
in prayer. Together we ask Him to
provide and to lift the anxiety we feel.
Number 1, we pray.
Second, we make short term decisions without compromising our
big-picture calling. Heather and I are
going to meet and discuss how we can tinker with the missions and ministry
budgets. We’re not going to change
anything but we might put off spending until later in the year, after we have
prayed and involved you, the church family in the process. First is prayer. Second is the leadership acknowledging the
issue and keeping our eye on our calling – to make disciples.
Third we appeal to membership.
If you have given 10% of your income to church budget, could you give 12
or 13% this year? If you can give more,
we ask you to do so. If you cannot,
OK. We want every member to join us in earnestly
asking God to bring in new people who will participate in ministry and help us
in our work of making disciples.
Prayer, leadership making short term decisions and keeping the
focus on the big picture, and an appeal to members to pray and to give; this
all leads us to the biggest step, number 4.
We believe. We believe God can
provide and will. We believe God has
given us a picture of our church, a safe space where people come to Jesus, are
made new by Him, and sent into the world on mission for him. We believe this is who God wants us to
be. We believe and we tell Satan to get
behind us because our mission is the product of what Jesus did when he suffered
and died.
We and churches like us around the world exist because Jesus was
able to put Satan’s temptations behind Him and behind his disciples. Those fishermen and tax collectors who are
cowards and bumblers in the gospel become heroic in their witness in the book
of Acts. Jesus did not just defeat
Satan. He taught his followers how to
put Satan behind them.
Being reminded of who Peter becomes helps us keep our focus. He moved past his initial difficulties and we
can. We have.
Recall the years, 2008-2012.
The United States went through a recession and millions were hit
financially. Someone recently told me of
a church they know where the members were so devastated by loss of income that
they could not tithe as much and the church had to sell its building. Now that church did not lose its focus. It is a church called to lead people to Jesus
and still does, but it had to carry on holding services in rented space at a
fitness club. They made changes and did
what they needed to go to continue answering God’s call.
Now think about HillSong and how God has been at work here. For the other church, it may be that God’s
best for them in the recession years was to close the building but the keep the
congregation alive.
Our focus is on what God has done here and continues to do among
us. Since the recession of 2008, one way
Satan has tried to get churches off track is to get us to obsess about
belt-tightening. In that period time, we
hired an associate pastor and added expenses, and increased our mission
giving. Then we hired a youth pastor and
began doing annual youth mission trips.
Along the way, we had to make cuts, but we never sacrificed. The ministry work has only grown.
Since the 2008 recession, we have increased the number of local
mission projects we do. We raised well
over 1000 dollars for relief after the Haiti Earthquake, and our members went
there on medical teams and construction teams.
We also saw over 40 of our members become sponsors for kids in Kombolcha
Ethiopia, and we are about to make our 4th trip there.
More pastoral staff, new mission trips, annual youth group mission
trips, expanded ministries, and new local missions, all in a time of financial
crisis; why could this happen? It happened
because God enabled us to say, “Get behind us Satan. We don’t want to look at the temptations
you’re dangling before us. We won’t give
in to the anxiety you’re suggesting. Get
behind us. We want to see what Jesus has for us, so get out of the way.”
Our deacons and our treasurer Kent Stone are key leaders and their
work of raising concerns is vital to our church life. I appreciate them and our deacons, pastors,
and elders are going to take this information, pray over it, and pour our
hearts out to God for His protection, and provision. We’re going to make responsible choices. What
drives us is what God has called us to do.
We are called and we are sent to make disciples. Nothing is going to stop that work or even
slow it down.
Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take
up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those
who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,[i] will save it. 36 For what will it
profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”
Is there some
distraction in your life? If that distraction were moved out of the way, would
you be free to follow Jesus wherever leads?
You are invited
to a time of silent prayer. Ask God what
it means in your life to take up your cross and follow Jesus. Ask God what it means for you to deny
yourself and to lose your life for the sake of the Gospel. And ask God to help you say, “Get behind me
Satan,” so that you can see and embrace God’s plan for redeeming the world and
to live your part in that plan.
We will pray and
sing. At any point, you are invited to
come for prayer. We will have people at
the front and back to pray with you.
AMEN
[i]
Ginger Burkes, The Driggers, Matthew Lawrence, The Neumans, The Mooneys, The
Parkers, The Sodens, and Sarah Stanley have all left the church.
