This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our walk together through the book of Mark, Mark chapter 8 this week.
We're in day 4 of our look through this chapter. We're going to be looking at
verses 30-33 today.

And as I said at the end of yesterday, just when the disciples had gotten it
right, just when Peter particularly had gotten it right, and he had the right
perspective, you are the Christ, all of a sudden he falls back into the wrong
perspective. And I can relate to him here. I bet you can too.

Listen to what happens in verses 30-33. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone
about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law.

And then he must be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly
about this. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at the disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind
me, Satan, he said. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of
man.

Now get this picture. Jesus and his disciples as followers are warming
themselves by a fire. They're talking about the future.

And this conversation is not going as the disciples had hoped. In the back of
each of their minds, there had been these growing thoughts of glory. As they've
watched the miracles of Jesus, as they've listened to his words, these men have
become more and more convinced that he is the leader that their nation has been
waiting for.

Jesus is headed for national glory and they're going with him. He is the king
that they've been looking for and they're going to rule with him. But Jesus
isn't talking about ruling.

He's talking about suffering. He's talking about dying. He's also talking about
being raised from the dead, but they totally miss that.

And every one of these men felt deeply uncomfortable with what Jesus was saying.
It didn't fit their image of what they thought should happen. It just felt
wrong.

Peter is the one who finally said it. Someone needed to set Jesus straight and
Peter was just the one to do it. So he calls Jesus off to the side and he says,
never Lord, all this talk of dying is not going to happen to you.

And Jesus looks at Peter's eyes. He looks over and he sees all the other
disciples listening to this. And he says these amazing words, get behind me,
Satan.

You're a stumbling block to me. You don't have in mind the concerns of God. You
have in mind the concerns of men.

That's the wrong perspective. Setting your mind on man's interests and not God's
interests. Setting your mind on man's concerns and not God's concerns.

That's the third wrong perspective in this chapter. We've talked about setting
your mind on your resources and not God's. Setting your mind on the material and
not the spiritual.

And here's the third. Setting your mind on your interests and not on God's.
Here's Peter rebuking the Lord.

For Jesus to be killed did not fit into his system of thought, his system of
life. Didn't fit into his interests. We all have interests that are different
than God's.

And some of those interests that are different than God's, they can even be good
things. Peter probably thought this was a good thing that he was saying. Jesus
leading the nation, Jesus becoming the king, that would be a good thing for
Israel.

It would be a terrible thing, a tragic thing for all of human history. Jesus
didn't come to be a king at that time in one nation. He came to die on the
cross, but he could be king of kings for all nations.

And so Jesus says to Peter, get behind me, Satan. It's a powerful statement and
it's deeply challenging to me. Peter's rebuke to Jesus was probably a temptation
for Jesus.

When Peter says, never Lord, that could never happen to you, it's the same kind
of temptation that Satan brought in the wilderness. Jesus, you don't have to die
on a cross. Let me raise you up.

Let me make you a king right now. And Peter's following in that same footstep.
And so he says, get behind me, Satan.

The question here, the deeply disturbing question in many ways is, whose voice
is Satan using to send a temptation into your life? They might have good motives
towards you, but it's a temptation nonetheless. And even more disturbing, the
truly frightening thing to me here is, I can be used to do this.

If Peter, who was trying to follow the Lord, could be used, this same thing
could happen to me. I could be used to bring Satan's evil message into somebody
else's life. If it could happen to Peter, it could happen to me.

So how do I keep from doing this? How do I retreat from this if and when it
happens? There is an answer.

The one word answer is humility. Being humble. Humility.

Satan always works through my life, even in other people's lives, when I'm
acting pridefully. It doesn't matter if I'm trying to do a good thing or an evil
thing. Obviously an evil thing is always going to be evil, but even trying to do
a good thing, if I do it pridefully, it's going to result in evil in the end.

With humility, Satan always fails. With pride, Satan always wins. But there's a
great deep warning to me in this passage, and that is that pride in my life can
often arise out of my spiritual successes.

Here's what happened to Peter. He just said, "Thou art the Christ. " And he's
been deeply affirmed for this moment when he stood up of all the 12, and he's
the one who said it.

No one else said it. He's the one who said, "You are the Christ. " And Jesus
says, "On that faith, on that rock, I'm going to build my church, the rock of
that kind of faith, deeply successful moment in Peter's life.

" Probably the high point of spiritual success in his life. We can still read
about it today, but then what happens? Out of that moment of spiritual success,
all of a sudden pride grows.

Instead of Peter recognizing that God did it, he starts to own it. Now if you
don't think this can happen to you, well maybe you're different than me because
it's happened to me plenty of times. Out of the pride that grew for the right
answer that he'd given, Peter starts to now feel that he has all the answers.

I long for my heart to be in the place where God can use me, and the result is
greater humility, not selfish pride. But I also struggle like Peter, and I would
guess that you might too, with this great success moment happening in my life,
and all of a sudden I start to own it in such a way that pride raises in my
life. And when that happens, get behind me, Satan.

You see, Peter got to the point where he wanted to help Jesus do the right
thing, and Jesus taught Peter that he needed to trust Jesus to do the right
thing. You're setting your mind on human concerns and not on God's concerns.
Setting your mind, that's your thinking and planning.

And if your thinking and planning has gone to a place where you are helping God
out, that's pride. But when my thinking, when my planning goes to a place of I
am trusting you, God, now what can I do to help? That's humility.

I don't want this get behind me Satan moment to happen in my life. I don't want
it to be said to me. I don't want it to be caused by me in somebody else's life.

What's the answer? The answer is humility. The answer is setting my mind on the
things of God.

Let's talk to God our Father about that for just a moment. God, I know that on
my own effort, on my own energy, just left to myself, I'm going to be prideful.
I admit it.

Pride is so easy for me to choose. I think it makes me feel better about myself.
I think it makes me feel stronger in this world.

But God, I also realize that pride is what brings me down every time. That if
I'll humble myself under your mighty hand, you will lift me up. So God, right
now I pray that as much as I know how, I don't know everything in my mind, I
don't know everything in my heart, but as much as I know my mind and heart, I
set aside my pride and I pick up humility.

And I recognize today that the spiritual successes that may have happened in my
life, even today, even this week, that God, you're the one that deserves the
glory. Thank you that you used me. Thank you that I got to be a part of it.

But I humbly recognize that God, you're the one who did it. And I enjoy the fact
that you did it. I enjoy the fact that I got to be a part of it with you.

Help my heart to be humble. God, help me to be in a place where you can use me
and the result is greater humility in my life. I pray this, Jesus, in your name.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to be talking together the last day of our
look through Mark chapter eight about an amazing and challenging teaching
concerning how you and I can live this perspective that God puts into our
hearts.