Jesus is the Messiah

‘The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God’ – Mark 1:1 (NIV)

Mark states his leading point in his very opening sentence: ‘Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God’.

God himself affirms this statement a few verses later at Jesus’ baptism; ‘You are my Son whom I love’ (Mark 1:11-NIV), and this happens again at the transfiguration; ‘This is my Son whom I love, listen to him’ (Mark 9:7-NIV).

At the fulcrum of Mark’s Gospel, Peter states, ‘You are the Messiah’ (Mark 8:29-NIV).

And Jesus himself states that he is the Messiah at the crucial moment in his trial before the High Priest; ‘Again the High Priest asked him, 'Are you the Messiah, the Son of the blessed one?” "I am", said Jesus. ‘And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven’ (Mark 14:61-62-NIV).

Throughout Mark, demons attempt to short-circuit God’s revelation of this truth to his apostles (Mark 1:34, 3:11, 5:7), but Jesus always silenced them.

Mark records one more incident; when the centurion saw how Jesus died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’ (Mark 15:39-NIV) - Jesus even converted the man responsible for killing him!

Jesus is the one that the Old Testament prophets prophesied would come. The one mightier than the returning Elijah. The one who is the strong man routing the powers of evil and plundering satan’s house. The Messiah, the anointed servant king. The one who comes as Saviour, King and Judge. The one who not only receives the Spirit of God, but who then baptises men and women with the Holy Spirit of God.

We shall explore each of these truths in this plan, but I want to end today by highlighting what Mark records just before Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah.

For the only time in all the gospels, Jesus heals a blind man in two stages (Mark 8:22-26). The healing graphically illustrates the point behind Jesus’ question, ‘Who do you say I am?’ We may ‘see’ like Peter that Jesus is the Messiah, but do we fully see and understand that the Messiah must go to Jerusalem and suffer death before being raised to life?

Peter did NOT see this!

So he dared to rebuke Jesus!

But Jesus rebuked Peter publicly – in front of everyone; ‘Get behind me, satan! … you do not have in mind the concerns of God' (Mark 8:33-NIV).

Again and again, Mark highlights Jesus’ teaching that the Son of Man must suffer many things. It is only through suffering that Jesus is glorified.