GROWTH TALK - MARK 8:27 | INTRODUCTION II

[00:00:02] Hello, world of podcast listeners. This is Darrell Irby. Thank you so much for stopping by Mark 8. 7. This episode will be entitled Growth Talk an introduction to mark 8:27, part two. [00:00:22] This morning we talked primarily about theory when we looked at this verse. [00:00:31] This time I want us to look a little bit more at the practical pieces that we can garner from this passage and the surrounding passages. [00:00:45] So again, Mark chapter 8 and verse 27 says, and Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea, Philippi. [00:01:02] And by the way, he asked his disciples, saying unto them, whom do men say that I am? [00:01:14] Jesus asked his disciples, who do men say that I? [00:01:20] And I believe it's Luke, another gospel writer, who says that. He said, who do men say that I, the Son of man am? [00:01:34] And after he asked that question, immediately his apostles begin to direct answers at his question. And they answered John the Baptist, but some say Elias and others one of the prophets. [00:01:53] And he saith unto them, but whom do ye say that I am? [00:02:00] And Peter answered and said unto him, thou art the Christ. Now we will definitely look further at what the apostles answers were and definitely more specifically, we'll look at what Peter's answer was. [00:02:19] But in an introductory fashion, I'd like for us to look at what Jesus was actually doing here. Of course, Jesus is the second person of the Godhead. [00:02:34] He is omniscient. [00:02:37] He knows all things. [00:02:40] There is no question that he could have asked his disciples that he did not already know the answer to. [00:02:49] So why did he ask them the question, who do men say that I am? [00:02:56] I'd like to present to you that the primary reason why he asked them that question was to engender in his disciples a process of evaluating their own thoughts and evaluating their own activity toward who men say that Jesus is. [00:03:31] Many of you may know that I am not only a Gospel minister, but I am also a life leadership coach. [00:03:41] And in the practice of coaching, one of the primary activities that the coach employs is the activity of question asking. [00:03:57] And not just asking questions for the sake of gaining information, but asking questions to cause the person being coached to do introspective searching of their own mind and their own thoughts and their own positions, their own commitments, so on and so forth. It is to cause deep exploration on the part of the person who is being coached. [00:04:35] Now, I don't believe that there's anything that was new or is new to Jesus because once again, he is omniscient. [00:04:45] He knows all things. [00:04:48] I don't know if Jesus would have said that what he was doing with his disciples on that day was coaching. [00:04:56] But the coaching practice has definitely been transformed by the fact that the coaching industry has figured out what of course, Jesus has always known, and that is that one of the most powerful methods of transformation, of leadership, of change, is powerful questioning. [00:05:29] And so Jesus here, in my opinion, engages in some of the most powerful questioning with his disciples in order to engage in training his disciples to be more effective disciple makers. [00:05:55] So all of us, we are made disciples when we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and we accept that message and we believe that message, that Jesus is who God sent him to be. [00:06:14] That's what the gospel is, is it's God's good news about Jesus. And how Jesus came to save Jew and Gentile, male and female, bond and free, and that how anyone can be saved merely by believing in Jesus Christ. [00:06:40] That's the gospel. [00:06:42] That is the gospel. And so all of us who are saved by believing in that gospel, then we have a responsibility to share that same message with as many people as we can possibly share that with, so that just as we were made a disciple, we. We can participate in making disciples. [00:07:11] And so Jesus is involved in training his disciples, his apostles, to be disciple makers. And they definitely needed to be trained to first of all, understand. [00:07:29] Jesus is concerned about our practical predicaments, about our physical situations. He's not only concerned about our spiritual needs, but he is also concerned about our physical needs. Jesus is concerned about all of our needs. And not only is he able, but he is willing to meet all of our needs, spiritual as well as physical. [00:08:07] Look at verse 14 of that eighth chapter where it says, now the disciples had forgotten to take bread. [00:08:18] Neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. [00:08:24] And he charged them. Jesus saying, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. [00:08:35] And they reasoned among themselves, saying, is it because we have forgotten bread? [00:08:42] And when Jesus knew it, because he knows all things, he saith unto them, why reason ye because ye have no bread, Perceive ye not, yet neither understand. [00:08:58] Powerful question. [00:09:00] Have ye your heart yet burdened? [00:09:05] Powerful question. [00:09:07] Having eyes see ye not? [00:09:10] Powerful question. [00:09:12] And having ears hear ye not? [00:09:15] Powerful question. [00:09:17] And do you not remember when I break the five loaves among 5,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They said unto him, 12. [00:09:35] And when the seven among 4,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, seven. [00:09:46] And he said unto them, how is it that ye do not understand? [00:09:54] Powerful question. You see how Jesus is asking them powerful questions, causing within them, hopefully, some introspective investigation and thinking and exploration. [00:10:13] Listen, and I believe that when he said to them, who do men say that I am? [00:10:20] He asked that question as well, to engender in them some exploration and some introspective searching and to take their thought patterns through some investigation as well. [00:10:41] And then also, though, to cause them to look at their activities and their behaviors, to know if they had done anything. First of all, to know what people thought about Jesus. [00:11:00] But then secondly, to impact and influence what people had said about Jesus. Down that's discipleship. That's what it's all about. We accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior and we are saved. [00:11:20] And then we are consistently going through the process of knowing more of who Jesus is and knowing more of who his Father and our Father is, who God is. We go through that process. [00:11:37] But then we also participate in helping others to know who God is and who Jesus is. And then we help them to know what they need to know, to help somebody else to know who God is and to know who Jesus is. That's what it's. That's what it's all about. [00:12:03] Growth. [00:12:04] Us growing as disciples. [00:12:07] Us growing as disciple makers, helping someone else to grow as disciples, helping someone else to grow as a disciple maker so that they can help someone else to grow, so that they can help someone else to grow as a disciple maker. [00:12:33] Now, Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi with his disciples. [00:12:43] And notice that even before then, as he's feeding the hungry, after having ministered to multitudes, that Jesus is interacting with the people. [00:12:58] He's rubbing shoulders with the people. Jesus is actually in the midst of community. [00:13:08] And so what is the best way to make disciples is to be interacting with people, to be in communities of people, having conversations with them, asking them questions, powerful questions to get to know them better, and answering their questions so that they can get to know you better. And asking them questions as a method of teaching them who God is and who Jesus is. [00:13:47] Powerful questioning to help the world to know who God is, who His Son is. [00:13:58] And as we do that as the church, as the body of Christ, as disciples, as disciple makers, it becomes more and more clear to the world who we are as well as God's children, as his family, as the church. [00:14:20] Thank you so much for joining me for this Growth Talk series of episodes and click on the Follow button or the subscribe button so that as I record additional episodes, you will be notified and be able to share with us in the meantime, be blessed and stand out because of your excellence.