Mark 8

31And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  32And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  33But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

 

“Set your heart and mind”

 

31And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 

32And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 

33But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

• Talk about last week’s peters revelation vs this weeks
  • Just as surely as Peters comments were inspired by god, this weeks were inspired by the adversary satan
• Talk about the fickle heart, mind, and mouth of the believer
• Talk about how that should drive us to make sure we are drawing from the correct righteous source
• Read the text again

 

33But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

 

**Main thrust this week is on the idea of setting our minds on Christ and pleasing Him, and not setting our mind on worldly, temporary, man centered things.**

• Setting your mind-phroneo (verb) (root word phren is heart)

• • Directing your heart to think in a way that affects your behavior
  • Thoughts that prelude action
    • Ie, attitude and you still not over it mentally, but you make the decision, you direct your heart to forgive and get over it, you open yourself up to it
    • Hallmark movies-character is in typical childrearing years, but is single, job focused, heart closed because of past relationship, and some guy or gal comes along that really likes them, insert soft music, but they are keeping them arms length, then best friends says, just give it a try, just open up and see what happens, so they “direct their heart, they set their minds towards it and they end up falling in love and almost kissing 5 times and you get the picture…
  • Even secular culture understands the importance of setting your mind, directing your heart to think and respond a certain way
    • Quote from weight room, “life is only 10% what happens to you, but 90% how you respond to it”
    • There are tons of self help and leadership books about this topic of mindset
      • But what we are believers, we are in church, what we care about is what does God think…
• Why is this a topic that is important to God, the way that we think, the way that we set our minds?

1. He gave us our minds, he gave us will and volition and the ability to set our minds, therefore He wants us to utilize this the way He want us to utilize everything…for His glory
   1. Psalm 86:12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.
2. The way we set our minds affects our life 
   1. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
3. The way we set our minds dictates the way we react to circumstances
   1. 1 thessalonians 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
      1. We have to set our minds to give thanks and glory to god for the good things
      2. We have to set our minds to give thanks and glory to god in the hard times
4. The way we set our minds affects our eternal destination
   1. Romans 8:6a for to set the mind on the flesh is death

• • • • Goes along with not the things from outside that corrupt, but what comes from the inside, because it comes from the heart

• 7:20-23

• • • • btt

33But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

 

• • So Jesus is saying “you are not directing your heart towards the things of God”, but you are directing your heart towards the things of man”
• Because Peter is setting his mind on wordly things of man, he misses the truth and beauty of the gory gospel, the glorious great exchange, Emanuel laying down His life so that we might live and then taking it back up again.
  • Instead, Peter begins to rebuke and correct the master, lol, you got to respect the boldness of peter, to rebuke the one you recognize to be God in the flesh…
  • Many scholars and commentators believe that Peter and many others were expecting Christ to setup His kingdom in a physical wordly way
  • Instead Christ came to inaugurate the kingdom of God in the hearts of men and women that will begin to build the kingdom that Jesus will consummate upon His return
    • So Jesus corrects him and accuses him of setting his minds on the things of man instead of the things of God
    • This doctrine of setting your mind on the things of God as opposed to the things of man is very important for us too as believers
      • Lets take a look at a few scriptures:

• Romans 8:5-8

• • • Litmus test
      • If you are saved, if your a christian you ought to be setting your minds on the things of God
      • What are the things of the spirit, things that please and cater to the holy spirit that abides in you
        • Loving god with all your heart mind soul and strength
        • Loving your neighbors
        • Becoming more holy
        • Identifying and killing sin in your life
        • Being a godly parent that raises their children to love god and know about Him
        • Being a godly husband that provides and puts their wife above themself
        • Being a godly wife that submits and loves her husband
        • Being a godly worker in the workplace and community that brings glory to God
        • Having a hunger and thirst for righteousness and His word
        • All of these things and more are setting your mind on the things of the spirit
      • What are the things of the flesh, what is setting your mind on the things of the flesh
        • It is a mindset of doing things that are for the flesh and its pleasure
        • It is anything that is against God’s laws, ie sin
        • It is the pursuit of wealth as an end 
        • It is the pursuit of pleasure in things, in substance, in adult activity
        • It is the speech that insults, taunts, lies, and boasts
        • It is the breaking of marital vows 
        • It is the aborting of children
        • It is the abusive person, physically, emotionally, sexually
        • It is the eye absent God
        • It is the brain absent God
        • It is the human earthly sensual fleshly desires absent God
      • We get life and peace from doing this
      • Two doors, death or life
      • Examine ourselves
    • Is your mind set mostly on the things of the flesh or mostly on the things of God?

• Colossians 3:1-4

• • (Now what) set your minds on things that are above…how? How sway? How are we to do that?
    • Vs 16 and 17 give us some practical ways to pursue and accomplish this…
      • Word dwell richly…
      • Teaching and admonishing
        • In relationship
        • In the church family
      • Singing! There is something about singing to the Lord that sets your heart and mind on Him
        • Same with singing about love, everyone has that song that gets them to thinking about the one they love or used to love
      • Do everything in the name of the Lord, not in the name of yourself
        • everything!
      • And be thankful!
      • That is the recipe!
      • Are you doing this? Is this true? Let it be so!

 

**Jesus too had to set His mind on the things of His Father instead of earthly things**

 

• Mark 14:32-36
• Jesus didn’t want to go through the hell He was about to be put through
• He wanted to be saved from this hour
• Yet not my will, but your will
• Even in sorrow, even in pain, even in heartache, He directed his heart to things of God, what did he set His heart to?
  • To die a death he didn’t deserve, so we can receive a salvation and forgiveness that we don’t deserve
  • This is what Jesus set His mind to accomplish for us
    • He gave us the free gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins
    • And fellowship with our God and father and the Lord Jesus Christ
  • To receive this gift all you have to do is repent, believe, and follow
    • Is there any: who need to repent, believe, and follow, maybe for the first time, maybe you walked away and God is calling you back? Maybe you are a saint, who needed this word of setting your heart and mind towards God and rejecting your fleshly mindset, if that is you, repent, believe the word you heard today, and committ to following.
    • Amen.

Sermon transcripts on Mark 8:31-33