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Mark 8 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

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  Welcome to Five Minute Bible in our journey through the New
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  Testament. In each episode, we take just a
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  few minutes to focus on one chapter of the New Testament,
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  exploring the truths God is teaching us through His Word and
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  expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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  you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
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  today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
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  read along episode in this podcast feed.
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  If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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  now when you're ready, Let's dive into God's Word together
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  in Mark chapter 8, right after Peter's confession of Jesus.
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  As the Christ Jesus plainly tells his disciples what the
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  future holds for him, verse 31 says, And he began to teach them
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  that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by
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  the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed.
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  And after three days rise again. Peter, fresh off his clear and
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  bold proclamation of Jesus identity, pulled his rabbi aside
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  and began to rebuke him. He did not like hearing Jesus
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  talk so grimly about himself. He didn't want the reality that
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  Jesus had laid out about his rejection and death to be true.
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  Listen to how Jesus responds to Peter's rebuke, verse 33 says.
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  But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter
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  and said, get behind me, Satan, for you're not setting your mind
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  on God's interests, but man's. See, Peter had his priorities
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  wrong. He was not willing in that
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  moment to accept that God's plan could include the brutal
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  rejection and death of Jesus. That wasn't the way he imagined
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  it happening. That wasn't the way he wanted it
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  to happen. What Jesus teaches the crowd
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  next gives us a look into the deeper truth at work here that
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  Peter probably later rather than sooner, would have to learn.
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  Listen to verses 34 and 35. And he summoned the crowd with
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  his disciples and said to them, If anyone wishes to come after
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  me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
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  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
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  loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it.
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  The way of obedience to Christ is the way of death.
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  God's path for Christ's disciples, both then and now, is
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  not, from an earthly perspective, a path upward to
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  glory. Rather, the path of obedience to
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  Jesus is to follow Jesus down, down, down.
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  Death to self is what is required, but eternal life is
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  what is promised to all who would follow after Jesus.
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  So here's the question, Whose interests are you setting your
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  mind on? God's interests or man's?
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  God's interests are often more difficult, more painful, more
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  messy. But God's interests are always,
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  always, always better. Peter didn't realize in that
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  moment that apart from Jesus being rejected, killed, and
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  raised, they were following him for nothing.
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  This was the plan from the beginning.
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  This was why he came. But Peter couldn't fathom a plan
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  as big as God's was. And rarely can we fathom what
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  the God who is able to do far more than we can ask or imagine
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  is up to. But we must commit to trust Him.
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  Trust that He's in control. Trust that His ways are best.
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  Trust that He knows what he's doing.
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  So set your mind on God's interests, not man's, and
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  prepare to have your mind blown by what the God of the universe
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  will do.