Does anyone in the Bible get it as right and as wrong as Peter?
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is February 5, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called Highs and Lows. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Genesis 38, Mark 8, and Job 4.
Please open your Bibles to Mark 8.
I had a friend who had a strange way of getting things very right and very wrong. On the one hand: he was fun and funny, an absolute delight to spend time with. More importantly, he was very godly and on many things, he was very wise. People, for instance: he had a great sense for interacting with people and winning their trust. On the other hand, he had some funny inconsistencies. He was prone to believing conspiracy theories. He had a very poor sense of how things worked, like physics and chemistry. He would try to explain things like why soda has bubbles and you would think, “That’s not right at all,” but then you had to ask yourself, “Is this really worth trying to explain to him?” So life with this friend was occasionally frustrating, often entertaining, and almost always endearing.
I wonder if that’s a little bit like how Jesus thought about Peter. Peter had a lot of highs and lows, often in quick succession, and in today’s Scripture for Students, it’s going to be hard to imagine a higher high or a lower low closer together.
Please follow along with me as I read Mark 8:27–38 and see if you can spot the high and low in these verses,
27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”
29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”
30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
31 And 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.
32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But 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.”
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
So, did you spot it? The high comes first in this story. Jesus is walking down the road with his guys on the way to Caesarea Philippi and he asks them about his reputation. “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples lob out a few common responses and then Jesus turns the questions on them: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter nails it. His answer is brilliant in its simplicity and precision: “You are the Christ.”
Remember that Christ is not Jesus’ last name. It is a title; it might even make more sense to translate it, “Jesus the Christ.” The word Christ means Messiah, both words refer to God’s chosen one who is anointed to save his people.
The fact that Peter made this confession is huge. It means he understood at least something of who Jesus is and why he has come. The fact that he recognizes that Jesus is the Christ—the Messiah—at this phase of the story is wonderful. It is evidence of true faith in Peter’s heart.
But, the moment was short lived. In verse 31, Jesus begins to teach them that three things are going to happen: he’s going to be rejected, killed, and rise from the dead. In verse 32, Mark goes out of his way to explain that Jesus “said it plainly.”
Peter was doing so good. But here, he stumbles and drops to a new low. It says in verse 32 that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him privately. Just let that sink in for a moment. I don’t know all of what it would mean to follow Jesus, but one thing I am quite sure of: there is no conceivable situation where any of us would be rebuking Jesus.
I think what Peter did was crazy but apparently Jesus thought it was much worse than that. When Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan,” he isn’t saying that Peter is Satan or is possessed by Satan. But Jesus is saying that any attempt to obstruct his mission to the cross is to start playing for Satan’s team. It’s not good. And then he goes on to explain in verses 34–38 what it means to follow him.
Peter’s example here, both positive and negative, is instructive for us, especially for young people. Let’s look at three steps in the interaction between Jesus and Peter and think about what it means for us. First, Peter rightly answers that Jesus is the Christ. In other words, Jesus is the only way of salvation. Do you believe that?
Second, we can learn from Peter’s mistake: where he missed it, we can get it right. Do you believe that Jesus suffered and died, paying the penalty for our sins? Do you believe that he rose from the dead in triumph over sin, Satan, and death, to prove that God was satisfied and that he paid for every sin?
Finally, Jesus gave his disciples instructions for what it would mean to follow him. He calls his followers: you and me and everyone who calls on the name of Jesus, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow him. When he says that we will gain our lives by losing them for his sake, Jesus means that he is calling Christians to live entirely for him: to hold nothing back but give everything they have for the sake of following him.
Jesus asks, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” we can turn that question around and ask: what does it profit a man to forfeit the whole world and gain his life? The answer is: it profits him everything! So ask yourself: is there anything I’m holding back? Are there any ways I’m trying to gain the world, or even part of the world, and not following Jesus with my whole heart? Then, ask your parents what they think. You’ll benefit from their answer!
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!