January 19, 2020 | Pastor John Bayles | Who Do People Say the I Am? Observations of the Dead and the Awakened | Mark 8:27-34

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January 19, 2020 | Pastor John Bayles | Who Do People Say the I Am? Observations of the Dead and the Awakened | Mark 8:27-34

The Gentile Campaign | Revealing the Kingdom of God Context | Mark 7:1 to 8:34
Who Do People Say the I Am? Observations of the Dead and the Awakened
Mark 8:27-34

Mark picks up on a common theme in this text. As before, he uses the phrase “On the way” to describe the nature of Jesus’ teaching ministry. It was a day’s journey (about a 25-mile walk) from Bethsaida to the region of Caesarea Philippi which lay in the north of the tetrarchy of Philip at the foot of Mt. Hermon, bordering on Syria. Jesus had worked miracles during this campaign, but had yet to clearly announce Himself to be the Messiah. As the disciples walked along this mixed terrain of hills and mountains, this would change. Caesarea Philippi was an unlikely place for the first proclamation of Jesus as Messiah, for its population was chiefly non-Jewish. There is a again a surprising contrast of belief between those Jesus reached out to in this region, the Gentiles, and Jesus’ disciples, who were with Jesus, observed His miracles and wonders, heard His teaching, and even assisted in two of the most significant miracles of His ministry, the feeding of the five thousand Jewish people and the more recent feeding of the four thousand Gentiles. Today we will see the reason from this perpetual unbelief by the disciples while in the very presence of the Savior Himself as Jesus the question: “Who do people say that I am?"