Introduction:

Our lesson has to do with comparative values of things material and spiritual, temporal and eternal. As in "the ordinary business or commercial world a man may sometimes make a profit and sometimes take a loss, so in the business of life a man may gain and lose and finally finish his earthly operations either prosperous or bankrupt, spiritually speaking.

Any smart business man will gladly take a small loss today for the sake of a huge profit tomorrow. To grasp at a small profit today at the cost of financial ruin tomorrow or next week is bad business. This lesson, rightly understood, will help us to apply principles of good business to eternal issues.

Examining the scripture, Mark 8:27-38, verse by verse, we can outline the lesson as follows:

1. Finding the Facts, vv. 27-29
a. Teaching by asking, 27
b. Assorted answers, 28
c. Personal knowledge, 29

2. Facing the Facts, 30-33
a. Timing the action, 30
b. Accurate forecast, 31
c. Willful blindness, 32
d. Choice of authority, 33

3. Facts for the Future, 34-38
a. Terms of investment, 34
b. Profit and loss, 35-38
1) Paradox of service, 35
2) Ultimate loss, 36
3) Impossible trade, 37
4) Shame and glory, 38 

Notes on the Printed Text:
Finding the Facts, vv. 27-29.

Prospects are brighter for success in business if we know the busmess. Simple prudence would suggest that a man ought to find out all the facts he can about a business before investing in it. Exactly so, desire for a profitable life here and hereafter should lead us to find out all we can about life from the Prince of life.

Teaching by Asking, 27.

Asking questions can be a most effective means of teaching, and Jesus often used this method. Knowing all things perfectly, he asked questions not to acquire information He already had, but to stimulate the interest and the thinking of His disciples.

No question of life is more important than the question, Who is Jesus? An added point of human interest is, Who do men say that He is? With such a question Jesus sought to lead His disciples to a recognition of His divine character. We must know Him before We can know how to live.

Assorted Answers, 28.

Truth is not derived from or established by public opinion. Different people had different opinions about Jesus, and still do; but the relative popularity or unpopularity of varied opinions is more, often an indication of common igrnorance than of common knowledge. Error cannot be converted to truth by popular vote.

Personal Knowledge, 29.

What other people say about Jesus may be of some interest, but the question of vital importance to us is what we say about Him. So Jesus now asked His disciples this vital personal question. They were in a better position to know Him than other men were, since they had been following Him, observing Him day after day, and attending to His teaching.

Even with the advantage of discipleship, it was only by direct revelation from God that Peter was able to recognize and confess the deity of his Lord (Matthew 16:15-17).

Facing the Facts, 30-33.

Having the truth revealed to us is one thing; accepting it, facing up to it, acting upon it, can be another thing especially when some of the related facts are distasteful to us. The disciples now knew that Jesus was the Christ; that is, they knew the bare fact declared by this statement: but they still had much to learn, much that could be learned only through further experience with Him.

Timing the Action, 30.

Naturally, the disciples' first impulse would be to rush out and proclaim to the public what they had just learned about Jesus. But Jesus had other plans for them. He wanted His witnesses to know what they were talking about. They must learn more before telling the little they knew. The timing of an action, in business or in life, can be as important as the action itself. Acting in haste can be as fatal as failing to act at all.

Accurate Forecast, 31.

Big business men spend vast sums of money on "experts" and "analysts" who try to forecast future trends and events, hoping to make profitable investments according to these forecasts. The Son of God, knowing the end from the beginning, taught His disciples in advance, so far as they would receive the teaching, of His approaching sufferings, death, and resurrection, Like other men, they were slow to receive unpleasant and difficult truth.

Willful Blindness, 32,

Far from accepting what he chose not to believe, Peter closed his mind against this teaching, and even began to rebuke his Teacher. If you think that Peter was being disrespectful and impudent, you are right; but he was no more so than any other man who disputes the word of God.

Choice of Authority, 33.

Peter was the one that needed to be rebuked, not Jesus; and Jesus turned to the other disciples to make, sure that all got the point. Peter, the same disciple who had been blessed with the divine revelation of the Messiahship of Jesus, had now turned away from God and had become a spokesman for Satan. All truth is from God and all error is from Satan: let us choose our Authority and stay with the truth.

Facts for the Future, 34-38.

Neither divine prophecy nor divine history can be changed by the objections ef men who "mind not the things of God, but the things of men." Divinely revealed facts about Jesus Christ directly and vitally affect the future of every other man. These verses call for long-range planning of life: they demand present action in view of future certainties.

Terms of Investment, 34.

Following Jesus is an "all or nothing" proposition. Addressing both the crowd in general and His own disciples in particular, Jesus demanded nothing less than complete commitment of anyone who wishes to come after Him. He gave Himself completely to redeem us; ww must give ourselves completely to Him if we would be redeemed.

The "cross" is not mere trouble or affliction: it is the instrument of death. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Galatians 5:24.) Bearing the cross of our own spiritual crucifixion is not optional if we would be disciples of Jesus: "Whosoever doth not bear his cross," and come after me, cannot be my disciple," (Luke 14:27.)

Profit and Loss, 35-38.

Correct understanding of these verses demands that their teaching be referred primarily not to salvation but to rewards. The teaching is partly confused by the translation of the same Greek word into "life" twice in verse 35 and "soul" twice in the next two verses. The meaning is the "soul" or "life" lived in the flesh in this world, and has no reference to eternal destiny.

Paradox of Service, 35.

Selflsh desire to save life for our own pleasure can result only in eventual loss; unselfish loss of life in service for Jesus and His gospel has the promise of eternal reward, so that the life apparently lost will turn out to have been a good investment. The contrast here is between the short and the long view of life.

Ultimate Loss, 36.

Here the contrast is between material wealth and immaterial life. All the wealth of the world is a poor bargain if we die getting it, or if we get it at the cost of a wasted life with no rewards for the world to come.

Impossible Trade, 37.

When the life or "soul" is about to depart, a man might gladly give the world to save his life, if the world were his to give. But no man, not even all men put together, can scrape up enough money to buy one life when its appointed time has passed. Life must be lived while we have it; we cannot get it back to live over.

Shame and Glory, 38.

Is this the shameful case of a fruitless child of God or of a counterfeit Christian? I do not know; perhaps it could be either. But if any man professing to be a follower of Jesus is ashamed of Jesus, or if he is ashamed of the words of Jesus, then Jesus will be ashamed of him. The present shame is "in this adulterous and sinful generation;" the future shame is "in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Key Verse:

"Whosoever will oome after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Mark 8:34.

It was "for the joy that was set before him" that Jesus "endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God," (Hebrews 12:2.) Our Savior "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:8.) Do we owe Him any less?
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[From Ashland Avenue Baptist paper, February 28, 1969, pp. 2-3. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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