This document summarizes a passage from the Gospel of Mark about what it means to follow Jesus. It identifies three key essentials: 1) having the right view of Jesus as the Christ and Son of God, 2) adopting a new orientation in life centered around Jesus rather than oneself, and 3) understanding the basic law of spiritual economics that any sacrifices made for Jesus in this life will be outweighed by eternal rewards. The document uses examples from the Gospel passage and other Bible verses to explain these three essentials of following Christ.

1. The Essential Jesus as
Revealed in the Gospel of Mark

2. Mr. Puritan

3. TheValley of
Vision: A
Collection of
Puritan Prayers
and Devotions

4. The Essential Jesus as
Revealed in the Gospel of Mark

5. Sunday July 7th
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7. The Essential Jesus as
Revealed in the Gospel of Mark

8. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:27a
And Jesus went on with his disciples to
the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

9. A distance of
about 25 miles

10. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:27-28
And on the way he asked his
disciples, “Who do people say that I
am?” And they told him, “John the
Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and
others, one of the prophets.”

11. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:29-30
And he asked them, “But who do YOU
say that I am?”Peter answered him, “You
are the Christ.” And he strictly charged
them to tell no one about him.
Matthew 16:15
“The Son of the Living God!”

12. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:31-32a
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. And he
said this plainly.

13. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:32b
And Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him.

14. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:33
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.”

15. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Matthew 4:8-9
Again, the devil took him to a very high
mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, “All these I will give
you, if you will fall down and worship
me.”

16. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Matthew 4:10
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan!
For it is written, “‘You shall worship the
Lord your God and him only shall you
serve.’”

17. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:33
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.”

18. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:34
And calling the crowd to him with his
disciples, he said to them, “If anyone
would come after me, let him deny
himself and and
follow me."
take up his cross

19. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
John 19:17
So they took Jesus, and he went out,
bearing his own cross . . .

20. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
When Jesus talks about “taking up
one's cross,” he is talking about
following him with such flaming
devotion, that even if it were to lead
to a humiliating death, we would still
follow him!

21. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:34
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."

22. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:35
For whoever would save his lifewill lose
it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and the gospel's will save it.

23. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:36-37
For what does it profit a man to gain the
whole world and forfeit his soul? For
what can a man give in return for his
soul?

24. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:36-37
For what does it profit a man to gain the
whole world and forfeit his soul? For
what can a man give in return for his
soul?

25. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:36-37
For what does it profit a man to gain the
whole world and forfeit his soul? For
what can a man give in return for his
soul?

26. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
Mark 8:38
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.

27. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world
would love you as its own; but because
you are not of the world, but I chose you
out of the world, therefore the world
hates you.

28. Mark 8:27-38 – What does it
mean to follow Jesus?
2Timothy 3:12
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life
in Christ Jesus WILL be persecuted.

29. Today’sTakeaway
“There are a number of essentials in this
passage of Mark’s Gospel, that together
go a long way toward answering this
question:
What does it mean to follow Jesus?”

30. Today’sTakeaway
3 key essentials for those who desire to
follow Jesus . . .
1.The right view of Jesus

31. The right view of Jesus
Mark 8:27
Who do people say that I am? (John the
Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets)
Mark 8:29
But who do you say that I am? (The
Christ, the Son of the Living God!)

32. Today’sTakeaway
3 key essentials for those who desire to
follow Jesus . . .
1. The right view of Jesus
2. A new orientation to life

33. A new orientation to life
Mark 8:34
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."

34. A new orientation to life
When we are born
into this world, we are
born with an
orientation to life
which has which three
persons at the center?
Me, Myself and I!

35. A new orientation to life
We must change this
orientation with ME at
life’s center … to
placing Jesus at the
center of ALL of life!
We can only do this
with HIS help!

36. Today’sTakeaway
3 key essentials for those who desire to
follow Jesus . . .
1. The right view of Jesus
2. A new orientation to life
3. A solid grasp of the basic law of
spiritual economics 101

37. Basic law of spiritual
economics 101
Any price we pay here in this life ....
will be far outweighed there in the life
to come!

38. Basic law of spiritual
economics 101
Mark 8:35-37
For whoever would save his lifewill lose
it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and the gospel's will save it.For what
does it profit a man to gain the whole
world and forfeit his soul?For what can a
man give in return for his soul?

39. Today’sTakeaway
3 key essentials for those who desire to
follow Jesus . . .
1. The right view of Jesus
2. A new orientation to life
3. A solid grasp of the basic law of
spiritual economics 101