Our Mindset Determines Our Outset - Mark 7-8

Mark 8:31-33 (ESV Strong's)

(Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection)

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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 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.”

Tag:  Our Mindset Determines Our Outset

Every beginning thought you and I have is determined by the mindset we posses that originates that thought.   What we set out to do, is determined by the mindset we begin with.  In the above verses Jesus is “teaching” Peter and the disciples about his death, burial and resurrection.  It was necessary for Jesus to die and raise again for our salvation.  If Peter would have listened to the teaching he would never had said (or, better, thought) what he said.  Peter was not listening or believing Jesus teaching and that caused him to think like a mere man and not through the eyes of faith.   Jesus is telling them that He MUST die for the Kingdom of Heaven to be established.   We are part of that kingdom and our citizenship in that kingdom is only possible if Jesus died for us.  But, Peter wanted that Kingdom now.  In the verse just before this, when the disciples were asked by Jesus who they thought He was, Peter responded as follows:

Mark 8:29 (ESV Strong's)

And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

By Peter saying, “You are the Christ,” he was saying “You are the Messiah ... the One coming to rule over your kingdom ... of which we, Jews, are the citizens.”    Peter was hoping Jesus was the promised King to deliver them from Roman oppression.   His mindset was stuck in the past.  Jesus tells him, and the other disciples (who were thinking the same thing, probably), that His death was imperative for the Kingdom.  But, Peter’s mindset was stuck in what he wanted to believe.  New teaching by Jesus was supposed to be viewed by faith and therefore believed.  Once Peter and the others believed the teaching they would have a different mindset.   Years later, Peter would remind those in the church that being “mindful” of the things of God and change your perspective ... even about suffering:

1 Peter 2:19 (ESV Strong's)

For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

Peter learned his lesson.  Jesus rebuked him for not having his mind on the things of God through faith, but rather on the things of man through fear.   Peter learned from that rebuke.   We are to set our minds on things above, not on things of the earth.  That is how Paul would later state it:

Colossians 3:2 (ESV Strong's)

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.