Two Questions of Jesus
As we enter 2026, we examine two critical questions Jesus posed to his disciples after two and a half years of intensive training. These questions, found in Mark's Gospel, challenge us to understand both our true identity and Jesus's true nature. Dr. Howard Hendricks of Dallas Theological Seminary emphasized Mark's Gospel as the most succinct chronological presentation of how Jesus trained twelve men who turned the world upside down.
Today we explore what Hans Bayer calls "the double crisis of self-perception and God-perception." A correct perception of our brokenness and sin leads us to a correct perception of who Jesus is and why we need him.
Question 1
Do You Really Know Who You Are?
In Mark 7:14-23, Jesus challenges his disciples to examine their hearts deeply. The scribes and Pharisees had confronted Jesus about his disciples eating with unclean hands, claiming this defiled them. Jesus uses this moment to teach a profound truth about human nature.
Jesus calls the crowd and says, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him."
Understanding the Heart's True Condition
When the disciples asked for explanation, Jesus challenged them: "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see?" The word "understanding" here means to be void of understanding or lacking the capacity to comprehend. "See" means to think over a matter, to grasp and comprehend with careful thought.
Evil Thoughts
The hidden motivations that drive our actions
Wicked Desires
The affections and attitudes within our hearts
Foolishness
Not using our capacity for understanding
Jesus explains that what you eat doesn't defile you—it enters the mouth, bypasses the heart, enters the stomach and is expelled. But what comes out of a person, from the heart, is what defiles. The heart refers to our affections, motivations, and desires—often hidden within us.
The List of Defilement
Jesus provides a comprehensive list of what comes from the heart: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. The last six are particularly significant—they're not necessarily expressed outward but are the motivations, attitudes, and affections that drive what we do.
"The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" —Jeremiah 17:9
Paul David Tripp observes that we are so sinful that our sin has deceived us into not realizing how sinful we really are. This is why Jesus challenges the disciples to examine their hearts—the motivations, desires, attitudes, and affections that move them to do, say, and think what they do.
The Challenge for 2026
01
Examine Your Heart
Take a deep dive into who you really are and what motivates you
02
Understand Your Brokenness
Wrestle with your true identity as a broken sinner in need of God's grace
03
Recognize Your Daily Need
We need Jesus every day, every hour, every minute
These were disciples who had walked with Jesus for three years, 24/7, and he challenged them to go deeper. Can we challenge ourselves to go deeper this year to examine our hearts and see where our true need is? What is my heart producing? What are my motivations, and what are they producing?
Question 2
Who Do You Perceive Me to Be?
In Mark 8:27-33, Jesus takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, a center of pagan worship at the foot of Mount Hermon. This location housed the Grotto of Pan, where in the third century BC, parents would throw their babies into a cave believed to be the doorway to hell to appease the pagan god Pan—half goat, half man, the god of fright.
Surrounded by temples and niches carved into the mountain for worshiping various gods, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks: "Who do people say that I am?" They answer: "John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others one of the prophets."
The Watershed Moment
Then Jesus asks the pointed question: "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers, "You are the Christ." This is the watershed moment of Mark's Gospel—Jesus is identified for the first time as the Christ, the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament pointed to.
But Jesus immediately begins teaching them something shocking: "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." He spoke this plainly, concealing nothing.
3
Times Predicted
Jesus predicted his death and resurrection three times in Mark's Gospel
The disciples were looking for a conquering king rather than a suffering servant. Peter pulled Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. Jesus turned, looked at all twelve disciples, and rebuked Peter: "Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."
The Divine Purpose vs. Human Understanding
Human Expectation
A political deliverer who would overthrow Rome and establish an earthly kingdom
Divine Reality
A suffering servant who would die for sin and rise again
The disciples had an incompatible ideology—a human perspective that struggled to grasp the divine purpose of God. They couldn't comprehend that the voice who said "Peace, be still" to the wind and waves in Mark 4 was the very voice of the Creator who spoke everything into existence, and that this same God would give up himself to pay the price for their sin.
The Call and Cost to Follow
Jesus called the crowd and his disciples together and said: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." This is not a formula for the elite, but an essential element of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Deny Yourself
A radical abandonment of one's own identity and self-determination. Not denying something to self, but denying self—refusing to be led by sinful, selfish desires.
Take Up Your Cross
A call to join the march to the place of execution. Pick up ourselves as broken as we are, crucifying those inward desires that control and define us.
Follow Me
Go behind Jesus as he leads us. A readiness to die to self, a loss of self in order to follow Jesus as a disciple.
Aligning with God's Purposes in 2026
A wrong view of one's sinfulness leads to a wrong view of salvation and discipleship. A wrong view of Jesus also leads to a wrong view of salvation and discipleship. As we begin 2026, align yourself with the purposes of God.
1
Deep Dive into Self
Take a reflective dive into understanding who you are and your inner brokenness
2
Deep Dive into Jesus
Understand who Jesus really is—God himself who died for your sin
3
Follow Hard After Jesus
Both deep dives will enhance your ability to follow Jesus in this coming year
"Fill us with the knowledge of your will, that you would give us all spiritual understanding and wisdom in order that we may walk worthy of the Lord Jesus in a way that is fully pleasing him." —Colossians 1:9-14