Following A Crucified Savior Study Guide

Use this online study guide or download the PDF.

1. Read Mark 8:27-38 three times. What idea or statement stands out to you most?

2. What did people theorize about Jesus? What did they get right?  What did they get wrong or incomplete?

Definition: Christ

“Anointed”, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word rendered “Messiah” (q.v.), the official title of our Lord, occurring five hundred and fourteen times in the New Testament. It denotes that he was anointed or consecrated to his great redemptive work as Prophet, Priest, and King of his people. He is Jesus the Christ (Acts 17:3; 18:5; Matt. 22:42), the Anointed One. He is thus spoken of by Isaiah (61:1), and by Daniel (9:24–26), who styles him “Messiah the Prince.”

The Messiah is the same person as “the seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15), “the seed of Abraham” (Gen. 22:18), the “Prophet like unto Moses” (Deut. 18:15), “the priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4), “the rod out of the stem of Jesse” (Isa. 11:1, 10), the “Immanuel,” the virgin’s son (Isa. 7:14), “the branch of Jehovah” (Isa. 4:2), and “the messenger of the covenant” (Mal. 3:1). This is he “of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write.” The Old Testament Scripture is full of prophetic declarations regarding the Great Deliverer and the work he was to accomplish. Jesus the Christ is Jesus the Great Deliverer, the Anointed One, the Saviour of men. This name denotes that Jesus was divinely appointed, commissioned, and accredited as the Saviour of men (Heb. 5:4; Isa. 11:2–4; 49:6; John 5:37; Acts 2:22).

To believe that “Jesus is the Christ” is to believe that he is the Anointed, the Messiah of the prophets, the Saviour sent of God, that he was, in a word, what he claimed to be. This is to believe the gospel, by the faith of which alone men can be brought unto God. That Jesus is the Christ is the testimony of God, and the faith of this constitutes a Christian (1 Cor. 12:3; 1 John 5:1).Easton, M. G. Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893.

3. In Mark 8:31, Jesus predicts three things he will experience: suffer, be rejected, and be killed. What might these three show or teach us about Jesus mission of the cross?

4. Jesus rebuked Peter in Mark 8:33. Why was it appropriate for Jesus to rebuke Peter with the words, “Get behind me, Satan! “?

Deny Yourself

Self-denial in Jesus’s teaching emerges from the Greek verb aparneomai, which carries a specific meaning that transforms how we understand this command. The term means “to sever the connection between oneself and a particular object or interest,” representing a firm and resolute decision to say no to the profound idolatry of self-centeredness. This linguistic precision matters: the same Greek word appears when Peter denied Jesus three times, stating “I do not know Jesus”—Peter’s denial meant “I have no connection with Jesus.”

The scope of self-denial extends radically. This phrase reveals the extent of self-denial—to the point of death, if necessary. Cross-bearing begins when the penitent sinner becomes aware that he cannot save himself and, holding nothing back, surrenders completely to God’s mercy. The language of “holding nothing back” captures the totality of the commitment—there are no reserves, no areas of life exempted from this surrender.

5. Why is it appropriate that Jesus symbolized self-denial as taking up one’s cross?

6. In what way can a person both save his life and lose it at the same time?

Ashamed

When Jesus speaks of being “ashamed” of him and his words in Mark 8:38, he establishes a reciprocal relationship between present allegiance and future judgment. The stakes extend far beyond social embarrassment—they involve eternal consequences tied to how one responds to Jesus during this present age.

7. What are some of the objections people have to self-denial and following Christ in America?