Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

What happens when following Jesus actually costs us something? Anyone who has walked with Christ for any length of time knows that it will. We hear Jesus say things like, “Take up your cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34) and “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20) and we get it, intellectually: there is a price to pay in following Christ. But what happens when that is tested tangibly, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually?

In Mark 14:53-72, we enter an intense scene in the gospel. Two trials take place: the formal trial of Christ by the religious leaders, and the informal one of Peter in the courtyard by the crowd. The pressure builds in both places, and as it does, something deeper is exposed. This passage does more than recount a moment in history; it reveals what rises to the surface in our hearts when loyalty to Jesus is tested.

This Sunday we’ll walk carefully through this text to consider what the cost of following Jesus reveals, not just in the religious leaders or in Peter, but in us. As the tension of the scene unfolds, we will also see what the cost of being the Christ reveals about Jesus himself. I hope you’ll join us as we wrestle with this question: What does the cost of following Jesus reveal about my heart?

Series: The Gospel of Mark
Message: Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
Text: Mark 14:53-72
Jordan Coros
Harvest Alliston
February 22, 2026

As I consider the cost, Christ reveals his heart and mine…

1) …I reshape the truth (v. 53-59)

John 3:19-20

The human heart is…a perpetual factory of idols.
– John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion I.11.8

2) …I reject his authority (v. 60-65)

Isaiah 53:7

Psalm 2:2

3) …I spurn allegiance (v. 66-71)

1 Corinthians 10:12

4) …I break under the weight of sin (v. 72)

‘Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.
– Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance

1) …I reshape the truth…he speaks it.

John 18:37

2) …I reject his authority…he exercises it.

3) …I spurn allegiance…he remains faithful.

Hebrews 7:25

4) …I break under the weight of sin…he takes it upon himself.

2 Corinthians 5:21