Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] May be seated.
[00:00:01] Good morning and happy Sunday.
[00:00:07] It is always happy to be here on Sunday among God's people and to worship together. And I am so, so grateful.
[00:00:19] You can, if you'd like to, you can turn your bibles or your devices. We're going to be looking at Matthew, chapter 16 today.
[00:00:26] Matthew, chapter 16.
[00:00:29] And as I was thinking about the passage this week and thinking about what it means to be devoted to the Lord, it occurred to me that it is very easy for me to be devoted to things that I like doing.
[00:00:43] It's easy for me to be devoted to my hobbies, if you will. It doesn't require a lot of effort. It might require work, but it doesn't feel like work because I enjoy it so much.
[00:00:56] I like reading books a lot. That's something that's not difficult for me to do. You don't have to twist my arm to read a book. But on the other hand, it's very hard for me to be devoted to things that I dislike. When I was younger, my dad helped me learn how to change the brakes on the car.
[00:01:12] He showed me multiple times how to change the brakes on the car and I just couldn't have cared less how to do it. So I never learned how to do it because I wasn't really devoted to it. I didn't really care.
[00:01:26] And the same thing is true when it comes to my faith.
[00:01:29] The things that I really like doing, the ways I like serving, that comes very easy for me. I mentioned many times about setup here, but it's no joke. I really like the setup. I don't like getting up early. Don't get me wrong, that's hard, but the setup itself doesn't bother me.
[00:01:46] But one of the things that's hard for me is when I'm interrupted in my me time, when somebody needs help, I get a phone call by somebody that they need to talk. It could be a family member or somebody like that. And that's a little bit harder for me to be devoted to because it doesn't really fit into my idea and my plan and devotion to Jesus is something that challenges us to get outside of those things which just come naturally and easily. And in the passage today, we see that Peter is challenged because of what Jesus says. The cost of following him looks like following Jesus has to be something that we're committed to continually. Last week, during the message, Pastor mentioned that this is not something that's intermittent. We don't just do it on holidays, we don't just do it on special occasions.
[00:02:40] It's something that we do all the time. It's an everyday thing that requires us to give up the things we want out of love for the Lord and love of other people. Ultimately, it means that devotion is denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following him. So Matthew 16, let's look at our passage together. Begins in verse 13. It says, now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is? Now, this is kind of an opinion based question.
[00:03:18] Kind of sounds like a poll. Jesus wants to know from his disciples, what do people think about him? Now, Jesus knew the answer, of course, he already knew what people thought about him. But he asked for the benefit of his disciples because he wanted them to think about this question.
[00:03:36] And he was making a point here that not everyone agrees about who he is.
[00:03:44] And the disciples needed to be prepared for going out into the world and sharing the gospel with people who had many different views on Jesus, different views of God, different views of morality.
[00:04:00] I think that one of the things that comes out of this question is the fact that the Lord wants us to be prepared as well. You know, it's easy when we're in church. If I, any one of us, if we talk about the Lord, we're pretty much on the same page there. But when we step outside those doors and we get in and we're starting to talk to our family and our friends and our coworkers, we're going to get many, many, many different views about Jesus.
[00:04:27] And I think we need to be able to listen to what other people say, even when they say things that we don't like and disagree with. We don't have to be experts in all the different beliefs that are out there and every religion that's out there in the world, just having a conversation with a friend or a family member can be enough to clue us in as to what they think about Jesus.
[00:04:49] But that requires us to build relationships with people, even people that maybe we disagree with or don't like or have a hard time getting along with because of their differing views. So the question here is, who does your family say that Jesus is? What do your coworkers think about him? Do you know the answers to those questions? The disciples knew what the people thought. It says in verse 14.
[00:05:15] Well, some say John the Baptist. That's a pretty good answer, actually, if you think about it, John the Baptist was a great prophet. In fact, he was the greatest prophet. All the prophets before John had foretold the coming of Jesus. But John the Baptist actually got to see Jesus come. Jesus himself said this of John. He said, truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. So John the Baptist was held in pretty high regard, not just by the people, but by Jesus himself.
[00:05:51] And some people thought Jesus is John the Baptist.
[00:05:57] Others say Elijah. Elijah was another great prophet in the Old Testament. You can read about his great showdown with the priests of Baal in one kings, chapter 18. He kind of challenged them to, if you will, to see if Baal was actually a living God or not. It's a great story. I won't spoil it. You can go back and read it for yourself. But Elijah was an amazing prophet. And some people thought that's who Jesus was, he's Elijah.
[00:06:27] And then others thought he was Jeremiah. Jeremiah, another prophet. He lived during the reign of the last king of Israel, Zedekiah. In fact, he was taken into exile, as a matter of fact.
[00:06:40] And if you read the book of Jeremiah, he penned some of the most amazing words that we have in scripture. That would be a really high compliment, in fact, for you and me. If somebody said, hey, I think you're John the Baptist, or I think you're Jeremiah, that would be really a high compliment. If one of you comes up to me afterwards and says, darren, are you sure you're not John the Baptist? No, I'm not, but thank you very much.
[00:07:04] That's a compliment.
[00:07:07] But it's not a compliment for Jesus, because Jesus is much, much, much more than John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah or any of the prophets.
[00:07:21] They were all great men, they were all prophets, but none of them was the messiah. Now you do notice one thing here. Every one of those answers was a good answer. Nobody thought Jesus was King Herod.
[00:07:33] Nobody confused Jesus with Pilate.
[00:07:36] Nobody confused him with some pagan deity of that time. They all had a very, very high regard for who Jesus was.
[00:07:47] And it really demonstrates something that we see today, too. People have very high opinions of Jesus.
[00:07:54] You can talk to your friends about it. They may not agree on who he is, that the messiah, but they'll say, well, he was a good person, he was a great teacher, he was a prophet.
[00:08:05] Almost everyone has a high regard for who Jesus is.
[00:08:10] Nobody really disputes that he existed, but they only dispute who he is. And it's true that Jesus was a good person and he was a great teacher and a great moral teacher, and he was a prophet. But he's much, much, much more than that.
[00:08:26] Look at verse 15. Jesus now turns to his disciples, and he says to them, and this is a very personal question now, but who do you say that I am?
[00:08:39] We've gotten beyond the Barnopole here of, well, let's see what everybody thinks about him now. He's turning to them and says, okay, but what about you?
[00:08:49] Who do you have say that I am?
[00:08:52] You know, this is a really important question.
[00:08:56] It's important because the answer determines our eternity, really, our view of Jesus, what we believe about him, is going to determine ultimately where you and I spend forever.
[00:09:13] And it's not good enough to just say what everybody else says. Well, some say this, some say John the Baptist. Everyone else is saying this.
[00:09:23] And that's not going to work, though, because what the Lord is asking of us is very personal.
[00:09:30] It really doesn't matter what everyone else says.
[00:09:34] It doesn't matter if everyone else has a bizarre idea of him or thinks highly of him, but doesn't see him as the son of God. The issue is about how we see Jesus. How do each of us personally view Jesus Christ?
[00:09:49] Let's face it, the crowds around us can be wrong. Crowds are often wrong.
[00:09:55] The majority opinion doesn't determine who Jesus is. If we took a vote of a lot of people, that would not determine who he is. It only gives us an idea of what they think. And this isn't a popularity contest.
[00:10:11] The question is personal.
[00:10:14] Who do you say that I am? It's a question each of us has to confront for ourselves. Peter knew the answer. Look at verse 16. Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. I love how Matthew records that full statement out. The son, the Christ, the Son, son of the living God. Peter knew the answer and in typical fashion, answered right away without hesitation.
[00:10:44] He acknowledged in this statement that Jesus was in fact Lord and God, all that that meant. And you'll notice here something interesting. He said, you are the Christ. He didn't say, you are a Christ. He said, you are the Christ. You are the son of the living God.
[00:11:03] Jesus isn't one of the prophets. He's not one of many good teachers. He's not just one way to heaven or one God, or one way to eternal life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father except through him.
[00:11:26] So if you don't acknowledge who Jesus is, then it really doesn't matter what else you do know or what else you do acknowledge.
[00:11:34] Quite truthfully, our education doesn't matter if we can't acknowledge that Jesus is the son of God. If we're not acknowledging that he's the Christ. It doesn't matter how smart you are or how many degrees you have. It doesn't matter what skills you have in your job or in life in general.
[00:11:51] It doesn't matter what kind of power you may have or what kind of public reputation you have or public respect you have. None of that matters. All that matters is whether or not we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is in fact who he is, the son of God, the living God.
[00:12:11] And it's even more than that. A person can have a lot of scriptural knowledge even, and still miss the point of who Jesus is. This is really sad. John, chapter five. Jesus said this speaking to the religious leaders in John five. He said, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
[00:12:41] If our reading of scripture isn't leading us to Jesus, then we've missed the point.
[00:12:48] This, all of this bears witness to the fact that Jesus is the son of God.
[00:12:56] And when we acknowledge who Jesus is, like Peter, did, we discover that it's a very powerful truth. This is a turning point in the gospel because they knew. Now, at this point, who Jesus was, jesus begins to teach them something very, very important.
[00:13:15] Look at verse 18.
[00:13:17] Jesus says, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[00:13:27] Because they knew who Jesus was, he begins to tell them something very interesting. Two things stand out to me here. First of all, he says that on this rock I will build my church.
[00:13:39] In other words, on this rock, this rock of this confession, this confession that I am the Christ. That's on what the church is built.
[00:13:49] The church isn't built on celebrity. It's not built on feel good messages.
[00:13:54] The church is built on Jesus Christ. It's built on who he is. It's built on everything that he's ever said and done.
[00:14:03] And if the church is built on anything else, it's not going to last.
[00:14:08] Jesus would say, it's like a house that's built on sand. It's eventually going to collapse.
[00:14:14] The church is built on this confession of who Jesus is.
[00:14:19] He goes on to say there, too. Notice in verse 18, he says, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, gates are not weapons.
[00:14:30] They don't move.
[00:14:33] They keep people from either getting in or getting out. We have a dog. We have a fenced yard, and we have a gate. The gate is so the dog does not get out.
[00:14:45] That's the purpose of the gate here.
[00:14:51] When jesus talks about the gates of hell, it's in reference to the fact that there are people trapped behind the power of sin and death, not people who have already died, people who are still alive but enslaved to sin.
[00:15:06] And Jesus says here that the gates of hell will not prevail against it, meaning the church. The church is almost like an army.
[00:15:14] The church is here to go out and get those people, to rescue them from the power of sin and death.
[00:15:21] Because they're locked behind those gates of hell, they're under the power of the devil. And our job is to go and rescue them.
[00:15:30] And Jesus is the rock on which the church is built so that we can then go out and do that amazing work.
[00:15:37] But the way Jesus rescues people seems so counterintuitive than what we might expect. Look down at verse 21.
[00:15:47] It says, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And on the third day be raised.
[00:16:11] When Jesus talks about knocking down those gates of hell and building the church, this is how it's done.
[00:16:18] The way Jesus saves people from the power of hell and the power of sin and death is through his own death and resurrection.
[00:16:30] And that's the gospel message right there.
[00:16:34] Right there. Suffering, death, resurrection. And that's what rescuing people looks like for us, too. It may involve suffering, it may involve death.
[00:16:49] And this was hard accept. Peter in particular, had a very hard time accepting this. This was not what he expected to hear out of Jesus mouth.
[00:17:02] Look at verse 22.
[00:17:05] It says, Peter took him, took the Lord aside and began to rebuke him. Think about that a moment. Wow, that's really bold. Peter rebuking Jesus. Like, what?
[00:17:19] And this is what he said, far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you. That sounds like Peter, right? Never. Never. I'll never deny you. Right? It'll never happen.
[00:17:32] Peter was really overconfident, as usual, and he didn't understand this plan that Jesus had to rescue people.
[00:17:41] He just made this great confession of who Jesus was, too. Isn't it interesting? He got it spot on. You're the Christ, you're the son of the living God. But now he's having a very hard time accepting and understanding the full meaning of that and why, I think because he had a lot of his own ideas about Jesus. You know, he liked the idea of a messiah who was strong and would build the church. Yes.
[00:18:10] And he liked the idea of, hey, we're going to go rescue people from the gates of hell. That sounds great. Let's go do that.
[00:18:18] But he didn't like the idea of a messiah who would suffer and die. That did not fit into his plan.
[00:18:28] And I think Peter's not unlike a lot of us. A lot of people have their own ideas about Jesus.
[00:18:34] And some people like the idea of Jesus not judging anybody, right?
[00:18:39] It's just benevolent to the end, will accept anyone as they are, and never asks anyone to be any different.
[00:18:47] Some people want Jesus to conform to their way of living and their ideas about him.
[00:18:52] And even at some extreme, wanting Jesus to do what they want and to be what they want, it's a point of conviction for me how many of my prayers are to ask for things that I want in my life as if he's like a magician and I just give him my wish list. Here, Jesus, I want this and this and this and this and this.
[00:19:14] I wonder what kind of ideas we are holding on to about Jesus.
[00:19:20] You know, when I was younger, I used to think that following Jesus meant that life was going to be easy. All my problems would go away, sin would kind of just go away. I would never face any struggle again.
[00:19:32] The opposite, things have gotten much harder. I've sinned worse since following Jesus. I think the temptations are greater now.
[00:19:41] It's gotten much harder. It hasn't gotten easier at all.
[00:19:47] It's tempting to think that life with Jesus is just going to be easy. Everything's just going to turn out well.
[00:19:55] Of course, in the end it will. But in the present, there is some struggle. And Peter struggled to accept Jesus purpose in coming to earth.
[00:20:04] And maybe it's because he knew that as a follower of Jesus, if Jesus is saying, look, I'm going to go suffer and die, then he might be thinking in the back of his mind, I might have to suffer and die too.
[00:20:18] Maybe he's going to ask this of me. And in fact, Jesus does.
[00:20:23] I think following Jesus seems easy, and it seems nice until it really starts to involve that suffering and sacrifice and even death.
[00:20:33] It was easy for Peter to confess who Jesus was, but it was hard to accept what that meant.
[00:20:42] And Jesus corrected Peter's wrong thinking. Verse 23. Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
[00:20:52] You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of goddess, but on the things of man.
[00:21:02] That is a very harsh rebuke. I have been rebuked many times in my life. Never like this, never have I had someone say that to me? But Jesus had to correct Peter's wrong thinking, because if Jesus didn't suffer and die, nobody could be saved. Could you imagine if Jesus heard Peter and he said, you know, Peter, you're right. I don't want to suffer and die.
[00:21:30] That's a good idea.
[00:21:32] We wouldn't be here today. We would not be saved.
[00:21:36] No one could be saved unless Jesus went through with the plan that God had for him.
[00:21:43] And Peter had a hard time with this. This was not his idea of a messiah. Many of the Jews in that time had an idea of the messiah who was just going to come and wipe out the Romans.
[00:21:56] That was their idea. It's just going to be a big victory.
[00:22:00] Instead, Jesus is saying, look, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, all right, but I'm going to die there.
[00:22:08] And in saying this by Peter saying and challenging Jesus, it was like he had become a mouthpiece of the devil.
[00:22:18] Because it's satanic to think that we can be saved by anything other than the grace of Jesus through his death and resurrection. The devil wants people to think that they can be rescued from their sin without Jesus and without the cross.
[00:22:36] Peter was hindering what God had in mind for Jesus to do. In fact, it's interesting that the word hindrance here can be translated as the word offense in the King James version. In other words, Jesus is telling Peter, you are offensive, and this is offensive to say this because he was getting in the way of God's will.
[00:23:00] A person who tries to get salvation without Jesus is not setting his mind on the things of God. He's setting them on the things of man. When we try to get to the kingdom of God without Jesus, without his grace, without the cross, without his suffering, death, and resurrection, we're simply trying to do it on our own.
[00:23:22] And the devil loves for people to think that that doesn't have to happen.
[00:23:28] We have to accept who Jesus is. We have to accept why he came. The confession that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, means all of that. It means he came to suffer, die, and be raised again.
[00:23:44] This was really hard for Peter to accept, and it gets harder even, because in verse 24, Jesus isn't just saying, look, I'm the one going to suffer and die.
[00:23:56] He said, look, you have to follow me, too. Verse 24, it says, then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
[00:24:14] Jesus explains to us here what devotion to him really looks like.
[00:24:21] And this is not optional.
[00:24:24] This is not something that Jesus is saying is a good suggestion for us. He's not saying, look, you know, it's a good idea if you do this, I recommend that you take up your cross. I recommend you deny yourself. It'll be good for you. No, no.
[00:24:40] When he says let him, he means he must. He must. It needs to be done. It's not optional. He must deny himself. He must take up his cross. He must follow him. This is not a suggestion.
[00:24:56] Deny himself.
[00:24:58] Self denial is the first part. That's the beginning of this whole thing.
[00:25:03] To deny something is to say no to it.
[00:25:07] To say no, that's basically what it means. And self denial means saying no to ourselves and our own desires.
[00:25:17] And it begins first by saying no to sinful desires. We all have things in our lives. We know they're there and we know we need to deal with them. And self denial means starting with saying no to those things.
[00:25:33] I don't know what that looks like in your life. You know, the Holy Spirit can work on that in you through the word of God. But there are things that we need to be conscious of that we know are not good for us because they are sinful in God's eyes, and we have to say no to those things. It might be. It might be certain movies, it might be music, it might be the Internet. It might be spending time with certain people. I don't know.
[00:25:59] But we have to say no to it. We have to deny ourselves.
[00:26:03] But it's much, much, much more than that. It's not just saying no to our sinful desires. It means putting aside what we want for what God wants. It means doing what God wants instead of just doing things the way we think our lives should be run.
[00:26:22] I'm constantly reminded in my life of the need for self denial. As a husband, as a father, serving here in the church again and again and again, I am reminded of the fact that I can't just do what I want to do.
[00:26:42] I'm very thankful, actually, to be married. I think if I wasn't, I think there'd be an element of self denial I'd be missing out on.
[00:26:51] I think I'd probably go through life very selfish and self centered and thinking everything was just about me. I was thinking this morning as I was going over the message in my head, I was remembering when we were first married a long time back. We didn't have very much, and we were sitting around the table and we'd finished eating. And my habit before I was married is, you know, I'd come home from work, and then I'd go out with my friends, and I did that over and over and over. Years, years. And now all of a sudden, I'm married, and I come home and I eat dinner, and it's like, wow, there's this person there.
[00:27:24] I don't know what I do.
[00:27:26] I'm staring at her. What's going on?
[00:27:31] I want to go out. I want to do things. I didn't have money to go out. I couldn't go out. We just sit there, didn't have a television.
[00:27:38] We had furniture even. I mean, we didn't have a lot.
[00:27:44] And through that process, I learned that I am no longer. At that point, I was no longer on my own.
[00:27:51] I couldn't just make decisions willy nilly.
[00:27:56] Same thing as being a father. Several weeks back, it was Father's day. All I wanted to do was go home and take a nap. That was in my mind.
[00:28:05] I get home, my daughter, she prepared some nice things. She made something very nice for me and these cards. I said, oh, this is so nice. And then she said, you want to play? I'm like, I just want to take a nap.
[00:28:17] That's self denial, though, putting aside not something sinful, just what I want. My own self will, again and again. It's like when I get that phone call from somebody, somebody who needs to talk in that moment, I don't want to. I want to watch Sunday night football, talk to this person right now.
[00:28:36] That's self denial.
[00:28:38] And what I find here is what's natural for me is not what God wants. What God wants for me is to deny myself, to put aside my ideas about how my life should be, to stop doing life on my own and start saying yes to God.
[00:28:58] Jesus takes it a step further. It's not just enough to deny ourselves, says, what else? He must deny himself and take up his cross. It's not just self denial. It's self sacrifice.
[00:29:11] Now, you hear, sometimes people will say, well, you know, I have a cross to bear. A cross to bear of raising kids or my boss or whatever it might be, and there might be some truth to that. But really, that's not quite what Jesus has in mind here. What Jesus has in mind when he talks about, about the cross, he's talking about something that was a symbol of shame, a symbol of suffering, and a symbol, ultimately, of death. People wouldn't say, take up your cross in a casual kind of way.
[00:29:42] When Jesus says, take up your cross. They knew what that meant. That meant, wait a minute, Jesus, you're saying I need to die.
[00:29:51] And not just die. To die in the most humiliating, most painful, most excruciating death possible.
[00:30:00] Taking up your cross means giving your life for Jesus until death. Now, that doesn't mean we're all called to be martyrs. Some of us in here might be. I don't know how God's going to lead us. Some of us might be called to die for our faith, you know, in some way sometime, I don't know. But every one of us is called to give our lives until the end. That much is certain. However that end comes, whether it's just we just get old and die, or somebody's putting us to death because we confess the name of Jesus Christ.
[00:30:35] But that's what taking up the cross means, giving our lives until death, suffering shame at being known as a believer, a follower of Jesus. And, boy, is that hard.
[00:30:48] It's not easy to be a Christian today. There was a time when it really was.
[00:30:53] You told someone you were a Christian. That was respectable. You're trustworthy, you're a believer, you're a follower of Jesus. But it's harder and harder today.
[00:31:03] I find in myself I want to kind of cower away. Sometimes I tell somebody I follow Jesus, they might think something bad about me. That's what it means.
[00:31:12] That I identify myself with Jesus, that I suffer the same shame that he suffered because why? Because he suffered that for me and died on the cross for me and suffered for me.
[00:31:29] And here's the thing. When it comes to this idea of taking up the cross, this isn't something we do just a couple of times a year at Easter and Christmas or the Independence Day parade, or the backpack drive, or the edge mission trip, or weekly here on Sunday mornings or whenever it's convenient or whenever it's easy. Jesus says, this is something we are to do daily. Luke chapter nine, verse 23, says, this is how Luke records it. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. You see that word there? Daily.
[00:32:03] Daily.
[00:32:04] And follow me. I was picturing in my mind, this is like I wake up in the morning and my cross is sitting right there, and that's what I got to do. I go over and pick it up, and from that point forward, I'm walking with it. It's a daily occurrence.
[00:32:21] Whether it's easy, whether it's convenient, whether I want to do it, does not matter. Jesus says, this is something we do daily.
[00:32:30] Something else that I was thinking about when Jesus was carrying his cross is that that was his focus when he was on his way, be crucified, his entire focus, his entire concern was to please God. And his love for us was the reason that he bore it and gave his life. That was all that he was thinking about on the way. There was no multitasking involved when he was carrying that cross. He didn't just fit it into his schedule and say, I'll carry it for a few hours today and pick it up later when it's. It's easy for me.
[00:33:07] It was everything to him.
[00:33:10] He wasn't being distracted by things. There was no social media posts. He wasn't holding the cross in one hand and whipping out his phone and saying, oh, what's going on here?
[00:33:20] He bore that cross entirely with us in mind because he wanted to please God.
[00:33:27] And our focus every day should be to please God and love our neighbors, to rescue people from the gates of hell.
[00:33:34] We have a cross here on the stage that we have to set up every week. This cross is not as big as the one that Jesus bore, but if you want an example after church today, if you want to help with tear down, you are welcome to take that cross back to the storage room there, and you will find that it requires a lot of focus and effort to do that. It's not very far back there.
[00:33:57] I have a hard time just carrying it from here to there. Jesus took his much further. It was much bigger, it was much heavier.
[00:34:04] I can guarantee there would be nothing else you'd be thinking about except getting it back there.
[00:34:10] And that's the kind of focus that jesus had when he was taking up his cross to die for our sins.
[00:34:20] It's the kind of focus we need to have. In other words, this consuming desire of ours is, how can I please God today with my life?
[00:34:27] What am I going to do today for God? And that is not how I begin my day.
[00:34:34] You know, I might begin my day by looking at my calendar and looking at my task list and thinking about what I need to do instead. My focus ought to be, what does God want me to do today? What is he asking me to do?
[00:34:52] And so he says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Self denial, self sacrifice, and a new direction.
[00:35:05] First we say no to what we want, and then we pick up our cross, and then we actively make a decision to follow after Jesus wherever he leads us.
[00:35:17] And we have to go where he wants us to go, we have to go when he wants us to go, we have to go how he wants us to go.
[00:35:27] In the old Testament, God called Abraham. He said, look, leave your country. Leave your people. I want you to go over here.
[00:35:34] And Abraham went, just uprooted his family. Okay, we're on our way.
[00:35:42] Jesus called those disciples out of their old lives. Some of them were fishermen, and it says that they left everything to follow Jesus.
[00:35:53] That's what it means.
[00:35:55] We're gonna go where he wants us to go when we start following the Lord. It's amazing the places he will take us.
[00:36:04] He can do some incredible things in our lives.
[00:36:07] I hear testimony after testimony of people who talk about how God led them from one thing to another because they were obedient to following him.
[00:36:21] And this isn't something we can do half heartedly, and it's not something we can do just when it's convenient. I would like to. It's easy to follow Jesus here on Sunday morning. I'll be honest with you, among all of you as believers, it's not too hard tomorrow when I'm working right, I'm out in the world.
[00:36:42] That's where it gets difficult.
[00:36:45] And it might involve suffering, and it will certainly involve commitment.
[00:36:50] But that's what Jesus is calling us to.
[00:36:53] We got to give up the things we want to do so that we can do the things he wants us to do.
[00:37:03] But there's a great promise here for us in all of this. Jesus doesn't ask us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow him and say, good luck. You just see what happens when you get there. Look at verses 25 to 27.
[00:37:18] It says, for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains a the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
[00:37:40] For the Son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
[00:37:52] We see a promise in this that even if we lose our lives, we will get them back.
[00:38:01] Peter missed an important point when Jesus talked about his own suffering and death. Look back at verse 21 for a moment. Or yeah, verse 21, Jesus, he says, I must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed. And look at the very end of verse 21. It says, on the third day be raised, Jesus foretold his to his disciples. Look, I'm going to suffer. I'm going to die, but I will be raised up again.
[00:38:29] And they had a real selective hearing. All they heard was up to the point of, you will be killed. And from that point on, they were done. Peter tuned out at that point.
[00:38:40] This shall never happen to you.
[00:38:43] If he had listened to all of Jesus said, I think there would be a little bit different response. Isn't that amazing? Wait, you're going to die and then be raised again?
[00:38:52] That's incredible.
[00:38:54] You're not going to stay dead. How?
[00:39:00] We have kind of a selective hearing ourselves sometimes take up the cross, deny ourselves, follow you suffering. That does not really sound nice, but there's a great promise here.
[00:39:14] This is not all there is. Even if we lose our lives, we will get them back. Death is not the end for the believer.
[00:39:23] It is not our end.
[00:39:26] Second Corinthians, chapter four, verse 17, says this, for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
[00:39:41] Whatever suffering we're going through, whatever affliction we're going through, the Bible says it's light, meaning it really is not really that troublesome. And it's momentary. It's really brief.
[00:39:52] Compared to what? Compared to the weight of glory, which is eternal. It's almost like there's a divine scale.
[00:40:01] And on this side is our affliction and our trouble and all the things we suffer in life. And on this side is the glory that we're going to get. And the scale just tips this way because the weight of glory is so heavy compared to the affliction that we face, it's almost of no consequence.
[00:40:19] And I think the disciples were really changed by that when they saw Jesus resurrected and then ascend into heaven. Reading the book of acts, they're standing up on the mountain and they're looking up, and they're like, wow. And the angel had to come and say, you guys got to go back into the city now. You got work to do. You gotta go rescue some people, right? They were in awe.
[00:40:41] Peter, who denied Jesus three times later, gets flogged along with John, and they go away happy.
[00:40:48] They got to suffer for the name of Jesus because he knew it was light, it was momentary compared to the glory that awaited them. They got to see that death would not be their end either, and they could all suffer and die to the end because they knew that wasn't where their life was going to terminate.
[00:41:10] It's a great promise. Here we also have a hope. Look at verse 27. It says, for the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Jesus is coming back.
[00:41:30] We are not left alone here. He is coming back for us. And whatever we think we've lost, he will repay.
[00:41:41] I store up so many treasures here on earth, things that are. I just think they're so important.
[00:41:48] But I know a few seconds into eternity, my eyes will be very wide awake at how worthless a lot of that stuff was.
[00:41:58] My whole focus will be on the glory of God and his presence. And what eternity looks like is something outstanding. It is something amazing.
[00:42:09] And that is our hope.
[00:42:14] So what?
[00:42:16] Well, I think there's a couple of things here from this passage that take away. Number one. The question is, who do you say Jesus is?
[00:42:28] That's the beginning point. Just like when Jesus asked his disciples. This isn't an opinion question anymore.
[00:42:35] It's a very personal question.
[00:42:37] Jesus might be asking you this morning. Who do you say that I am?
[00:42:44] That's the starting point. Peter gave the right answer.
[00:42:48] You are the Christ. You are the son of the living God. You are the Lord Almighty. You are the only way of salvation through your death and resurrection. That's it.
[00:42:59] If we can't make that our confession, then that's got to be the beginning point, because it doesn't matter what anybody else says. What matters is what you say about Jesus.
[00:43:12] And it's a personal question we each must answer.
[00:43:15] And the second thing I'd say is, examine your devotion to Jesus.
[00:43:22] Does it involve self denial?
[00:43:26] Does it involve sacrifice?
[00:43:29] Are you actively following him? Are you looking for ways to follow him?
[00:43:34] Is it something that you're doing daily?
[00:43:38] And what things are holding, holding you back? Maybe what's keeping you from making that next step to following the Lord?
[00:43:48] There's always room for improvement. When it comes to the christian life, we can never say, yep, I got it.
[00:43:55] All good.
[00:43:56] Oh, no, not at all.
[00:44:00] Every day I'm reminded of the fact that God is asking more because I'm not actually giving hardly anything to him.
[00:44:09] And what I give is so small.
[00:44:12] What I give is very little.
[00:44:14] In fact, I give a lot of leftover time to the Lord. I give leftovers to the Lord when it kind of fits in, and it's convenient when it needs to be the very first thing on my mind.
[00:44:29] So I challenge you this morning.
[00:44:31] Look at yourself. See where God might be asking you to take another step of self denial. Where is God maybe moving you to make a step of faith in following him and taking up your cross.
[00:44:50] And that leads us very well, I think, into our time of communion.
