Christ Church Sermon, All For Love: Selfish or Selfless, March 15, 2026

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Good morning.

>> Today's scripture is Matthew 16:24.

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus said to his disciples,

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must

deny themselves and take up their cross

and follow me." Hear what the spirit is

saying to the church. Thanks be to God.

>> One of the things of the one of the

things I don't know what this means

my hands. You are killing me. All right.

One of the things Aren't you dying to

know what comes next now you've heard

that 17 times? One of the things I love

most about Jesus is that he did not

mince words. Sure, sometimes he told a

parable to get his meaning across to

followers, knowing that they might

understand a particular a particular

lesson better when it was couched in the

form of a story. But when Jesus wanted

to be blunt, he could be really, really

blunt.

At various times in scripture, Jesus

called the Pharisees, remember those are

the religious leaders, called them right

to their face, a brood of vipers,

whitewashed tombs, and blind fools

because of their tendency to prioritize

adherence to rules over caring for

souls.

He also said, "Let any one of you who is

without sin be the first to throw a

stone at her." That's in John 8 chapter

7. And that was in response to a group

again of religious leaders who wanted to

stone a woman to death after she was

caught in the act of adultery.

Let the dead bury their own dead, but

you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

That's also in Luke chapter nine. And

that was what Jesus said about the

urgency of disciplehip over everything

else, including saying a final goodbye

to loved ones.

And then we get to today's scripture,

which is also about the urgency of

disciplehip. and what that commitment to

Jesus is all about. Whoever wants to be

my disciple must deny themselves and

take up their cross and follow me. To

get to the heart of what this statement

really means and why Jesus was compelled

to say it when he did, I think we have

to look at what comes before it. This

call to disciplehip comes in the context

of a discussion that Jesus is having

with his disciples. They have traveled

together into the region of Cesaria

Philippi when Jesus suddenly turns to

them and poses a question to them. In

Matthew 16:13, so about 11 verses before

Matthew 16:13

where we heard Marell read today, Jesus

says, "Who do the people say that the

son of man is?" And the disciples offer

various answers that they have heard

other people say. And so they reply to

Jesus,"Well, some say John the Baptist,

some say Elijah, and still others

Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

And that answer doesn't really seem to

satisfy Jesus. And he presses on this

time directing his question right at the

disciples. "But what about you?" he

asks, "Who do you say that I am?" And

Simon Peter answers, "You are the

Messiah, the Son of the living God."

right on the money. Peter gets it

exactly right. And Jesus is so thrilled

with this answer that he tells Simon

Peter that he is blessed and that he can

drop the Simon part of his name and just

go by Peter from now on because the

statement that he made, that confession

of who Jesus is, is in fact the rock

upon which the entire church of God is

going to be built. And since Peter means

rock, it's fitting. So, let me take a

moment right here and talk a little bit

about Peter. If I were to name my

favorite disciple, it would be Peter. In

my mind, he is the most human, which is

really what draws me to him. Some days

he is allin with Jesus, and some days he

could not possibly be further out.

Sometimes it's minuteby minute, whether

he's in or out. Here's a few highlights

to Peter's story. He and his brother

Andrew were the first disciples to be

called by Jesus. He witnessed a lot of

miracles, including the healing of his

own mother-in-law. He was the only

disciple, if you remember, to get out of

the boat and to walk across the water to

Jesus.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, when the

soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter, in

defense of Jesus, cut the ear off of a

high priest who accompanied the

soldiers.

And after Jesus's death, Peter was one

of the first to proclaim the good news

of the resurrection. and he preached the

very first sermon on Pentecost when the

Holy Spirit came down.

Those are the highlights. But remember

that I said I liked Peter for his

humanity. And if we just look at the

picture that those highlights paint, we

don't get the full understanding of who

Peter was. So here's a few other things

that Peter did.

Yes, Peter had the courage to get out of

the boat and to walk on the water. But

remember, while he was walking on the

water towards Jesus, he took his eyes

off of Jesus and he began to sink. And

Jesus had to reach out his hand and pull

Peter back up, memorably saying to Peter

as he did so, "Oh, you of little faith,

why did you doubt?"

Peter did accompany, like we said, Jesus

into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray

while Jesus wrestled with his impending

death and what was to come. And three

times Peter and his fellow disciples

fell asleep while they were supposed to

be praying. Peter told Jesus that he

would be steadfast and unwavering in his

support of Jesus telling him even if I

have to die with you I will never disown

you. And then what did Peter do? Not

once not twice not three time or three

times rather he disowned or denied

Jesus.

So Peter's track record across his life

was not the most consistent when it came

to disciplehip, which is what makes him

relatable. He struggled just like a lot

of us struggle. Sometimes he's the star

student and sometimes he is the kid in

the back of the class looking out the

window doodling on his paper and not

paying attention at all. And that's how

he is in this passage for today.

Remember, Peter had just correctly

answered Jesus's question, "Who do you

say that I am?" He accurately answered

that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of

God in the flesh, standing before them.

Peter would have known the prophecies.

He would have known exactly what that

meant and known the power of that

proclamation.

But right after that, right after Jesus

praises Peter for his answer, Jesus

begins to tell the disciples what's

going to happen to him. Maybe he thinks

now that they grasp the entirety of who

he is, that they will get what has to

happen. And so in Matthew 16:21, we read

Matthew 16:21

that Jesus began to explain to his

disciples that he must go to Jerusalem

and suffer many things at the hands of

the elders, the chief priests, and the

teachers of the law, and that he must be

killed and on the third day be raised to

life.

Scripture doesn't tell us how the other

11 disciples took that news, but it does

tell us how Peter took it. His response

is to pull Jesus aside and rebuke him.

Now, the word rebuke doesn't always have

a negative connotation. Sometimes it

does, but we learned in the Wednesday

night Lenton class a few weeks ago that

rebuke can actually mean to issue an

invitation to repentance, which would

decidedly be a really good thing. But in

this case, rebuke does have that

negative connotation. It suggests an

attempt to silence and disempower and

scold. And that's the tone with which

Peter is speaking to Jesus when he tells

Jesus that the crucifixion will never

happen. Not on his watch. Never, Lord.

He says, this shall never happen to you.

And just like that, the star student who

correctly identified who Jesus was has

gone to the back of the class and

revealed that maybe he didn't really get

it after all. And Jesus quickly and

sternly responds, "Get behind me, Satan.

You are a stumbling block to me. You do

not have in mind the concerns of God,

but merely human concerns."

And to that I say, nailed it. Jesus

nailed it. That is the crux of Peter's

struggle with Jesus.

Peter is human and in his humanity, he

simply cannot wrap his head around what

God wants and what God's plans are. He

can't fathom that the same man who is

the savior of the world, the son of God,

the one who has performed miracle after

miracle after miracle would have to die.

and not only have to die but have to die

this excruciating, humiliating, gory and

very very public death. And because

Peter cannot imagine it, he tries to

talk Jesus out of it.

Immediately after he puts Peter in his

place, Jesus turns back to the rest of

the disciples. And that part's

important, I think, because he is now

directly addressing the 12 people, the

11 then plus Peter, who have followed

him most closely, who have already

professed that they are followers of

his, the ones who are most likely to get

his message.

Jesus looks them in the eye and he gives

them the very clear statement on what it

means to truly follow him.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must

deny themselves and take up their cross

and follow me.

Essentially, Jesus says,"I just told you

what's going to happen to me. And if you

really want to follow me, you must be

willing to have the same thing happen to

you."

Peter had made the decision to follow

Jesus when he dropped his fishing nets

years before. But even after bearing

witness to all that Jesus had done,

Peter still struggled with denying

himself, the first part of Jesus's call,

he struggled with denying what he wanted

and what he thought should happen, which

was for Jesus to remain safe and sound

in order to follow God's plan, which was

that Jesus needed to die.

As we've mentioned a couple of times in

the past few weeks, we are taking time

this Lenton season to intentionally stop

at the foot of the cross

to spend time contemplating the depth

and the breadth of Jesus's love for us.

If we sit with what it means to take up

our cross, take up their cross, I think

out of necessity, we need to focus on

what exactly that cross meant.

The cross, as we know, was an instrument

of death. That physical death was

torture, plain and simple.

Victims were stripped of their clothes

and they were beaten. They often had to

carry the cross beam of their own cross

to the upright pole, which would have

already been in the ground so that that

cross beam could be nailed to it, thus

creating their own place of death.

They were spat on. They were denied food

and drink. The ultimate cause of death

on the cross, as we've talked about

before, was usually suffocation. And it

sometimes took days.

Days.

And victims didn't just suffer physical

death. The method of execution, this one

in particular, was also designed to kill

a person's spirit. People on the cross

were not just stripped of their clothes.

They were stripped of their dignity.

They were mocked and insulted, laughed

at, and humiliated.

And because we are so far removed from

seeing anything like this in person, I

think it's hard for us to understand

what it means to experience that type of

brutality on every level. The closest

some of us might have come is watching

The Passion of the Christ, that Mel

Gibson movie from like I don't know 25

years ago now. That was pretty graphic,

but it was nothing compared to what

happened to Jesus in real life.

We may not have a full understanding of

that, but the disciples absolutely did.

They would have understood exactly what

Jesus meant. They would have had a

visceral physical reaction to this

imagery of taking up their cross and

would have understood immediately that

that meant that following Jesus could

lead to physical and emotional death.

And after self-denial and taking up a

cross comes the call to follow Jesus.

The Greek word for follow that is used

in this passage is also used when Jesus

first calls Peter and interestingly when

Jesus tells Peter to get behind him and

calls Peter Satan.

The implication is clear. Following

Jesus means very simply and very

straightforward that Jesus is in the

lead.

Jesus is the permanent line leader.

Jesus is directing paths and deciding

where to go. Jesus knows what none of us

knows and has a clear picture of where

we are needed and what we need to do.

And following means just that. Get

behind and get in line.

Listen more than you talk. Pursue and

don't lead.

At times, most of us are like Peter. We

proclaim Jesus as Lord with our words,

but we don't always demonstrate our

devotion with our actions.

We say we follow Jesus, but we hesitate

to go where Jesus leads when the cost

seems too high or the request too

difficult.

Pastor Jonathan Weights categorized that

feeling this way.

He said, 'The uncomfortable truth is

that most of us spend a lot of time

hedging our bets. We really do want to

do what Jesus has said, but we also want

to make sure that we are covered just in

case things go sideways on us. We want

to leave ourselves the ability to grab

hold of the reigns of control just in

case we feel like Jesus isn't holding

them tightly enough for us. We trust

him, but not entirely.

We think his power is great, but we

wonder a little bit whether it is the

greatest.

The title of the sermon today is selfish

or selfless.

Jesus's death on the cross was perhaps

the most selfless act in human history.

And in his call to follow, he is not

asking us to do anything that he has not

already done.

But so many times we respond like Peter,

allin in in some ways and completely out

in others.

We aren't on fire for God. We are

selfish and lukewarm in our spirits and

in our actions. We give up control only

to snatch it back just as quickly.

We know that the way of Jesus can be

hard and that will it will ask a lot of

us. So, we choose ease and convenience

and then we tell ourselves that that's

what God really wants for us. That God

wouldn't want us to have to really

sacrifice in order to follow him.

The truth is though that following Jesus

is rarely convenient and it's almost

never easy.

But Jesus promises us that despite its

challenges, the path of disciplehip and

following him is far greater than

anything we can dream for ourselves.

Matthew 16:25, the verse right after the

Matthew 16:25

scripture that was read today, says

this, "Whoever wants to save their life

will lose it, but whoever loses their

life for me will find it."

And that's the promise. The promise is

that when we give it all to following

Jesus, we will find real life. We will

find joy. We will find rest for our

souls. We will find relationship with

him and an eternal one, an abundant life

here and an eternal one with Jesus in

heaven.

Listen again to today's verse. Then

Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever

wants to be my disciple must deny

themselves and take up their cross and

follow me.

I want you to notice the word whoever.

Other translations, I think this is the

NIV, other translations say if anyone or

if any of you.

No matter which way you phrase that,

inherent in all of those translations is

a choice.

You cannot have both the things of this

world and true life with Jesus.

Ultimately, you have to choose. The

Bible is clear on the better choice.

After all, it says, "What good will it

be for someone to gain the whole world

and yet forfeit their soul?"

But the bottom line is we get to choose.

We all get to choose if we are going to

like Peter be like Peter was for a time

and waver in our faith or if we are

going to give everything to Jesus and

let him keep it.

We all get to choose whether we want to

follow the selfish gods of convenience

and ease who will undoubtedly satisfy us

quicker in the short term or whether we

want to follow the selfless one true

God, Jesus Christ, who could have taken

the easy way out but instead chose to

suffer and die for us so that we can

really and truly live.

Then Jesus said to his disciples,

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must

deny themselves and take up their cross

and follow me.

What will you choose?"

Let us pray.

Holy God, we are all more like Peter

than we care to admit.

We go back and forth. Sometimes we

proclaim you with our lips and with our

lives. And sometimes it's like we've

never met you. And our words and our

actions have nothing to do with who you

are and who you have called us to be.

Today we pray for the strength to look

at that instruction and that call by

Jesus in a new way.

To understand the importance of it, to

understand how difficult it is. and yet

to still say yes to following Jesus

knowing it is the greatest adventure we

can ever experience. Give us the

strength and the courage to live every

day devoted to you. In Jesus name we

pray. Amen.

Amen.