Messiah

Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Church: Have you ever used one of these? Do you enjoy using one of these? I know this one looks brand new, my guess is it's probably about 55 years old. When I cleaned out my parents' house, I found the head of this off in the leaves of a shed. I said, I remember that. That was my favorite hoe. And I remembered it was blue, kind of. And so I took the head and buffed off all the rust I could and painted it blue and put a new handle on it. And I don't think it's been used much since then. I don't like these things. because this is a constant reminder of sin. Adam did not need a hoe until He messed up. We've been using these things ever since. Does not bring good memories. Thanks a lot, Adam. Appreciate that. Turn to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter 1 starting in verse 28. Then God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth. and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be fruit. Also to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food, and it was so. But just after one sin, how many? I don't think we fully understand, in fact I know we do not fully understand how abhorrent sin is. It must be pretty rotten if it just took one sin and now the earth and its creatures are not so easy to subdue. Weeds fight with us. And they usually win. Did you know that there's really only about free animal species that seem to like us at all? Some of them we might keep as pets or whatever, they don't really want to be there. But the three species, dogs, cats, and horses, that's about it. Even cats are questionable. I think they subdue us and even dogs. need a fence or a leash many times. Don't open that door or the dog will get out. What are we afraid of? The dog doesn't love us, it's going to leave us? Other animals can be tamed enough for work, but most of them would rather not. Look at Genesis chapter 3. Verse 17. Then to Adam he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife, we're not going to go there. and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. For your sake definitely has the Hebrew implication of it's because of what you've done. But it also has the implication of these weeds are for your sake. They are to remind you that this is not the way it should be. That one day when the earth submits to you again, there will be no more need for these things. No more weeds. Then he continues, in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and dust you shall return." What does this have to do with our series on Matthew? We shall see. Keep your finger in Genesis 3. We're gonna hop back there in a minute and look at Matthew 16. Matthew 16 down to verse 21. Verse 21 starts with. from that time. Now this is not the first time Matthew has used these words. In Matthew 417, just before the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew states, that time Jesus began to preach. This was just after being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist and after being tempted in the wilderness by the enemy. This was a major transition in the ministry of Jesus. Now in Matthew 16, 21, Matthew indicates another major transition in the ministry of Jesus. He is now headed to the fulfillment of why he came to this earth. It goes back to Genesis chapter three. Keep Matthew 16 marked while you go back to Genesis. Genesis three verse 14 says, So the Lord said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go. and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. Is the serpent curse? If I said how many of you love serpents, a few souls will raise their hands. You don't really like them. I know you might have one as a pet, but you don't really like I know this. I appreciate, they fascinate me. I catch them and I re-home them in somebody else's yard. ⁓ No, I... But even people that deal with snakes all the time, they don't like them. I'm convinced. They just tolerate them. The serpent has been cursed. And I will put enmity between you and the woman. Wait a minute, what's the woman? ⁓ some people say, well, girls don't like snakes as much as boys. No, no, This is the church. I'll put enmity between you, yeah, the literal woman, the literal man, and the church. And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your what? Head. And you shall bruise his heel. Jesus is the offspring of the woman and is about to have his heel struck in the book of Matthew. But Satan's head will be crushed in the process. Jesus is headed to the cross to fulfill this prophecy and the disciples don't yet get it. So the importance of verse 21 cannot be overemphasized. Look at it again together, Matthew 16, 21. You can leave Genesis behind. From that time, okay, major transition, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. it had become evident that Israel as a corporate body was not going to accept Jesus as the Messiah. That explains what happened in the text we looked at last Sabbath with Pastor Dawson. Go back and look at it again, verse 15. Verse 15 says, said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Now hop up to verse 20. Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. Why the secrecy? There were excellent reasons. The term Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. It could easily be understood politically and misinterpreted in terms of the conquering Messiah who was so dear to the Jewish hopes. In fact, in this verse, the phrase is used correctly. I often hear people and I've often said, Jesus Christ. No, it's Jesus the Christ. That is a title. To know that Jesus was the Messiah was one thing. To understand what Messiahship, what it meant, was quite another. And that meaning was not even clear in the disciples' minds, as the rest of Matthew 16 clearly demonstrates. Verse 21, Jesus begins preparing His disciples for His death. This is the first explicit announcement that He must die. And there are four very important elements to this announcement. According to Jesus, He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things at the hands of the Jewish leaders, he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life. Now all of these elements have been stated before by Jesus, but nobody seems to have been listening, at least very carefully. We can easily be guilty of the same thing. We can hear truth through ears that twist it. to fit what we think we know. Are you guilty of that? I am. I read the Bible from a point of view. So I try to make it fit the way I think. The Bible was not meant to fit the way I think. That's why we have to pray before we read scripture. Otherwise, the Bible just reflects our thoughts, not God's thoughts. But now Jesus lays it all out very plainly. Hard for even the dullest of the disciples to miss. Jesus has reached a crisis point in His ministry. His disciples finally recognize Him to be the Messiah. He must begin to get across to them what being the Messiah means. Note that Jesus says He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and That trip was not an optional part of his ministry. It was a necessity for him to go and die. In fact, that was the very purpose of him coming to earth. Yes, he came to show us how to live a good life and to be a good example for us, but he came to do something for us that we could not do for us. And we cannot do it today. the way Matthew 20, 28 puts it, to give his life for the ransom of. We don't have power to do that. Jesus came with the power and the will to do that. Christ's death was not an optional part of the plan of salvation. Without that substitutionary death, there was no salvation. But that point was not obvious to the disciples. They had grown up with a view that was held by most of the Jews that the Messiah would be a conquering king. He would overthrow the nation's enemies. Besides that, the disciples had a great deal to gain from that type of Messiah. They would be powerful officials in that type of kingdom. So we should not be very surprised by their reaction. Listen to what Peter has to say. In verse 22. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Okay, wait, wait, wait. Just a few moments before, Peter had called Jesus what? Messiah. Do we ever rebuke the Messiah? hope not. I'm afraid we do. Sometimes we do by our lives. But Peter, what are you thinking? You have just claimed that this is the Son of God and you're rebuking the Son of God. Far be it from you Lord, this shall not happen to you. But he turned to Peter and said, wow, thank you for your concern, Peter. You shall be blessed among men. No, no, no, no, no, no. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me who? You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful to the things of who? but to the things of who? Wow, hard to imagine. Just a short time before Jesus is commending Peter for being under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus is condemning Peter for being under the inspiration of Satan. how we switch back Is Peter bipolar? What is this? This type of switching sides can happen when we fail to keep the will of God over our own will. This was the same reason Peter sank while he was walking on the water. He took his eyes off of Jesus and put them on himself and said, look at me. Look what I can do. Jesus' response seems vicious. To call one of your closest companions Satan is rather strong. Why such a response? The answer lies in the fact that Jesus finds the thought of his death even more distasteful than does Peter. Jesus has seen crucifixions in his travels. It was a common form of Roman punishment meant to keep conquered peoples in line. And it typically did. Archaeologists have found Roman roads through conquered territories, and beside those roads are holes every few feet. Those holes were for crosses. We think of three. They would have thousands at a time lining the roads. This is what happens when you disrespect the Romans, or we think you did. And it kept people in order. Jesus, like any normal human being, would have found the thought of dying in such a cruel way horrifying. It would be much easier to become the political messiah that the Jews were hoping for and the disciples were hoping for. But beyond that, Jesus had no desire to bear the judgment of the world by becoming sin for all humanity. The thought of separation from his heavenly father while bearing the sins of the world on the cross was extremely abhorrent to him. He and the father were so close, joined for an eternity past. You I can kind of imagine eternity forward. I cannot imagine eternity past. Everything has a beginning, but not God and not his relationship with Jesus. to be ripped apart after all eternity for our sins was next to unbearable. The temptation to do his own will by avoiding the cross is a great temptation throughout Jesus' life. It will come to head in Gethsemane where Christ will repeatedly pray, if this cannot pass, unless I drink it, your will be done. In Matthew 4, the heart of Satan's temptations in the wilderness was to get Jesus to establish his kingdom on earth without a cross. Satan knew that the cross meant his own defeat. The crushed head of Genesis 3 was him, and he knew it. At the conclusion of that experience, Jesus cried, with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Now in Matthew 16 we find very similar language, but this time directed at Peter. Get behind me, Satan. There's no more forceful rebuke in the New Testament. But look at the cause. Peter, the leading disciple, has taken up the exact position that Satan had taken in the wilderness. The forcefulness of the rebuke shows the importance of the cross to Jesus and the power of the temptation not to go through with it. Peter had become a stumbling block instead of a friend. Because Peter has in mind the things of men rather than the things of God. Men cannot comprehend this move of Jesus towards death because it makes no human sense. Jesus is the innocent party. This doesn't make sense. Wait, wait, wait, wait. This goes all the way back to Genesis again. Who was it that came looking for Adam and Eve? Adam and Eve didn't go looking for God. Hey, would you please forgive us? We messed up. No, they were hiding from him. Jesus, the innocent party, goes looking. What did he go looking for? To destroy them? to restore the relationship with them. Jesus is the innocent party and He is going to the cross to die to erase the debt of the guilty party. There's a song I learned at summer camp years ago. He paid a debt He did not owe. I owe a debt I could not pay. I love that song, but there should be another verse. I owe a debt I not only couldn't pay, I didn't feel the need to pay. It never crossed my mind I needed to pay this debt, and Jesus paid it anyway, even without me asking Him to. Remember, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. People that cried, crucify him, crucify him. They were not acknowledging their death. Verse 24, then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. What does that mean? To deny yourself? I don't like to deny myself. ⁓ look at that chocolatey Claire. And look at that belly. No, one won't hurt. ⁓ that fruit won't hurt. He wasn't denying herself. Adam did not deny himself and caused the cross. Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. So everyone who follows Jesus will have their own cross to bear. We have heard that phrase throughout our Christian lives, but to understand its full impact, we have to put ourselves in the sandals of the disciples. The idea of being crucified does not seem to do much for our modern imaginations. We have never witnessed a crucifixion. But this was not true for the disciples. When they saw Roman soldiers escorting a person through town carrying a cross, they knew it was the one-way trip to agony and death and humiliation. They knew the cross to be the cruelest, most humiliating of all deaths. But what needed to die? And the disciples, after all, they're close to Jesus. What needs to die in them? Verse 25, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? They needed to deny themselves. You know, even after this they're fussing over who's going to be greatest in the kingdom. That doesn't sound like self-denial. They weren't going, hey, I think you should sit at the right hand of Jesus and you should sit at the foot of the table and I'll wash feet whenever necessary. We don't see any of that. They had to learn to deny themselves. They needed to give up their willful lives so that they could gain eternal life. How much is that worth? Jesus was to be crucified on a physical cross, but before that happened, he first had to give over his will to his father. No one could make him get on the cross or stay there for that matter. The struggle in Gethsemane was a struggle to give over his will to the Father so that he could do his Father's will. So it is with each of his followers. We may not have to endure a physical cross, but each of us must crucify the willful nature that above all wants to do its own thing. I have a nephew. He's a good guy. Today he's a big burly truck driver. But when I was a teenager, he was a small child. And during the school year, he had a babysitter named Joanne. I know because we heard that name from him a lot. I remember it to this day, Joanne. And she would watch over him until his parents got home from work and she let him do whatever he wanted. Whenever he wanted whatever he could think of he could do it and he could think of a During the summers though, my parents would keep him at our house. I dreaded those summers because the house went from peace to bedlam. At first he was wild and unhappy with the restraint that my parents imposed. If he was told that he couldn't do something, his response was, Joanne lets me. that several times a day. But by the end of the summer with my strict loving patient parents who restricted his sugar intake to zero, that's another reason I dreaded summers because I got no sugar either. But it was worth it because this little boy became the happiest, lovinest, is that a word? Child you could ever imagine. His parents wouldn't recognize him. What did you do to my child? He's so obedient and kind. And my mother would lovingly tell them once again at the end of the summer, don't give him any sugar. And when you say it, you mean it. They couldn't do it. But at the end of the summer, his will had been submitted to those who loved him, and he was content. this past week on one of the many trips to Johnson City to visit members who've been in the hospital there, I decided to stop and do something selfish. Something just for me, which means going to the bookstore. I didn't buy anything, but I just like looking around. I don't need to buy anything. But as I was looking around in this big bookstore, I saw something that horrified me. Now, there's always something there that horrifies me. You can go into these big bookstores and you can see their huge religious section full of beautiful Bibles and Christian books right next to the occult. But this time I saw something that I did not ever expect to see. I'd never seen it before. I knew it existed. And it was a boxed set of books, very nicely boxed, in red, written by Alastair Crowley. Some of you don't know who that is. Some of you do. Those of you who don't, you're fortunate. But I'm going tell you who he is, who he was. He lived, if you want to call it that, from 1875 to 1947. Most of that time, he was a prominent worshiper of Satan. He had a great influence through his writings, which were in this boxed set, five books. He had a great influence on the culture of the 60s. 70s and beyond. He became a folk hero even though he was dead. Even the Beatles had his picture on one of their albums. His most famous saying was written on this box set of books right there on the side, right under his picture. He's not good-looking either. And that saying is four words, do what thou This has been Satan's message from the Garden of Eden. Hey Eve, who's in control of your life? You or God? Do what thou wilt. Hey Eve, who cares what God says? Eat this. If it feels good, do it. You remember that? That's another way of saying do what thou wilt. Hey Adam, you know better, but you love Eve. Do what that will. This is the miserable message of the world today. This is why the world is so unhappy. By the way, Aleister Crowley died a most miserable, unhappy death. He had no assurance that even the devil loved Our wills have been submitted to self rather than God, who loves us, who loves us more than we will be able to ever in eternity forward to comprehend. Remember how much it took to separate us from a face-to-face relationship with our Creator? One sin. God wants a perfect bride. That is why He wants us to accept His wedding garment, His sacrifice, His grace, to cover our imperfections. That is why he says, if you love me, do whatever you want. ⁓ keep my commandments. Yeah, that's it. Why? Because he knows that's what truly gives us peace. Only he can make the changes needed in our lives, though. Only he knows the changes that need to be made. Only he can find the things that we have hidden from ourselves for so long. that we don't even realize are still buried there. tornado came through my mother's backyard a few years ago. and it dropped trees on the house. Five of them. That's another story. But the insurance company came, they looked it over, they said, yeah, you get a new roof. And we got all the trees pulled off and cut up, and the roofers came, and they did a wonderful job putting on a brand new shingle roof on my mom's house. And it looked good. And they were very careful. They spread tarps out everywhere to catch what? Nails. And those tarps are spread all through the yard and over the bushes. then when they cleaned up everything, they ran a magnet back and forth through the yard, picking up all the nails. ⁓ they worked hard at it. They were professionals. Well, I didn't trust them. So I got my own magnet. Harbor Freight. And I got my own magnet and I rolled it through my mother's yard. through the yard that looked good. And my efforts yielded these results. I picked up one bobby pin. staples and 952 roofing nails. I counted them. I still have them somewhere. don't know. I never throw anything away. 952 nails they missed with their big magnet. This is just my little one. What have we missed? We think we know ourselves, but there are many things keeping us from being totally consecrated to God. Only He knows where to find many of them. When we let Him in, He can push them out, drawing us into a closer relationship with Him than we imagined possible. A relationship that will have us willing to do anything for Him, even give our very lives. I've mentioned a dog before that was my faithful companion as a child in that same house. And her name is Sally. And she loved our family so much and we loved her so much. And she would stand between us and anything she perceived as a danger. Stranger come to the door, right between us. Well, my father, who also loved this dog, and my dog loved, I think, even more than she loved me, He liked to demonstrate how loyal she was. Anytime a visitor came over and they were mentioning the dog, my dad was usually working in the garden, and he would make me mad. My dad seldom made me mad, but it made me mad every time he did this. He said, yep, that's a good dog, watch this. And he would raise the hoe over his head like this, as if he was going to strike Sally. Ooh, that's what made me mad. Don't hurt my dog. And my dog was not on a leash. She could have run away. But no, every time he did anything like this with a shovel or a hoe, she would lie down, roll over, and expose her throat. Job 13, 15 says, though he slay me, yet will I trust. Jesus is coming soon, by the way. I need that kind of relationship with him that my dog had with my dad. I want the weeds removed out of my life. I don't want them to come back. Maybe, just maybe, if we deny self, take up his cross and follow him, the weeds won't be able to find any space left in our heart to grow. We'll be too focused on following him while leaving the weeds of self. Well, here I am, Lord. You said take up your cross, and I'm here to do it. It's not easy, you know, this self-denial thing. I mean to go through with it, though, yes, sir. I'll bet you wish more people were willing to be disciples like me. I've counted the cost, and I've surrendered all. You mind if I look over these crosses? I'd kind of like a new one. I'm not fussy, you understand, but a disciple has to be relevant. these days. I was wondering, are there any that are vinyl padded? I'm thinking of attracting others, you see, and if I could show them a comfortable cross, I'm sure I could win a lot more. Got to keep up with the population explosion and all. And I need something durable so that I can treasure it always. is there one that's sort of flat that would fit under my coat? One shouldn't be too obvious. Funny, there doesn't seem to be much to choose from here. Just coarse rough wood. I mean, that would hurt. Don't you have something more distinctive, Lord? I can tell you right now, none of my friends are gonna be impressed by this shoddy workmanship. They'll think I'm a nut or something, and my family, they'll just be mortified. What is that? It's either one of these or forget the whole thing? But Lord, I wanna be your disciple. I mean, just being with you. That's all that counts. But life has to have balance too, you know, Lord. But you don't understand, nobody lives that way today. Who's gonna be attracted by all this self-denial bit? I mean, I want to, but let's not overdo it. Start getting radical like this and they'll have me off to the funny farm. Know what I mean? I mean, being a disciple is a challenge and exciting and I want to do it. But I do have some rights. Now let's see. No blood, okay? I just can't stand the thought of that, Lord? Jesus? Now where do you suppose He was? Dear Father, I'm looking forward just so I can. We deserve nothing, you deserve everything. Thank you for paying the debt we did not owe. In Jesus' amen. ⁓

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