Matthew 20:17-19 | "A Gentle but Shocking Reminder"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Would you take your Bible and make your way to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 20?

And as you're doing that, I'll pick up since Jeremy was a little nervous to go over his scheduled time length.

I'll make you aware of the details in our bulletin.

We are in need of some children's workers on Sunday morning specifically in our Sunday school time coming up and in children's church.

You can see those details in your bulletin.

Take your Bible to Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

If you need the Pew Bible in front of you, we encourage you to take that and make your way to page 825.

Page 825.

And if you find your way there, I'm going to ask you to find your way to a hymnal in front of you, in the pew rack in front of you.

Sometimes I get a crazy idea.

Sometimes the crazy ideas work out.

Sometimes they don't.

But thank you for playing along.

Make your way in your pew hymnal, these ancient things, to 424.

424.

And as you do that, I want you to put it underneath of your Bible.

So you have Matthew 9 or Matthew 20 on top and hymn 424 on the bottom.

Our passage for this morning as we've been working our way through Matthew's gospel is Matthew 20, verses 17 through 19.

Matthew 20:17–19

So y'all with me?

Matthew 20 on top, 424 on the bottom.

No.

I know she's waiting.

This is all on the spur of the moment this morning, folks, trying to find somebody who knows a hymn and can play it.

And so this she's cold, so I'm out to lunch.

So Matthew 20, beginning in verse 17.

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, See, we are on our way to Jerusalem.

And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death.

And they will deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, to be flogged, and crucified.

And he will be raised on the third day.

Amen.

This passage contains the third reminder in Matthew's gospel of Jesus' intention to endure the cross.

Three times Jesus says almost the identical thing again and again.

Why do we employ reminders?

Reminders exist because we forget.

You can stay there, Jenny.

Like I said, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

I'm sorry.

This is all on the fly.

I told sometimes our minds do not retain information, right?

Sometimes our minds are so overloaded that they slow down and they they they struggle to process information.

I, for one, need reminders for both of those reasons.

I forget and my mind is too overloaded.

But is it possible that there could be another reason for reminders?

Reminders could also be for those who choose not to remember.

We might deliberately ignore something painful or that we know will not be enjoyable to remember.

We might even work to forget things in those kinds of cases.

Deliberate forgetfulness is a path that many people take throughout life.

Our forgetfulness, deliberate or not, is a reason for reminders.

In fact, the Bible even speaks of reminders as helpful for us.

And this passage in Matthew is a valuable reminder, even if we have not forgotten.

You see, I think there's another reason that reminders exist.

They exist to spur us on despite life's circumstances.

And that I think is Matthew's intention for us.

Three times he reminds us that Jesus spoke of his impending suffering, his death, and his resurrection.

And Matthew intends for us to be encouraged for endurance for eternity by this reminder.

And now, would you take your hymn?

Put your Bible aside and stand with me.

For those who don't know this.

We're going to sing this as a prayer to our God to remind us to tell us that old, old story.

This morning.

That is our prayer.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Thank you for playing along with me.

Thank you, Jenny.

Give Ginny a hand.

I do know that there are multiple tunes to that song.

It's just I like one and the other is just more familiar.

So look.

We're going up to Jerusalem.

And the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men.

And they will mock him.

And they will flog him.

And they will condemn him to death and crucify him.

And he will be raised on the third day.

Webb's done a much better job than I could do in planning this service and leading us to sing of that reminder.

What a great reminder.

There are many ways that we could process this reminder and make it fresh for us.

This morning I'd like to try to chart a path toward encouragement for endurance through five means of remembrance.

The first means of remembrance is a reminder of our perspective, a reminder of perspective.

As I said, this is the third time that Matthew tells us of Jesus giving his disciples an advanced notice of his suffering, death, and resurrection.

But we have to remember that this announcement is far from comfortable for the disciples.

We are comfortable with that language.

We sing it with gusto and emotion because of its familiarity, and that's not a bad thing.

It's a part of us, it's a part of our Christian culture.

When we speak of Jesus and we speak of him as having been crucified, buried, and risen again, we do that with joy and thankfulness.

Because we live on this side of the cross.

Our perspective is one that's on this side looking back.

And when Jesus speaks these words to his disciples for the third time, they're still looking forward and not quite sure of exactly what Jesus means.

But they know it doesn't sound comfortable.

We are comfortable and familiar with the thought of Jesus' death and resurrection, but the twelve disciples, I'm sure, were scared out of their minds.

And back in chapter 16.

You remember when Jesus said that for the very first time, the apostle Peter got in his face and said, Absolutely not.

I will fight to the death, I will be your guard so that this does not happen to you.

He said, God forbid, this will not happen.

What did Jesus say?

Get behind me, Satan.

Jesus then went on to share something very ironic with his disciples.

He shared that life with Jesus is found in death.

Anyone who desires to follow Jesus must take up his cross and follow Jesus.

That's an instrument of death.

It's an instrument of dying to oneself and following Jesus in a life of death by which we will somehow live.

We don't look forward to the cross anymore.

The cross is behind us, but we still participate in a similar kind of thinking.

Following Jesus is a cross-bearing life.

And we look forward to the completion, the wrapping up of that redemption begun on the cross.

Our reminder is a perspective adjustment.

Always remember to look ahead when you bear your cross.

If you bear your cross only looking behind, the cross will get heavier and heavier.

But if you look forward toward the completion of your redemption, your perspective changes, as does the weight of the cross we are called to bear.

How does that happen?

Well, keep listening.

We have a reminder of our perspective.

We also have a reminder of Jesus' care for his own.

Jesus' intentions were still not understood in chapter 17, verse 23, the second time Jesus gives this reminder.

Because there we read that when Jesus told them that they were headed to Jerusalem and all these things were going to happen, Matthew writes, they were greatly distressed.

Maybe they thought that Jesus was on some kind of death mission and they they wouldn't be able to dissuade him from that decision, and so they were just terribly distressed.

But whatever the case, they they understood that Jesus was on his way in what in their minds amounted to a suicidal mission.

Jesus, how do you how do you go to Jerusalem when you know that they are there to kill you?

Why would you do that?

They're hesitant to ask Jesus about his plan, and so they form a reluctant agreement to go along with him.

How do we know it's reluctant?

Because of the Gospel of John.

In John chapter 11, verse 16, Thomas, of all people, says to the other eleven disciples, okay, guys, let's go with him so that we can die with him.

John 11:16

That's the attitude that's behind that.

See, they lack an understanding.

There's a poor comprehension of the Lord's plan.

They believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but their hopes and their dreams of a of a militant victorious entrance into the king's city were beginning to be overtaken by the realization that their Lord would soon be a dead Messiah.

Just like all of the other so-called Messiahs.

So their spirits are low.

Their hopes are beginning to be slowly crushed.

But Jesus isn't ignorant to the feelings of the twelve.

He's concerned about them.

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and spoke to them.

Luke tells us that Jesus was walking ahead of the disciples.

They're trailing off behind him, knowing they're on their way to Jerusalem, perhaps wondering what's ahead.

And Luke tells us that Jesus ahead of them pauses and allows them to catch up to him, and then he takes them aside, perhaps off the roadside a little bit, maybe onto a hillside.

We don't know, but he he allows them to catch up, he takes them aside and helps them understand what they're about to encounter.

Why would he do that?

Well, Mark tells us it's because they were afraid.

They're full of fear.

Luke says they didn't understand.

So they're headed into this set of circumstances that they cannot comprehend, and it's motivating, it's stirring up fear in them.

As you look ahead to chapter 21, you'll see that it begins with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

That means we are a mere days, perhaps, at the most weeks from beginning the holy week of Passover and the feast of first fruits.

That means, get your mind pictured around this, on those dusty roads, there are thousands of pilgrims trekking to the city of Jerusalem.

To spend a week or two in the city celebrating the remembrance of all that God had done for his people.

Thousands of people on the roads trekking to Jerusalem for the sacred celebrations, singing the songs of ascent as they walk upwards to the city of Jerusalem, the city of the great king.

But these twelve men are afraid.

So the Lord Jesus pauses and he takes them aside and he says, Look, you need to know what's gonna happen.

Here's what's gonna happen.

So after this reminder, you can speculate about the disciples' thoughts and feelings.

Maybe as they got closer and closer to the city, and more and more people are gathering along the way, Jesus' words are echoing in their minds, words about betrayals and mockings and beatings, words of death, and and in their imaginations, each each applauding step brings them closer to that reality, and with that reality, closer to their own impending deaths and the end of their dreams.

Because they knew, they knew very clearly what Rome did to so-called messiahs and their followers.

So Jesus pauses for a moment, maybe amid crowds singing those songs of ascent, pulls the twelve aside to remind them of his mission, of his goal, of his of his intent, and what they're about to witness.

And friends, I think we ought to see in that from our perspective we should see kindness, love, and concern in the Lord Jesus, caring for his own who are afraid.

That should immensely encourage us and bolster our confidence in him.

The disciples were facing what amounted to certain death in their world.

That wasn't simply the loss of a job to follow a Messiah, loss of friends or family or health issues.

For Jesus to die, to follow Jesus was to die to the loss of everything in life.

But that was becoming a very Very real prospect the closer they got to Jerusalem because that meant if Jesus died, they would be found guilty as traitors and executed.

Jesus doesn't need to give this third reminder.

But by doing so, he comes alongside his disciples to care for them.

And so the cross reminds us that Jesus is concerned for us, no matter what difficulty we face in life.

This is the most difficult situation these disciples have ever encountered.

And Jesus takes time to care for them.

I might not know, and our pastors might not know, and our elders might not know every difficulty that you're facing.

But my friends, there's one who does know.

And he cares.

The cross is our reminder that he is still to this day interceding for us before the Father.

He's praying for our endurance and our perseverance, and he's working all things together to fulfill his will in us.

Why does he do that?

He does that to fulfill the scriptures, and that is yet another reminder here.

This is a reminder that Jesus is fulfilling the scriptures just as they promised he would do.

Jesus is planning to go to Jerusalem.

He's on his way there.

He's been making his way there for some time.

There's a natural part to that plan, of course.

It's Passover.

Everybody goes to Jerusalem for the Passover.

Jerusalem is the place to be.

And by the time of Jesus, it was part of the Jewish life to take an annual pilgrimage to the holy city to participate in those historical remembrances of God's redemption of Israel out of Egypt.

We might say it was utterly ordinary for any Jewish rabbi to take his disciples to Jerusalem.

But that's not what concerned the twelve disciples.

They'd left everything to follow him.

They were gladly following him to the Passover, I'm certain, but what they could not understand was the divine part of this plan.

I'm sure they appreciated Jesus' concern, but when his comforting words began to include terms like delivered over and condemned to death and mocked and flogged and now for the first time crucified, how does your mind stay focused on celebrating Passover?

Remember, this is before the cross.

There's still a glimmer of hope in these disciples that Jesus will have an actual kingdom where he will rule as king.

That's why in the very next section, James and John are still fighting over who gets to sit next to Jesus in the kingdom.

They're out to lunch.

I'm in good company.

But all Jesus talks about is going to Jerusalem to be handed over to the religious leaders, then to the Gentiles, to be beaten and killed.

Luke 18, 34 says the disciples didn't understand Jesus' explanation.

They couldn't grasp this idea of their Messiah, their Lord, their king being handed over to anyone, much less the Gentiles.

And any idea of Jesus dying was unimaginable and ludicrous.

That's why Peter would even later take out a sword and hack off a guy's ear.

Seeking to take off his head, but you know.

That's why it's important to begin with that perspective element.

Because it's normal almost for us to think of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection whenever we think of him.

We come to church on Sundays and we sing songs about it every single Sunday.

But just as natural as it is for us to think with comfort of those terms, it was natural for the disciples to have significant difficulty imagining those things of Jesus.

Because in their world, the Messiah was an all-powerful and magnificent king in full display of his majesty.

There's no compartment in their minds for a Messiah who carried his cross and who claimed that serving others was the way to greatness, or that life somehow came through death.

You see, these twelve men couldn't grasp that Jesus had omniscient prior knowledge of the future.

Luke records a very touching account of the Lord Jesus interacting with some disciples after the resurrection.

You're familiar with it if you've been in church long.

In Luke 24, there are two unnamed disciples walking the seven miles between Jerusalem and a little village called Emmaeus.

All the while they're talking about the events that have taken place during the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles and how sad they are, how burdened they are, and the sudden disappearance of Jesus' body from this tomb.

And Luke tells us that Jesus just comes up alongside them, just as a normal traveler on the same road.

He just begins walking with them and talking with them, and they don't recognize him.

And Jesus says to those two unnamed disciples, Oh foolish ones, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer and then enter into his glory?

And it says, in beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures all the things concerning himself.

See, Jesus knew that all the scriptures had declared this was what was going to happen.

He knew that they would be fulfilled, and he was intent on fulfilling them with everything it would cost.

Even more, what the prophetic scriptures vaguely sketched, Jesus knew in perfect detail.

What do I mean by that?

What I mean is that one of the twelve that Jesus took off the roadside to provide comfort to was a man named Judas.

When the Psalms spoke of the Son of Man being betrayed, Jesus knew when he spoke to Judas that Judas would be the one.

When Isaiah wrote of the suffering servant bringing healing by his stripes, Jesus knew that he would be beaten and whipped and scourged beyond recognition.

When Isaiah wrote of the suffering servant being cut off from the land of the living, and when Daniel wrote that the Messiah would be cut off, Jesus knew it would be by the method of being lifted up on a Roman cross.

See, the realization that Scripture promised all that Jesus endured means that we can trust all that Jesus says and all that it says about Jesus.

And that means we can trust all of his promises and all of his work on our behalf.

And that leads us to the reminder of God's grace in preparing us.

All that Jesus had called his disciples to do in following him, Jesus himself would also do.

He would take up his cross.

He would lay down his life.

And he knew all of it beforehand.

That detail that Jesus knew it all beforehand ought to drive us to worship.

The one who gave himself as a ransom for you was about to have all of hell unleashed upon him.

He was about to endure the Father's wrath against your sin, and yet he still knowingly and purposely says, We're going to Jerusalem.

That's why the Apostle Paul would say, For to me to live is Christ.

And to die is gain.

To have life in this world is all because of and through the one who died for me.

If I am called to die and enter eternal life, that's to gain life through the death of Jesus Christ.

Of course, it's a lot easier for us to say that this side of the cross.

Speaking from a human perspective, how could these twelve men worship?

How could they think of Jesus in such a magnificent and glorified kind of way and give all of their worship to him when all that dominated their thinking was crucified.

Why would crucify dominate their thinking?

Because in Matthew's account, this is the first time that Jesus says how he's going to die.

This is the first time the twelve disciples are hearing that word connected to Jesus' death.

Wait a minute.

Crucify?

What do you mean?

Crucify?

Perhaps no more than a few weeks from his death, Jesus reveals for the first time that he will die by crucifixion.

Never before had Jesus told his disciples that we know of how he would die.

How could they conjure up a response to that?

Again, we think about it from our perspective, right?

It makes sense.

We know all about it.

We know the story of Jesus because it's been told to us again and again, thankfully.

They're still trying to grasp what it meant.

There's no place in their minds to imagine Jesus lifted up to die on a Roman cross.

So Jesus prepares his disciples a third time with the most incredible detail yet.

And they're not going to see how any of this could be good until after they see the empty tomb.

They looked back and saw at this point, it makes no sense, Jesus.

After seeing an empty tomb, they look back and say, wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

Jesus knew it all along.

Jesus had to go to Jerusalem.

Jesus had to be mocked.

Jesus had to be flogged because Isaiah spoke of his stripes healing.

Jesus, Jesus had to die.

And you know what?

Jesus had to rise from the dead.

The disciples couldn't imagine the resurrection.

Even with Jesus raising others from the dead.

They couldn't picture a risen Lord because they couldn't imagine him dead.

They couldn't see him victorious over sin and death because they could not yet see him lifted up upon a cross bearing the weight of their sin.

And despite their blindness to all of those things, Jesus worked to prepare his disciples.

As if he was saying, you don't understand how this is good for you yet, but it's going to be good for you.

All children have heard that from their parents.

Jesus labored to develop within them an expectation that disciples would face death too.

He worked to prepare them for the worst days of their lives so that they would be ready when they came, so that they would be prepared to trust him implicitly when they saw this same man alive again, yet with wounds in his hands and a hole in his side and holes in his feet.

And Jesus even prepares us.

Why are we so surprised when people reject us because of Jesus?

It's because we don't remember that Jesus told us it's coming for you too.

But Jesus prepares us.

He reminds us.

He tells us we should expect no possessions in this life because he didn't even have a pillow to lay his head on at night.

If he chooses to give us something, then it is all of grace.

Jesus tells us to expect trials and pain and agony in life.

And if we are blessed to not experience those, then it is not because of us.

It is all because of grace.

We are taught to view this world as under the curse of sin, and so it groans under that curse, but we are to give thanks in the midst of that groaning because through Jesus we will live even through death.

Why?

Because there's an empty tomb.

Jesus prepares us by his grace.

And that all leads us to a reminder of hope.

For the third time, Jesus tells the twelve.

You're going to be surprised when the Son of Man is raised on the third day.

With the moment's emotions, we probably shouldn't expect the disciples to be thinking about the feast of first fruits.

When Israel, after celebrating the Passover, began to focus on God's provision of life and sustenance from the harvest of the year, the first harvest of the year, those first fruits that God said always reminds you of his provision.

The sorrowful twelve likely didn't connect the dots to see how Jesus being in the earth for three days and three nights, like Jonah was in the fish, and then coming out of the ground on that third day, was the ultimate fulfillment of God's first fruits.

I'm sure in contemplating crucifixion for the first time, they did not process that Jesus is the first fruits from the dead, so that through him death is killed and life is secured for all who trust in him.

I'm fairly confident that those dusty and confused disciples could not see in that moment that it was only through the cross that Jesus, that people would come to Jesus with the faith of little children.

Because those who think they're wise only see a cross and death as foolishness.

I'm sure those disciples were still struggling to grasp that the rich young man could go through the eye of the needle because Jesus was going to give his life to make it possible by the power of God.

I'm sure they didn't realize that their rewards in eternity, sitting on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel, were first dependent on Jesus becoming in full the suffering servant.

Jesus told them that the last would be first and the first would be last.

And he'll say that to them in verse 27 and 28 that whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

And it would blow their minds to understand that Jesus himself would serve as the greatest example of that by taking the form of a slave and dying a death on a Roman cross.

Jesus directs his followers to think of the cross continually.

He prepared them for that soon-coming entrance into Jerusalem and that week that would culminate in the triumph over sin and death, but he also wants them to see that the cross is the key to all of life.

It affects how we live in this world, but it only becomes filled with hope when the tomb is found to be empty on Sunday morning.

And that is our ultimate hope.

If you strike out that last part from this reminder, that pulling aside of the disciples off the road that day, listening to the songs of ascent that are being chanted as people go up, everything becomes just drudgery and decay and death and disaster.

But don't forget that last end.

And he will be raised.

There is our ultimate hope.

The one who conquered death and the grave is our ultimate hope.

He is the victor over all sin, death, and evil, and he will return one day to make all things right.

That is what the book of Acts reveals, transformed the early church and began to upend the Roman Empire.

The early church taught that, they believed that, they lived by it, and they reminded one another of it regularly.

And our reminder of that regularly increases our hope and it strengthens our faith and it produces perseverance in how God works all things according to his plan through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome.

He said, Therefore, since we have been justified, that's just a big word that means we've been declared right.

Standing before the throne room of God, the judgment seat of God, we are guilty.

But in Christ, he says, you're righteous because of Christ.

How?

By faith.

Because of that.

Since we have been justified by faith, we have, we possess peace with God.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand now, presently.

And we rejoice what?

In hope.

Not only that, but because we have been justified and because we have this peace and we rejoice in hope, we now rejoice in our sufferings.

Because we know that our suffering produces perseverance.

Endurance, that ability to stand up in the midst of the trial and to keep going.

Because that persevering and enduring nature of hope produces character, and character then builds upon all of that to give us hope, continually pushing us on, motivating us to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and to be reminded again and again to tell me that old, old story again and again and again.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us.

And notice how all of this is wrapped up in the cross.

For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

What a reminder.

What a reminder for God's people.

Therefore, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

Because he who promised is faithful.

Lord Jesus, we trust that you are faithful.

Thank you for this reminder of our hope, of the basis of our salvation.

Thank you for this reminder that we can be reminded of all of these things, not with sorrow and and grief alone, but with rejoicing and with hope.

Lord Jesus, enable us by your power of your spirit to look ahead.

To always, when we bear our cross daily, to keep our eyes focused on your promise to return, to complete our redemption.

Until that time comes, fulfill your word by giving us endurance.

That persevering character that builds our hope and our faith and our eyesight on you.

And in that, Lord, give us boldness to declare to a needy world.

You need to know the God of our salvation.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.