The Upside-Down Kingdom - Pastor Sam Simoes - August 30, 2026

Every Sunday at Northwest Church of the Nazareth in Columbus, Ohio, our congregation is challenged to grow spiritually.

This podcast shares the sermons, insights, and messages that encourage our congregation to mature spiritually.

Well, today we're going to continue with our series, Kingdom People, and we'll be continuing by looking at what God is doing.

In the last couple of Sundays, I have used the whiteboard and I had a lot of good comments.

And today, as I was uh preparing and um the stage, I realized, you know, this is the loudest board I've ever heard, but it does the job.

So uh we've been working on as a church on belonging.

We want to make people feel welcome.

We want to make people feel that they belong to a place where they not only are loved and welcome, but where they experience the presence of God.

And then once we welcome, we become then Christ-like disciples.

We become Christ-like and become disciples.

We know how, and we've been learning and how to be a disciple, how to follow Jesus, how to be Christ-like.

And now we're moving into build, and that's building the kingdom by making disciples.

And what we're trying to do as a church is going in through a journey that God will prepare us for what he has in store for us: to bring the broken, to bring the hurt, to bring the lost into an encounter not only with Jesus, but with his presence.

So last Sunday we talked about the beginning of the church and we uh spoke about Matthew.

Matthew was written so the Jews would know that Jesus was the Messiah.

And by chapter 15, they pretty much knew that Jesus was the Messiah by all the miracles and everything that they did.

By chapter 16, Jesus asked them in a place uh in the bottom or at the foothills of Mount Horeb, and he asked the disciples, Who do people say that I am?

And they said, Well, some say that you're a prophet, others say that you are that you are a teacher, and and all this stuff that you know they're saying.

And Jesus said, Wait a minute, what do you say that I am?

Who do you say that I am?

And then Peter made a statement.

You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Now, in the place where there are so many different religions surrounding them, he professed and he made a statement.

Now, after he made that statement, Jesus said, You truly said the truth, and this truth has been revealed to you, not by your own understanding, but by God the Father.

And Jesus began protecting that statement, because that statement is where the church stands.

So today I would like to look at the word protecting and talk about some of the things that we like to protect.

What are some of the things that we like to protect?

Oh, okay.

I I I heard a phone.

Because they're expensive nowadays.

What else?

Family.

I heard girlfriend.

Children, yes.

What else?

Pants, pants, pants, pants, pants, sorry.

What else?

Friends, yes.

What else do do we tend to protect?

I'm sorry?

Hope.

Home.

Man, I'm having a an accent with my hearing today.

The parents and grandparents.

Is is that what you said?

Yeah, okay, okay.

Great.

Grandparents.

Yeah, what else?

What else do we tend to protect?

Privacy.

What else we tend to protect?

Health.

Yes.

We want to protect our health.

Sleep.

That was a that's a good one.

We want to protect our sleep.

Ooh, our country, yes.

What else?

Neighbors.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Our church.

Bank account.

Ooh, that's a good one.

Reputation.

And then and and I heard treasure.

Treasure.

Alright, so today, and these are good.

We we have we have a good beginning.

But these are things that we tend to protect.

Because these are important to us.

These are things that we give value to.

These are things that we tend to not only protect, but we take tend to sometimes even focus on.

Now, today as we talk about the word of God, we're going to be looking at the passage just following this special moment where Peter shared with Jesus that he was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

And as he says that, uh Jesus continues speaking.

And then we're going to hear what he talks about, how we are to approach our life and our relationship with him.

If you'd stand with me and open your Bibles to the book of Matthew, and we will continue.

We finished in Matthew chapter 16, verses 20.

Matthew 16:20

We'll continue today with verse 21 as we continue to see what the Lord has in store for us today.

Thus say the word of the Lord.

From that time on, 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.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Never, Lord, he said, This shall never happen to you.

Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, you're a stumbling block to me.

You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely the merely human concerns.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for me will find it.

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

I truly tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

Father in heaven, I thank you for the joy we have in being in your presence, in hearing your word, in learning and in growing.

And today, as we look at this passage, I pray, Father, that you would transform our hearts, that you would lead us, and that you would overwhelm us with your presence.

That as we leave this place, we can leave not only knowing that we have spent time with you, but that you have prepared us to be missionaries all over the world.

And we pray this and we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

We find in this passage the first time that Jesus speaks about his own death, the first time that he pretty much tells them that he will die, that he will suffer.

Now, I I have three wonderful children, and if my children would suffer, if I knew that they were going to a place where they would suffer, if I knew that they were going to a place where they would be hurt, where they would be chastised, where they would be rejected, I don't believe that I would be very happy with that.

I think I would defend, I would protect my children because that's what we do.

We want to protect them and we want to take good care of them.

So when Jesus says, I will go back to Jerusalem where I will suffer and where I will die, Peter, the very protective, started wanting to protect Jesus.

And what he just said a few moments before, you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and he was hailed by Jesus.

He now says, No, you cannot do this.

We're here to protect you.

That will not happen.

Now Jesus is saying, No, get behind me.

And he uses the term, get behind me, Satan.

Now he wasn't calling Peter Satan, he wasn't calling Peter the devil.

He was just saying, the things you are saying are tempting.

The things that you are mentioning are tempting.

So get behind me, just so I am focused on what I need to do.

And sometimes in our zeal, in our attempt to protect, and we tend to protect all these things, we can fail to recognize what Jesus was teaching.

And what Jesus was teaching is that the kingdom of God arrives through surrender.

The kingdom of God arrives through surrender.

It is through surrender that Jesus died naked on a cross.

It is through surrender that Jesus has let go of a very, very powerful life and existence, just so he would die and we would have our sins forgiven.

It is through the surrender that Jesus has done amazing and great things.

But what Jesus is telling them is that unless they surrender themselves, unless they deny themselves, unless they deny their desires and their journeys and their hopes and their dreams, they cannot follow him.

So instead of Jesus saying that they are or they have to protect, Jesus is asking us, and you know what I'm gonna put here.

Because unless we surrender the things that are important to us, he cannot be the center of our lives, he cannot be everything to us, he cannot be Lord to us, and we find that the key word in this passage is not even deny, he says deny and pick up the cross.

Now the cross is the word Sauros, and Saurus in Greek means a stake, a cross, and and when he spoke that word, the people that heard that word for the first time, the disciples that heard that word, in their mind came a very, very gruesome image of people who had been crucified by the Romans, the most vile people who would who would nail someone to a tree, to a stake, and then let them bleed out to death until their body gives up.

Gruesome, absolutely, absolutely terrifying image.

But before they were nailed, before they were taken to that stake, before they were nailed into that cross, they were dragged through the cities, carrying the cross where they were going to die, to be nailed in humiliating fashion, sometimes even naked, and people would call them names.

You criminal, you deserve the cross, you are worth nothing, and they surrender everything, their privacy, they lost control over everything on their way to death.

So when Jesus saying, pick up your cross, he's not saying that you know you just wear a nice little uh necklace with a cross.

He's saying you pick up your cross.

Because once you pick up your cross, you lose control over everything.

You are completely a new.

Pick up your cross and follow me.

Now, sometimes we use that term.

Oh, it is my cross to bear.

Now, I'm a parent, and my kids have crosses they have to bear.

Slow Wi-Fi, you know, phones three, four generations older than the newer phones.

You know, uh sometimes uh we we have we have crosses that we have to bear.

And and I hear a lot a lot of people saying, ah, and I just have this cross to bear.

It's this inconvenience in my life.

This is not an inconvenience that Jesus was speaking about.

He's speaking about this cross, which is the things that we hold dear, which is the things that we want to control, is the things we want to protect, and Jesus is saying, Give them to me, I will take care of them, and you follow me, because then your focus are not on things, are on me.

And that will change the way we look at this passage.

Because Jesus, after he spoke a confession, and then he went and started to correct Jesus, saying, No, no, you shouldn't be saying things like that.

Jesus turned all that and saying, You have to surrender, you have to deny and follow me.

So to surrender ourselves, just so he will be glorified.

And then the world will recognize through our surrender to Jesus that we are not like the world.

Because the world wants more, the world wants more things for us to hold.

The world really celebrates those that get the most toys.

The world really celebrates those that have the influence, that have the power.

The world celebrates those that have successes, the world celebrates those that have everything.

But Jesus celebrates those who surrender.

Jesus celebrates those who are faithful.

Jesus celebrates those who deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow him.

So the kingdom arrives through surrender.

And this is all upside down.

This is all upside down because the world does not celebrate us losing control.

By the contrary, the more control you have, the more celebrated you'll be.

So what are we seeking to be celebrated about?

Are we seeking the world to give us a lot of accolades?

Are we seeking the Jesus that we love, that is our Lord, to say good and faithful servant?

So that comes out of surrender.

That comes out of the moment that we say, Lord, I don't want to worry about all these things.

I don't want to focus on these things, I want to focus on you.

So when we surrender, we let go.

I love revenge movies because there's like a sense of justice.

So when I watch The Gladiator, and at the end he finally gets to the Emperor and he's able to kill him, I was like, yes! I should never celebrate someone's death, but it was justice.

He deserved it.

Or when I watched the movie Taken, or when I went when I watched um other movies, you know, like The Count of Monte Cristo.

Oh, phenomenal, phenomenal.

If you've never seen that movie, it's like one of the best revenge movies ever.

And he got his revenge.

And I love watching a revenge movie.

And why do I like revenge movies?

Because there's that sense of justice.

Because in our world, there's no justice.

The bad people get everything, the good people get in trouble.

So a revenge movie is just something I was like, yes.

You guys avenged.

And I think part of the reason why I like revenge movies is because I don't think I would do it.

I'm being honest.

It's not in me to get back at someone.

It's not in me to to just really go and let go of everything that's good just so I can feel good about having some sort of a distorted sense of justice.

I probably could even say the reason why I like revenge movies is because it's not like me.

But I like them because there's that sense that the person that's doing the revenge has all the control.

And that's the complete difference of what Jesus is doing.

So he's asking us to surrender.

So when we surrender, we begin to embrace what he has in store for us.

Christianity is not how Jesus can make my life better, how Jesus can can make me happier, how Jesus can make me more fulfilled, but it's about how can Jesus be my everything?

How can my life be his?

It's not for my benefit, it's for his benefit.

It's not by for my benefit, it's not what I can gain out of Christianity.

And a lot of people talk about Christianity to other people as oh, you should be a Christian because Christians are happy.

You should be a Christian because Christians have a church family, you should be a Christian because Christians you know know the Bible.

You should be a Christian because Christians go to heaven.

All these benefits that people have.

What if we told people you should be a Christian because Jesus wants your soul?

What if you be a Christian because Jesus is everything?

What if you want to know about Jesus who is my everything?

And yes, if you become a Christian, you will suffer great things in this world.

Yes, if you become Become a Christian, you will be denied.

Yes, if you become a Christian, you'll be rejected.

You'll be looked down on.

Being a Christian is not what I can gain from it, it's what Jesus Christ can be in me and through me.

Do I have an amen on that?

And it's so hard for us to let go, to surrender of our hearts and say, God, I really, really want you to be my God, but I really like the accolades.

I really like what I am or what I can be.

Peter did not fully understand what the Messiah meant.

But when he did, his life was changed.

And when the and when Jesus ascended into heaven, which they were, they lived to see him ascending into heaven and building the kingdom, they began going to the church.

And the persecution came.

And the persecution spread the church.

And the persecution made weeded out those who were just nominal Christians to those who truly believed, who truly surrendered.

And many became Christians, and many died.

And all the disciples.

But John died.

Unnatural deaths.

That's what I'm gonna call it.

With the exception of John.

But that's not for you, and that's not for lack of trying.

It's just they had a couple of unsuccessful poisonings and so forth.

But they all suffered and gave their life for the one faith that they had.

And even today, in 2025 World Watch List, they said there's 300 and million Christians who are persecuted today.

Out of those, 176,000 have been killed a year.

That means that 482 die a day.

That's one per three minutes.

And while you listen to this message, about ten Christians are dying for their faith.

That's sobering, isn't it?

In this world, we still have people being persecuted for their faith.

But I'm not sure if I could be one of those ten that are gonna die today because I have so much to live for.

So what is the word telling us to do today?

The world is telling us to surrender.

That's it.

A middle-aged woman had a heart attack, and while she uh uh was on the operating table, uh, she she died and saw an angel.

And the angel told her, It's not your time yet.

You still have another 30, 40 years to live.

And she came back to care of their heart, and and she knew she had another 30 or 40 years to live, and she was so happy about it.

She said, You know what?

If I'm gonna live another 30 or 40 years, I may uh I may as well earn it.

So she decided to have plastic surgery so she could look better.

She decided to have liposection, she decided to to dye her hair and and just become a beautiful woman who lived for another 30 or 40 years.

And when she left the hospital, she was hit by an ambulance.

And again, the angel showed up and she said, Wait a minute, you told me that I was gonna live another 30 or 40 years.

And the angel's like, Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you.

That is how we surrender.

Because if we surrender to the will of God, if we surrender to the natural way of his way, then it's not about us.

It's about making our life making sense, it's about making our life leaving a legacy where others are going to see us fully surrender.

Because when we surrender, then things will change.

Because once we surrender, then we have at the center of our life, then our focus is not on all this, which is important, our focus are on Jesus, our eyes are on Jesus, He is our life, He is our life.

We're not trying to protect, we're not trying to, we focus on Jesus and He will take care of everything else.

We follow Jesus.

So when we surrender our life, when we surrender our soul, when we surrender ourselves, our will, then He will take care of it.

So the word deny is a parnomai, which means deny utterly and means to disown.

It's something that I'm saying, I do not own this anymore.

I am going to relinquish, I'm going to let go of the ownership on this.

I do not control a relationship, I do not have an ownership, I do not have anything to do with this anymore.

And this word deny, it's the same, and and I have to go back to my notes.

I'm sorry, I did not memorize that.

The word apart naomi.

This word aparnaomi is the same word, and a few chapters later, when Jesus turns to Peter, do not say that, because even tonight you will apart naomi, my name, three times.

Powerful statement from the Bible.

Because when Jesus says, deny yourself, he denied Jesus three times.

And he denied Jesus after he said, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

But when his life was in peril, when his life, when he was scared, when Jesus went into the cross, when he had no idea what else to do, what else to go, then he denied Jesus three times.

The one, the same person that said you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, was the one that says, I do not know him three times.

What does that say to us?

That unless we surrender, unless we surrender our fears, unless we surrender everything, Jesus cannot be in the center.

And that's why it's so important that we recognize that to deny is to relinquish ownership on anything and just have ownership on Jesus Christ.

So when we talk about to belong, when we talk about to become, and when we talk to build, it's not about us, it's not about our church, it's not about the future, it's about the relationship that we have in making disciples because that's what we were called to do.

Because it said, Go into the world, making disciples into the nations.

Go and make disciples.

So once we surrender, we recognize the kingdom.

What are we living for?

What to believe?

What are what are you wanting out of life?

Are you just wanting happiness?

Are you just wanting to have a good retirement, uh, a comfortable life?

You just want to have something that that you're able to leave for your children?

What is that you want out of your life?

And if we stop for a moment and ask the same question, what is it that Jesus wants from my life?

Are the answers the same?

Are the answers of what I want for my life and what Jesus wants for my life the same?

Because if they're not the same, then I'm not sure he is in the center.

If they're not the same, maybe we have not wrestled with the ideas.

What is it, Lord, that you truly want out of my life?

Is my life willing to be surrendered completely just so you can be?

If anyone wants to follow, they must deny.

And is this the restoration of the image of God in our lives?

Because once we deny, he begins to build us into the image of God.

Peter wanted a Messiah without a cross, but that's not a Christianity that has been taught.

It's not a Christianity of the Word of God, it's not the Christianity that God has called us for.

The Christianity that He called us for completely relies on His Son Jesus Christ.

In 1903, Jack London wrote a book called The Call to the Wild.

It's the story of St.

Bernard Mix, a dog who lived in the house of a judge and was a very happy dog with a lot of food and everything you could ever want.

But he was stolen and sold into Yukon, Canada to be a sled, um, a sled dog.

He was mistreated and and he had a really, really, really rough life.

And Buddy ended up, um, I'm sorry, Buck ended up having having a really, really difficult life.

And every time he would push that sled, he would look into the into the Canadian forests and long, and he heard the wolves and he longed to go into those forests.

And one day uh he uh was uh very tired because he wasn't um well taken care of and wasn't fed well, and he was being pushed by by his owners, and the man named Thornton uh stopped him and said, Let me take care of you.

And he told the owners, uh, if you continue to go, the the ice is very thin and you're gonna die.

And the owners ignored it, but he kept Buck.

And then the owners left, and sure enough, the ice was was thin, they all died.

So Buck now had a loving owner, someone who'd take care of him, someone who love him, someone who would fed him.

They gave him the freedom for him to run and roam.

And every so often he would look at those forests and go and make friends with the wolves and make friends with the wilderness.

And he always felt this call to the wild, but he would come back to the loving and dedication of Thornton.

One day he spent a few days at the wild with his wolf friends, and he came back and he saw that Thornton was dead, was killed by the Indians.

So Buck went and killed the Indians and decided he wanted nothing to do anymore with men or with the society and went into the wild for good now because the wild was calling him, and now he was the head of the pack of wolves.

Many times in our lives we we live in a very, very destructive world, a world that is just filled with pain, with suffering, and we find Jesus, and when we find Jesus, we find the love that we always wanted.

When we find a family, a church family that can love us, and then we grow with them, we embrace them.

But the world is always calling.

But sometimes there's there's disappointment, sometimes there's there's situations that happen in our lives, and sometimes there are things that even happen in church that make us think, you know what?

The world's call is too strong.

So we answer the call of the world rather than answering the call of Jesus.

Because in the world we can control all this, and we want to control it, but Jesus is calling because when we are with him, he will take care of us, and that's the call that we have today, the call to follow him.

So this week I have a question.

If I completely surrender my life to Jesus, what could he do with it?

If I completely let him take my life, my desires, if I let him be the center of my life, what can he do with that life?

How amazing would the world be?

So I have a challenge, and the challenge is identify one thing you've been protecting.

We already talked about a few things today, but there may be something that you are protecting, and you're holding a a hold that is so tight on that thing that you're not allowing Jesus to take care of it.

You're not letting Jesus completely take care of that.

Identify one area and surrender.

One area of your life that that you don't know the future, one area of your life that is unknown, and just saying, God, it's yours.

I'm gonna relinquish control, I'm gonna deny it.

I'm going to take out the ownership, and I'm gonna let you take care of that.

And then if there is someone that you've been working with, your one, the one person you want to talk, ask, Lord, what is that I'm afraid of talking with that person about you?

What is stopping me for truly thing?

The thing that I am most afraid is Jesus to ask me to surrender.

What is the thing that I'm mostly afraid to ask Jesus to surrender?

So this week, as you go, ask, Lord, what in me?

What is something that I'm trying to protect that you don't take full control yet and give it to him?

I'd like to ask the worship team to come forward.

I don't know where you are on your journey with Jesus Christ.

Maybe this is something that that you've been thinking, then your life is just in such a chaos that Jesus maybe is not the center, but you really want to have Jesus in the center, and the Bible is very clear that if we feel that Jesus is not the center, all we have to do is to confess, is to surrender, right?

And he is just and you'll forgive.

And upon the forgiveness, he would give us a new life, and this new life is a life with him.

So do not leave today without knowing that Jesus is fully the center of your life.

Father in heaven, I thank you for this word.

I thank you that the disciples heard this word and they they pass it on to us that we may know that the only way we can truly be faithful, the only way we can truly be yours is if we deny ourselves, pick up the cross and follow you.

Three things very simple.

But let our denial be one that is completely surrendered.

Let our cross be picked up because we believe you are worth it, and may our following you be faithful each day of our lives.

So be with us, that you may glorify a glorified.

And we ask this thing in your son, Jesus Christ's name.

Amen.

As it is known in our community, Northwest Church is committed to discovering your life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, with inspired worship and intentional ministry.

People from all walks of life are welcome and received as familiar numbers.

Our family is diverse, multicultural, and also not perfect in love with Jesus.

Join us online at NWNAC.org.