Matthew pt. 62

You can turn your Bible to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

We're turning a corner in Matthew today and I'll, I'll

show you how. I'll show you why here in a

moment where in Matthew chapter 16 you're gonna be looking for

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

verse 21. We're going to go verses 21

through 28 today. So remember our moment, remember

our context. Jesus was just telling the

disciples he had taken them to Caesarea Philippi Pagan place,

filthy demon worship going on all over the place.

Jesus takes his young disciples there.

They're probably going, we've never been here.

This isn't the kind of town mom and Dad would want us to visit.

And Jesus is saying, you see all this, I'm going to build my

Kingdom, I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell

won't prevail against it. I know you boys have been

intimidated by this kind of thing.

I want you to know I'm dominant over everything and nothing can

stop me or my Kingdom. Also, Peter confesses that Jesus

is Lord. He confesses that Jesus is the

Christ. So this is a monumental moment.

Jesus said that's what I'm going to build my church on.

I'm going to build my church on that revelation.

So we talked about how our Catholic brothers and sisters

interpret that differently. We talked about the reasons that

that can't be the case, though. We explained why it can't be

Peter's establishment as the head of the entire church.

Because moments later, as you're going to see today, Peter is

rebuked by the Lord Jesus Christ and he's called Satan.

There's a number of reasons for that, but what is Jesus saying

he's going to build his church on?

Peter very much was a pillar in the early church.

We're not as ashamed of that. We're we're thankful for that,

but we recognize it's the revelation and it's the

confession. It's the confession and the

revelation that Jesus is Lord. Jesus said, I'm building my

church that way through that confession and through that

revelation you, you have understanding of who Christ is

and you confess who Christ is. Jesus said that's how the church

is going to be built through that revelation and through that

confession. So Jesus encourages his

disciples. And now in verse 21, from that

time on, so we needed to know what our context was because

verse 21 tied us back into it. What just happened?

He said this to his guys at Caesarea Philippi.

He explained to them what was going on.

Peter has this revelation. He makes this confession.

Jesus congratulates it. He says the gates of hell won't

prevail against the church that I'm building.

And from that time on, verse 21, Jesus began to show his

disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things

from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be

killed, and on the third day be raised.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far

be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

But he turned to Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, you are a

hindrance to me. For you are not setting your

mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what would it profit a man if he gains his whole soul?

If he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Oh, what would a man give in return for his soul?

For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in glory,

in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person

according to what He has done. Truly, I say to you, there is

some standing here who will not taste death until they see the

Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.

God, I pray that you would anoint the preaching of Your

word. I pray that you would anoint me

this morning so that I would speak with clarity, that I would

speak with Your direction for your flock.

Your word is always true, Your word is always perfect, Your

word is always good. And still You'll minister to

this particular flock exactly as they need it.

They're hungry for you. They want your direction, they

want your wisdom, they want your revelation, and they want to

walk in more obedience to you. Lord, show us Jesus and help us

to follow Him closely as He commands, as He invites, as He

welcomes. We thank you for it in Jesus

name. Amen.

Champ, can you mute me just for one moment?

Spared y'all a little bit of grossness there.

Alright, so in verse 21 I said we're turning a corner now

there's a shift, there's a turn in Jesus's ministry.

We're now going into really the final act of the play.

If the if the whole thing is had, call it three acts.

This is the third act and everything is going to start

coming to its conclusion from this moment forward.

Jesus is saying, and now my eyes are on the hill of Golgotha.

Now my eyes are on the cross. It's time to finish my mission.

He came, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and He lived a life

that was holy and righteous and perfect.

And then about 3 years ago or so, he started this public

ministry. There was a moment in Matthew

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 where there was a shift.

And it said from that time forth, Jesus began to declare

the Kingdom of God and to command all to come to

repentance. So that was the season of

ministry, and it was the preaching and the teaching and

the healing. That's what Jesus did, preaching

and teaching and healing. That was the priority.

That was the focus. He's still going to do some of

that here in the third act, but the primary focus of the third

act is going to be Jesus's momentum.

And he's saying I'm going to finish what I came to do.

The whole purpose was that I came to die.

Did he also reveal the will of the Father?

He most certainly did. If you want to know what God is

like, look at Jesus. Jesus is perfect theology.

So he reveals the will of God towards people.

And still he he does that perfectly by going all the way

to the cross. This is the shift and this is

the turn. He's just made that point about

the gates of hell won't stop him.

They won't stop his Kingdom. They won't stop his people.

And now he shifts his ministry focus to emphasize suffering, to

emphasize death, and to emphasize resurrection.

It's an unexpected thing to come out of his mouth.

But notice he tells his disciples from this time on.

And he starts to do it repeatedly.

I'm going to be killed. I'm going to die on a cross, and

I'm going to be raised on the third day.

Doesn't it make it that much more wild that after he dies,

they're all like, well, it's all over?

Isn't it crazy? I mean, you and I, I always tell

myself if I was there, I would have believed the Lord.

I mean, these guys cast out demons.

These guys healed the sick. Maybe they raised the dead as

well. But Jesus most certainly raised

the dead. All this miraculous stuff, They

saw thousands of people fed. They saw Jesus do incredible

mighty works. And he's saying everything's

going according to plan. Everything's going according to

plan. I'm going to be killed and I'll

be raised from the dead. But it's been hilariously said

by some pastor when when Jesus was raised from the dead, they

weren't standing there with, you know, welcome back Jesus signs.

They were hiding. They were waiting, they were

saying, and then when the women came and said he's been raised,

they said, I'm not so sure. I don't know about that.

I don't know if this is really right.

Is it true? It's too it's too good to be

true. It's too good to believe what a

wild thing unbelief can be for them and for all of us.

But Jesus is preparing them and training them and establishing

that this is the way of the Kingdom.

It's funny to look at Peter. You know, everybody loves Peter

because he's just so human. He's just like all of us and

he's got the highs and he's got the lows.

He's got the moments of Lord, I will, I will stand by you

forever. And he pulls his sword out,

remember in the garden and he goes to kill the guy he misses

and only cuts off his ear. Peter wasn't that precise that

he was like, I just want to nip your ear off.

He said, no, it's time to go to war.

There's like 600 soldiers there in the garden.

Peter's like it's go Time Lord. And then only a few hours later,

he denies the Lord of glory multiple times.

I don't know him. I swear to God, he says, calls

down curses on himself and blasphemes to emphasize and

separate himself from Jesus. And now look what Peter's just

done. You are the Lord.

You are the Son of the living God.

And Jesus says, that's right, Peter, flesh and blood hasn't

revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven has.

And moments later Jesus says, now I've got to go to the cross

and die. And Peter rebukes the Lord of

glory and gets called Satan by him in the process.

Look how fast we can act in faith and then get into the

flesh. Have you ever been there?

I'm a mighty man of God. And then moments later I'm going

man. I thought I was a mighty man of

God. Well, the, the, the spirit is

willing, but the flesh is weak. So we want to continue in

faithfulness to renew our minds and we want to continue to lest

anyone, if you, if you think that you stand, if you think

that you're standing firm, take heed lest you fall.

So that's the warning to the strong in Christ.

Praise God for strength. Take heed lest you fall because

that can become a slippery and tempting thing all in itself.

Because now as I begin to get strengthening, hey, I'm putting

quite a streak together here. Careful pride is the next thing

that's about to Take Me Out as I begin to brag on my

accomplishment instead of the grace of God working in me and

through me. It keeps me humble and before

the throne and saying God, anything in me that's good is

from you. You are the vine, I am the

branches. From this time forward, he began

to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem.

So he shows them. This means more than just

telling this word implies that he was explaining and revealing

it to them. Most likely with the Scriptures.

Jesus is going through the Old Testament and saying, hey, the

Messiah has to suffer. The Messiah has to experience

these things. He has to go through these

things. But their unbelief and their

unrenewed minds had other expectations that would not

submit to what the Scriptures taught.

Or specifically Peter in this case.

How often have you been there? No amount of explanation is the

thing that's needed to persuade you because you're refusing to

believe. When God promises the things

that I want, I'm eager to trust. Hallelujah, that's mine.

I receive it now, but when he promises death, it's easy for me

to respond like Peter does. No, no, no.

Lord, let me tell you how your Kingdom works.

But that's not how God's Kingdom works.

You don't tell the king anything.

The king tells you everything. That's what ultimate authority

is like. We were talking yesterday,

Hudson and Natalie and I, about our government and the three

branches of government, the structures, and Hudson was

asking questions. We're saying no, that's how it

works with the king. King has ultimate authority.

King is every branch of government.

It's whatever he says, goes. That is a form of governance

that still exists in certain places in the earth.

Thankfully, it exists over the entire earth.

Jesus is King over all. But it's easy to want my own

way, just like Peter does. No, no, Lord, that's not the way

we should wrap this thing up. That's not the way we should do

this. I like the thing you were just

saying moments ago. Jesus, the gates of hell won't

prevail against your Kingdom. Peter's going.

Yeah. And Jesus goes.

And now it's time for me to go die on a cross at the hands of

the Romans and the Pharisees. Peter going.

That was a plot twist. I was not ready for it.

No, no, no. Lord, now's the time for you to

take over the world. Come on, Lord, we're I'm with

you, Jesus, let's take over the world.

Let's destroy the Romans and let's establish your Kingdom all

over the earth. And Jesus saying, Peter, you're

not hearing me. That's exactly what we're about

to do, buddy. That's exactly what we're going

to do. We're going to take over the

entire world. Global domination was always the

plan of King Jesus. It's just not the way that man

thinks about global domination, to put somebody under your boot

and to force them. Jesus is going to change the

thing that no man can change. He's going to change the hearts

of man. Jesus, Saint Peter, I'm actually

going to rescue my enemies. You want me to kill my enemies,

but I'm the God who comes to die for my enemies.

So this is the revelation of the cross that the disciples still

don't have yet, that you and I still have to gain wisdom and

understanding. And we need our minds renewed,

and we need revelation to see the goodness of God's ways in

all of his perfection. But we've been there.

But look at this human moment where Peter wants Jesus to get

with Peter's program. Instead of submitting to Jesus's

program, he took him aside, rebuked him.

Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

But he turned to Peter and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan.

You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your

mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

What a stiff and firm rebuke. Satan, remember, has already

presented this temptation to Jesus.

Remember earlier when Jesus was in the wilderness after his

baptism, Satan came to Jesus and he said, hey, he showed him.

The scripture says he showed him all the kingdoms of the earth.

We don't know how that worked or how it happened, but Satan

showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.

And he said, if you will just bow down and worship me, I'll

give you all the kingdoms of the earth, for they were delivered

unto me. Remember, this is a temptation.

If this was a full outright lie, there wouldn't be a temptation

in it, right? If Satan didn't have some sort

of temporary jurisdiction over the kingdoms of the earth, then

that would be a stupid thing to try and tempt Jesus with.

Hey Jesus, here's the kingdoms of the earth.

They're mine, but I'll give them to you.

Jesus didn't say they're not yours.

He didn't say that. So why are they Satan's?

Remember, because of the fall, because Adam was the, we'll call

him the lowercase God, the ruler of this earth.

Well, in his treason against God, he defers to his enemy.

And Satan has now this, this temporary jurisdiction and this

temporary authority, which is why we see the brokenness, the

decay, the perversion, the wickedness, the unrighteousness

and the filth and the earth, because Satan has a limited

amount of influence. Now the Kingdom is broken in and

the Kingdom continues to break in and it is the mustard seed

that keeps on growing and eventually is going to take over

everything through you, through I as we make disciples for his

name and for his glory. But Satan tempted, Jesus said,

I'll give you everything if you'll just bow down and worship

me. And of course Jesus answered him

with the word of God. He said you shall worship none

other than the Lord your God. So Satan influenced Peter in

this situation, this same temptation.

Hey, skip the cross. He's going to, he's going to

come to tempt Jesus again in this way.

He's saying, skip the cross and just take over the world.

Do it a different way. I'll hand it to I'll hand it off

to you in an easier way. But of course then he wouldn't

be qualified to be our sacrifice and our Savior.

What's interesting is that the Lord is far more focused here on

his own obedience than he is concerned about how Peter might

feel about what Jesus has to say.

To Peter. Jesus's conviction is about

Jesus's obedience. He's not being harsh with Peter

for the sake of being harsh. Jesus is being harsh for the

sake of his own faithfulness. The temptation is real.

Jesus was tempted, but without sin.

He never sinned once, not in his mind, not in his actions, and no

part of his life. But he was tempted in every way,

as we are. The scripture says so you have

felt temptation. It's often been described as the

difference between you can't stop a bird from flying over

your head, but you can stop a bird from building a nest in

your hair. One is to welcome, to invite and

to meditate on. The other is to go, hey, get out

of here, You're not welcome, man.

That was a close call. But no, I'm not.

I'm not letting it participate. Why?

Because we have control of our minds.

We have power over ourselves, which is why the Lord is right

and just to hold us accountable, to reward and to punish.

But Jesus was tempted. So Jesus is being harsh, but

it's so important to understand He's not harsh for the sake of

harshness. He's harsh for the sake of His

own faithfulness and for his all important mission.

He is guarding himself from the temptation.

That's the reason for the harshness.

Did he, did you have to say it that way?

Yes, I did, for my sake. I had to have that kind of

aggressive attitude and perspective.

This is a deliberate temptation on Peter's part.

I want you to understand this is not always applicable.

You should not always use the Get Behind Me Satan line when

somebody cuts you off in traffic.

It's not the same and I'll explain to you why.

That's apples and oranges. This is not the same thing as

Peter just living his life and annoying Jesus in the process

and requiring Jesus to exercise patience.

This is different. This isn't someone just living

their life annoying you in the process, requiring you to

exercise patience. Lord, help me today not to slap

somebody. Well, you might need the Lord's

help not to slap somebody. It's not a terrible prayer to

pray. We could probably do better than

just not slapping folks. But it's if that's your starting

point, we'll take it. But this is someone deliberately

personally calling you to sin. Peter's deliberately and

personally, he's heard of Jesus obedience and he says, no, Lord,

don't do that. It's not the same thing as

somebody minding their own business, being sinful, being

obnoxious and maybe in some way enticing you.

But this is a very direct call. This is me going to Chris and

telling Chris explicitly to disobey God in a plain spoken

way. In that moment, Chris should

absolutely say get behind me Satan, get behind me, Satan,

because in that moment I have become Satan's instrument.

I have become Satan's minister in that moment and I'm working

against my brother. I'm working against the will of

God for his life. So anytime you experience that

kind of temptation where somebody is saying do this, then

it is right and appropriate to have a strong and response.

They might be offended. You should guard your own soul

like it's the most important thing you've got, because it is.

Let their feelings be damned, rather than your soul be damned

for all eternity. So this is the harshness that

Jesus is using. Our Lord was ruthless when he

faced temptation. We fail when we're tempted, not

because the temptation is too much for us to bear, but because

we have not predetermined to kill it before it ever arrives.

Many of us wait for the bird to come and go.

What's this guy doing? Interesting.

Perhaps I'll watch for a moment. That is the attitude that

eventually will have a nest built in your hair.

This is the concept between the enemy having a foothold.

There's a starting point where he's made some aggressive

military action in your mind, and then there's a stronghold

where you've allowed him to build an entire castle.

So imagine you've got your castle established here out in

the middle of out in the middle of this Kingdom, and an enemy

comes out in this. Multi acre field out in front of

your castle. And he just, he's just standing

there. Are you threatened?

Doesn't seem like much of A threat at all.

He's just hanging out like, OK, what are you doing here?

We ought to kill you. Get out of here.

Are you stupid? But he brings a few friends and

they just, they just pitch 110. A couple of your enemies are now

in this lawn in front of your castle like there's no threat.

It's a bit of a joke. I mean, everybody in the castle,

like you also have the gates open.

People are still buying and selling and trading and

traveling. It's just these, these four or

five goofballs are out there. I think there's a few more now.

It might be seven or eight. Yeah.

But I mean, it's just they're not hurting anything.

Like there's no, there's no real threat here.

And I begin to get more comfortable and I begin to get

more comfortable and I begin to get more comfortable.

And over time, eventually there's another castle over

there. There's a there's a stronghold

now and there's a real offensive weapon system that's been built

over there. And next thing I know, my

castle's coming apart and going, how did this happen?

Lord, where are you? If only the Lord would deliver

me from this evil. Well, he will because he's so

good to us and he rescues us from all of our stupidity.

And God, contrary to popular belief, he helps those who can't

help themselves. He helps those who won't help

themselves, but if they will come to the cross in repentance,

then yes, God will come through and deliver from all kinds of

evil. But the time to deal with

temptation, the best time to pull the weed is right away.

It's the tiniest thing, and I go, now's the moment.

You've done it in your flower bed, you've done it in rock

gardens. Now's the time to get it.

Not later. Now when there's a root system

that destroys everything, you want to go pull that tree up.

You're going to have a hard time.

The best time to pull up something that's not wanted as

quickly, deliberately, specifically, and Jesus does the

same thing. We've got to have that same

attitude when we submit to temptation and we sin, It's not

because it was impossible for us to be victorious over it.

It's because we had some kind of tolerance for our tempter, the

kind of tolerance that you see Jesus has none of got some sort

of patience with this thing. Let me think on that for a

moment. Then it's over.

Then the rest is history. The moment I begin to tolerate

in my mind is the moment I'm in great danger. 1st Corinthians

1013 says no temptation has overtaken you.

That is not common to man. He's saying you haven't

experienced any temptation that everybody hasn't experienced.

He's saying you're not special when it comes to sinful

temptations. Oh, for me it's just stop.

It's not you're not special when it comes to sinful temptation

that is to that is intended to encourage you and bring you

relief. There's no temptation has

overtaken you. That's not common to man God

Here the news gets better. God is faithful and he will not

let you be tempted beyond your ability.

What a promise. God won't let John Michael be

tempted. Beyond John Michael's ability to

walk in victory over temptation, that also means every time I've

ever succumbed to temptation in my life, I didn't have to.

That God had delivered an escape for me, and that I chose sin

with my deliberate action and my will.

I did it because I wanted it. Yikes.

Gross. And I liked it when it was just

kind of like it kind of happened to me, right?

Sin just kind of just, it overtook me.

It can't just overtake you. Why?

Because your sovereign God is so big and so strong and so loving

and so mighty that he is faithful and He will not let you

be tempted beyond your ability. Your ability and my abilities

are different. You might be stronger than me in

this area. I might be stronger than you in

that area. Who knows?

The Lord does, I don't have to know.

You don't have to know. But what we know is our God is

faithful. So every temptation that you and

I face in that moment of temptation, when we go, I'm

tempted towards the thing, whatever it may be, I've got

this moment. You got a moment of opportunity

and victory. God is faithful.

The news gets better. He will not let you be tempted

beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also

provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

What an incredible promise. With every temptation you and I

face, God is faithful. So already know the Lord in His

sovereign power has somehow kept this temptation small enough

that I can manage it. It's not too big for me.

It's not an impossibility. Oh, somehow one slipped through

and I'm being attacked by the Lord.

Oh, sorry, John Michael, didn't see that one coming.

Every temptation that John Michael faces is one that the

Lord says, Nope, that's too big for him.

He's not able. He's he.

That is unfair to him and I won't do that.

Satan wants to crush us with everything, of course, but the

Lord is subsiding and saying no. I will only let him handle the

temptations that he can be victorious over.

This is a glorious promise. This is good news for us.

And with every one of those temptations, I will also provide

him a way of an escape so that he can endure it.

Isn't that a good father? Is that what good parents do for

their kids? They need to experience

challenge. We need them to grow up.

We need them to grow in maturity.

But we can't stack weight on them.

That's going to definitively crush them.

So with my sons, I need to put some strain on them.

They don't think they can handle it.

They think it's too much for them.

But I know why, Because I know better.

Because I'm their father and I see things that they don't see,

and I know things that they don't know.

And I've been 16, but they haven't been 40.

And I've been 13 and they haven't been 40 and I've been

nine and they haven't been 40. So I can see.

And now I go, this is this is right.

This is the right amount of weight.

This is the right amount of responsibility.

It's, it's stretching him. It's growing him.

But that's the point. I need my son to grow in

strength. The Lord doesn't provide us with

temptation. The Lord does not tempt us with

evil. Satan tempts us with evil, and

we are tempted because of our own sinful desires.

But the Lord is faithful, and He provides a way of escape.

What is the way of escape? One way is what Peter says to

Jesus here in verse 23. You are not setting your mind on

the things of God, but on the things of man.

To set your mind on the things of God is the answer, not on the

things of man. A mind that is set, a mind that

is fixed, a mind that is grabbed a hold of something will not

easily be pulled away from it. And that's true for better or

worse, right? If I set my mind on the right

thing, you're still going to have a hard time pulling me

away. If I set my mind on the wrong

thing, you're going to have a hard time pulling me away.

I want the Lord's stronghold to be the thing that holds me with

strength instead of the enemies. But to fix your mind on

something instead of drifting, where is your mind?

Well, on Sunday morning, it's fixed on the Lord.

OK, So what about all the other hours in the week?

I'm glad that hour and a half was a solid fixation.

But like, is, is that really the anchor?

Is that really enough? Church service is good.

It's biblical. It's obedience.

But that's not the same thing as being anchored to Christ and

meditating on Him and His Word in His ways.

This is why you should love and know and read your Bible.

This is why you should consume the scriptures and continue to

get your brain changed. You and I are always being

unrenewed by the world we live in, in our own flesh.

We have to take an active obedience to renew our mind and

to change our thinking so that our our thoughts actually do

become, so that God's thoughts actually do become our thoughts.

You must fix your minds on the things of God and not on the

things of man. When we when we set our minds on

the things of God for the temptations that inevitably will

come, what will happen is those temptations will start to feel

foreign instead of feeling friendly.

We have many temptations that feel friendly to us.

They're familiar. We need those to feel foreign.

The only way to get them to feel foreign for them to be strange.

That's a that was weird. That shouldn't have happened.

What's a bird doing in here that's abnormal?

Instead of like, there's birds all over the place and some

people in their mind have birds all over the place.

There's just flocks of birds and they're just used to it, you

know, like, yeah, there's just birds up here all the time, just

flying around. Some of them land.

There's some nests over here, some nests over there.

My friend, I'd like to introduce you to the shotgun.

It's going to be your best friend.

It's the word of God and I just want you to just blast away.

Just start going crazy with the scriptures so that you can clear

the air and you can go, wow, well, this is different.

I can actually see the sky now. I'm actually not being

oppressed. I'm not covered in bird poop.

Like this is objectively better. The Lord is delivering me and

healing me and helping me. And then a bird comes through

and you go, whoa, get out of here.

He's it's the exception instead of the rule.

When we fix our minds on the things of God, our temptations

start to feel foreign. And you can tell they're coming

in from elsewhere. You can feel the arrow being

shot at you. And you go, oh God, you are

faithful. And this temptation is not

something that I'm not able to overcome.

And with this temptation, you have provided a way of escape.

God, I need your strength. I can't do it.

But with you, I can do all things.

You start to pray that prayer every time a bird flies over,

every time temptation comes, you go victory.

Now the rest is history. When we start to live and think

that way, then we'll resist. Then we'll resist the devil with

aggression rather than hear him out with patience.

Keep going In verse 24. Then Jesus told his disciples,

if anyone would come after me. So he's emphasizing and doubling

down on the point he just made. Guys, I'm going to go to the

cross. I'm going to die.

Peter goes, no, no, no, don't do that.

He rebukes Peter and now he turns to all his disciples and

Mark actually tells us he turns to a whole crowd that was there.

So he's not just talking to the 12.

Now this is not like private. Hey, Peter, this is going to be

a bit embarrassing, so I'll just do this privately with you.

He's going, guys, here's what Peter just said.

Let me explain to all of you if anyone would come after me, let

him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

He just upped the ante, didn't he?

He just said I'm going to go die on the cross.

And now he says, and I tell you what, if you want to be my

disciple, you got to follow me. It scared you that I said I'm

going to go die. You have to come die.

This is my invitation to you. If anyone would come after me,

Mr. Nice Guy, Jesus, right? This is him.

So we've been told if anyone would come after me, let him

take up his cross and follow me. That sounds slightly different

from He has a wonderful plan for your life.

Still is a wonderful plan for your life, but it sounds

different from the American message that we used to draw and

invite. What did Jesus use to draw and

invite? Come and follow me.

OK. Well, what'll happen?

You'll take up your cross for anyone who would save his life.

Who's the example he's making up here?

It's Peter. Peter's like.

No, no, don't do that. He's going.

If you want to save your life, you'll lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Well, that's a that's a bit of a brain twister, isn't it?

Of course you and I have 2020 vision.

Looking back over the past two days, we got, I get the whole, I

get it Now. What will it profit a man if he

gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

He continues to make this a teaching moment.

He double s down on his conviction and his point.

He's just been talking about his own death, but now he's raising

the stakes and challenging them about their death.

He does the same thing for you and I Jesus speaks the razor

sharp truth to cut away our weakness and to draw us into

deeper devotion and a closer fellowship.

Remember His motive because if you don't understand His motive,

if you don't look at the whole Jesus, not just the portion that

some people would give us, but when we look at the whole Jesus

of the Bible, we understand He always wants to draw us closer,

but He does it with standards and He does it with

requirements. A husband and wife at the altar,

they're saying I reject all the other the husband saying I

reject all the other women. Why in it in a in an effort to

draw closer to this one. And the wife is saying I reject

all the other men. Why?

For the purpose of drawing in to this one.

Jesus saying there's so much I want to cut out.

You're taking so much from me, Lord, for the purpose of drawing

you in to the to the one treasure.

I mean, Can you imagine my saying now on their wedding day,

man, there's like, it's like 4.5 billion other women out there.

This feels really restrictive. Like, you know, I mean, it feels

like, I feel like if you love me, you'd want me to have

options and freedom, you know, and some variety.

We see the absurdity there. But when it comes to Christ,

it's like, well, can I have both?

And like, so you don't love him then?

No, I do. I just know you don't.

We'd never believe that for a spouse.

We'd never believe it. No, I love her.

I just want to love everybody the same way that I love her.

Like, hey, no one believes you. No one.

Well, I believe it. You, you can believe it all the

way to hell. I'm just telling you no, none of

us are tricked by it. You're tricked, but we're not.

And the same thing happens with the Lord.

Like, well, I love the Lord, but be careful.

Just love the Lord. I love the Lord.

I love the Lord, but I have flesh.

Hey, same. Let's keep crucifying him

because that was his command and that was his invitation.

And thankfully, he's given us a way to overcome it.

But Jesus speaks that razor sharp truth.

Why? To cut away cancer.

To cut away weakness. To cut away and inflamed

appendix. Right.

Jesus cuts all those things away.

Why? To save our lives.

If you hold on to that inflamed appendix, what will happen?

Hudson? I die.

Yeah, you die. That's what happens if you keep

it. I want to keep my appendix the

way it is. Well, you can, but you'll lose

your life. But if you'll come under the

Lord's ministry, the Lord's surgery, deeper devotion and

closer fellowship, your life will actually be saved.

We must prepare our hearts and our minds for faithfulness to

Jesus no matter what. And I've told you before, your

devotion to the Lord, your faithfulness and your deliberate

will to live for Him should not be contingent upon your

geography on the planet earth. That's not how Christianity is

supposed to work. You're supposed to be faithful

to Jesus if you live in Pakistan, no matter what.

You're supposed to be faithful to Jesus if you live in

Hartfield, no matter what. That's what faithfulness to

Jesus looks like. Easy for you and I to say,

because we don't experience any persecution.

I lost my job. Well, did they cook you

literally like other Christians have been?

Or did they boil you alive? Did they flay you on one side

and then flay you on the other? Did they peel the skin off your

body? Pastor, why are you being

graphic? Because I don't know what you're

going to face, but I don't want your convictions to be based

upon your comforts. I want your convictions to be

based upon what Jesus is talking about.

He meant literally death. So I would be doing the Lord a

disservice and you a disservice if I didn't make this plain and

be like, oh, the Lord just wants a spiritual death for us.

Well, yes, that needs to happen. But you know, my the complaint I

often make about other pastors when they come to certain

passages, they're like this verse means this, this verse

means this. And then they come to things

about physical healing and they say this means a spiritual

healing. I'm not going to over

spiritualize the death that Jesus is referencing here.

He does mean that our old life has to die spiritually, it's

true. But he also literally means

physical death. Almost all of his disciples

listening here would die in gruesome ways.

Peter actually when they went to go kill Peter, they went to

crucify him and he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified like my

Lord. And they said, OK, so they

crucified him upside down. So the gruesome experiences that

the church has experienced through the past 2000 years,

whether the Saints were fed to lions or, you know, whether, you

know, just the, the more the more recent ones in the past few

decades or the effects of communism, it's graphic and

there's, there's little ears in here.

But the point is, our hearts need to be steeled to say Jesus,

no matter what, no matter what. Well, I'll do this to your

family. I'll do that to your family.

Well, then that'll be awful. But we're still going to live

forever and we're still going to win.

I will. I will lose my life.

I'll let my family lose their lives.

But we will gain our souls. We will keep our souls.

It was Jim Elliott of a famous Christian martyr who famously

said he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what

he cannot lose. He's saying you're no idiot if

you give up the stuff you couldn't have kept anyway to

gain the thing that you couldn't lose in no matter what.

You look like a fool. Look at these fools following

Jesus, sacrificing now for later.

Oh, we want glory, I want reward.

I want treasures. Jesus doesn't condemn us for

wanting treasures. He says I want you to store up

treasures. Store them up.

It's normal and natural in the heart of man to storm up, but

the fool focuses on storing them up on earth.

The richest man on earth will not be rich if he does.

If he dies without Christ, he will be poor.

He will be suffering, literally in hell and torment.

He gained the whole world. Enjoy it because that's all it

is. Enjoy that, your Kingdom of

dust, because without Jesus it's over and that's it.

But he loses his soul. And what will he give when he

enters hell? What will he give to get his

soul back? You got nothing, Lord.

I'll offer you my what? What do you have that the Lord

needs? The Lord asked for one thing

from us in our time on earth. Love and obedience.

Love me and trust me and walk with me as a child.

Why? Remember, it's all to get back

to the garden. He is restoring what He always

intended. We're in this massive,

beautiful, glorious detour in the middle.

But how does it end? It ends with a family and a

father and a son at a table and a meal and and we live happily

ever after. He is going to establish what he

started. He is going to finish what he

started. We must prepare our hearts and

our minds to faithfulness to Jesus no matter what.

We must prepare our children for faithfulness to Jesus no matter

what. Continue to crucify a wimpy

Christianity and American Christianity out of your mind

and out of your life. A country music Christianity as

I describe it. I like country music.

By the way, Don's a big fan of country music, loves country

music, Not really, but country music Christianity.

It's the, it's the tip my hat to the man upstairs.

You know, it's do my thing on Saturday night, you know, but

I'm going to be in church on Sunday morning.

Lord understands me. It's just made-up hodgepodge.

It's all just the, it's just all just the American perspective of

I like this part of Jesus. I like this part of Jesus.

I like this part of culture. Instead of Lord, your way, your

will and your Kingdom. What is the requirement of

Jesus? Let him deny himself.

That means to disown himself. Man, I was hoping I could disown

somebody I didn't like. That'd be easier.

Man. I would like to disown my, you

know, this person, this family member.

No, you got to disown the person that you like the most.

You got to follow Jesus in the Jesus path.

Jesus denied himself and the disciple is not above the

teacher. So if Jesus needs to deny

himself, you and I will need to do the same.

Not my will, Father, but yours be done.

That's the way of salvation. Lose your life so that you can

actually gain it. What a promise, what a warning.

What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and

forfeits his soul? You and I have heard these

statements before. Take up your cross and follow

me. But I have prayed for you that

you will hear them for the first time with New Year's today.

That they would actually land deeply, that we wouldn't be so

familiar. Yeah.

Yeah. You got to take up your cross

and follow Jesus. He meant literally.

And they knew what they meant when they heard that crucifixion

was something that would have caused those young disciples to

shudder. The cross is a symbol of death.

And Jesus, of course, he's got the most unlikely recruiting

methods. It's not good marketing.

Come and die. Thanks, I'm good.

Well, but he goes on. He gives the whole story.

What's in it for me? Well, eternal life.

Well, I kind of like my life now.

Yeah, but you'll actually lose it if you hold on to it.

Ah, so making following Jesus is the only thing that makes any

logical sense? It makes logical sense.

I know that's not enough to persuade folks.

You need to see his goodness and his glory.

But just logically for a moment, anything else is stupid.

The cross is a symbol of death, for whoever wants to save his

life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will

find it. Jesus is talking about living

your way and going to hell and eternal torment, or killing your

way and going to heaven with pleasure forevermore.

What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and

forfeits his soul? What did he really gain?

Nothing. He only lost.

But the disciples understood the reference to the cross.

When you saw a man carrying a cross because you were forced to

carry your cross to the crucifixion.

The Roman soldiers didn't want to carry your cross.

Come on, man, we got your cross here.

Come on, we'll crucify you on it in a little bit.

Crucifixion was really common. Jesus was not the only person to

be crucified. The Romans executed thousands

upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of

people. There were times where they

would quell a rebellion and they would line the road leading into

a town or a village or a city, and you'd be walking past people

hanging crucified for days because they wouldn't beat them.

They'd just hang them. So these people are going to the

bathroom all over themselves. These people are crying out in

anguish, and you're just walking past as a child.

You're going into this village with your parents and men,

women, children, stripped naked, crucified.

That's the invitation. Pastor.

You're being really detailed. Yeah, because we're missing it

if we don't have the understanding of the context.

I don't intend to shock you, except that Jesus intended to

shock you. Take up your cross and follow

me. If you saw a man carrying a

cross, you knew you were looking at a man who would never come

back here. You knew he would never be

walking back this way ever again.

That man was on his last walk. He's got terror in his heart.

He doesn't want to take one more step.

But the Roman whip pushes him forward, the cross weighs him

down, and he knows he's doomed. He knows he's doomed now,

depending on his eternity, is he really doomed?

Of course. The disciples they welcomed to

death, whether they were boiled or shot with arrows or impaled

or crucified or beheaded. In all the many Saints who have

suffered throughout history, this is not just a figure of

speech. We wear cross jewelry.

I'm fine with that, as long as we remember that the cross is

the invitation to come and die. The cross is a killing place.

So when you saw the man carrying the cross, you knew you were

seeing a man who would never walk back this way again.

That's the invitation of the cross.

Walk this way and never walk back that way again.

Turn from your old life, actually come and die.

You know how much temptation a dead man experiences?

Not much. That's the point that Scripture

makes. I died to sin in our baptism

church. That was what we were being

reminded of. You died to sin.

Now you've been raised with Christ, a new life.

We'll pastor us to experience temptation.

Yes, we still have flesh, but still we actually have the

ability and power in Christ to walk in freedom now and to never

walk back that way again. You and I are given the same

command and invitation. close off every other option like a

bride and groom on their wedding day.

Reject every other path Jesus invites.

Walk with me. Don't look back.

He even says remember Lot's wife from that passage he tells.

He warns everybody and he goes and remember Lot's wife.

That was an interesting tag to just drop on the in there.

What did Lot's wife do? She looked back.

Oh, Sodom. The more I loved it.

The shopping, the brunches, the mimosas, just, I don't know, the

good life. She just loved it.

It was so good. It was so sweet.

She was somebody in that town. She looked back and the Lord

turned her into the pillar of salt, the salt that she should

have been to preserve this place and to be holiness there.

The Lord said, I'll make you what you never were in life.

Remember Lot's wife, we're closing.

Jesus loves you and he does have a wonderful plan for your life.

It's true. And while that is a true

statement, it's an incomplete statement.

It's not the whole truth, and Jesus always told the whole

truth about being his disciple. God does love us.

He does have a wonderful plan for our lives, and that includes

giving us commands like a king. That includes inviting us into

fellowship like a father, and that includes healing us like a

surgeon who will take out the things that are killing us and

calling us to follow Him. Why?

Because he's worth it. Why would anybody do any of

this? Well, because we believe A is

better than B. If you believe Jesus is better

than everything, then it's case closed.

But you've got to keep reminding yourself by looking at Him,

because if you look away, you forget and you start to go,

well, you know, he's a way. No, that's not what he said.

He's an option. That's not what he said.

Well, you know, Son, someday I'm gonna God help you.

Verses 27 and 28, he, he goes on, he says for the Son of Man

is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and

then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

So what's he referencing here in verse 27?

He's saying I am coming back and I am the judge.

Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead.

That means the those who are alive at the moment he returns

and those who have already passed on.

That means those alive in Christ and that means those outside of

Christ. Jesus is the judge of everybody

and everyone will be judged by the Lord.

There's two different judgments though.

So as a Christian, you're going to wait, am I going to be

judged? Well, we will be judged

according to our works, and we will be rewarded according to

our works. The unrighteous, they will be

judged and condemned. They will be judged and

condemned and put away. And then he'll bring his Saints

for judgment and say, you will be judged for reward.

And still he will repay each person according to what he has

done. Verse 28 Truly I say to you, and

now he's being way more specific.

There's some standing here who will not taste death until they

see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.

I believe this is actually a reference to what's about to

happen in in the beginning there chapter 17.

Remember when the scriptures were written, when Matthew wrote

this account of the gospel, he didn't put 17 chapters or

anything. He was just just writing the

whole account. But what I believe Jesus is

describing there like, wait, some of his disciples were

supposed to live until his second coming.

I think what he's referencing is they're going to see me in my

glory. And literally in a few days they

would see him in his glory. They go up on the mountain with

him. They see him transfigured and

they say, Oh my goodness, you know, Moses is here, Elijah's

here and a few of his disciples witnessed that.

So that's, that's what's happening as we finish out this

portion of Scripture. We will all see the Son of Man

in his Kingdom very soon. I don't know if it's three days.

I don't know if it's 50 years, but we're all going to see the

Son of Man very soon. And I'm just sure that just 5

minutes into eternity in heaven, I'm sure that part of his wiping

away every tear will have to be some regret, even for the secure

Saints. I can't.

I don't think you could convince me that I could get on the other

side and not think. Did I give him my all on the on

the on earth? Was I really faithful to you,

Lord? Did I give you my did I did I

wring out myself like a washcloth and give you every

drop that I had inside me? He is going to judge.

He is going to assess, but this is our brief moment that we have

on earth. This is our only chance to make

sure he's pleased on that day. The invitation, the way you're

brought to Jesus, I think often impacts the way you follow

Jesus. There is a a missionary who I

love and follow. He does crusades throughout

Africa. He was a Islamic jihadist as a

young man and I've often heard him share his testimony.

Some of you have heard of him. His name's Christopher Alam, and

he shares about how somebody shared the Gospel with him in

Pakistan when he was a young jihadist.

And he said it was so important this person was telling me about

Jesus, he said, but they so clearly emphasized the

requirements. They didn't just tell me God

loves you. Repeat after me, He said.

They told me the whole truth about no, no, no.

Following Jesus will require you to take up your cross and follow

him, to deny yourself. And I've heard him say the same

thing, that the way you're brought to Christ often impacts

the way you follow Christ. Whereas if you're just told

Jesus loves you, just repeat after me, all right, see you in

heaven. Can the Lord save people that

way? Well, he most certainly has,

absolutely. And if he has saved them, then

they will begin to grow and fruit will begin to manifest and

love for the Lord will continue. But especially in the United

States of America, many people have been deceived by a well

meaning Christian who is like just repeat after me, thinking

that this is like a magic phrase that would accomplish something

without a heart being connected to it.

What was so strong about what Peter did?

It was a revelation that led to a confession, not just an empty

confession. I can teach a bird to say words.

I can teach anybody to repeat after me.

It is a revelation of who Christ is that leads to the confession

of who Christ is. That then right away Jesus

wastes no time saying, and let me explain what it means to be

my disciple. Take up your cross.

Whatever it takes, I'm worth it. Heavenly Father, thank you so

much for Jesus. He is worth everything.

Or we know you value him so much.

We know you love him so much. The love that we have for one

another, the love that we have for the people that we love most

doesn't even compare to the love that you have for your own son.

And we know that you will not let his name be tarnished.

We know that you will not let His death go to waste.

We know that you will not let his suffering be for nothing.

We know that you will require every need to bow and every

tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord.

We know that there is no other way to you, Father, except

through the Lord Jesus. Lord, we ask that you would

bring us into deeper, deeper devotion.

I pray for the Saints who are already in Christ, who already

know you, love you, and follow You, that we would all be drawn

more close and more faithful, That you would help us to not

allow strongholds, to not be tolerant of our enemy, Satan and

his schemes and his attacks. God, help us to trust in your

promise. God, make us quick to believe in

our hearts that you deliver us from evil and that you provide

victory over temptation. Help us to crucify our flesh and

not just in a theoretical way, but that we would all literally

in this room, every St. that we would be willing to die, give up

our body to suffer torment and torture on this earth, to be

faithful to you because you're just worth it.

What is my life? What is my life, God, compared

to yours and compared to the life that you will give.

And Lord, I also pray for those who are obviously seeking for

the, but for those who would say, I don't know that I really

am in his Kingdom. I know I've been close to his

Kingdom. I know I've been around his

Kingdom. If there would be anyone like

that, God, I pray that you would just draw them in right now by

your strength and by your power that they would receive through

their repentance and by faith in Jesus, the forgiveness of sins

and life everlasting. And that with that you would

bring new desire to follow, to trust, to love and to believe,

to be devoted to to join the family of God, to turn from sin

and to take the treasure that is named Jesus.

Lord, thank you for this miraculous work.

Thank you for taking over the world by taking over the hearts

of men. We love you.

We thank you in Jesus name and now the Lord bless you and keep

you. The Lord make his face shine

down upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you great

peace in Jesus name. Amen.

I believe Don and.