Transcript

Let's pray and we'll begin our time in the word.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us life and breath another day. You provide for us everything, that we might live and have our being unto Your glory, that we might heartily serve You another day. Thank You for giving us Your word, so that we would understand Your will and that we would make it our highest ambition to advance Your will and purpose on this earth through our lives. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit with us. It is only because of His empowerment and enablement that we are able to do anything eternally fruitful in this life. We thank You for His presence with us and His mighty power that is ever sanctifying us and making us more useful to You. We pray that You would guide us in this time. Bless everyone here. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

The next reading assignment is Matthew 16:21-28. This is the final section of this chapter. The key truth here is this: earnestly follow Christ. The key verse is found in verse 24 where Jesus declares familiar words, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” That captures the earnestness with which Jesus calls us to follow Him. There are three parts to the passage for today. First, we have God's interests. Then we have following Christ. Then we have the coming judgment.

First, God's interests. Jesus begins to tell the disciples in that remote of location of Caesarea Philippi—where His conversation with Simon Peter took place about His identity and the building up of the church— Jesus at this time begins to tell His disciples that He is going to be crucified. He tells them that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the religious leaders, be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Now, the words that Jesus spoke were very forthright, and Peter understood what Jesus said. And Peter responds to this news with a bit of a shocking reaction. Peter actually takes Jesus aside and he begins to rebuke Him. Simon Peter rebuked the Son of God. This is not a very good idea, but he did. His words are recorded in verse 22, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Clearly, Peter said these words because he cared about Jesus, and he really wanted Jesus' kingdom to be established on earth right away. But Jesus sees through this and notices something a lot more sinister, not so much on the part of Peter, but you'll hear the words here in a minute. It's really on the part of the devil. But here is the even more shocking answer from Jesus in response to Peter. Verse 23 tells us Jesus turned to Peter and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.” Now at first pass, this may sound just utterly harsh, but if you have a better grasp of what is going on here, more than meets the eye, you'll see why Jesus says such strong words. But before I get into an explanation, let me first tell us what Jesus is not saying. He is not saying that now Peter has become Satan, or that Peter has now become possessed by Satan. We read about a possession by Satan with Judas Iscariot in John 13, but this is not the same as that here. Instead, what Jesus is pointing out is that Simon Peter is trying to get in the way of God's purpose to redeem His people and to establish the church through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. And when anyone tries to get in the way of God's purpose for His world, they are essentially joining Satan in his agenda to thwart the plan of God. Satan, of course, will not succeed in this endeavor. He can't. But he certainly tries, and any human who joins Satan in that effort to obstruct the purpose of God are in solidarity with him. For this reason, Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan,” when Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from going to the cross. Furthermore, Jesus points out that Peter is not seeking the will of God. He is not setting his mind on God's interests but man's interests. This gives us an open window into what is really going on in the spiritual realm when men seek to advance a purpose other than the purpose of God. Furthermore, when men seek an agenda that is not the purpose of God, they are actually following Satan’s agenda. Satan's works are very sly in this world. All he wants to do is to avert the will of God. Thus when people are distracted with other desires and do not join God in His works, they are actually doing exactly what Satan wants. They are engaging in the works of Satan.

Well, at this juncture, Jesus doesn't just condemn Peter and leave him in the dust, as it were. He points him to a pathway forward. By the way, this is how Jesus always deals with people. He always points people to the pathway forward. There is always hope with Jesus. As you would recall, even earlier in this chapter, where the religious leaders were asking for a sign, Jesus tells them no sign will be given, because they were an evil and adulterous generation; but then He also points out to them that they will be given a sign, the sign of Jonah. This is the Lord leaving the door ajar so that there is a glimmer of the hope of repentance. This is the way the Lord deals with people, even people who are hard hearted. He points them to hope. There is another sign coming and if they would just take heed, repent, trust in Christ, they would enter into salvation. That's the heart of our Lord, and we see the same thing here. Jesus doesn't just condemn Peter. Instead, He points him to a pathway forward; and this brings us to the second part of this passage.

Jesus called people to follow Him. I read those familiar words from verse 24 earlier, where Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” This is then followed by several other descriptions of what it means to follow Christ. Jesus tells it like it is. He shows us what kind of cost is involved in following Him. You see, Jesus never sugarcoats His words. He will in no way deceive us to follow Him while hiding the truth about its cost. He always tells the people the truth because Jesus is the God of truth. And so Jesus states plainly that following Him will be very costly. He describes the costliness in four ways. The first is what we find in verse 24, which is self-denial. The second is also found in verse 24, and it is the cross. The third is what He describes as loss, and then the fourth is an exchange.

First, self-denial. When Jesus says that His disciple must deny himself, He means that everyone who wants to set their mind on God's interests and follow in the footsteps of Jesus will have to say “no” to his own desires. He will have to say “no” to men’s interests. Throughout our lives, there may be lots of things that pull at our interests and our affections. But in order for us to say “yes” to Christ, we will have to say “no” to these things. This is what Jesus tells us and He tells us up front. Jesus is not like a sly salesman who's just trying to get you to sign the dotted line. He tells us the truth as is, because He always speaks the truth. But as costly as it is, this is still a pathway forward for Peter. I should quickly add that this call was not only for Simon Peter, but to all. Jesus repeats these words elsewhere to the crowds, not just to His 12 disciples. This is indeed Jesus' general call to all, including us today that we would follow Him, with a commitment to deny ourselves.

The second description is the cross. The cross, of course, points to where Jesus is headed to be crucified. The cross was an instrument of execution. It was a means of death. And what Jesus means is this: on the one hand, yes, there's self denial, but He then describes it further as self-death. He doesn't, of course, mean suicide. He doesn't mean that. What He means is that denial of oneself may very well reach the point of actually putting my own desires to death. It means putting to death my sinful self. This should not be taken literally, but spiritually. This means every inkling I have, every desire for worldliness, every desire for sinfulness, the Bible teaches us that all who follow Christ are to put these things to death. The Bible has a lot to say about putting to death the deeds of the flesh, that is our sinful desires. You know, sin is not just a matter of lack of self-control or circumstantial pressures that lead to bad actions. As we saw in Chapter 15 of Matthew, sin arises from the heart. The issue of sin is actually the root issue of the sinful heart. This is what we are to put to death, our sinful desires. Instead of feeding and stoking the fire of evil desires, we intentionally starve those desires and we put them to death. This means taking control of our minds and submitting them under the authority of God’s word. There's so much more to be said on this, but I'm going to save that for another time. But that's the idea of the cross. It is death.

The third description is loss. Jesus says, “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” This sounds a bit paradoxical. Here’s what Jesus means: all who follow Jesus will suffer loss. But He even goes further to assert the loss of life itself. History has countless examples of men and women who literally laid down their lives for Christ and for His word. And this is what Jesus is talking about, that those who wish to follow Him need to recognize that to gain the infinitely more valuable eternal life, they are going to have to risk their physical life on earth. These are some tough words to swallow, but this is our Lord speaking to us the truth. And again in light of history, this is actually the way many Christians lived out their faith— daringly, boldly, even risking their lives for Christ. But Jesus says that it is those who recognize that gaining eternal life is far better than to preserve their physical life on earth, those who would take risks to serve Christ and to proclaim Him and to obey Him, who will find true life and eternal life.

The last description is exchange. Jesus continues to talk about eternal life and compares it to our temporary lives on earth. He says this, “what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” What He means is this. At the end of the day, what will matter for all eternity is whether your soul is saved. Jesus is saying that it is far better to place your faith in Christ and to follow Him and to gain eternal life than to gain all that this world has to offer, even the whole world itself. Of course, most people don't have the opportunity to gain the whole world. A few people from history like Alexander the Great and other emperors may have approximated something close to that; but for the most of us, we're really just talking about a small slice of our national economy. But Jesus speaks sound wisdom to our souls. So what if you possessed everything in the world, all the money in the world, all the power in the world? One day you will die, and the destination of your soul is vastly more valuable than all the stuff of this world you could possibly amass in this life. These are some sobering words, but they are true words. Jesus shows us that only fools exchange their souls for this world. Jesus shows us that there is a cost of following Him. Jesus will in no way ever deceive us. He will tell us the truth. He tells us that following Him will be costly.

Finally, He points out the coming day of judgment, and that only those who have responded to Jesus by faith will escape the judgment of God. He says in verse 27, “the Son of Man is going to come (He's talking about His second coming) in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.” Jesus brings up the day of judgment because there is a real consequence to rejecting Christ and refusing to follow Him. Yes, there is a cost involved and all who follow Christ will have to count the cost. But this does not mean that Christians follow Jesus because they are just strong people, who can withstand a lot of opposition and adversity. It's not that. We trust in the Lord, that He'll take care of us, that even if we were to face death, He will take care of us even through that. The source of the Christian’s strength to follow Christ is Jesus’ loving care for them. In this sense, the call to follow Christ is actually the call to faith. Jesus is showing us that all who respond to Him by faith will escape the judgment of God that is coming. You see, all of us, we have sins we wish we could erase from our memory. We wish we would not have said words that we said. We wish we had not done the things that we have done. We wish our hearts were purer than they have been. The Lord knows all these things. That's why He went to the cross to pay for the sins of His people. And indeed, all who trust Him and follow after Him belong to Him, and their sins are indeed paid for. But all those who refuse Christ, they will die without a Savior, and Jesus doesn't want that for anybody. Therefore, He calls everyone to follow heartily after Him.

Now, what might we pray about in light of all of this? I think there's one very simple prayer, which is to say “yes” to the Lord. Even if you've said “yes” to the Lord many times before, say it again. Tell the Lord, “Lord, I am Yours. I have no Savior other than You. You are God from heaven and though the cost of following You sounds daunting, but I honestly don't know what else I can do than to say “yes,” because You are the Lord and because You speak the truth. I know Your care for me and Your love for me, and so my answer to Your call to follow You is a definite “yes.” I don't know what the future holds (what challenges, adversities, persecutions, etc.), but I trust in You. And in my heart, I am committed to following You. Grant to me the fortitude to make good on my commitment and to follow You heartily this day and tomorrow and the many days ahead. Give me the strength I do not have in and of myself. Thank You for Your rich care toward me. Thank You for going to the cross for me. In your name we pray, Amen.”

That is it for the lesson today. May the Lord bless you all and we'll see you on Wednesday.