Well, I don't know about you guys, but I have a lot of firecrackers going off around my house, and not small ones, big ones.
I was working in my backyard yesterday, and one exploded, and it caused my heart to beat a little faster.
Well, Independence Day is upon us.
We've got a parade afterwards.
I'm looking forward to that.
It's going to come right down 60th, take a left on Sheridan Road.
I hope you can stay for that afterwards and enjoy that together.
But as you know, Independence Day is a celebration of our country in which we celebrate our independence, the birth of our nation.
And this year, if I did the math right, which is always under suspect, we've been 241 years as a nation.
So if 1776 is the date of our first birthday, we're 241 years in.
We are a nation that we distanced ourselves from a reign of a man named King George III, and that was a bloody mess.
We became a nation at the shedding of blood.
Blood separated us from Great Britain so that we could become our own nation.
And so this morning, in anticipation of July 4th, let's celebrate our freedoms, especially as Christians.
We have the freedom to gather.
Did you know that today, in North Korea, Christians will gather in a latrine so they don't have to suffer for being a follower of Jesus?
We don't fear that.
So we celebrate that.
But today, let's pledge our ultimate allegiance to the greatest of all kings,
who is gathering for himself a whole new people by the blood that he has shed for us.
His name is Jesus, and he is the Christ, the King, the long-anticipated one.
And not only did he die, but he was raised, and he's reigning today, gathering a people for himself.
As we've been working through the Gospel of Matthew, we can't help but ask the question,
Who is this guy, Jesus?
And this morning, we're going to approach Matthew 16, asking the question,
Who is this guy?
And Matthew 16 is going to show us through again and again that this is the Christ.
And so last week, we looked at Peter's confession.
This week, we're going to go all the way back to chapter 16, verse 1,
And we're going to walk through four different little passages in anticipation for next week
when we hear Jesus call us to follow him, to deny ourselves, to take up our crosses,
and to follow him always and in everything.
And so this morning, what I want to help you to see is,
Who is this guy?
He is the Christ.
And what gives him the right to call us, to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him,
what gives him the right is who he is and what he has done.
So this morning, let's look at these four different sections of Matthew 16,
starting with a challenge to the Christ.
Would you open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16, verses 1 through 4?
I'm going to read that.
I'm going to come back, and we'll just kind of walk through it.
So Matthew chapter 16, 1 through 4,
Remember, he's speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees.
An adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
So he left them and departed.
Now, as we've been working our way through the Gospel of Matthew,
you may have just noticed that a new group of people has been introduced, the Sadducees.
And a way to remember who the Sadducees are is to remember it this way.
They were sad, you see, because they didn't believe in a resurrection.
The Pharisees did.
So the Pharisees believed in a resurrection.
The Sadducees, who were sad, you see, because they didn't believe in a resurrection,
they were at theological odds.
But not here.
Did you notice?
Jesus, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, came together to test Jesus.
Jesus has this uncanny way of uniting people who are at odds with each other.
They unite in against him, in opposition to him.
We'll see that if you know the Gospel of Luke,
Pilate and Herod become friends at the end of Jesus' life,
because they met each other and got to know another, worked some things out.
Jesus has a way of uniting people for him and against him.
Well, these two groups of people, the Pharisees and Sadducees,
who are normally opposed to each other,
they unite to oppose Jesus.
And they came to test him, to challenge him.
They're asking Jesus to show them a sign from heaven.
And basically what they're saying is, hey, show us proof,
demonstrate that you're legit.
And in verses 2 and 3, Jesus responds by appealing to the weather.
He says, hey, you guys can read the signs in the sky.
You know if it's going to rain.
You know if it's going to be threatening.
Red sky at night or red sky and threatening in the morning.
You know all these things.
But then he says, if you look at verse 4,
no, excuse me, at the end of verse 3,
but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
Hey, you guys can read the weather just fine,
but you cannot understand the signs of the times,
namely that the age of the Messiah has come,
that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near in me.
You can't see it.
Jesus goes on to say that their demand for a sign
is just evidence that they're part of this evil
and adulterous generation.
They were asking for a sign,
and even if Jesus did give them a sign,
they would not have believed.
They didn't believe.
But Jesus doesn't leave them empty-handed.
If you look at verse 4, he says,
an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign,
but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
This is the second time Jesus has referenced the sign of Jonah.
He talked about it earlier in Matthew chapter 12.
And if you remember Jonah, Jonah was a prophet on the run.
He gets swallowed by a whale, is in the whale for three days,
and he gets spit out by the whale, not in chunks.
And he wasn't dead.
He was alive.
He was in the belly of a whale for three days,
and he came out alive.
And so what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 12,
and here is, do you know what the sign of Jonah is?
That Jesus won't, it's not a belly of a whale,
the belly, the heart of the earth for three days,
and he spends three days in the earth in a tomb,
and he comes out alive.
The sign of Jonah is pointing to the resurrection of Jesus.
And so what Jesus is saying, these Pharisees and Sadducees,
is that, hey, you want a sign?
I'll give you a sign.
It's the sign of Jonah,
and we know that he's talking about his resurrection.
They don't know.
It's veiled to them.
But what he veils here is going to be unveiled in verse 21.
We'll wait on that.
Now let me ask you a question.
Have you ever asked this question,
or has someone come up to you asking a question like this?
You know what?
I would believe in Jesus if only God would give me a sign that it's true.
Someone comes up, you know what?
I have a hard time with this Christianity thing,
but if God gave me a sign, I would believe it.
Do you know how you answer that question?
God has given you a sign.
It's the sign of Jonah.
It's the resurrection of Jesus.
It either happened or it didn't.
One of the central claims of Christianity is that
Jesus is the Christ who was crucified on a Roman cross,
and three days later he was raised bodily from the dead,
and that he's reigning right now and will one day come back.
Now if the resurrection of Jesus didn't happen,
Christianity is a waste of your time.
But if the resurrection of Jesus did happen,
that points that Jesus is who we claim to be,
the Christ, the Son of the living God,
fully God, fully man, one mediator between God and man,
and that the death he died on the cross isn't just a historical event.
It actually accomplished something.
It accomplished a salvation, the salvation for sinners.
So did you come in looking for a sign this morning to believe?
A sign has been given.
All people.
Jesus died on a cross, and he was raised from the dead.
Who is this guy that responds to a challenge like that?
He's the Christ.
Let's look at the next section.
Jesus, the Christ, cautions his disciples.
Look at verses 5 through 12.
When the disciples reached the other side,
they had forgotten to bring any bread.
Oh, no.
Jesus said to them,
Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
And they began discussing it among themselves,
saying, We brought no bread.
But Jesus, aware of this, said,
Oh, you of little faith,
why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
Do you not yet perceive?
Do you not remember the five loaves for the 5,000
and how many baskets you gathered?
Or the seven loaves for the 4,000
and how many baskets you gathered?
How is it that you fail to understand
that I do not speak about bread?
Beware of the leaven
of these Pharisees and Sadducees.
Then they understood that he did not tell them
to beware of the leaven of bread,
but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
So here's what's going on.
After being tested in Magadan,
Jesus gets into a boat with the disciples
and they start to cross the Sea of Galilee again.
They're going to be heading north.
They're going to end up in Caesarea Philippi.
But when they reach the other side,
the disciples realize,
Oh, we do not have any bread.
There wasn't a panera there.
What are they going to do?
Jesus takes the opportunity
to kind of pull on the bread theme
and he says,
Watch and beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Leaven was used to bake bread.
The disciples take what Jesus says very literally.
We brought no bread.
Apparently the disciples thought
that Jesus was referring to some kind of bread
that they had gotten
from the Pharisee and Sadducee bakery
that they had forgotten.
In verse 8, Jesus says,
Oh, you little faith,
why are you discussing among yourselves
that you have no bread?
And he goes on in verses 9 and 10
to ask some rhetorical questions
and they are to make a point.
And it's basically saying this,
If we were talking about bread guys
and you guys forgot bread,
do you guys not remember
that I fed 5,000, fed 4,000 just guys?
I mean, if you add it all up together,
we're talking about 20,000 people
that I multiplied bread for.
If we were lacking bread guys,
I could make it happen.
But we're not talking about bread.
He says,
Beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
And in verse 12,
the lights go on for the disciples
and they realize that the leaven
is a reference to teaching.
Jesus is warning them,
cautioning them
about the teaching
of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
And that makes us ask the question,
Well, what was so wrong
with the teaching
of the Pharisees and Sadducees?
Well, if you were to flip your Bible
forward to Matthew chapter 23,
you would see Jesus pronouncing
woes upon the Pharisee.
Woe is you.
He decries the Pharisees
for shutting the kingdom of heaven
in people's faces,
for misleading the people,
for neglecting the weightier matters
of the law,
for ignoring the sinful desires
of the heart,
for emphasizing outward appearance,
self-righteousness,
for saying the very opposite
of what they were doing.
They were being hypocrites.
They were tying heavy burdens
and laying them on people's shoulders
without lifting a finger to help.
And it's all communicated
through their teaching and lives.
They were teaching a religious system
that cultivated self-righteousness.
It cultivated a reliance on yourself
to make you acceptable in God's sight.
And not only did it just blow
people's brains up with pride,
it also isolated
and was hurtful
to those who were harassed
and helpless on the fringes
of the culture.
But most of all,
their teaching
rejected Jesus.
They denied that Jesus
was the Christ.
And if you can recall,
they would even attribute
his miracles
to Satan.
So it's with good reason
that Jesus warns
his disciples
against the misleading teachings
of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees.
their teaching
is shutting the kingdom of heaven
in people's faces.
It was a false hope.
It was a false gospel.
The good news
they were proclaiming
wasn't centered on Jesus.
So they were promoting
what's called
a gospel of works.
That you earn
your salvation.
So Jesus here
warns his disciples
against a false teaching
of the Pharisees
and Sadducees.
And I just want to take
a moment
to caution you
about a different kind
of leaven
that is in our culture.
A different kind
of teaching
that you do not
want to consume.
It's called
the prosperity gospel.
It also goes
by the name
health and wealth gospel.
It also goes
by name it
and claim it.
And what
this teaching
promotes
is that
it's God's
will for believers
to be physically
healthy,
materially wealthy,
and personally happy
this side
of heaven.
And you
must be
healthy,
wealthy,
and happy.
this teaching
kind of
moves along
the lines of
encouraging believers
to demand
God
to bless
them.
This teaching
teaches that
you give
in order
to get
a return.
they teach
that
Jesus'
death
on the cross,
his atonement,
was done
in order
that you
could be
healthy,
wealthy,
and happy
today.
It's
your right.
It's
part of
what Jesus
did for you
now.
And here's
what the,
what this
does.
this teaching
makes Jesus'
death and
resurrection,
it becomes
a motivation
and a
justifying
of greed
and self-occupation
in the church.
And it's
the complete
opposite of
what the gospel
is meant to do.
It's to
free us
from greed
and make us
generous.
It is to
liberate us
from the
worship of
ourselves
so that we
can worship
the one
true living
God.
The prosperity
gospel will
say things
like this,
what has
God done
for me
lately?
It
essentially
makes God
into a
divine sugar
daddy.
it contradicts
and undermines
the gospel
of grace.
We have,
G1 and
Caitlin Rye
have come
from Nepal
and they've
been staying
with us
for some
time and
it's been
really sweet
to get to
know them.
And some
of our
conversations
have gone
along the
lines of
Christianity
and of the
church in
Nepal and the
influence of
American
Christianity on
the church
of Nepal.
And one of
the things
that American
Christianity is
exporting very
well to a
place like
Nepal is the
prosperity gospel.
We have
teachers flying
in on private
jets into
Kathmandu who
then teach the
prosperity gospel,
collect a big
sum of money,
and then they're
out two days
later.
The prosperity
gospel comes in
on the internet
and on TVs and
it becomes what
Christians there
see and think to
be normal
Christianity.
It's 11 that
hurts.
It's a false
teaching that
gives a false
hope.
It's confusing,
it's not true,
it's distracting,
it's unhealthy,
it undermines the
church in its
witness.
I want to
encourage you to
pursue something.
There is a
website, it's
called the
gospelcoalition.org
and it is a
treasure trove of
information.
If you have
questions about the
prosperity gospel,
this leaven that
you need to be
aware of, go, go
to the
gospelcoalition.org,
type in prosperity
gospel into the
search bar and
you will find some
very helpful
resources, not only
to help you
understand it, but
to help recognize
it.
We live in a
culture in which
the prosperity
gospel has great
influence and we
must be aware of
it and we must
steer clear of it
and we must tell
our friends and
family, don't
consume that, you
spit it out because
it's not good for
you.
Who is this
guy?
Who is this
guy, Jesus, who
tells his
disciples, beware
of the leaven of
the Pharisees?
He's the Christ and
he's very concerned
about what his
people take in as
what is true.
Teaching matters.
What you believe
matters.
Moving on, we
move from this
caution by the
Christ to Peter's
confession of the
Christ and we
looked at that this
last week so I'm
just going to be very
brief here.
In verses 13
through 20, Jesus
and his disciples
are in Caesarea
Philippi.
It's a city named
after Caesar and
Jesus in verse 14
asks his disciples
who do people say
that the Son of Man
is and his
disciples respond
by saying something
to think Santa.
Well, they think
that you're a
prophet of some
sort.
And then in
verse 15, Jesus
asks, but who do
you say that I am?
And in verse 16,
Simon Peter says,
you are the
Christ, the
Son of the
Living God.
And what Peter is
saying there is,
you are the
long-awaited
Messiah.
You are the
King, the
one who would
sit on David's
throne, who would
establish a new
kingdom that will
reign forever.
You're that
anointed one.
Jesus goes on to
pronounce blessing.
Blessed are you,
Simon Barjona.
Why?
For flesh and blood
has not revealed this
to you, but my
Father who is in
heaven.
And he can't miss
the irony here
because those
heart-of-heart
Pharisees and
Sadducees, when
they ask for a
sign, they are
given no sign.
Jesus is like, no
sign for you, except
the sign of Jonah.
But here, Peter is
given a revelation
from heaven, from
my Father who is in
heaven, that leaves
no question to the
true identity of
Jesus.
Why would God
reveal Jesus the
Christ to Peter and
his disciples, but
not to the Pharisees
and Sadducees?
Would you flip back
to Matthew chapter
11?
Verses 25 and 26,
Jesus is speaking to
his Father.
He says, I thank
you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that
you've hidden these
things from the wise
and understanding and
revealed them to
little children, those
of humble heart.
And then in verse
26, yes, Father, for
such was your gracious
will.
Why would he reveal the
Christ to Peter and
his disciples?
It was according to his
gracious will.
But Jesus doesn't stop
here.
He goes on to remind
Simon of the name he
gave them when they
first met, Peter,
Petros.
And that on this
Petra, this rock, Jesus
is going to build his
church.
And Jesus is going to
entrust him with some
keys.
Keys of the kingdom.
And what Jesus is
referring to is the
truth of the gospel.
The truth of who he is
and the truth of what he
would do.
And so when the gospel
is proclaimed, it will
either be humbly
received or it will be
pridefully rejected.
What that means is this.
Those who humbly embrace
Jesus as the Messiah,
the gospel keys open up
the kingdom to them.
But to those who
pridefully reject Jesus
as the Messiah, the gospel
keys shut them out of the
kingdom.
What I particularly love
about what Jesus is
saying here is found
in this promise.
I will build my church
and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against
it.
This is a promise that
Jesus is making.
You know what he's
saying?
Even death cannot
overcome my church,
my people that I've
purchased with my blood.
He's saying that the
church will never end.
Now if you think about
the founders of our
nation, George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, John
Adams, guys like that.
Can you think of anywhere
where they would say
something to the extent
of, I promise to the
American people and I
ensure with my power that
America, the United States
of America will go on
forever and ever and ever
and the gates of hell will
not overcome that nation.
Nowhere.
Our founding fathers are
unable to make that kind
of promise.
But the founder of our
faith, Jesus Christ, not
only made that promise, he
is able to ensure that
promise because he's the
Christ.
He died and was raised.
Our resilience as a church
is linked to his resilience
as a risen king.
It's an amazing promise.
And so he's building his
church today.
He's building his church
here in Kenosha, in
Kathmandu, Nepal,
Guadalajara, Mexico,
Pyongyang, North Korea,
Moscow, Russia,
Tehran, Iran, and even in
Washington, D.C.
He's building his church.
And he will continue to
build it until he returns.
Who is this guy?
He's the Christ, the son of
the living God.
And he makes promises that
no one else can make.
And he keeps them.
Now, would you look at
verses 21 through 23?
Because the Christ makes a
very important clarification
at this point.
From that time, 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, Jesus, turned 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.
We just looked at a passage
where Peter confesses that
Jesus is the Christ, and it's a
revelation from the Father.
And now, Peter gets rebuked for
representing satanic activity.
We are left saying, the disciples, at
the end of verse 20, they buy in.
They believe he's the Christ.
They're on board.
His true identity's been revealed.
They've got his identity right.
They know who he is.
But they've got a major
misunderstanding.
And the major misunderstanding is
how he's going to establish
his kingdom.
And Jesus knows this about his
disciples.
He knows that they think that,
that they think the Messiah will
come in power and glory to set up
his kingdom.
And it's true.
When Jesus comes back a second time,
he's going to come in power and glory
and to establish his kingdom
forever.
But what Jesus is doing here is
preparing his disciples to understand
the work the Messiah has right now.
He's going to have to go to Jerusalem,
and he's going to have to suffer,
and he's going to have to die,
and he's going to have to be raised
from the dead.
Now, this would have been a foreign
concept to Peter and his guys.
This is the first reference Jesus makes
to his coming death and resurrection.
There's three others to come.
And it's all in preparing his disciples
for why he is going to,
what's going to happen in Jerusalem.
What I want you to notice in verse 21
is that word must.
From that time,
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem,
suffer, be killed,
and on the third day, be raised.
Think about it as a divine must.
It's got to happen.
Jesus must go to Jerusalem
because it's part of his father's plan
to rescue a people from every nation
and tribe around the world.
It's got to happen.
This plan of God for the Messiah
to go to Jerusalem,
to suffer, to be crucified,
that's not plan B.
That's the only plan.
It's not like when Adam and Eve fell,
God said, oh no,
we got to go to plan B.
Before the foundation of the world,
God the Father had set in place
a plan to save a people
through the death of the Messiah.
There's only one way for Jesus
to fulfill the God,
the Father's plan.
It's to go and suffer
and be crucified.
So Jesus is to go to Jerusalem.
Could you imagine if you're the disciples
hearing that for the first time?
Okay guys,
you guys are right,
I'm the Messiah.
I got to go to Jerusalem now.
They might be thinking,
oh yeah, let's go buddy.
Let's go.
Messiah,
take over David's throne.
Let's rock this place.
And then he starts to say things like this.
I got to go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things
from the elders,
chief priests,
and scribes.
The elders and chief priests,
and scribes,
it was a body of leaders
called the Sanhedrin
in Jerusalem
that would make decisions
for the Jewish people
at the time.
So they hear that,
and maybe they're thinking like this,
okay, okay,
the Christ goes to Jerusalem
to take David's throne.
There's probably going to be
some fighting
and some suffering going on there.
Okay, I got it,
I got it.
We can deal with that.
And then when Jesus starts telling them
that he's going to be killed,
Jesus,
wait a second here,
because I thought
that you're going to establish
your kingdom
on Peter,
the rock,
and death is not going
to prevail against it.
What are you talking about?
You're going to die now.
In chapter 20,
verse 19,
Jesus reveals then
the kind of death
he's going to die.
It's by crucifixion.
And if you're familiar
with the way
the Jewish mind
thought about crucifixion,
to be killed on a tree
was cursing.
It was scandalous.
So not only is the Messiah
going to die,
he's going to die
in a really ugly,
gross,
disgusting kind of way.
And not just that,
three days later
he's going to be raised
from the dead.
Now I'm guessing
at this point
the disciples
when they're hearing
Jesus talk about that,
they're kind of stuck
on the Messiah dying.
So like,
what,
raised from the dead
three days later?
I'm still stuck on you
dying,
Jesus the Christ.
But after the resurrection
when the disciples
would recall these words,
they will reknow
that these were prophetic.
The Messiah had to die.
He must go to Jerusalem.
He must suffer.
He must be crucified.
He must be raised again
because God's plan
of salvation
required it.
Jesus was obeying
his father.
He's adjusting
his disciples' thinking.
God's great plan
for the ages,
the salvation
for the nations
would focus
on the Jewish Messiah
who would be crucified
and raised.
in verse 22,
look at Peter's reaction.
And Peter took him aside
and began to rebuke him.
It's not like Peter
is saying,
please,
would you mind
clarifying for this,
Jesus?
I think I misunderstood you.
What he does is
he takes him aside
so it's just
Peter and Jesus
and Peter's saying,
oh Lord,
may it never be.
This is never going to happen.
Nope,
not going to happen.
In Greek,
it's a double negative.
It goes,
never,
no,
ever,
never.
Emphatic.
This isn't going to happen,
buddy.
And what Peter's doing there,
he's elevating himself
above the Christ.
He's saying,
hey,
I got this thing right.
You got it wrong.
Sorry,
Jesus,
this isn't going to happen.
Messiah,
you're mistaken.
In verse 23,
look how Jesus responds.
Jesus turns.
It's just Jesus and Peter
and Jesus turns to Peter
and says,
get behind me,
Satan.
Why would Jesus
use that kind of language
with Peter
who has just confessed
that he's the Christ?
Why so harsh?
Do you remember Satan's tactic
back in Matthew chapter 4
when he tempted Jesus?
Satan offered Jesus
the kingdoms of the nations.
If only he would just bow
and worship him,
Satan.
And what Satan was offering
Jesus at that moment
was you can have
all the kingdoms of the world
without having to suffer,
without having to be crucified,
just bow before me,
skip all the suffering,
Jesus,
and you can have
all the nations.
Peter has no idea
what he's doing,
what he's saying.
He's got the things
of man on his mind,
not the things of God.
Jesus knows exactly
what's going on here.
And so what Jesus says
is get behind me, Satan.
Do you know what's
at stake here?
The salvation of mankind.
If Jesus took Peter's advice,
we would still be in our sins.
The Messiah had to suffer
and die.
He goes on to say
you are a hindrance to me.
It's that word skandalon
in Greek.
It's the trigger of a trap.
It's the bait
that when taken
snaps a trap shut.
And so Jesus is saying,
Peter, get behind me.
You are, Satan, get behind me.
You are tempting me
into a trap
that will undermine
God's plan of salvation
for all the sinners
of the world.
You are not setting your mind
on the things of God,
but on the things of man.
You don't have
a heavenly perspective.
You don't know
what's going on here, Peter.
I do.
I'm the Messiah.
I'm your master.
Get behind me.
Follow me.
Let me do
what I have come to do,
and that is to die,
to go to Jerusalem,
to suffer,
to die,
and to be raised.
What a rebuke.
Jesus is saying,
you're not going to
distract me
from what I must do
for the glory of God
and the good of all people.
We do this still today.
We set our minds
on the things of man.
Instead of embracing
what God deems
most important,
His glory,
made known
through the gospel
to all sinners
in all nations,
we have a tendency
to embrace
what the world
deems most important.
When Jesus says,
you're not setting
your mind
on the things of God,
what Jesus is saying
is you don't have
God's agenda
first and foremost
in your mind
and heart.
God's agenda,
His plan,
His purposes,
His priorities
are all revealed
in this
all-authoritative book.
He's made
His will known.
And all of these words
point somehow,
some way
to Jesus,
the Christ,
through whom God
offers salvation
to all people.
man's agenda,
purpose,
plan,
and priorities
tend to originate
in man
or Satan
and they usually
are denying
of God
or ignoring
of God.
They tend
to be God-less
and what we need
to be aware of
is that we will
inadvertently
adopt
the culture
mindset
around us
and think
the way
that the world
thinks.
It's that classic
frog in the kettle
illustration.
The danger is
oftentimes
we pull in
man thinking,
we absorb it.
It's not a conscious
decisions we make.
That's why
it's so dangerous.
we will set
our minds
on the things
of man
instead of the
things of God
without even
realizing it.
So you know
what that means
for us?
We've got to be
crystal clear
on God's
agenda.
His glory
revealed
in the salvation
for sinners
in Christ alone.
That's his agenda.
that's his agenda
among the nations.
Now,
in order
for us
to be on
God's agenda,
let your eyes
fall on
verse 24.
If anyone
would come
after me,
if anyone
would live
for what I
live for,
if anyone
would want
to be
following
after me
in pursuit
of God's
glory,
if anyone
would come
after me,
let him
deny himself,
take up
his cross,
and follow
me.
In order
to live
for God
in his glory,
we have
got to
die to
ourselves
and follow
Jesus.
God's
to live
in the
world.
This
morning,
we've
looked at
the challenge
to the
Christ,
and he
gave the
sign of
Jonah.
We
looked at
his caution
to the
leaven
of the
Pharisees,
got to
watch out
for the
prosperity
gospel.
The
Christ
was confessed
by Peter.
He's
going to
build his
church,
and Jesus
clarifies
that he,
the Christ,
didn't come
to set up
a kingdom
by political
power or
military might,
but by
suffering,
crucifixion,
and resurrection.
Next week,
we're going to
look at the
costly call.
Let's pray.
God in
heaven,
great
triune
God,
you are
glorious in
all that
you are,
and your
plan of
salvation
that focuses
on Jesus,
it is
absolutely
worth dying
for.
God,
I do pray
that you
would help
us,
your people,
understand
and live
for the
things of
God,
not the
things of
man.
God,
I do pray
on this
Independence
Day weekend
that we
would rejoice
in being
citizens of
this country,
but we
would rejoice
more
in being
citizens of
heaven
with a
risen king
who's going
to come
back
and we
will see
face to
face.
It's in his
name we
pray,
Amen.