Such a joy to worship with you this morning.
We're going to continue on in our series in Matthew.
So if you would open up your Bibles.
We're going to finish off chapter 16, starting from verse 21.
!
If there's anybody, if not, let's turn our Bibles to Matthew 16, starting from verse 21.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.
Father, we thank you for your Word.
It is a lamp onto our feet.
It is the guidebook of how to live this life.
The definition of what a truly good life is.
And so Father, we want to sit underneath your teaching, Lord Jesus.
We want to be transformed by your Word today.
Let not these words come into one ear and out the other, but bring real life transformation today.
By the power of your Spirit.
Empower me today to preach as an act of worship.
To preach, not fearing man, but fearing you alone.
And that you would truly be glorified.
Not just to pray that as a rote thing, but be glorified today.
Be glorified in our hearts.
Receive the glory that you are due, Lord Jesus.
It's in your name we pray.
Amen.
If you are able, please rise for the reading of God's Word.
Amen.
Starting from verse 21.
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 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.
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 will it profit a man if he gains the whole world
and forfeits his soul?
Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
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.
Truly I say to you,
there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
Please be seated.
What is the good life?
How would you describe a life well lived?
Maybe it looks like a life of comfort,
living in your spacious dream home,
eating a gourmet dinner,
sharing a fancy cheese board,
splitting a bottle of wine with your loved one,
and capturing the night with a bike ride
in sunny, beautiful weather to the local ice cream shop.
Maybe it looks like new adventures every week
as you travel around the world,
meeting new people,
eating exotic foods,
witnessing the greatest sights that this world has to offer.
Maybe it looks like the big corner office
with the amazing view of the city on the 50th floor.
You made Forbes 30 under 30.
You're a CEO entrepreneur.
You were the youngest self-made centi-billionaire in the world.
Of course, all those things are not sinful in and of themselves.
But are those the things,
and the pursuit of them,
that define a good life?
The world, by its example and its teaching,
would wholeheartedly say yes.
Life is not worth living unless you have those things.
But to Jesus,
it's not comfort,
success,
riches,
power,
or leadership
that define the good life.
But it's suffering,
lowliness,
weakness,
self-denial,
and carrying your cross.
To follow after him,
that's what defines a life well lived.
Because ultimately,
he knows that the path of suffering
is the path to glory.
That's the main point of my sermon today.
He invites us to follow after him.
As he first models,
the good life by carrying the cross himself.
And then he mandates his disciples
to carry their own crosses.
In the passage right before,
Jesus just finished encouraging
and blessing his disciples.
In particular, Peter.
After Peter confesses
Jesus' true identity as the Christ,
he sets Peter apart
as the leader of the twelve
and subsequently
as the leader of his church.
And to that congregation
of those who confess Jesus
as the Christ,
Jesus grants
the keys of the kingdom.
Mayors grant keys
to the city,
to local heroes
and esteemed public figures
as an act of honor
to esteem them.
But that's just one city.
And that key
really doesn't do anything.
It doesn't give them any power.
But the power of the keys
that Jesus grants to his church
has the power
to determine
who is in
and who is out
of the kingdom of heaven.
Not on the municipal,
not on the national,
but on the global scale.
Because of this,
the disciples,
they must be feeling
pretty good about themselves.
Feeling like the Messiah's
wrecking crew,
that nothing could stop them,
not even the gates of Hades,
not even Satan himself.
Like an inflating balloon,
you can almost see
their chests puff up
line by line,
moment by moment.
Ffft.
That is until
Jesus
takes a pin
and pops
all of their hopes,
all their expectations.
And he does it
in an unprecedented way.
For the first time
in Matthew's gospel,
Jesus begins to show them
that he must go
to Jerusalem,
suffer many things,
be killed
at the hands
of the elders,
chief priests,
and scribes,
and be raised
on the third day.
I imagine this
not to just be
this one line,
mic drop sentence,
this one moment
that the gospel writers
have summarized it
like here.
Matthew writes
that Jesus begins
to show them.
Knowing the shock
of this statement,
I hear Jesus
slowly,
carefully,
explain to them
why he must go
and do this,
that he is bound
to do this,
that there is no
other possible future
for him.
Perhaps he pointed
to the Old Testament
prophecies that
prophesied about his death,
or maybe he explained
that this was the only
way for sinners
like you and me
to come to everlasting life.
But as a loving,
patient teacher,
not content
to keep his disciples
in the dark,
he takes the time
to ready his disciples
of what's to come.
The ear-to-ear grin
pulled across
the disciples' faces,
right?
Slowly starts
to lose
that tension.
With every line,
they end up
more and more confused,
maybe even angry
and frustrated.
Jesus,
you're supposed
to be our leader.
We're supposed
to go to Jerusalem
and crown you
as the rightful king
as you deliver us
from our oppressors.
But,
you're going to
die there.
And die not
to our Roman enemies,
but
the hands of our own
people,
the Jewish leaders?
So,
foolishly answering
a question that,
frankly,
no one asked him.
Already the type
to speak before
he thinks,
but now emboldened
as a newly
appointed leader,
Peter takes it
upon himself
to be the
spokesperson
for the group.
In their honor-shame
culture,
it's important
to save face,
right?
You do your best
to protect
the honor
and reputation
of others.
So,
Peter,
probably thinking
that he's doing
Jesus a favor,
he takes him aside,
puts his arm
around his shoulder,
and he,
I imagine him
just whispering
these concerns
to him.
Far be it
from you,
Lord,
this shall never
happen to you.
This is not
a private question.
It's not a
confused statement.
This is a,
what in the world
are you talking
about,
Jesus?
Stop speaking
such nonsense.
It's not even
undesirable,
but it is
unthinkable
for Peter
to see
his Messiah,
his leader,
to go and be killed.
Though still
with the honorific
Lord,
Peter rebukes
Jesus,
which,
wow,
amazing.
Which,
I have to say,
right,
Peter has some
guts
to rebuke
Jesus.
It takes
some guts
to rebuke
the man
who he himself
rebuked the wind
and the waves
in Matthew 8,
who rebuked
a demon
to cast it out
in Matthew 17.
Peter rebuked
that man.
And it only
seems like
it's because
Peter has some
selective hearing,
right?
He completely
skips over
Jesus'
incredible
prediction
of his
resurrection.
Jesus didn't
say that he
would die
and stay
dead,
but be
raised on
the third
day.
More than
conquering the
Romans,
Jesus is
predicting that
he is about
to conquer
death.
That should
floor Peter,
but he seems
to miss it
altogether.
But if
Peter had
paid attention
to the glory
that is coming
after just
his death,
then maybe
he could have
avoided what
was coming
to him.
I see
Jesus
listening to
Peter with
his body
turned to
the side,
head leaning
in, a
posture of
active listening,
not one of
speaking.
He lets
Peter finish,
then turns
to him,
looks him
straight in the
eye, and
addresses him.
And he
doesn't hold
back.
get behind
me, Satan.
Growing up,
do you
remember that
feeling that
you got when
just one line
from your
mom, your
dad, your
teacher, whoever
it is, just
made your heart
drop, right?
Oh, like,
you're in it
now.
You done did
it now.
Now, your
eyes widen, your
pulse gets
faster, your
hands get
sweaty.
Peter must be
feeling all of
that.
And Peter is
certainly not the
main character of
this passage, but
again, I have to
say, you have to
appreciate that as
the leader of this
church, who is
bestowed with the
keys of the
kingdom, his first
act is to rebuke
Jesus.
Like, how wrong
can you get?
This is almost
comical.
Peter must have
the Guinness
world record of
the fastest
spiritual rise and
fall in all of
history.
And you know
what?
I'm so encouraged
by his example.
So many of us
tend to think that
there are tier lists
in Christendom.
You have the
average Joe,
normal churchgoer,
the lowly Navy
sailor, base
rank.
Then on the next
level up, you
have the pastor.
He's a special
Christian.
He's like the
Navy SEAL.
And then if you
really want to be
overachieving, you
move overseas and
become a missionary.
You become a
super-duper elite
Christian.
They're SEAL
Team 6.
But the
capital-A
apostles, like
Peter, Jesus'
direct disciples,
these are like the
five-star fleet
admiral.
These are the
top dog, the
head honchos.
But when the
gospels consistently
portray even
these capital-A
apostles with
egg on their
face, it reminds
me, as many have
said, there are
no great men of
God, but only men
of a great God.
So we are not to
put our hope in
fallible men, but
only in the God-man,
Jesus Christ.
And every time I
feel like I mess up
the communion or
feel like I botched
the sermon, I want
to come back to this
passage and remember
that, hey, at least I
never tried to rebuke
Jesus like this.
But I digress.
The word Satan, it's
possible that it could
be translated generally
as enemy or adversary
because that's what the
word Satan ultimately
means.
But I think Jesus is
intentionally alluding to
an earlier event in
Matthew 4.
It's been over a year
since we preached on
that passage, so just
by way of reminder,
there Satan tempts
Jesus three times to
get into sin and
ultimately to abandon
the cross.
But every time Jesus
is holding on to
promises and truths
of God through
scripture overcomes
that temptation to
fulfill all
righteousness.
In that chapter, in
verse 10, Jesus
remarks, be gone
Satan.
In the original
Greek, Jesus actually
speaks the same exact
words to Peter here,
but to Peter, he
includes two pivotal
words that change the
meaning from be gone
to get behind me.
You might be wondering,
is Jesus harsh and
punitive?
The type of person that
you need to walk around
him with all care,
with sensitivity, walk
on eggshells because you
might just get the
stick.
It is a blunt
rebuke.
But at the end of the
day, his command to
Satan is one of
complete rejection.
His command to Peter is
a stark but merciful
command to get back
into his rightful place.
Not as a leader, but as
a follower.
And how often are we
guilty of the same thing,
of getting ahead of
Jesus?
How often do we try to
dictate what Jesus can
and cannot do?
For a lot of us, we're
all just starring in our
own movies.
We are the director, the
writer, the producer, and
lead actor.
And everyone else, our
friends, our family, our
spouses, maybe even Jesus
himself, they're all just
supporting characters.
They have one job.
They are supposed to
know and say their
lines as they're
written.
That's it.
And when they mess up,
when they botch it, they
get so frustrated.
But the core of the
Christian experience is
that Jesus is the one
directing the show.
That the camera is not
centered on us, but on
Jesus Christ himself.
Don't forget your
place, brothers and
sisters, saying that my
life is not supposed to,
it's not going how it's
supposed to go.
I'm supposed to have
this and that by now.
I'm supposed to be at
this life stage by now.
No, Jesus knows the
story that he is writing
for you, brothers and
sisters.
And I promise, according
to his great love for you,
it will be a glorious
story.
A glorious story with an
ending that's far better
than you could ever
imagine, that you could
write for yourself.
All you need to do is
follow him.
Don't get ahead of him.
Because if you get ahead,
you might be like Peter,
who's supposed to be the
rock on which the church
is built, but in this
grand reversal, he's
called a hindrance.
And that word hindrance is
actually probably better
translated as stumbling
block, as the ESV footnote
shows.
That illuminates, I think,
the intentional wordplay
that Jesus is making, that
the foundational rock is
now become the stumbling
block.
Not part of our common
vernacular, but the term
stumbling block was used
back then to describe
anything that would lead
you to fall away from
faithful obedience, to
act contrary to what you
knew was right.
Right?
Offering a bribe, bringing
a recovering alcoholic to
a bar, that's all like
putting a stumbling block
in front of others.
And we know in the garden
of Gethsemane, the cross,
it daunts Jesus.
He knows full well that he
must drink the cup of wrath
down to the dregs, not to
leave a single drop to save
sinners like you and me.
But nonetheless, as an honest
reflection of his heart, he
prays that the cup might pass
from him.
Because Jesus is truly God,
he could not sin, but yet as
truly human, he experienced
real temptation.
If there was any temptation
with the greatest alluring
power for Jesus, it was this,
it was the pull to avoid the
cross.
To try to obey and glorify God
without the suffering of the
cross.
In this way, Peter, who was
supposed to be one of Jesus'
closest disciples, one of his
closest friends, sounds less
like an ally, less like a friend,
and more like an enemy as he
echoes Satan's temptation to
avoid, to abandon the cross.
And then Jesus highlights the
ultimate reason that Peter has
gotten it all wrong, verse 23.
It's because he set his mind not
on the things of God, but on the
things of man.
On earth, in our economy,
might makes right.
Peter is thinking that Jesus
would be the mighty Messiah to
call down the legions of armies,
of angels, to restore the
geopolitical nation of Israel
back to its former glory.
With Jesus, he's thinking that we
have the muscle, we have the
power, and we're going to get
things done.
Are we tempted to, to think
like that, to follow that
pattern?
In college, I told my parents
that I wanted to devote my life
to full-time ministry, to use my
life for things of eternal
consequence.
In response, in a thinly veiled
attempt to try to get me to live
their version of the good life,
they replied that I need
earthly status.
I need earthly influence to
maximize my impact for the
kingdom.
If I wanted to do God's work, I
needed to progress in my career.
I needed to stack my resume.
I needed people to listen to me.
That's the only way to get
things done.
And I love my parents, but
don't you see that this is just
another example of setting your
mind on the things of man, not
on the things of God.
God needs not our fancy degrees.
He does not need our sophisticated
subject matter expertise, or an
earthly platform to get his way
done.
John Piper probably, or opened
probably his most famous sermon
life.
I need to know a
life.
You don't have to know a lot of
things for your life to make a
lasting impact, a lasting difference
in this world.
You don't have to be smart, or good
looking, or come from a good family.
You just have to know a few basic,
glorious, majestic, unchanging,
eternal things, and be gripped by
them, and be willing to lay down
your life for them.
Jesus knows that it is not by
gaining earthly power and influence
that lets us transform the world.
It is not by human strength, but by
our weakness.
Then his strength is made perfect.
That's precisely why Jesus then moves
the focus off himself as the model of
the cross to now a mandate of the
cross.
Moving on from speaking directly to
Peter, now to all of his disciples,
Jesus explains what it means to get
behind him and to follow him.
And it requires two things, to deny
yourself and to carry your cross.
What does it mean to deny yourself?
To deny is a verb that's typically used
to signify in scripture, a complete
dissociation from another, a severance of
any connection and relationship.
Only this time Jesus uses it to call us to
be completely dissociated with ourselves.
As an example, again, harping on Peter, he
thrice denies knowing Jesus right before his
crucifixion.
Why does he do this?
It's because he's ultimately loyal, not
to Jesus, but to himself.
He knows that to be associated with Jesus
could be in his own head.
And so he's just looking out for number
one.
The opposite of self-denial is self-preservation.
To be clear, self-preservation can be a good
thing, right?
I think seatbelts, annual physicals, saved
emergency funds, they can all be true good
blessings from God.
But when your selfish desires become at odds
with God's desires, what wins out?
When obedience becomes costly, who are you
loyal to?
When your coworkers ask you what you did over
the weekend, do you eagerly share about your
Sunday service, about the members meeting that
you attended?
Or do you waffle?
You say, uh, you know, the usual.
When you know that God is calling you to rest from your
work, do you deny yourself and you trust in him, not rely
on your own power, your own strength?
Or do you keep convincing yourself that you have no limit?
When you know that you're living in sin and feel the pull
of the Holy Spirit prompting you to confess that to others,
do you share honestly, risking your reputation?
Or do you keep silent to save face, to protect yourself?
When another brother lives in unrepentant sin, do you go and
lovingly, patiently confront that brother?
To win him back.
Or you don't want to cause any problems.
You don't want to ruffle any feathers.
So you just let it slide.
Every single one of these moments asks the same question.
Will I deny myself or will I preserve myself?
Will I identify with Christ and follow him or will I protect
my own interests?
Then Jesus raises the stakes of what it means to follow him.
That we must carry our crosses.
Remember that the cross is not the tame domesticated symbol that it is today.
We slap it on our cars.
We wear it around our necks.
Plaster it on our buildings.
Even in our common vernacular, it's not even taken seriously.
We hear things like, Starbucks ran out of oat milk, so I needed to get almond.
My cross to carry, I guess.
And that's how we speak of the cross today.
But we can't forget that the cross was a symbol of the most excruciating death that one could die.
Just imagine for a moment being stripped naked, flogged, whipped so that your back is shredded,
nailed to a wooden beam, and lifted up to asphyxiate to death.
And not just the bloody cruelty of the cross, but the stigma of the social disgrace made the Jews shudder.
Only the worst, the worst of all, the worst of the worst, they were the ones that deserved the cross.
The Jews considered it the ultimate shame if a family member, someone that they knew closely, was crucified.
And remember from last week's passage, Jesus and his disciples, they are in Caesarea Philippi,
which was a hub of Roman power.
A town literally named after Caesar, the Roman king.
The Jews felt the authority of the Romans very palpably in that town.
The threat of the Roman cross was very real to the disciples, especially in the place that they're in.
And that's the context Jesus is commanding his disciples to carry their cross.
And of course, Jesus is not literally commanding every single one of his disciples to die, to literally be crucified.
But as commentator R.T. Francis said, discipleship is a life of at least potential martyrdom.
Discipleship is a life of at least potential martyrdom.
The disciples knew what Jesus was asking them to do, to be willing to pay the ultimate price.
And this command is not just for the spiritual overachievers and pastors and missionaries.
But it is a requirement for any person who calls themselves a Christian.
Any person who has been baptized, who partakes of the Lord's Supper.
Whether or not you are martyred, following Jesus costs you your life.
Verse 25, 26, make that clear.
It says, for anyone who wants to save his life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
You see, Jesus' double usage of the word life here, right?
He speaks of two kinds of life.
The physical, temporal life on earth.
And then the spiritual, eternal, everlasting life, either in heaven or hell.
Counter to literally everything that the world stands for, teaches.
He's teaching that we need to lose our lives to find them.
This world often teaches us that we need to go on these journeys of self-discovery.
To find our authentic selves.
By ordering your life around what feels good to you, what feels most true to you,
then will you be able to make choices that are in alignment with who you truly are?
That's the kind of language that the world teaches.
Only this goes against everything that Jesus is saying here.
We need not discover but deny ourselves.
We don't need to ultimately learn everything about ourselves but lose ourselves for the sake of Christ.
And focus on those key words.
For my sake.
Unbelievers, they can make sacrifices all the time by God's common grace.
Performing acts of charity, giving to the poor, serving needy communities.
But for whose sake?
Self-denial alone accomplishes nothing of everlasting value if it is separated from Jesus.
For we know that without faith, it is impossible to please him.
And so the famous saying from C.T. Studd goes,
Only one life will soon be passed.
Only what is done for Christ will last.
So if you do lose your life,
when others pass you at work because you privatize church,
when others pass you financially because you faithfully give to the needy,
when others pass you, you won't regret it.
For there is no greater tragedy in this life than to meet your maker on that last day,
thinking that you lived the good life,
that you've invested in the right things,
only to find out that everything you thought to be true was a lie.
Many climb the corporate ladder today
only to find that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.
Many run with all zeal in this rat race
only to find that they run straight into the pits of hell.
This is the greatest tragedy of our time.
It's happening all around us.
And may we never grow numb to it.
For many will find that with all the comfort,
success, riches, and power that the whole world has to offer,
they're poor.
In Luke 12, Jesus tells this parable.
The land of a rich man produced plentifully.
And he thought to himself,
what shall I do?
For I have nowhere to store my crops.
And he said, I will do this.
I will tear down my barns and build larger ones.
And there I will store all my grain and my goods.
And I will say to my soul,
soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
Relax, eat, drink, be merry.
But God said to him, fool,
this night your soul is required of you.
And the things that you have prepared,
whose will they be?
So is the one who lays up treasure for himself
and is not rich toward God.
Oh, if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ,
how I plead with you
that you might not be like this poor, poor man.
How I plead with you
that you might not be deceived
in what truly the good life is.
For the good life is not defined
by riches and comfort,
but by following Jesus
with the cross on your back.
For the path of suffering
is the path to glory.
You see, the economy of the kingdom
is completely backward,
completely upside down
from the way this world works.
In God's economy,
the way down is actually the way up.
That to die is actually to gain.
That it is more blessed to give
than to receive.
This passage began with Jesus predicting
his death,
disgrace,
shame,
but it ends
in glory.
For verse 27
says that in his future coming,
Jesus will come
with his angels
in the glory of his father.
The whole world
will see the radiance of the sun
and they will see
something that they have never seen before
and they will tremble at his sight.
And the disciples
don't even have to wait
until Jesus' second coming.
For verse 28
clearly says
that some standing here
will behold Jesus
in his kingdom,
coming in his kingdom
during their lifetime.
This is a highly debated verse
and it's really hard,
really difficult to understand
if you believe
that it refers
to Jesus' second coming.
Because we know
that Jesus hasn't yet come
and the disciples are long dead.
So I think the key
to this verse
is to see that
verse 27
and verse 28
they're speaking about
related
but altogether
separate events.
For verse 28
Jesus is not coming
to earth
but he's coming
into his kingdom
into heaven.
The verse is referring
to Daniel 7
which I think I threw up
on the screen
where the son of man
comes to the ancient
of days
and is seated
in heaven
and he receives
dominion and glory
and a kingdom
that all peoples,
nations,
and languages
should serve him.
That's fulfilled
by Jesus
when he after his death
and resurrection
ascends to the Father
to receive his kingdom.
For it's after
Jesus' death
and resurrection
right before his ascension
that he says
in Matthew 8
right before
the Great Commission
all authority
in heaven
and on earth
is given to me.
And there some
of the disciples
not including Judas
will behold his coming
into his kingdom
as he ascends
to heaven.
It's also probable
that this verse
has an even more
immediate secondary
reference to
as I think Jesus
is referring to
his transfiguration
which comes immediately
in the next passage.
In fact,
all three of the
synoptic gospels
Matthew,
Mark,
Luke,
they have the event
of the transfiguration
immediately after
this statement.
Even Luke
who has often
a wildly different
order of events.
And I think
that's intentional.
And we'll speak
more about this
next week
but there the
inner circle,
only some
of the disciples,
they witness
Jesus' transfiguration
into awesome splendor.
See,
the transfiguration
is like a sneak peek,
a preview of some sorts,
the curtain rolled back
just a little
into the full
resurrected glory
of the son
that he will receive
when he ascends
to his kingdom.
The point being,
death and disgrace
are coming soon,
sure.
But make no mistake
about it,
incredible,
uncontainable glory
is soon coming
right after.
the path of suffering
is the path
to glory.
And when he returns
in glory,
he will rightly judge
the living
and the dead
to repay
every man,
every woman
for what they have done
in this life.
He will see
if there are those
who lived
the truly good life.
And all of us
will have to give
an account
for our works.
So the question
of the hour,
have you lived
a good enough life?
Knowing Jesus'
definition
of what a good life is,
to die to yourself,
to live for God,
to sacrifice
your time,
money,
body,
maybe even
your own life,
have you lived
the good life?
The undeniable truth
is that
none of us have.
In fact,
we can't.
Left to ourselves,
every single one of us
knows the
countless ways
that we have not
denied
but defended
ourselves.
We have not
died to
but indulged
in sin.
We have not
been devoted
to Christ
but have
denounced him.
Apart from Christ,
we have not
lived a good life.
And we will
have nothing
to show for
when Christ
returns.
Like Peter,
we feel the shame
of watching Jesus
carry his cross
to Calvary alone
when we should
have been there
following him.
When Jesus
collapses
from exhaustion,
it should have
been us
to catch
the cross
but embarrassingly
some random
stranger is there.
We should have
been crucified
next to Christ
but instead
we hear our
mocking voice
yell,
crucify him,
crucify him.
But Jesus
Christ,
knowing
full well
our sin,
our shortcomings
in the greatest
expression
of his love,
laid down
his life
for his
friends
on the cross.
Even when
he was the
only one
who truly
lived a good
life,
he died
as if he
was the worst
of criminals.
And it was
the greatest
act of
injustice
in all of
human history.
But Jesus
willingly took
the injustice.
He took it
upon himself
so that he
could satisfy
God's justice
on behalf
of sinners.
By his
death,
we are now
washed clean
of all our
sin,
all our
selflessness,
all our
betrayals,
and we are
now united
to him
by faith
eternally,
interseparably.
It is that
union we
share with
Christ that
now enables
us to say,
just like
Paul said,
Galatians 2.20,
I have
been crucified
with Christ.
It is no
longer I
who live,
but Christ
who lives
in me.
And the
life I
now live
in the
flesh,
I live
by faith
in the
Son of
God who
loved me
and gave
himself for
me.
Those who
have so
often abandoned
our crosses
to save our
own skin
can legitimately
say with
full truth,
I have
been crucified
already.
I have not
abandoned my
Lord, but
I have
followed him,
I have
died with
him.
And you
see Galatians
2.20,
it explains
the inward
spiritual reality
of our
death, our
resurrection
with Christ.
And if
that's true
of you,
by faith,
your inward
spiritual death
will manifest
itself, will
show itself
by your
outward daily
cross that
you take
up.
And so
friends, I
want you to
feel the
weight of
the cross,
yes, but
I don't want
you to be
crushed by
it.
The Christian
life is all
demanding, yes,
but it is not
impossible.
Not only
because you
are in
Christ, you
have already
lived the
good life in
and through
him, but
now by his
grace you
are empowered,
you have
power from
the Holy
Spirit to
live the
good life
yourselves.
And being
a disciple
of Christ
is radical,
it is
extreme, but
it doesn't
mean that it
will always
look radical
or extreme.
Consider
Matthew 25,
a passage
that's closely
connected to
what Jesus
is saying
here.
There, Christ
returns with
his angels to
judge the
living and the
dead, language
strikingly similar
to this text.
And how does
he recognize
his flock,
his sheep,
his people?
It's not by
grand displays
of holiness,
taking vows
of poverty,
moving overseas
for missions,
or becoming
martyrs, but
it's by
simple,
faithful,
daily obedience.
A meal
given to a
stranger,
a cup of
water that's
offered in
his name,
warm clothing
provided to
the needy.
These are
not miraculous
acts.
They are
ordinary
acts done
by faith
in Jesus
Christ.
And I
see that
kind of
faithfulness
in you,
week in,
week out,
regularly
glorifying the
Lord.
Some of you
may follow
Christ by
entering
full-time
ministry,
going overseas,
maybe even
being martyred
for your
faith.
Some of you
may follow
Christ by
leading a
quiet,
orderly
life,
faithful
obedience.
But all
of you
will die
to yourself
and live
for Christ.
Whether
through
extraordinary
sacrifice,
or ordinary
faithfulness,
and probably
a little bit
of both,
by your
union with
him,
you are
empowered to
follow Christ
by denying
yourself,
taking up
your cross,
staying loyal
to him,
even when it
costs you.
And it
will cost you,
brothers and
sisters,
it will cost you
something this
very week.
And so as you
faithfully follow
Christ and bear
your cross,
even when it
costs you,
remember that
there is a
crown of glory
awaiting for you,
that the path
of suffering is
the path to
glory,
and that the
God of all
grace who
called you to
his eternal
glory in Christ
after you have
suffered for a
little while,
will himself
restore you and
make you strong,
firm,
and steadfast.
Brothers and
sisters,
we follow him,
denying ourselves,
carrying our
crosses to live
onto eternal
glory.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
we pray,
though the cost
of discipleship
is great,
we know that,
Lord Jesus,
it is the
greatest privilege
of our life
to follow you.
Empower us
by your spirit
to have great
faith,
to
jump onto
the water
when it feels
scary,
to have the
faith to know
that you will
empower us
to walk on
water,
and to die,
to lose
ourselves,
to fight
the impulse,
to try to
save ourselves,
to try to
hoard and
grab everything
that we can,
but to let
go and to
trust you.
and know
that when
we lose,
we win.
And when
we're passed
up,
you don't
forget us.
And that
when we are
faithful to you,
even in the
midst of suffering,
we will be
glorified with
you,
and we look
forward to
that,
Lord Jesus.
It's in your
name we pray.
Amen.