Matthew 14-16: Well, that's extreme...

Jesus seems to be really bad at making the idea of following him look attractive... if he doesn't try to sugarcoat it, why do we?

Transcript

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Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike, and thank you for spending time this way, spending time listening to the Bible, read aloud, and just allowing yourself to just soak in it for a little bit. I certainly enjoy knowing that you're here listening, and I'm thankful that you are prioritizing the Word in this way. I hope you go out and you read it, even read it aloud. It doesn't have to be in front of anybody. It can just be out loud. There's something powerful and significant about not just letting the Word of God be words on page, as miraculous and awesome as that is. But allowing it to have breath and to give it a voice and just speaking it out loud in your own personal study or studying with your spouse or your friend or your discipleship partner, whoever. Wow, just amazing what God can do through the spoken word. And thank you for being here. Thank you also if you're a supporter of this podcast on a monthly basis. Thank you so much. I know some people have also given a one-time gift through the website outloudbible.com. What an encouraging boost that is. God is doing some amazing work through his spoken out loud word, his out loud Bible. And just seeing transformation in people's lives, transformation in their families and in their workplaces. Someone came to me and said, hey, you need to keep this up because you do not know the effect this has and has had on me and my family. And I listened to it on my way to work and it transforms the way I show up to work and my coworkers. And I'm thankful for that encouragement. And if that's you and you're listening, you know who you are and I appreciate you so much. And that's not to toot my horn here. That is to give attention to, wow, look at the power of the word of God. When we listen to it, when we carry it with us, I say we got to get into the word. We got to let the word get into us. And then we got to let the word get out of us. And I don't just mean reading it out loud. I mean, have the word inform our actions, inform how we show up in the world and in our families. Then we get to see real transformative power of Jesus in our lives because Jesus is the word. The word became flesh and he dwelt among us. He established his dwelling place among us. Wow. Isn't it amazing? What a privilege. What a miraculous book. This book, this Bible is a freaking miracle. I hope you realize that. Man, it has the power to save, has the power to transform lives. It's not a one and done deal just because you're a Christian. Hey, amen. If you're a follower of Jesus, that's awesome. Now it's an instruction book for what to do about it. And we got to take it literally. We got to take it seriously here. If Jesus says something, let's do it. We say we follow him. Let's follow him. Let's do what he says. That's what he, that's what he asked us to do. Just obey, obey him. Not always easy, but man, what a, what a miraculous book this is. It's a privilege to be able to read it and I'm thankful we get to do it together. So let's stop talking about it and let's get into it. This is Matthew 14 through 16 in the new English translation. At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard reports about Jesus, and he said to his servants, The daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. And instructed by her mother, she said, And although it grieved the king, because of his oath and the dinner guests, he commanded it to be given. So he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl. And she brought it to her mother. Then John's disciples came and took the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. Now when Jesus heard this, he went away from there privately in a boat to an isolated place. But when the crowd heard about it, they followed him on foot from the towns. And as he got out, he saw the large crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. And when evening arrived, his disciples came to him saying, this is an isolated place and the hour is already late. Just send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves. But he replied, oh, they don't need to go. You give them something to eat. They said to him, we have here only five loaves and two fish. Bring them here to me, he replied. Then he instructed the crowds to sit down on the grass and he took the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. He gave them to the disciples who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied and they picked up the broken pieces left over, twelve baskets full. Not counting women and children, there were 5,000 men who ate. And immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dispersed the crowds. And after he sent the crowds away, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. And meanwhile, the boat, already far from land, was taking a beating from the waves because the wind was against it. As the night was ending, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. And said, He cried out, Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? When they got up into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. After they had crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret. And when the people there recognized him, they sent word into all the surrounding area, and they brought all their sick to him. They begged him if they could only touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. Then Pharisees and the experts in the law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and said, Why do your disciples disobey the traditions of the elders, for they don't wash their hands when they eat? He answered them, And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God said, Honor your father and mother, and whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death. But you say, Oh, if someone tells his father or mother, Oh, whatever help you would have received from me is given to God. He doesn't need to honor his father. You've nullified the word of God on account of your tradition, you hypocrites. Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Then he called the crowd to him and said, listen and understand. What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth. It's what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person then the disciples came to him and said do you know that uh when the pharisees heard this saying they were offended and he replied every plant that my heavenly father did not plant will be uprooted just leave them they're blind guides if someone who's blind leads another who's blind both will fall into a pit but peter said to him explain this parable to us so jesus said even after all this are you still so foolish don't you understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and then passes out into the sewer. But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these things defile a person for out of the heart come evil ideas. Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are the things that defile a person. It's not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person. After going out From there, Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that area came and cried out, Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is horribly demon-possessed. But he didn't answer her a word. Then his disciples came and begged him, Send her away. She keeps on crying out after us. So he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and bowed down before him and said, Lord, help me. It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. He said, crippled, mute, and many others. They laid him at his feet, and he healed them. And as a result, the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel. Then Jesus called his disciples and said, And after giving thanks, he broke them and began giving them to the disciples who then gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Not counting children and women, there were 4,000 men who ate. And after sending away the crowd, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan. Now, when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. And he said, Well, when evening comes, you say, oh, it'll be fair weather because the sky is red. And in the morning, it'll be stormy today because the sky is red and darkening. You know how to judge correctly the appearance of the sky, but you can't evaluate the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah. Then he left them and went away. When the disciples went to the other side, they forgot to take bread. Watch out, Jesus said to them. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So they began to discuss among themselves, saying, It's because we brought no bread. And when Jesus learned of this, he said, You who have such little faith, are you arguing among yourselves about having no bread? Don't you understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you took up? Or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many baskets you took up? How could you not understand that I was not speaking to you about bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees themselves. Then they understood that he had not told them to be on guard against the yeast in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. When Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? They answered, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, you are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven. And whatever you And then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. God forbid, Lord, this must not happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me. because you're not setting your mind on God's interests, but on man's. And then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he's done. And I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not experience death before I'll tell you what, this section, this teaching of Jesus about denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following him, I think has gotten diluted in the American Christian messaging, the American gospel, and maybe elsewhere, but that's where I am and that's what I see. Diluted at best, like forgotten or rejected or excluded at worst. We have a tendency to just take the parts that we like the most or kind of are more focused on ourselves. Like we accept Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you need to accept Jesus as your savior. This whole accepting thing is if we're doing him a favor. We tend to package the message of Jesus in a way that seems like, oh, people are going to more likely want to do this. Like he'll turn your life around and he'll take away the pain and the sin and he'll give you joy and he'll He'll make your life better, which like, does he? Yes, but that's not the core message. That's not what Jesus is inviting you into. What we see here is something that's honestly a lot harder to swallow. If you want to follow Jesus, you need to deny yourself. Take up your cross, which is basically, hey, take up your death sentence and follow Jesus. Deny yourself? That's not just a one-time thing. This is not just a, well, yeah, I prayed the prayer. No, he's not inviting you to pray a prayer. He's inviting you to deny the rest of your life, living the way that you want to live, living for yourself and making you the main character of your own story. Deny that. Take up your cross, put to death all of the things that characterize your old life and worldly living and be willing to literally die for him and follow him. It does not draw the crowds. It does not build a megachurch, but that is Jesus's call to following him. That's what a Christian should be. Someone who has denied themselves the earthly comforts and the earthly mindset of this world and followed something that you cannot see. Even Peter was like, oh yeah, this whole dying death thing. I don't think, heaven forbid that happens. I don't think you're being called to that. How often are we our own Peter being like, hi, that's a bit extreme though. Don't you think Jesus? I think that's a bit extreme. No, that is Satan having a focus on what is of this world and not of God's kingdom agenda. Are you listening to Satan as you are your own Peter trying to downplay the severity of Jesus's calling to follow him? Or are you actually willing to deny yourself and take up your own cross and follow him? Answer carefully, prayerfully, and God help us. And that's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. Join us tomorrow as Kelsey will join me again for another discussion of what we've read this week in our new segment, Living Out Loud. I know you'll be blessed by it and we'll see you next time.