WEBVTT 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.720 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:35.840 Please take your Bible this morning to the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 16 as we look together at three verses. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:55.679 We're going to be in Matthew this morning, and in next Sunday, and Good Friday in 1 Corinthians 15 and Resurrection Sunday and 1 Corinthians 15. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:58.000 But they all fit together. 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:05.840 The Lord is leading us together to the foot of the cross and ultimately the empty tomb. 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:31.920 Matthew chapter 16, beginning in verse 21, Matthew records for us from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:44.239 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:51.200 But Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:53.760 You are a hindrance to me. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:02:01.359 For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:19.919 Lord Jesus, as we come to your word this morning, may you enable us to set aside all of the things of this life, the things of man, and may our minds be able to focus on you, so that our spirits might be drawn to worship. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:21.919 In your name we pray, amen. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:31.840 We are approximately 1,990 years removed from this passage of scripture. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:49.680 We speak a different language, we have a different culture, we wear different clothes, and we have degraded moral sensibilities that have been bombarded by an additional 2,000 years of sin. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:58.479 We are happy if we are healthy, wealthy, and wise. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:07.120 In fact, we we rarely think of a Messiah who is a political leader. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.479 We're pleased if we merely get a president who doesn't annoy us. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.240 Or who can at least have some constructive policies. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:27.680 Today we labor to keep our freedoms. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:46.960 We are far removed from Caesarea Philippi in verse 13 and Peter's declaration of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:56.240 We are far removed from the dusty roads leading to Jerusalem, and we are far removed from the ignominy of a Roman cross. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:14.319 We may be far, far distant from the times and the place and the culture of this passage of Scripture, but that does not mean that the lessons it contains should have less impact on us. 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:25.600 The fellowship of believers in the early church needed the impact of this passage just as much as the disciples who experienced it that very day. 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:43.040 So too, we must go back to that time and that place and walk those dusty roads in order to fully appreciate what God in Christ has done for us. 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:52.000 Now, by 30 AD, Israel had been under Roman occupation and rule for approximately 90 years. 00:04:53.360 --> 00:05:13.600 During those ninety years, the belief in and the expectation of God's Messiah returning in power and great glory and in the grandeur of a military defeat like King David would bring, that kind of belief took off like Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.680 Because Israel desired to be free from foreign dominion. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:31.439 But while American independence was fought for and won, Israel repeatedly fought and was crushed. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:42.480 Each time a leader arose, the insurrections were crushed, were defeated and put down by the Roman armies. 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:50.959 They had no hope of a grassroots movement rising up to thrust out the imperial invaders of Rome. 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:58.319 Israel's only hope was God's promise of a Messiah. 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:06.000 So as a result, there were many who arrived on the scene of Israel's history, claiming to be that promised one. 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:24.879 Charismatic leaders arose often seeking to rid the promised land of the Romans, but each one, each one would be struck down, even crucified, for their defiance of the Roman military engine. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:31.920 Their followers were scattered, killed, and crucified along Judean roads. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:40.000 That's what Gamaliel, a leader in the Jewish high court, spoke of in the trial of the apostles mentioned in Acts chapter 5. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:42.000 Listen to what Gamaliel said. 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:48.160 He said to his fellow leaders, Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these apostles, these men. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:55.519 For before these days, Tudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400, joined him. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:01.120 He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:09.040 After him, Judas the Galilean rose up and drew away some of the people after him, and he too perished. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:12.160 And all who followed him were scattered. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:32.240 By the time that the apostles stood before Gamaliel, it was almost normal for Messiahs to rise up, gather a crowd, be killed, and it'd all be over. 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:36.480 That was just the natural pattern that followed itself over and over and over again. 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:48.079 But in the early years of the first century, the people were longing for some kind of direction from God, a word from the Lord, a prophet, something, anything. 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:53.680 It had been a terribly long 400 years since Malachi. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:07.680 And onto that scene, onto that scene, out in the desert byways stepped a man named John. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:14.560 People were maybe a bit hesitant about him at first. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:20.160 I mean, who wouldn't be uncertain about a guy who ate grasshoppers? 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:25.759 Besides that, he preached judgment and repentance and baptized people. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:33.679 But all of that character eventually began to remind them of the character of Old Testament prophets. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:39.440 And it did seem as though God was speaking through John the Baptizer. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:47.360 Here, at least, in John the Baptizer appeared one who was similar to those Old Testament prophets. 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:50.000 And he drew crowds and crowds of people. 00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:54.960 And one of those people that came to John to be baptized was a man named Andrew. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:07.360 Gospel of John in chapter 1 tells us that Andrew came to John to be baptized, and he began to be a disciple of John until John pointed out another person to Andrew named Jesus. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:17.279 And when Andrew saw Jesus and heard that he was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he left John and followed Jesus. 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:26.799 One of the first things that Andrew did after beginning to follow Jesus was to go and tell his brother, quote, We have found the Messiah. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:33.200 And his brother was Peter. 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:38.159 Peter joined Andrew in following Jesus. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:46.080 From the very beginning, then, Peter operated under the belief that Jesus is the promised Messiah. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:53.360 And we are left to assume that Peter's view of the expected Messiah is just like everyone else's. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:57.759 He's going to be a charismatic leader who's going to draw a crowd to himself. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:02.240 He's going to draw in a group of military fighters. 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:04.879 He's going to push out the Roman armies. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:09.440 He's going to bring back the golden years of Israel under King David. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:24.559 By the time Peter made his declaration in Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, he and the other disciples were convinced of at least two truths. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:31.519 Number one, Jesus is the long-anticipated Messiah, and two, he is God in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:41.759 If you put those two truths together, you combine them, you arrive at one inevitable conclusion in the first century Jewish mind. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:46.000 Jesus is going to bring victory. 00:10:47.679 --> 00:10:53.519 And even mighty Rome cannot stand in his way. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:57.200 That's someone we can follow. 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:04.320 After lifetimes of tyranny, freedom could be felt. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:15.840 And the disciples, with Peter at the forefront, would be the first participants in that victory and gaining the honor that came with it. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:24.559 But all of a sudden, things took a wrong turn down a one-way street. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:36.639 Because from that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.799 And he must suffer many things. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:45.600 From the elders, from the chief priests, from the scribes. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:58.480 And Jesus, the Messiah, must be killed, and on the third day be raised. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:05.919 In a dramatic change of events, Jesus now announces a shift in priority. 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:21.519 From that time on, Jesus' focus is no longer on the crowds of people that are clamoring to touch him, to be healed, that are asking for him to heal their blindness or their leprosy or to raise people from the dead. 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.320 No longer is Jesus focused on the crowds of people. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:33.679 Now he's bringing it in, he's gathering in his disciples, he's narrowing the focus, and he's instructing his disciples on what's coming next. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:42.960 From now on, his concentration is on teaching his disciples privately on his way to Jerusalem. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:55.039 And the first thing, the most important thing that they need to know is that Jesus, the Son of the living God, their Messiah, will die. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:00.399 More on that in Good Friday. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:03.519 Now Matthew has hinted at this before. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:13.679 In chapter 12, verse 14, we read that the Pharisees had had such a strong reaction to Jesus that Matthew says they desired to destroy him. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:23.279 We saw in chapter 12 that Jesus mentions Jonah in the belly of the great fish as a sign toward which to look. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:32.000 He said, as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so Jesus would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:39.360 Now remember, Matthew is writing this book two, three decades later. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:42.720 He knows the end of the story. 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:44.000 Right? 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:45.360 He knows the end of the story. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:51.919 So he's putting all of these events together thematically to arrive at a specific place. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:03.759 Matthew's readers are two to three decades from these events. 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:07.840 They know where these events are headed. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:12.399 For that matter, we know. 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:14.480 Right? 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:17.519 We know where this is headed. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:21.440 We know that next Sunday is Palm Sunday. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:27.440 And we know that Palm Sunday is followed by Good Friday, and Good Friday is followed by Resurrection Sunday. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:30.080 But the disciples had none of that. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:39.360 Strip all of that from your thinking if you can and put yourselves in the sandals of the disciples who knew none of that. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.039 They are clueless. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:50.320 At this point, they're ignorant of the passage of scriptures that speak about a suffering servant. 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:54.639 And so Jesus works to make it clear, perfectly clear to them. 00:14:55.440 --> 00:14:57.600 Jerusalem's down the road. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:07.919 And with it is Jesus' unimaginable, suffering, and incomprehensible, humiliating death. 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:12.799 But it gets more surprising than that. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:21.279 Perhaps the most important and surprising truth is the necessity of this trip to the holy city. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:25.759 This is not a take it or leave it proposition. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:29.440 No, this is the first of several ironies in this passage. 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.759 Jesus says, I must go. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:45.919 The irony of God's eternal plan is that the Messiah must go to Jerusalem, and he must go because he must die. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:48.399 This is a divine necessity. 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:55.679 Jesus' plan is not the foolish design of a schizophrenic man with a death wish. 00:15:56.879 --> 00:16:03.679 He's not a foolhardy guy with delusional ideas of rescuing Israel from the iron grip of Rome. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:12.000 Now, this is the determination of God the Son to fulfill the purpose of the Trinity from before time began. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:17.840 Peter would later speak of this in his first sermon in Acts chapter 2. 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:25.759 He proclaimed to the Jewish crowds of that day that Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:32.399 And according to that definite plan and foreknowledge, he was crucified and killed at the hands of lawless men. 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:41.840 In the mind and plan of the Godhead, this trip to Jerusalem to suffer at the hands of Israel's leaders and to be killed was not to be avoided. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:43.440 It was a necessity. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:53.200 And it's important that we take a moment and consider the importance of that truth for us. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.200 Scriptures tell us, we've already sung of it. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.840 The scriptures tell us that we've all sinned. 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:09.200 And so we've earned the wages of our sin. 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:16.079 Those wages, Romans 3 tells us, is death. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:21.279 God doesn't owe us anything. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:26.480 But He will give us what we've earned. 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:44.960 He does not owe us family, friends, support, encouragement, health, a job, a home, money. 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:50.400 God does not owe us anything. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:54.400 But He will give us that for which we have labored. 00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:59.759 And that for which we have labored earns us our wages. 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:03.599 And we have earned death. 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:07.039 And those wages will be paid. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.000 How then do we reconcile? 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:22.160 God not owing us a thing with this one word must. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:35.200 If we have earned death, then why must Jesus go to Jerusalem to die? 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:42.240 If we are the ones that have earned our death, then why must Christ, the Son of the living God, die? 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:50.319 Scripture answers that question for us in four words. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:54.960 God first loved us. 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:15.839 Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5 tells us, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, because it's by grace that you've been saved. 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:29.039 And according to 2 Corinthians 5, 21, it is for our sake that Jesus faced Jerusalem and was made to be sin, even though he knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:37.440 But justice demands satisfaction. 00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:43.839 The wages of sin must be paid. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:49.839 Death must be exacted. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:55.440 Forgiveness of sins requires the shedding of blood. 00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:59.680 And you and I did nothing to merit this must. 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:17.519 This is an act of God, an eternity past, determining what he would do, and then putting that plan into action, and that plan entered into human history in Matthew chapter one with the miraculous birth of a boy named Yahweh saves. 00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:24.160 Jesus, who would save his people from their sins. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:38.160 Because of God's rich mercy, with which he loved us, Jesus must go. 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:43.279 Jesus must suffer. 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:48.000 Jesus must be killed. 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:51.839 And Jesus must be raised. 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:58.480 The mind of a first century Jew would have frozen in mid-thought. 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:04.160 Jaw dropped in astonished confusion. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:08.400 Because true messiahs didn't die. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:12.000 The false ones did. 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:19.200 They'd even seen their false messiahs hung on crosses outside of Jewish cities. 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:28.559 There was no slot in their thinking, no space in their mental filing system for a dead Messiah. 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:34.240 Because messiahs lead people and nations to victory and freedom and ultimate peace. 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:41.920 That's why at the end of the Gospels, at the beginning of Acts, the disciples are still asking Jesus, Lord, is it now that you're going to bring in the kingdom? 00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:51.680 Messiahs destroy enemies and rescue those in the grips of slavery. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:54.880 The true Messiah doesn't die. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:21:59.680 That's the very reason they're still under Roman. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:00.640 And rule. 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:04.160 People claiming to be Messiahs fought against Rome and died. 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:18.319 A pathway, known forever as the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering ending in the Messiah's death at the hands of pagan Rome was unacceptable in Judaism. 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:22.480 Dead Messiah bordered on blasphemy. 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:37.839 It was unthinkable that Jesus would expect his disciples to accept his death as God's plan after they had declared him to be God's promised Messiah and God's own son. 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:42.960 They hadn't signed up to follow a foolish leader who would suffer and die. 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:46.400 Jesus was simply out of his mind. 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:58.720 So Peter, maybe he's speaking on behalf of the group again, we don't know, but he takes the lead once more, simply rejecting the divine plan for the Messiah. 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:02.480 And that demonstrates to us the irony of Peter's service. 00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:06.799 Peter usurps his Lord. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:11.839 And by doing so, he's not Peter, the rock upon whom the church is built. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:16.160 Instead, he's Peter, a rock of stumbling. 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:22.400 We might say that at least Peter's bold in his ignorance. 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:30.079 Not the killed. 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:40.160 Perhaps Peter thinks he can now speak for God or that he knows that the will of God, what the will of God is for his Messiah. 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:45.680 So he says, Yeah, Jesus, you're out of your mind. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:48.640 Let me tell you how it's really gonna be. 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:54.720 Doesn't that sound like us sometimes? 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:07.440 We usually don't have much room in our theology for suffering and for struggle in life. 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:33.039 We don't have a place in our minds for sudden loss of a job or pain and suffering, the loss of a home, financial hardship, rejection of family, continued poor health, sudden death. 00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:41.119 And in those moments we can tend, like Peter, to reach out for Jesus and say, Jesus, you don't know what you're doing. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:49.839 We reject God's plan for our lives by thinking that we know better. 00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:55.440 We insist that somehow, somehow, this must not be right. 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:03.599 Jesus, I know you know everything and all, but you know, you messed up here. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:09.440 It amounts to a reversal of positions. 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:15.200 When we do that, we assume a prerogative of lordship. 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:19.119 It's an action that belongs to authority. 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:23.839 But the slave never rebukes the master. 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:32.640 The student does not rebuke the teacher, the follower never rebukes the Messiah, and the thing created never says to its creator, What have you done? 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:50.720 But Peter, in a double-minded kind of way, calls Jesus Lord, takes him by the elbow, walks him away from the other disciples, and says, Oh, Jesus? 00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:52.319 Yet no. 00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:57.119 That's not gonna happen. 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:04.720 And the amazing thing is, it's natural. 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.200 It just comes as part of who Peter is. 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:13.359 But isn't that what sin does to us? 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:17.599 Sin puts us in the place of God. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:21.920 Says, yeah, no, this is the way it needs to be. 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:29.359 Peter was rebuking the master. 00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:33.119 He was rebuking the teacher, the Messiah, and his very creator. 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:49.519 And we stand in Peter's sandals when we place our desires and our thoughts and our programs ahead of God's, especially, especially as it relates to suffering and hardship and following Jesus. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:57.759 And a side note, that's why the prosperity gospel is a gospel of Satan. 00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:10.960 Now, in Peter's mind, and presumably the other disciples as well, what Jesus has said here is horrific. 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:12.880 It's a disaster. 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:20.240 It's a catastrophe of such tremendous proportions that it has to be avoided at all costs. 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:29.440 If victory over Rome and the subsequent freedom of national Israel is to be obtained, then Jesus must live at all costs. 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:31.200 He must not die. 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:37.519 But little does Peter know at this point that if Jesus does not die, then Peter cannot truly live. 00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:49.759 If Jesus does not die and rise from the dead, then we are still dead in our sins with no true life now and no hope for the future. 00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:55.519 Peter oversteps his bounds. 00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:04.400 For him to say, Lord, is to submit, not to command. 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:13.279 And yet to turn around and then say, far be it from you, is to command, not to submit. 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:20.640 Peter has this innate desire to submit to Jesus' leadership while at the same time telling him what to do. 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:28.799 Far be it from you is an idiom. 00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:36.319 Meaning something like, may God be really gracious to you and not allow that to ever happen. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:43.519 But then Peter adds to it a double negative, which is the strongest way of saying, absolutely not. 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:46.319 The old King James said, God forbid. 00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:49.440 This will never happen to you. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:52.240 No way, Peter was saying. 00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:53.119 Ever. 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:54.000 Forget it. 00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:56.480 Jesus, never speak of that again. 00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:57.680 It's not going to happen. 00:28:57.759 --> 00:28:59.680 I'm not going to allow this. 00:29:01.519 --> 00:29:06.720 Later in chapter 26 in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter follows through on his theology. 00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:11.519 See, bad theology leads to bad results. 00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:14.880 He tries to take off a servant's head. 00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:18.160 Somehow he misses and only takes off his ear. 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:22.799 In Peter's mind, Jesus would not die. 00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:28.880 And if he had to usurp Jesus' leadership to keep that from happening, so be it. 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:38.640 This is one of the most picturesque illustrations of a flagrant disregard for the revealed will of God found in Scripture. 00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:40.720 Jesus doesn't let it stand. 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:42.480 He corrects it immediately. 00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:49.359 In what may be the most shocking statement made by Jesus, we see the irony of Peter's actions. 00:29:50.319 --> 00:29:54.400 He unwittingly becomes a tool of Satan. 00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:06.000 Peter placed his own flawed worldly theology in Jesus' way as a stumbling block. 00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:13.680 Because Jesus is saying things that don't mesh with what Peter believes to be true. 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:24.160 Peter has perceived a Messiah as a military general with godlike powers, not a servant who would give his life as a ransom for many. 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:30.880 Peter's picture was one of victory and celebration, not defeat. 00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:42.960 But by urging Jesus to take a different path, Peter unwittingly did exactly what Satan did in chapter 4. 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:54.480 Satan sought to distract Jesus from his purpose, saying, No, the better thing for you, Jesus, is to take my way, take the devil's way. 00:30:55.839 --> 00:31:02.799 First, it was by not relying on the Father for his food, but doing it the devil's way by turning stone into bread. 00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:06.880 Then it was tempting Jesus to jump off a building and to test God's promise. 00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:13.279 And finally it was tempting Jesus to take Satan's way to be the world ruler rather than the Father's way. 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:24.880 In chapter 4 of chapter 4, verse 10, Jesus finally says to Satan, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:37.440 And now in chapter 16, with the announcement of this dark cloud of suffering and death looming ahead, Peter becomes Satan's next tool to distract Jesus from his true mission. 00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:52.400 Just as Satan sought to turn Jesus away from God's intended purpose, so too Satan is now using Peter to lead away from God's purpose. 00:31:54.480 --> 00:32:00.400 Rather than functioning as the rock for the church, Peter becomes a rock of stumbling. 00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:07.440 A hindrance to Jesus' mission to save his people from their sins. 00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:16.079 Makes you wonder uncomfortably. 00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:25.200 How often we have been Satan's tools as he labors to upset God's purpose. 00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:34.000 It should. 00:32:52.319 --> 00:32:54.480 Functioning as Satan's tool. 00:32:56.720 --> 00:33:02.160 We are extremely arrogant and prideful if we would say, Yeah, I would never be in that position. 00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:20.480 Have our thoughts, our processing of our world, of our situations, our ideologies, even our theologies, our mistaken worldly influence theologies, ever put us in a place to impact God's purpose in a negative way? 00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:22.720 Well, yeah, maybe, probably. 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:36.160 Victory and glory were paramount in the mind of a first century Jew. 00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:44.000 Pain and death and suffering, this kind of language, that wasn't part of the messianic vocabulary. 00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:48.799 But God's thoughts are not our thoughts, are they? 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:57.440 Isaiah wrote God's words in Isaiah 55, my thoughts are not your thoughts. 00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:00.559 Neither are my ways your ways. 00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:07.920 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, and my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:14.800 And that statement comes two chapters after Isaiah 53. 00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:28.079 How interesting that God's higher thoughts and God's higher ways that are beyond anything that we could imagine are just a short distance away from these words. 00:34:29.599 --> 00:34:33.440 He was despised and rejected by men. 00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:37.679 A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:42.880 As one from whom we would hide our faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:47.360 Surely, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. 00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:53.679 We looked at him as stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. 00:34:56.079 --> 00:34:58.960 But he was pierced for our transgressions. 00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:02.400 He was crushed for our iniquities. 00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:07.280 Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. 00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:11.519 And by his wounds we are healed. 00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:19.360 It never entered the disciples' minds at this point to connect Isaiah's prophecy with Jesus in that moment. 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:21.840 It was a truth that was beyond their grasp. 00:35:22.079 --> 00:35:30.239 And in his reluctance to simply trust Jesus' words, Peter rejects them, becoming ensnared by Satan to do his will. 00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:38.800 Look at the very next verse, verse 24. 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:52.639 Then Jesus says, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 00:35:55.039 --> 00:36:13.840 How surprised would you be to hear Jesus continue on to say that anyone who desires to follow him must connect him with the path of suffering and follow him in that same path. 00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:20.079 Well no. 00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:32.000 It's one thing to follow the Messiah in a glorious death in a battle securing freedom and peace and glory for one's people. 00:36:32.559 --> 00:36:39.920 But to follow a Messiah to a shameful death on a Roman cross as a human disgrace and an abomination to God. 00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:50.159 Being a follower of Jesus means dying to ourselves. 00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:54.880 Which, of course, ultimately leads to real life. 00:36:55.119 --> 00:36:56.960 More on that next week. 00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:01.039 But aren't we so often like Peter? 00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:16.079 Where we have our own thoughts, our own ideals, our own expectations of what life ought to be like, of what life ought to look like, of what God ought to do or what God ought not to do. 00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:30.639 And so we then take our desires, our life goals, our personal happiness, our satisfaction, even our own comfort, and we lay it ahead of the cross that Jesus says we must always carry. 00:37:31.360 --> 00:37:39.360 And somehow the words of Jesus that even the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head becomes a pillow on the cross. 00:37:45.039 --> 00:37:51.199 And yet we are taught that Jesus set all of that aside to fulfill the Father's purpose. 00:37:52.559 --> 00:38:04.320 He faced the cross out of divine necessity because of his rich mercy with which he loved us. 00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:18.079 Let's pray that God teaches us his thoughts so that we might think them, not the sinful, lowly thoughts of selfishness. 00:38:18.639 --> 00:38:21.920 What kind of transformed people would we be? 00:38:22.079 --> 00:38:29.760 What kind of transformed people would the church of God be if we truly died to ourselves to follow Jesus? 00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:38.079 We should be extremely thankful that Peter was wrong in his concept of messiahship. 00:38:40.159 --> 00:38:55.840 We should give thanks that Jesus must go to Jerusalem to suffer and to die, because in that our wages of death can be exchanged for the gift of life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:38:58.719 --> 00:39:03.199 I won't preach on it, but there's another irony that would be worthwhile to point out. 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:06.000 And that's the irony of time. 00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:10.159 Peter ultimately got the message. 00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:12.480 It took a while. 00:39:13.039 --> 00:39:14.639 It took a while. 00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:21.280 But listen to 1 Peter chapter 2, where Peter wrote to suffering people. 00:39:22.239 --> 00:39:36.719 He says, For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. 00:39:38.159 --> 00:39:43.920 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:48.000 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. 00:39:48.559 --> 00:39:56.960 When he suffered, he did not threaten, but instead he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 00:39:59.599 --> 00:40:15.760 And he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. 00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:20.719 For by his wounds you are healed. 00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:21.840 Let's pray. 00:40:22.159 --> 00:40:23.360 Lord Jesus. 00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:26.719 What a glorious truth. 00:40:28.079 --> 00:40:36.559 We bow before you in just humble thanks that you would take it upon yourself to complete the divine purpose. 00:40:39.679 --> 00:40:45.119 To see and to know and to purpose to go and to die. 00:40:47.760 --> 00:41:00.400 May we rest in your death and our behalf this morning, trusting in the cross of Christ as the ultimate demonstration of the riches of your mercy. 00:41:01.920 --> 00:41:10.400 Seen in your love for us, who, while we were yet sinners, you died for us. 00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:13.840 Thank you, Lord Jesus. 00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:14.800 Amen. 00:41:16.159 --> 00:41:19.920 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:41:20.079 --> 00:41:26.960 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:31.280 You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.