SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Take your Bible, make your way to the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: McShane has led us to the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Matthew leads us to the words of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting with us or this is your first time, we want to welcome you.
SPEAKER_01: We've been working our way through the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we find ourselves in Matthew chapter 16, beginning in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: As you turn there, I'd like to review a little bit so that we understand where we are in the context of the Lord Jesus Christ, what's going on, what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Back in chapter 16, verse 13, Jesus took his disciples to the region of Caesarea Philippi, a region of idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: And he asked them, who do the people say that I am, and who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And we saw there Matthew's declaration of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, saying that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: In contrast to all that exists in this world, you are the one.
SPEAKER_01: High point, a mountaintop experience for Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And then the very next breath, he is functioning in Satan's place, trying to hold back Jesus from going to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus had said in verse 21 to his disciples that he was on his way to Jerusalem to suffer, to be killed, and to be raised.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter thought, yeah, that doesn't work.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus corrected Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And then he speaks to his disciples in verse 24, and he says, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever would save his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_01: But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_01: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
SPEAKER_01: Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Mark's gospel tells us that there are crowds present.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is directing these statements directly to his disciples, and then by extension to crowds.
SPEAKER_01: So this is applicable to you who are here already having faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's also applicable to you if you are here wondering who this Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: Wondering if he's worth believing in and following.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that little pronoun.
SPEAKER_01: His.
SPEAKER_01: Replace it with your.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone would come after me and follow me, take up your cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: As a means of execution, the cross was meant to bring shame.
SPEAKER_01: Only the scum of society were crucified.
SPEAKER_01: A horrendously painful way to die.
SPEAKER_01: Crucifixion was a means of publicly humiliating the crucified in order to teach the watching world a lesson.
SPEAKER_01: The crucified one was generally stripped of his clothing to be exposed to the elements and bugs and birds, and that takes on great effect when you understand that before being hung on the cross, they were generally scourged or flogged with a whip made of leather pieces, at the ends of which were attached strips of metal or bone, so that when struck with the whip, strips of flesh were torn from the body until blood flowed, drawing bugs and all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: Then the criminal was forced to carry the crossbeam of wood through crowds of people to the place of execution.
SPEAKER_01: Typically, crucifixions were in public places along thoroughfares where people were traveling and walking and passing by in large numbers.
SPEAKER_01: So that large numbers of people would be witnessing the event, and the condemned was tied or nailed to a crossbeam that was then lifted onto a vertical beam, fixed in the ground, out in the open for all to see.
SPEAKER_01: A crucifixion forced the criminal into shameful submission.
SPEAKER_01: Exposed and powerless.
SPEAKER_01: Hanging on a cross removed all rights.
SPEAKER_01: It took away all control.
SPEAKER_01: It stripped a person of their worth and of their dignity.
SPEAKER_01: There was a public statement that this is what happens.
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens to someone who opposes Rome.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that the next time you wear a cross around your neck.
SPEAKER_01: Most first century Jews knew this lesson well.
SPEAKER_01: In 4 BC, the Roman commander Publius Quintilius captured 2,000 Jewish rebels under the leadership of Judas the Galilean.
SPEAKER_01: Quintilius crucified all 2,000 men along the thoroughfares of Judea.
SPEAKER_01: It's estimated that Rome crucified in the neighborhood of 30,000 people during the lifetime of Jesus alone.
SPEAKER_01: Every Jewish person understood that crucifixion was painful, that it included unimaginable suffering, but they also understood that it meant complete and final submission to the might of Rome.
SPEAKER_01: It meant submission to a foreign dominion to the point of death.
SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, in the case of crucifixion, submission in that situation was not willing submission.
SPEAKER_01: It was forced submission, compelled submission.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' disciples were familiar with the desire for Israeli freedom from Rome and the consequences then of rebelling against that authority.
SPEAKER_01: Crosses and the lessons that they were designed to teach to those who might even begin to entertain ideas of rebellion were widely known.
SPEAKER_01: But that didn't stop the disciples, did it?
SPEAKER_01: In our study of Matthew's gospel, we've seen that Matthew has declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in his mind, in Peter's mind, that meant final and complete victory over the Roman world.
SPEAKER_01: Where others had died, where Judas the Galilean and his 2,000 followers had died, Jesus would live and reign as God's promised king, and the disciples would join him.
SPEAKER_01: That's why they argued about which one was going to sit on his right hand in glory.
SPEAKER_01: But God's plan, Jesus said in verse 21, was for Jesus to go to Jerusalem, to suffer many things, and to be killed.
SPEAKER_01: That would have been a massive and disastrous blow to the disciples thinking.
SPEAKER_01: If that were true, if that were true, then the death of the Messiah would have had severe implications for everyone who followed him.
SPEAKER_01: At most, when Jesus says these words, we're thirty years away from Judas the Galilean.
SPEAKER_01: And his 2,000 followers.
SPEAKER_01: So if that's in their memories, and Jesus says, if you want to follow me, take up your cross.
SPEAKER_01: You begin to get a picture of what that meant for the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now in verses 24 to 28, Jesus begins to teach his disciples what it means to believe that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: They thought they understood.
SPEAKER_01: They thought they knew who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_01: They thought they knew what that meant for them, but they were wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Here we find what it means to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I think the passage before us this morning would have been a shock to much of the ancient world, and it would be a shock to much of the modern thinking, even about what it means to be a Christ follower.
SPEAKER_01: Because here we find three commands from the Lord Jesus Himself detailing the essence of what it means to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Here is where Jesus corrects the disciples' thinking on what it means to believe in him, on what it means to be a disciple.
SPEAKER_01: He's told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, let him take up his cross, and let him follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus uses a play on words here, literally saying, if anyone would follow after me, let him take up his cross and follow.
SPEAKER_01: So Matthew gives us Jesus' own words on what it means to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone has a desire, has an interest, if they wish to become a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, Jesus himself details what it means.
SPEAKER_01: And the very first thing he mentions is that a Christian must rebel against himself.
SPEAKER_01: A Christian must rebel against himself.
SPEAKER_01: Job, my clicker's not advancing slides here.
SPEAKER_01: Would you move that forward for me?
SPEAKER_01: A Christian rebels against himself.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first of three commands in this text.
SPEAKER_01: We must deny ourselves to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is a strong word.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks of rejection.
SPEAKER_01: Denying ourselves requires rejecting our drives, our desires, our nature, and choosing something outside of ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 21, Peter rebelled against the divine plan of Jesus suffering, against the divine intention of Jesus going to Jerusalem to die.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus then rebukes Peter by telling him to get back in line.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, you're functioning like Satan when you choose your own desires.
SPEAKER_01: You need to set that aside, rebel against that, and choose what I know is best.
SPEAKER_01: In contrast to our own desires, Jesus says to the disciples that anyone who comes after him must no longer rebel against God, as is our common nature, but instead to abandon our natural bent to follow God's road.
SPEAKER_01: This is a rejection of who we are as sinful human beings.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before believing in Jesus, we naturally rebel against God.
SPEAKER_01: But truly believing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, as Peter said, means denying your right to autonomy.
SPEAKER_01: Peter insisted that Jesus take Peter's way to the coronation as Israel's king.
SPEAKER_01: Which would be the way of war and battle and victory and glory, not the way of suffering and death.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says to Peter and to the rest of the disciples, and to anyone interested, that anyone who follows him must take God's way.
SPEAKER_01: If we are to accept God's way, we must rebel against our natural way of doing things.
SPEAKER_01: We must rebel against our natural thinking, our natural desires, our natural motivations.
SPEAKER_01: Like Peter?
SPEAKER_01: We're just like Peter.
SPEAKER_01: We have our own perceptions about what is right and wrong, about what is appropriate or inappropriate, what is good or bad.
SPEAKER_01: We have our own thoughts about life.
SPEAKER_01: We have desires and plans just like Peter does.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus calls us to rebel against all of those things that come from our sinful humanity.
SPEAKER_01: Now that can be really hard.
SPEAKER_01: That can be really hard when we've lived for so long submitting to ourselves that it becomes difficult, even incomprehensible, to reject ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Peter, if you want to follow me, James and John, if you want to follow me, Andrew, Bartholomew, and on down the line.
SPEAKER_01: Any person who wants to be a Christian, let him deny himself and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: There's a second command that Jesus says identifies a Christian, and that is that dying to self, a Christian submits to a foreign ruler.
SPEAKER_01: The cross was not glamorized in the first century as it is today.
SPEAKER_01: It was a sobering, ugly, even embarrassing concept.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples would have immediately known where Jesus was heading with this assertion that they must take up their cross and follow him.
SPEAKER_01: Because rebellion against Rome, claiming that there is a Messiah and following Him would ultimately lead to submitting to Roman dominion by carrying the condemning horizontal cross beam of the cross to your own place of crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: But here Jesus is commanding them to submit not to Rome, but to a foreign ruler that is not like Rome.
SPEAKER_01: And to carry their cross to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: And the likely end of that kind of submission is death.
SPEAKER_01: That's what a cross does.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is not a call to suffer for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We find that in other passages of Scripture like 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: That reminds us that everybody who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we find that in other passages of Scripture, but that's not here.
SPEAKER_01: A cross is not primarily about suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Taking up our cross and following Jesus is not a call to take all that we have and give it to the poor.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a call to work for justice and equity for all people.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even a call to love one another.
SPEAKER_01: Taking up your cross is not about suffering the effects of the curse of sin.
SPEAKER_01: For example, it strips the cross of its effect, of its impact to say that, yeah, I have poor health, and that's my cross to bear.
SPEAKER_01: Or losing your job is your cross to bear.
SPEAKER_01: Not that those things aren't horrendous.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that they don't compare.
SPEAKER_01: Having to live with an unsaved spouse is not your cross to bear.
SPEAKER_01: Those are all effects of a sin-cursed world, but they are not carrying your cross.
SPEAKER_01: Carrying your cross is denying your right to act as you desire and submitting to another authority so that you die.
SPEAKER_01: This is about death.
SPEAKER_01: Picture of the cross is not one of beating your drum and flaunting your rights and freedoms, but of marching directly to your execution, beaten and bloodied along the streets, jeered by the mob, carrying a placard declaring your crime for all to see.
SPEAKER_01: Peter focused on himself.
SPEAKER_01: Peter focused on himself by seeking to distract Jesus from the divine purpose of going to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to Peter, Peter, if you truly believe in me, you must die to your own ideals, to your own desires, to your own sinful perspectives.
SPEAKER_01: You must reject your own idea of what is right and good.
SPEAKER_01: And as a result of your rebellion, you will die.
SPEAKER_01: Then follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Now some think that Jesus is speaking about martyrdom here, giving up your life to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But that's a little difficult because not all of the disciples were martyred.
SPEAKER_01: And really, it cannot be about physically dying because we are to follow after the results of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: This is a death.
SPEAKER_01: Taking up your cross is a death.
SPEAKER_01: It is a death to who you are innately.
SPEAKER_01: Not the death of the house that we live in, not the death of the body necessarily.
SPEAKER_01: It's the death of our control, the death of our supremacy, the death of our dominion over life, the death of my right to say that this is what is the way to do or the way to go.
SPEAKER_01: In the Roman world, taking up your cross meant Rome forced you to submit to their way, bringing death.
SPEAKER_01: Let me put it in the most basic terms that I can.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says that anyone who truly believes in him is no longer free to call the shots for their own life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus commands the people who believe that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, must cease rebelling against God and submit to his program, not their own.
SPEAKER_01: That's dying to yourself in submission to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The direction of one's rebellion is to completely change.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of rebelling against God, we are to rebel against our right to personal rights and freedoms, and that rebellion is going to bring about the death of self.
SPEAKER_01: Which leads us to our third command from Jesus that a Christian continually follows behind Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Believing in Jesus means denying or rejecting your own rule over your life.
SPEAKER_01: And that way you take up your cross, submitting to a new and different authority for your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so then Jesus says in his third command, follow me.
SPEAKER_01: That may have been frightening news for the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They were ready for glory.
SPEAKER_01: They knew what it was like when supposed messiahs were killed by Rome.
SPEAKER_01: They knew what it was like to be a follower of a Messiah who stood against Rome and was killed.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine what kind of thinking might have entered their stressed hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: On that day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, Jesus wasn't going to lead an army against Rome.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, God's plan was for the Messiah to die in an appearance of submission to Rome.
SPEAKER_01: And just as he was relinquishing any human desires himself, remember, he cried out in the garden, Father, if it's your will, take this away from me.
SPEAKER_01: But not what I will, but what you will.
SPEAKER_01: Even Jesus said, I'm dying to my own fleshly desires and submitting to yours.
SPEAKER_01: So too, disciples were to reject any desires or plans or right to control their life and instead follow Jesus right into the lion's den.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: We don't fully comprehend Palm Sunday until we comprehend the joy of that day and the celebration of Israel's king riding down into the city in the background of this wrestling over the truth that following Jesus means I must die.
SPEAKER_01: So that Jesus might live in me.
SPEAKER_01: Palm Sunday isn't just about the celebration of Israel's king.
SPEAKER_01: Because this passage is in the background.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has told his disciples, this is where we're going.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: And no matter what the celebration is, no matter what the reaction of people is, you follow me knowing you're carrying your cross.
SPEAKER_01: That's a truly difficult truth for any of us to grasp.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it it really takes a lifetime of following Jesus to process through that.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus helps us process that by giving us three reasons that the cross-centered life is better than going your own way.
SPEAKER_01: Three reasons that following Jesus by taking up your cross and denying yourself and following him is better than standing in God's way, trying to say, no, God, your way is not best.
SPEAKER_01: The first reason that Jesus gives us is a paradox.
SPEAKER_01: For the Christian who takes up his cross and follows Jesus, death actually brings life.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, for there's a reason, whoever would save his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens when you take up a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever saves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is not merely physical life that Jesus is speaking of, but one's genuine being it's who you truly are.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is speaking here of self-preservation.
SPEAKER_01: And he's telling us that there are only two options in life.
SPEAKER_01: One way is the path of guarding your own life, your own existence, your own desires, your own agendas, doing everything possible to sustain your control and your dominion over your little kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And the other road is letting go of everything, of relinquishing control over everything and anything that matters to you.
SPEAKER_01: One way protects self and serves self.
SPEAKER_01: The other way denies self by rebelling against self.
SPEAKER_01: I like the way that one commentator puts this.
SPEAKER_01: He says that what Jesus is doing here is presenting a clear choice.
SPEAKER_01: A choice between self-preservation at all costs and the risky business of following Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: You want a risk worth pursuing?
SPEAKER_01: Take up your cross and follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So the question is, do you wish, like Peter back in verse 16, do you wish to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?
SPEAKER_01: Do you wish to follow Him to be His disciple by taking up the cross?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you wish to have life your own way?
SPEAKER_01: You cannot have both.
SPEAKER_01: But the paradox is this.
SPEAKER_01: When you come to Jesus, losing your own life, you gain real, authentic life.
SPEAKER_01: Life, true life, is gained by denying and crucifying self to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's not merely talking about living an unselfish life to have a more satisfying life.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says that the losing of life must be for his sake.
SPEAKER_01: You deny yourself so that you can have Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We rebel against our own life.
SPEAKER_01: We crucify it to have the life that comes from Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a positive benefit to denying and rejecting our command, our rule over our own life and submitting to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: By denying ourselves, we really truly gain life.
SPEAKER_01: There's a negative reason, too.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives an illustration.
SPEAKER_01: What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
SPEAKER_01: Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
SPEAKER_01: And this reason, Jesus tells us that a Christian's cross avoids the world's path to eternal bankruptcy.
SPEAKER_01: Let's say a person gains everything that this world has to offer.
SPEAKER_01: I read this week that Elon Musk has now taken over the world's top place for the world's richest man, richest person.
SPEAKER_01: Can have anything you want.
SPEAKER_01: Just shells out$3 billion and now in control of Twitter.
SPEAKER_01: You have all that the world has to offer at your fingertips.
SPEAKER_01: Life can be whatever you want life to be.
SPEAKER_01: You're successful in reaching your goal of being the world's wealthiest person, the world's most famous person, or the world's most dot dot, you fell in the blank.
SPEAKER_01: You have it all in terms of what the world has to offer.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's what Satan offered to Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: If you have all that the world has to offer and you have it at your fingertips, available to you, nothing to stand in your way, but in the end you lose your soul, that is, when all is said and done, there's nothing left for you but an eternity in hell, then what do you get out of it?
SPEAKER_01: If a person gains the whole world, but in death gives up his very being in torment, and if in the end, after a lifetime of fighting for selfish autonomy, you relinquish control over your life to Satan and his demons, losing all you gained in the process, was it worth it to gain the whole world?
SPEAKER_01: That's the ultimate loser.
SPEAKER_01: You win in life, but you lose eternally in death.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says it.
SPEAKER_01: There's absolutely nothing that you can exchange for your own soul.
SPEAKER_01: You can't give all of your wealth, you can't give your power, your status, your notoriety.
SPEAKER_01: You can't give anything to God to keep your soul, to save it.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_01: There's no exchange rate for that.
SPEAKER_01: There's no bartering system for a soul.
SPEAKER_01: You know, addictions are a good illustration of this.
SPEAKER_01: They're a small picture, really, of rebelling against Christ to gain the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what the object of addiction is, whether it's drugs or alcohol or food or tobacco or possessions or gambling or pornography, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: Addiction extends a promise of joy, of peace, of satisfaction, of pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: And in the end, it only delivers emptiness, death, and destruction.
SPEAKER_01: What began as a hopeful escape from the hassles of life becomes a form of bondage.
SPEAKER_01: So we're left with two options.
SPEAKER_01: We deny ourselves by crucifying our right to rule our life and follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Or we live the world's way and we endure eternal bankruptcy.
SPEAKER_01: Where you cannot pay a debt for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's a hard, hard thing to say.
SPEAKER_01: But it's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a that's a downer, right?
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to end on a downer, and Jesus doesn't either.
SPEAKER_01: He gives us a third reason.
SPEAKER_01: The third reason that Jesus gives us that it's worth following him is that the Christian cross is worth the price.
SPEAKER_01: For the Son of Man is going to come, he says.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: With his angels, in the glory of his father.
SPEAKER_01: And then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
SPEAKER_01: So now Jesus returns to Peter's thoughts of power and glory and rule and authority.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus tells the disciples that yes, I am the Messiah, I am the King of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: There will indeed be a time when I rule over all that exists.
SPEAKER_01: Only it's going to be in the future.
SPEAKER_01: What the disciples are hoping will happen is going to happen just not immediately.
SPEAKER_01: And what is between then and the Messiah's reign is suffering and death.
SPEAKER_01: And when he comes again, Jesus will come as a judge.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells us in advance what his standard of judgment is going to be.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it a little bit helpful when your employer, when your boss gives you a directive, and he tells you, this is what I expect?
SPEAKER_01: This is what I expect to be the outcome, or this is the standard to which I expect you to do your work instead of just being ambiguous and you don't know what to expect.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus tells us this is what to expect.
SPEAKER_01: I will repay each person according to what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds rough.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I'm a sinful person, and thinking about being repaid for what I've done doesn't sound too great.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world does that make it worth it to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's important to remember that Jesus is saying these words in the context of encouragement to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: He's encouraging us to follow him by denying ourselves, by taking up our cross and following him.
SPEAKER_01: So the repayment issue then is not about sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about whether you were kind or mean, whether you were generous or stingy, whether you helped the poor, or whether you gave your testimony in church.
SPEAKER_01: No, Jesus will come as a judge, and his judgment is going to be based on whether or not you rejected yourself and submitted to him as your new king, or whether you followed him and rebelling against yourself by pursuing him instead of your own way to gain the world.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, My judgment is going to be on whether or not you denied yourself and took up your cross and followed me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me put it more simply.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus will come again in power and great glory, and he will judge each and every person on this.
SPEAKER_01: Are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: According to what we've just walked through.
SPEAKER_01: We've noticed in Matthew's gospel that a disciple is a Christian, and being a Christian is being a disciple.
SPEAKER_01: Christian is a disciple who has rejected individual autonomy and submitted to Christ as king, and you follow him.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean you do it perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: We grow in that, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's a progression over life of denying self, of crucifying self, of hanging our own desires on the cross and submitting ourselves to Christ's rule.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't always go perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, if you've done that by faith, if you've looked to me, then you're my disciple.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus comes as king and judge, it will be to reward or to repay two categories of people.
SPEAKER_01: Those two categories are those who forsake the world to believe in him and those who reject him to gain the world.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, my friend, will ensure that relinquishing control over your life to follow Him is worth losing out on what the world has to offer.
SPEAKER_01: Put that into the recesses of your brain, into the depths of your soul.
SPEAKER_01: So that when life comes at you fast and hard, and you can't explain it and you can't understand it and you can't comprehend it, but you know I have denied this world to follow Jesus, you will know it will be worth it all.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus says he's going to make it worth it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not in you, it's not in me, it's in the promise of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples were excited about the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They were ready to follow him to glory.
SPEAKER_01: But he told them that suffering and death comes before glory.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells them that if they genuinely want to be a part of what he's doing, they too must follow that same path.
SPEAKER_01: They must die to themselves and follow his will in life.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, Scripture doesn't record the disciples' reaction to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I knew what Peter was thinking at this point.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure at least one of them was thinking, What?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not so sure that's a great deal, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's precisely where Jesus is heading.
SPEAKER_01: Because this demand that Jesus makes only makes sense in light of a greater reward.
SPEAKER_01: It only makes sense if a more excellent life is gained by losing one's own life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's an astounding claim to make, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: If you were to say to your coworker, hey, if you die to yourself and follow me, I will make your life better.
SPEAKER_01: They might say to the boss, hey, can I change shifts?
SPEAKER_01: See, the only way that Jesus can genuinely and authentically make this claim, make this demand, and make this future promise is if what Peter said about him is actually true.
SPEAKER_01: This can only make sense if Jesus is actually the Christ, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, as was read for us earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, we're fools.
SPEAKER_01: No one in their right mind would follow Jesus to his cross, dying to themselves, following him for the rest of their lives, unless he is the real thing who can fulfill his promise.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Jesus is about to demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: He's about to demonstrate in chapter 17 the basis for his demands and his reasons.
SPEAKER_01: He's the king, he's God the Son.
SPEAKER_01: He says, 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.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 17, there's this transfiguration where Jesus is revealed in all of his glory before his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He says, There are some of you who are going to get a taste of what this looks like.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to give you a preview.
SPEAKER_01: The glory and the freedom the disciples were looking for will come in the future, but there is real life to be had in the meantime and ultimately when Jesus returns.
SPEAKER_01: Being a Christian means rebelling against yourself and your own will in favor of God's will.
SPEAKER_01: And the death of self and continual following of your king leads to complete and eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you want the rest of the story, you have to come back Friday night.
SPEAKER_01: Because we still have to answer this question well, how how is it that death is a good thing?
SPEAKER_01: So on Friday night, we're going to look at the day that life died.
SPEAKER_01: But if you really want the end of the story, you have to come back Friday night and next Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: Because after hearing about the day that life died, we're going to see the day that death meets its destroyer.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what ultimately gives us hope in this, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because if Jesus goes to Jerusalem and suffers many things and is killed, it's all pointless if the tomb still contains a body.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have hope as God's people that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: And he proved it, not simply by dying and being buried, but by rising again.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we look to you this morning as all of our hope.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, maybe there's there's someone here this morning who does not yet have that hope.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that you would make it clear to them who you are and reveal to them, open up their eyes to see and their ears to hear, to believe in you, to rest entirely in you for their rescue, for their life.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, may we be drawn to follow you each day more fully, each day more committed, each day more determined to trust you.
SPEAKER_01: Because we believe in your promise that you will make it worth it on the day that we see you again.
SPEAKER_01: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.