I urge you to open your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter seventeen. Matthew chapter seventeen. We have one of three accounts of a remarkable event in the life of our Lord, when he was transfigured. I don't think I ever use that word transfigured except in reference to the event. It means that his physical appearance was drastically altered and changed.
And I am preaching through the life and ministry of Jesus. I think I have been in that series for about four years, and I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another four years if I should live that long. And I'm really. Encountering things that texts from which I've never preached before, and the Transfiguration was one of those texts. About six months ago, I went through the Transfiguration.
I think I preached five sermons on the Transfiguration. Was just so blessed. I I had not realized how significant an event the Transfiguration is. But I think that it has great potential to strengthen your admiration for Jesus and your faith in Jesus. I think that it has great potential to ready you and me for eternity, and gives us a glimpse into what our existence will be after we leave this world.
I think it also is instructive for the the condition, the the state of being in which departed saints are now existing. And so, I think there's a lot of potential here for us to grow in grace, to grow in our appreciation for Jesus, and our comfort from the truths that He has revealed, especially the truths that are revealed in the implications of what happened here when Jesus was transfigured. Today is my sixty-sixth birthday. And so I think I was here on my 60th birthday as well, six years ago. And so it's a great, great privilege to be here and to be preaching on the day that marks my birth.
On this day, I often think about. Persons for whom I'm very thankful start with my mom and my dad, and think about friends and situations. I sent a text to my fellow elders this morning and just said I'm thinking of things for which I'm grateful today, and one of the things for which I'm most grateful is that I get to serve alongside such great friends, serve the Lord alongside great friends, at the Bullet Lick Baptist Church. Greg had to ask me again, "What is the name of the church that I pastor?" And I told him, and I said, "And try not to look so jealous when you say it, because Bullet Lick is is the name of the church that makes a lot of people turn pale with envy, wishing that they pastored the Bullet Lick Baptist Church." Several years ago, 25 years ago, in fact, I remember it was 2001. 9/11 had just occurred.
I was scheduled to preach at a at a conference in Brazil, and I was there on my birthday. And it was announced that it was my birthday.
So 25 years ago, I was much much younger, and The people, the Brazilian people, were very kind. It was a very large conference, and there were many of them who came up to me during that day and said "Parabéns." And I had just preached, and I thought that they were saying "Thank you for the message" or "God bless you." I really thought that they were saying "God bless you, Parabéns," and so I would say it back to them, also "Parabéns." But they were in fact saying "Happy Birthday," so that was Portuguese for "Happy Birthday." So I was wishing all those people Happy Birthday, as well. It's not uncommon for us to hear words and realize that the speaker doesn't understand what that word means. And I I encounter it fairly often. You know, you're so kind to refer to me as Doctor Oric.
I never I never call myself that. People expect too much of you if they know you're a doctor. But I just want to remind you that my doctor's degree is in English literature.
So that's that's doesn't necessarily indicate that I'm going to know very much about the Bible. There are plenty of people who have PhDs in English. English literature, who know nothing about the Bible, but very kind of you to to say, but when some people find out that I have a PhD in English literature and that I've taught English and composition, then they just kind of assume that I'm persistently making judgments on their grammatical mistakes, and that's true.
So, I came from a family that cares about English grammar, and my mother was she also was an English professor for several years, and we had a lot of fun. She's been with the Lord since two thousand twelve, but throughout almost all of my life, we had fun, my mother and I, bantering about words. And how they how they were pronounced, and it was just a great delight if she would find me mispronouncing a word and correct me. And in fact, I remember when I was in high school, I was in a speech class, and the speech teacher said everyone in this class except Jim Oric mispronounces his ings, and that you all say you're going hunting. Instead of hunting, you are you are you are singing instead of singing, and Jim Orick is the only one who correctly pronounces his ings.
A few days after that, my mom said to me, I didn't relate that story to her, but a few days after that, my mom said to me, "Do you know that you always mispronounce your ings?" I said, "What are you talking about?" She says, "For example, you will say good morning." And you don't put that G on there. You don't say good morning, with that final G. Wow, she's right. I was mispronounced. That's just one example.
Our our discussion about words started early. I think I was four years old when I used the word pregnant in front of her, and she said to me, "You don't even know what that word means." Now I had her, because a few days earlier, a neighbor girl had told me what pregnant means, and so I said yes, I do, and she said, my mom said, well, what does it mean? And so I repeated what the neighbor girl had told me: it's when fat women wear tight-fitting clothes and smoke cigarettes. (Laughter) My my mother had such a convulsion of laughing that had she been pregnant, I think she would have delivered a baby right then. I bring that up because that word figures in the the first point of this sermon, which is a pregnant confession.
Now I've already told you, and Pastor. Pastor Greg has already told you that I'm going to be preaching on the Transfiguration, and I had your turn to Matthew chapter 17. But I'm going to show you something here, and then immediately go back to chapter 16. But in chapter 17, look at what it says. I'm in the wrong book, so let me get to Matthew 17.
And it says in verse one: Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. But my attention, my attention, is arrested by the phrase "now after six days," because it's fairly rare. For that kind of specific identification of time to be utilized in the life and teachings of our Lord, it's really rare. As I preach through the life and teachings of Jesus, I am utilizing a harmony of the Gospels. If you're unfamiliar with a harmony of the Gospels, let me explain to you what it is.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Record almost all of the same events. I'm going to guess that probably 75 percent of what is in Matthew, Mark, and and Luke is in all three books. And there will be some variation about what they say about each of the events. Never any contradiction, but when you collate all three of those, then you come up with a fuller picture of what happened in the event that each of them is describing.
For because they describe most of the same events or the what we call synonymous events, those three gospels are called the synoptic gospels. John largely records information that is not in the Synoptic Gospels. There is some overlap. And so, then, for example, both Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all record the feeding of the five thousand, and there are details in each of the four that is not included in the other three. And so, if you can see them on the same page, side by side, then it's easy to compare and contrast the various accounts.
And when and a harmony of the Gospels does that, but a harmony of the Gospels also tries to order the events in chronological order. This happened first. This happened next. And sometimes we're not sure.
Sometimes you just have to guess. We think this happened next. But but occasionally there's something like this that there's no doubt that after Peter's confession, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Six days after that happens the transfiguration, and so when there is such a a stark and unusual demarcation of time like that, there's usually some significance with it, and I hope that will become clear. Clear to you as to why this is specified and why I'm not going to preach on the Transfiguration this morning, but instead going to go back to what happened six days earlier.
Now, if you compare Matthew and Mark with Luke, you will see that their specification of the time is different. Matthew and Mark say after six days; Luke says after eight days. That's no big problem. Luke is just counting the beginning and ending days. You know, I might say I'm going to be in North Carolina for seven days, or eight days.
We came yesterday on a Saturday. Count all the way to Friday, and that's seven days. And then we're leaving. We're going to go visit our daughter who lives in in Greensboro, and then leaving on Saturday.
Well, is that is that seven days?
Well, some people is that eight days.
Some people say, well, it's just six days. You've been here six whole days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Six whole days. That's the way Matthew and Mark count the days. Luke counts the the bookends.
Days, and so there's no problem. There's no problem there. But anyway, what happened six days or eight days earlier is highly significant, and so we're going to turn our attention to that. And the first thing that we'll see is that there is a pregnant. Confession.
Now, I'm using the word "pregnant" here in its sense to mean that there is something that is present but not yet fully developed. A woman who is pregnant with a child has a real baby in her womb, but that baby is developing, and that baby later is going to be born, and then that baby will continue to grow. And that's the way it is with the confession that Peter makes concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It is truth, but it's a baby truth. It's an in the womb truth.
It is a blessed truth. Jesus says to him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of John. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. It's a blessed truth. But as will become clear as we make our way through this passage." Peter doesn't really understand what he's talking about, as much as he will later.
He's got the truth, but it's still just a baby truth. It's a good confession, but it's really just a pregnant confession. Let's turn our attention now to the Word of God. In Matthew chapter sixteen, it says in verse thirteen, "When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?'" Now this is a leading question. It's an important question, but it's a question I think that is intended to help them to think and to lead them to a correct understanding of what eventually is said.
Their answer is: Here's what people are saying about you, and while it's wrong, it's It's an intelligent wrong answer. Look at what they answered: some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
Well, that's an intelligent answer because all of these guys were dead—John, Elijah, and Jeremiah, the other prophets, also dead—and they it's intelligent because they recognize Jesus is not normal. Jesus is from another place. There is something supernatural about Jesus. They're right about that, and then it also is insightful as to the prophets that they choose with which to compare him. Jesus was very bold.
John the Baptist was very bold. John was so bold that he got himself killed by boldly rebuking Herod because of his illegitimate marriage, and Jesus was very bold in his denunciations of hypocrisy, and in his willingness to incur the the displeasure of the religious leaders of that day when Jesus was declaring truth that they found offensive.
Some say you're like John the Baptist. You've got you've got a bold spirit like John. You're not afraid of anybody. Others were saying, "He's like Elijah, that great thunderstorm of a man, with all the miracles that he did, and and his calling the people of Israel back to worship the true God." Wow, we haven't seen anybody like. You, since the days of Elijah, and then there were others who observed his his tender heart, his quickness—the quickness for tears to well up in his eyes when, when some distressing truth was the subject of his discourse, or some distressing event was the object of his observation.
That he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and they said, "Well, he's got a tender heart like Jeremiah, who cries so quickly." So they had, they were wrong, but it really was a flattering wrong answer that the people were saying. And then Jesus asks them, his disciples, "Okay, that's a set up question.
Now here is the question that is really relevant for you, and it's the question that is really relevant for you too, and for me too. What about you?" Jesus said to them in verse fifteen. He said to them, "But who do you?" Say that I am. There is no more important question that you will ever hear or answer in your life. Who do you think that Jesus is?
Some of you inconsistently will say, "Well, I believe that He was the Son of God," but then you don't follow Him. You say, "Well, I believe that He died for sinners on the cross," but you don't. Trust him. You say, "I believe that he arose from the grave," but you are not gladly embracing him as your Lord.
So there's a you're saying the truth, you're speaking the truth, but it's not taking hold of you and guiding you and saturating you. The way that it needs to—it's the most important question that you'll ever answer. And if you do believe that Jesus is the Son of God, if you do believe that He died for sinners, that He arose again, then what are you doing? Not following Him. Peter answered and said, "You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God." There's the pregnant answer.
You are the Christ. And when you and I read that Jesus is the Christ, we are seeing the full born, the fully born baby. We are seeing the baby growing up. We we are enjoying what. Acts and Romans and First and Second Corinthians and Galatians and Ephesians tell us about the Christ.
We are enjoying what twenty-one centuries of careful Bible reading have helped us to understand about who is the Christ. I want to take just a moment here. This is a little bit of a detour, but it's a good one. And it is a detour to explain to you what it means that Jesus is the Christ, and we're looking at the full we're looking at the full grown revealed Christ as far as it has been revealed to us in the scriptures and through twenty one years of history, through twenty one centuries of history, and through our own experience. But I want to take a few minutes to do this because I don't know of any explanation that has been more used in my ministry to lead people to Christ than what I'm going to tell you in the next five minutes.
And so, if you feel like I want to be a Christian, I don't know how to be a Christian, then. Then listen carefully. May the Holy Spirit anoint my speaking and your ears, so that I am able to speak the truth, and you are able to understand it and receive Christ. Because as many as receive Christ, to them God grants the privilege of becoming His children.
So, what does it mean that Jesus is the Christ?
Well, Christ is an English transliteration of a Greek word that means anointed, and similarly, the English word Messiah is a transliteration of a Hebrew word that also means anointed. And in case you don't know what anointed means, it is it refers to a religious ceremony, whereby someone is sprinkled with oil or dabbled with oil, or oil might be poured on that person, and it is a designation that God has. Appointed this person to do a certain job, and so in the Old Testament, we find three classes of persons, three jobs for which persons were anointed to show that God was setting them apart for a particular task, and those three jobs were. The office of being a prophet—that's one. The office of being a priest—that's two.
And the office of being a king. And so, a prophet. You think of someone like Elijah when he was discouraged. God said, "I want you to go and anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat to be the prophet after you." And so, Elijah goes, and he's probably got a little horn with some olive oil in it, and he anoints Elisha. And it was God's way of saying, "I'm setting Elisha apart to be the next prophet." Well, Jesus is not just an anointed one; he is not just a Christ; he is the Christ.
He is the anointed one.
So, what I'm getting ready to tell you is that Jesus fulfills all three of. These jobs.
So let's think about what all three of these jobs entail. See how Jesus does them, and may God bless it to lead you to faith if you have not yet received Christ.
So, what does a prophet do? If Jesus is a prophet, what does a prophet do? A prophet teaches us the will of God for our salvation. Christ executes the office of a prophet in revealing to us by His Word and Spirit the will of God for our salvation.
Now, in the broader sense, He He reveals many other things to us, but it all has to do with how we can be made right with God. Jesus tells us, and Jesus shows us through His life. And through His providential working, how we can be right with God.
So here's a here's a question that each of us needs to field. Have you received Jesus as your prophet? Are you willing for Him to teach you the way to think? When you discover that some notion that you have had, maybe your whole life. Is in contradiction to what Jesus has revealed in this scripture.
Have you made up your mind that you are going to abandon your position and take Jesus' position? That's what it means to receive Jesus as your prophet. I'm going to have him teach me the will of God for my salvation.
Now, in the Old Testament, there was a second office for which persons were anointed, and that's the office of a priest. The Book of Leviticus goes into considerable detail about how Aaron and his sons were to be set set apart for the job of being the priest, and it involved some rather detailed anointing.
So, Jesus is a priest. Jesus, as the Christ, the Anointed One, is a priest. What does a priest do?
Well, there are basically two jobs that a priest had. One was that he was to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people, and the second job that he had was to pray for the people.
So, offering sacrifices and praying. How does Christ execute the office of a priest? Christ executes the office of a priest in his once offering up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us. Christ was both priest and offering when he offered up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice. I found that people are often willing to receive Jesus as their prophet and say, "Yes, I will receive Him as my prophet." And if Jesus is going to die for my sins, then I'm happy to receive Jesus as my priest.
But this entails that you have got to give up on all of your own personal schemes and hopes of pleasing God through your own good works.
So this requires humbling yourself before the Lord and saying, "I give up all attempts to save myself through my good works." That's the natural inclination that we all have when we hear that God is displeased with us. Then I'm going to do better. You are not ever going to do better enough, and that's part of the realization that leads us to embrace Jesus, the Christ, as the priest that God has appointed, through whom we come to God.
So, almost all religions have priests. Most of them are false priests, but the principle that leads all religions to have priests is a good one, and that principle is that between us and God, we need someone to stand between. And that's what Jesus, our great High Priest, does. There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.
Now, here's the question: Are you willing to receive Jesus as your priest, to offer sacrifice on your behalf? His sacrifice on the cross to give up your own righteousness, to lean upon Him and His ongoing intercession for your acceptance with God. There was a third, a third office for which persons were anointed, and that's the office of a king. What does a king do?
Well, sometimes a king has to subdue rebels.
Sometimes in the process of subduing rebels and defending his own country, he conquers new lands. And once he has set up the parameters of his kingdom, he has the responsibility of ruling and defending his people. How does Christ execute the office of a king? Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself. In ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies, are you willing to receive Jesus as your King to rule over you?
His His will. Once you see that it is His will, there's no argument from you. You're going to do it because He is the King.
Now Jesus, as the Christ, is a person who fulfills these three offices, and all three of them are. While we can think about them separately, they are embodied in a person from whom they cannot be divorced. You cannot receive Jesus as a prophet and not receive him also as a priest. You cannot receive Jesus as a prophet and priest and not also receive him as a king. If he's not ruling over you, he's not your prophet and your priest.
He comes as a as a package, and it's a wonderful package. He is the Christ.
Now, here's here's the point of application. I know it took longer than five minutes, but here's the point of application for those of you who are Christians.
Some of you continue to have doubts as to whether or not you are really saved. But you know, because you believe the Bible, that if you have received Christ, you are saved. You say that's not my problem. My problem is: Have I really received Christ? Have I really received Him?
Well, let's break it down. Have you received Christ as your prophet? Have you received Him as your priest? Have you received Him as your king? How else can you receive Christ?
If you have received him as your prophet, priest, and king, you have received Christ, and God is faithful to His word. Your name is written down in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world, and one day you're going to be in heaven.
So let this truth put to rest those fears that continue to aggravate and pester you.
Now, here's the second point of application: if you have not yet If you have not yet been born again, you say, "What must I do to be saved?" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Go over to God's side. Receive, receive Jesus as the Christ, and you will be saved.
Now that is that's the full developed muscular grown up Christ. When Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," that was a very pregnant statement. It was true, but he barely knew what he was talking about. But he knew enough about it that Jesus pronounces a blessing upon him. Look at what he says in verse seventeen.
Jesus said to him, "Jesus." Answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah. Bar is an old word that just means son of. Jonah is a word we'd say John. Simon, son of John. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
So, Simon, when you say this, you are saying something that indicates you have been listening to God." This is a blessed confession, in light of its origin. God has taught you this. But this is also a blessed confession. In light of the destination to which it is going to take you, look at what it says next. Jesus says, verse eighteen, and I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Now, what does it mean when Jesus says, "On this rock I will build my church"? If you're if you've been around the Bible for very long, then you know that Peter is a nickname that God that Jesus gave to Simon, and it means rock. And so Jesus says, "You are Peter. You're a rock. And on this rock, I will build my church." Now, here's what I think.
I think if it had not been for the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, saying that Peter is being established as the Pope here, and that the Church is hanging on the Pope, I think that if it were not for that, that we would all recognize that Jesus is saying, Peter, you are going to be a foundation of the Church. You are going to be the one who is going to preach the gospel to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, and thousands of people are going to be saved. You are going to be the one who preaches the gospel in the house of Cornelius, and the kingdom of God is going to start flowing into the Gentile nations. I think that we can grant that. That's what I think it means, Peter.
You are you you are part of the foundation of the church. And you are going to be used mightily, with these kind of truths that you are beginning to understand. You are going to be mightily used. There are other people who say, "Well, what Jesus is talking about is Peter's confession." That's fine, and this is not something we need to fuss about.
Now here's something that you may have never understood. I know I didn't until I studied it carefully about six months ago, and that's what does it mean when Jesus says concerning His church, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Up until about six months ago, I just thought that this probably means that the church is going to be protected by Jesus and And when the forces of evil, here represented as the gates of hell, when the forces of evil attack us, we are going to be invulnerable. We're not going to be snuffed out.
Well, that's true, but I don't think that's what's being said here. For one reason, gates are defensive armaments.
So okay, let's turn it around. Then maybe it means that we are going to attack the kingdom of darkness, and eventually the gates of the kingdom of darkness. Here represented as Hades, which Hades just means the place where dead people go. But he's. I think he's using it to talk about the the kingdom of of Satan, the kingdom of this world that is opposed to the kingdom of Christ, which is embodied in the church.
And so, is that what it means that? The, in spite of the resistance of the kingdom of darkness, the gospel is still going to penetrate, and the gates of hell will not will not stand up to that. Maybe, but here is what I really think it means. I think that. Let me start off with an illustration.
So, it's amazing how. Algorithms work, and when I'm on Facebook, they know what kind of videos I want to watch. And so, same thing amazes me. You know, Spotify. My kids got me a Spotify account for Father's Day, and it amazes me.
On Wednesday night, I was thinking of a song that my sister and I had sung as a duet when we were when we were teenagers, and I thought I'm going to listen to that song.
So, it was called "Acres of Diamonds, Mountains of Gold." So I looked up that song, and the first offering of it was by a bluegrass band. And then, so for the next for the next hour, as I'm traveling, I hear bluegrass Christian music, and it just amazes me how they can figure that stuff out.
Okay, so they know that I'm a hunter, and one of the things that they know that I'm interested is seeing how wild hogs get captured.
So they send me these videos of these hogs who are At a feeder, they try to get as many hogs at the feeder as they can, and then there is this gate that drops down. I mean, it's a whole fence, it's whole enclosure, that the the enclosure drops down around this group of pigs, and then the pigs go crazy. The pigs all start rushing against the fence. They all start rushing against the gate, trying to get out, and they don't get out. All right.
So when humans sinned, when our first parents sinned, there was a gate of death that clump fell around the entire human race, that. We are going to die. That was the threat. In the day that you disobey me, you will surely die. They disobey.
Down comes the fence of Hades. Down comes the fence. That means you're going to die. And then on the other side of that fence is the second death. And what I think this means is that the church is going to get out of the fence.
The gates of Hades will not prevail. When the people of God, the people of Jesus, when they come to the end of their time on earth, they are not going to be held by death.
So I think that's a very precious interpretation of this. I learned it from G. Campbell Morgan just about six months ago. But anyway, Jesus—it's a very precious promise, no matter how you take it. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
And then Jesus says to Peter, "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." I think that he is just saying, "You are entrusted with a message that is going to result in some people rejecting the truth, and they will be bound and accounted more guilty because they have rejected the truth. And there are others who are going to receive that truth, and they are going to be loosened from their spiritual chains as a result of that truth." So this is a this is a very pregnant confession that comes from Peter, and several things that the Lord applies after that. But now, let's move on and see in verses twenty one through twenty three. And a loving, but ignorant rebuke comes from Peter.
From that time. Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised the third day.
So up to this time. Any teaching that Jesus has given them about his pending death, has just been sort of incidental, kind of in passing. But at this time, after they've said, after Peter speaking for the group says, "You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God," then Jesus begins to say.
Now, there's some something that I need to tell you about that. Your ideas about who the Christ is are so underdeveloped as to be next door to being false. You. You must understand that the purpose of the Christ is not what you think it is. The purpose of the Christ is to offer Himself as an offering for sins, and this is going to take place.
I'm going to go to Jerusalem, and the religious guys there are going to put me to death. And on the third day, I'll be raised again. It seems almost like they didn't hear that last statement. I'll be raised again, because look at what Peter hones in on. Hones in on verse twenty.
Too, then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. It's a loving rebuke, but it's ignorant. He began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall not happen to you." So Peter is probably several years older than Jesus, and he's he's impudent. He, but let's just think of it as loving boldness.
That he just wants to say now, now, son. There are some things that you don't understand. Let me explain this a little more carefully. You are not going to die. You're the Christ.
You're not going to die. And this is why I said Peter's confession was just a pregnant confession. He really didn't understand what it meant for Jesus to be the Christ. And so Jesus turns and said to Peter, verse twenty-three: "Get behind me, Satan!" You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. And we'll see as we study the Transfiguration that if the advice of Peter were to be followed, had been followed, then it would have meant the damnation of Peter and the apostles and all of us as well.
Let's wind this up with finishing out the chapter. Seeing there is an application, let's say distressing. There is a distressing application of the principle of the death of Christ. Verse twenty four. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him." And now he says three things.
You want to come after Christ? Hear these three things: Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Self-denial means that there are some things that you might do if you did not believe the truth as revealed in Jesus. But once you see that the truth has been revealed in Jesus, you you're willing to stop doing those things. You deny yourself of what what you would otherwise do.
Is there any self denial in your religion? This is especially prominent, perhaps, at the very beginning, but it happens throughout your life. Is there self denial in your religion? Take up his cross. That's the second thing that Jesus says.
There are. There are situations that come into your life that you would rather not face, but there it is, right there in your path. You can't get around it. What are you to do with it? Take it up.
Don't go one step out of the path to get yourself across. But then, don't go one step out of the path to avoid the cross that Christ has put there. Take up your cross, and follow me. See me as your example. Take me as your teacher, and then he gives some very good reasons for doing that.
Verse twenty-five: For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Here's the first reason: If you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me, you will find, you will find your life. You will find, you find what you were made for. You've been using your life. Like someone might use a diamond for nothing more than a paperweight.
You've got great, vast potential. You can be a child of God. You deny yourself and come after me, and you'll find your life. If you don't, you'll lose it. And if you lose it, verse twenty-six, you'll be losing something that is worth more than the entire world.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Well, nobody's ever gotten the whole world. I don't care how rich they are.
Solomon was probably the man who came closest to it. But hear Solomon say, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Hear the conclusion of the whole matter: the whole duty of God is to obey God and keep His commandments.
Solomon says it's all meaningless. What profit if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? You are worth more than all that stuff that you are wasting your life on. And then another reason that Jesus gives is that if you deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me, your eternity is going to be a beautiful, happy eternity. For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to His works.
Now, those of us who believe in salvation by grace through faith don't need to squirm at such a statement. When you receive Jesus as your Prophet, Priest, and King, you're turned into a person who seeks glory and immortality. And to those who, by patiently seeking after glory, honor, and immortality, he will grant eternal life. But for those who have been self-seeking and self-serving, there will be trouble, and damnation. Paraphrasing Romans chapter two.
When you are born again, you are turned into a person who does good works. You will be rewarded for those good works. You're not saved by those good works, but you are a person who gains his soul and becomes a person who, from that time on, lives like a human being was meant to live. You lose your life for the sake of Christ, but you find it. Amen.
