In your Bible, if you would join me in Matthew 16, we're going to read verse 21 down to verse number 28 today, Matthew 16.
The Bible says here in Matthew 16 verse 21, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For this is, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Father, your Word before us is joy, it is light, it is life, it is peace, it is wisdom, it is salvation, and unto it we come to drink today and we pray that we would receive the Word of God into our lives, that we may be filled with the knowledge of God, that we may have the understanding that you would want us to have, that you would open our eyes to behold the great truths of your Scriptures. May we love them, may we long for them more than our necessary bread, may they fill us and satisfy us, and may it make us hungrier for them. May the desire that David and Paul and Moses and others so long sought after you, may that desire be found in our hearts. Forgive us for our so weak desire that we so often bestow upon you and your Word. God, we really need to repent of that, and we ask forgiveness today for our many sins. Lord, I pray that you would be cherished and valued and loved in your rightful place, for you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we pray today that Christ in all things would be glorified in how we listen and in how we obey what your Word declares.
We ask it in Jesus' name, and God's people said, men, you may be seated today. I want to thank everyone who has also prayed for the family in our church. Precious young three-year-old went home to be with the Lord there just about a week and a half ago, and just the prayers and the encouragement, the meal, all that is just being poured into one of the families of our church, and so thankful for your love and support.
It was a blessing just this last week, one of the first officers on that scene, I was able to meet with him, and he ended up giving his life to Christ, and so even through that tragedy, God's grace is being shown, and so thankful for that. Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the subject of the church because in Matthew 16, 18, Jesus introduces the Word to us for the first time on the pages of Scripture, and he says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And we talked about why the church is so important.
One of the reasons the church is important has been reevaluated or seen once again, I should say, this week, one of the purposes of the church is to carry out God's mission on this earth, to see people saved, baptized, and discipled, and through Vacation Bible School, we were able to see hundreds of kids come to learn about the Word of God. Again, over 200 kids each night, a hundred plus adults pouring into these young people, and seeing 28 young people give their life to Christ, and sometimes you'll have somebody say, can kids really understand the gospel? Can kids really get saved? And I think the same thing was probably being questioned in Jesus's day, and in Matthew 18, verse 1, it says, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? You would have thought he would have said Moses, John the Baptist, David, and on and on, but Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. In other words, he places a child to represent the kind of faith you and I even need to be saved. Children are not people that cannot be saved, they're actually the examples for us how we can come to be saved. He says, and whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
He said, we need to humble ourselves like a child in order to both enter the kingdom and children carry the key to greatness in the kingdom. You know, children have a lot of things that they can teach us. I've learned a lot through the years, even theologically, from things God's shown me in my kids. Children can teach us a lot about faith, about trusting God.
You ever had that child just pray and they know God's going to answer their prayers? Children can teach us to have a burden for the lost. I've been so encouraged by kids bringing their friends.
I mean, 97 visitors this week from kids bringing their friends. Children can teach us to be bold for the Lord. I've seen kids be so passionate and bold to go to their schools and tell people about Jesus and tell their principal, their teachers, and invite other neighbors. And I remember one family said we were out praying for a meal in a restaurant and, you know, I was just kind of praying so our family could hear. And when we got done, my little girl said, Dad, why are you praying so quiet? You need to speak up louder, you know. And I've been in checkout lines when my kids were little and they're like, Dad, tell her about Jesus.
I'm like, all right, I guess I will right now, you know, but hold up for just a moment, you know. So, but just boldness for the Lord. Kids can teach us about sincerity. When, you know, when Jesus in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, it says in Matthew 21, 15, a lot of people miss this, but this is very fascinating. It says, when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and notice, and the children crying or crying out, literally shouting in the temple saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. They were sort of pleased. What you find is the people that were screaming out and crying out, Hosanna, it was the children that were the leading voices in that. And Jesus answered and said to them, he says, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou has perfected praise?
Isn't that something? It's not perfected in us older people, it's perfected in them younger people, in those children, the sincerity. And so there's so much we can learn. I believe God can bring revival to churches and cities through the hearts of children, through children getting excited for God. Church is so vitally important to bring your children to. And I would say this, Jesus in the Bible does not give a more severe warning than this. In Matthew 18, he says, if you offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for you not just to die, but to hang a millstone about your neck and to be drowned in the deepest sea.
Like that was horrifying. You talk about being protective over children. So parents, I just want to say this, you never want to do something that it would offend your kid from following God. You never want to do anything that would hinder their spiritual life.
Jesus takes it very seriously. It's important to have your kids in the house of God. It's so important to allow them to hear the truths of God's Word. So last Sunday, we looked at the foundation of the church. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. We talked about how the apostles and prophets are also foundation stones, as Ephesians 2-20 lays out.
Every believer who receives Christ also becomes part of those living stones that build a spiritual house unto God, as 1 Peter 2, 4 through 8 talk about. Then we looked at the victory of the church. It says, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, and all that that meant, and that death could not stop the advancement of the church. The church will prosper. The church will advance.
The church will not die out. And then we saw the authority of the church. He said, I give unto you the keys of the kingdom. Keys were a symbol of authority, and this spoke about the gospel opening the door of salvation, first in Acts 2 to the Jews, in Acts 8 to the Samaritans, and then in Acts 10 to the Gentiles.
And so the church was given those keys, and they were given great authority. It says, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And that's talking about whatever you bind on earth shall have already been bound in heaven. We talked about what that means, and if you have confusion about that, go back and listen to last Sunday's sermon, and we walk through those things. The church is built on the Word of God.
It is the one place in a city that is the pillar and ground of the truth, as 1 Timothy 3 15 says. And so today I want to look at the message of the church, which is the true gospel. The true gospel. And so let's look at the message of the gospel, and we'll actually start in verse 20, which is an odd statement. It says, then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. So Peter had said, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus says, I don't want you to tell anybody yet. Don't evangelize. Don't tell them that I'm the Messiah.
And why would he say that? Why would he tell them not to spread the news that he is the Messiah? Well, the disciples had expected the Messiah, and we've learned this over the years, to set up an earthly kingdom.
They were looking for a deliverer to deliver them from Roman oppression, to remove the bondage physically that they had. But Jesus said, as he said in John 18 36, when he talked to Pilate, he says, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight that I would not be delivered.
But now is my kingdom not from hence. The disciples had thought that Jesus would deliver them from that Roman oppression, write all the societal ills, be king over them. What they didn't realize is Jesus didn't come to save them from Roman oppression, but to save them from sin and eternal damnation. In John 6, after Jesus fed the 5,000, they were going to force him to be king, the multitudes were, according to John 6 verse 14 and 15, it says, they would have taken him by force to make him a king if Jesus did not depart out of the way. And then after the resurrection, they said, are you going to at this time set up the kingdom? And Jesus said, it's not for you to know the times and seasons which the Lord has put in his own power. So they wanted Jesus to be their king to write all those social wrongs, to cast off Roman oppression, to defeat the enemies. And so he says, tell no man that I'm the Christ because they needed to understand his mission. They could not propagate the message without understanding who Christ and what he came to do, that Jesus didn't come to deliver them from Roman oppression, but from eternal judgment. It's not just a temporal, physical deliver that Jesus came to be, but an eternal savior. And so many people in Christianity today have mixed the true message of the church, the true gospel, into a political message. And we are in a political season, are we not? And again, I'm so thankful that, I don't know how you could think anything other than God spared Donald Trump's life.
How do you get shot in the ear from 130 yards away? You know, that is an incredible, incredible thing. It's always fascinating to me that those who just so despise Donald Trump think that he set that up. You know, that's a pretty big deal, isn't it? Okay, of six and a half billion dollars.
Let me see if I can put some guy up here from 130 yards away and shoot me in the ear. And wouldn't you have something better to do with your life than to risk it for that? And it's just interesting, but we do need to pray for our leaders, pray for the direction of our country, pray for those in leadership. It's important to understand the true gospel is not political. The desire of Jesus was not to be king or to be president.
It was to save people from their sins. The church is the body of believers who declares the gospel. We are the ones who carry the message of salvation to a world in need of a Savior, not to write all the temporary societal ills. Our mission is not to lobby for lower taxes to get health care reformer to fight over legislation.
Our mission is not governmental and temporal. We stand for truth. Christians should vote and they need to vote biblically. They need to stand for God's word. But Christian, but Christian, our mission is not governmental. It is spiritual.
It is not temporary democracies, but an eternal kingdom. It's about the gospel which will save the souls of men. So be passionate about a truth in a world that is dark, but don't lose your opportunity to share the gospel with a lost soul because you're arguing over politics.
Amen, preacher. Do we really think a lost person is going to have right political views if they don't know Jesus? Why would you care about the unborn? Why would you care about marriage between one man and one woman?
Why would you care about people that are young who identify as another gender having their body parts cut and all these other things have no understanding because they have no biblical worldview? Listen, the church also, I've had people, you know, through the years and I even read a book recently that it was like, you know, the reason that society and America is failing in so many ways and deteriorating is because the church has failed society. The church has not failed America. That's not, the church, it wasn't the church failing that caused abortion to come into America. If it was the church that failed, then Jesus failed by getting himself crucified because his crucifixion was more vile than a baby being torn out of a womb. Jesus, the innocence of Christ being crucified was the most horrific thing that's ever happened on the planet. A perfect son of God who poured his love and grace out, who was rejected, hated and crucified. They destroyed him, but the church didn't fail.
You understand? Christ wins and his victory is our victory. The church doesn't fail when governments get corrupt, deteriorate and even become anti-Christian.
That all happened in Jesus's day. The Jewish governing body, the Sanhedrin, was constantly against Christ and the church, but the believers weren't seen running for public office, which again, those are good things. I'm glad when Christians run for public office, Christians need to vote, stand for truth and justice. I'm glad when Christians run for school boards.
Those are all good and right things that we are glad for. But the church's mission is not that. The church's mission is to preach Christ crucified.
Paul said it correctly when he says, I sought to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. In a day when the Greeks and Romans were putting little babies outside and letting them die, when they didn't want them. And Christians would come and rescue them, but you don't see that massively ever talked about in the Bible. They affected society, but it starts with the gospel.
You have to change someone inwardly before you can see that change outwardly. It's also important though in the midst of first century persecution, the church thrived. I think one of the reasons the church is falling apart in America is because there hasn't been enough persecution of her. When we think we're persecuted, we're not persecuted. Americans, Christians are not being persecuted.
We feel like we're persecuted because our air conditioner goes out. Lord, how did you let this persecution come to me today? But I can tell you that is not persecution.
Read Fox's Book of Martyrs for an hour and you'll you'll get on your knees weeping and you'll say we don't even know what it is. In first century Christianity, persecution was abundant, but the blood of the martyrs became the soil of the church and it grew and exploded. Later as Christianity bloomed, religious tolerance was the new standard in the Roman Empire when Emperor Constantine with the Edict of Milan gave religious freedom.
And we believe in that. As Christians, our position is religious freedom. If you want to be a Hindu, you have the right to be a Hindu. We don't believe in forcing anyone to convert to Christianity. If you want to be a Muslim, be a Muslim. If you want to be an atheist, that's your right and we're still going to share the truth with you. We're going to love you. We're going to share the gospel, but we're not going to force anything on you.
You have that freedom. The problem came when the government and the church in Rome united and it corrupted the church. With the Edict of Thessalonica under Roman Emperor Theodosius I, he made Christianity the state's authorized religion. He authorized the punishment of those who promoted any other kind of Christianity than the Nicene Christianity, which is Christianity that holds to the Nicene Creed, which the Nicene Creed is a solid creed. But the problem came when you married the church to the government and you enforced Christianity on the people. That became the greatest hindrance to the church. The greatest hindrance to the church wasn't governmental persecution of it, it was governmental enforcement of it. And we oppose both persecution and enforcement. We believe in religious expression, freedom of expression. We are not like Muslims, some Muslims who would say we will kill the heretic and if you don't convert then you'll be persecuted.
We reject those kind of things. Once the disciples faith had been affirmed in who Jesus was, he now is able to tell them what he would do. And I want you to notice it wasn't until they recognized and declared Christ to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God, that he now unfolds his plan to them.
Until you place your faith in Christ you will be in the dark to true spiritual truths. Verse 21, from that time it says Jesus Christ began to show his disciples how that he must and he must do four things here. First he must go to Jerusalem.
The name Jerusalem literally means foundation of peace. Here the Messiah was to lay down his life as a sacrifice for man's sins to bring us peace with God. Man's greatest problem is that we're at enmity with God. We have sinned and we have violated God's laws. There is a rift between the creation and their creator. And the only way to bring us back into a right relationship with God is that a perfect sacrifice would take the sins of the world and bear those sins that we might be reconciled back to God. Romans 5-1 says, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2-13 words it this way, but now is Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, you were distant from God, you're made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace. So he would go to Jerusalem, second must, and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, and scribes. These are the religious leaders of the Jews.
They are the Jewish high council, the Sanhedrin. Jesus was always at odds with man's religion. It is important to understand that religion is the greatest assault against true faith in Christianity. And then thirdly he said, I must be killed. The Greek word for killed here in this context doesn't mean rightfully put to death, it means to be murdered. Jesus would be illegally executed, though they went through some circus courts, if you would, illegal jurisdictions. Jesus died in an illegal fashion.
When Pilate says, I find no fault with this man, but you just turn him over to the will of the people, that's not jurisprudence. Fourth must, he says, and I must be raised again the third day. Now the first three musts are very tragic, but the triumph of the fourth makes the first three bearable. Jesus would defeat death, be raised to life.
But what happens, the pain of the first three musts drown out what the fourth must was. It was like they never heard it. They never asked him, what do you mean you're going to rise again the third day?
They don't even ask that. It's like they didn't even understand what it meant. They missed it so bad that when they show up at the tomb the third day, the angels remind them of this, of this. In Luke 24 6, the angel said, he is not here, he is risen. Don't you remember, remember how he spake unto you when he, this is in Galilee, northern Israel, when he was in Galilee saying the Son of Man must be delivered in the hands of sinful man be crucified the third day rise again.
Don't you remember that? Don't you realize that your mourning and your last three days of just being baffled and bewildered is a direct result of not understanding the word of Christ? Don't you understand when you don't remember the word of God that it disrupts you? And they remembered his words, verse 8 says. Now the angels know what God says to men on earth. They remind them and if they forgot the words of Christ given to them by Christ, do you think we forget the words of Christ sometimes?
Y'all awake this morning? You're like, no, we got it all the time. We forget, we forget.
That's why it's so important to be in the word of God. Well, I've read that before. Yeah, you probably forgot it 10 other times though, right? I don't always need to learn something new. I just need to remember something old.
Is that true? You ever play a sport and you're like, oh, I forgot I was supposed to hold the bat that way. Oh, I forgot I was supposed to shoot like that. Oh, I forgot I was supposed to. It's the basics.
It's getting grounded. That's why you need to be in your word every day. You need to have accountability.
That's why 242, I would promote that through the roof. You need to be in life groups today. You need to be in Wednesday services. You need to be plugged in unless you know it all, unless you have that good of a memory. But I don't know about you, but I got like this hole in the back of my head that you cannot see. As I fill it up, it's like continually draining.
I'm like, ah, some of you have plugs. But the order we get, the plug, the lining corrodes, doesn't it? It's starting to, it's like an old car. It's like an old car. It's leaking.
It's leaking. I, you know, I knew more before I went to bed. I wake up, I'm like, oh, I forgot what I knew, you know.
The memory is, just continues to fade. Here in verse 21, Jesus declares for the first time the gospel to his disciples, that he would go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and rise again the third day. This is the gospel. This is 1 Corinthians 15, verse three and four. Paul said, for I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received. I received this from Christ, Paul was saying, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
He was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Today, many churches have gotten away from the true gospel. You can sit in some churches and never hear about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ because they're so worried about your felt needs. They're so worried about the physical difficulties you and I are facing on this earth. And there are some physical difficulties that we face on the earth. But I can tell you, when you get an eternal perspective, the physical seems to fade. We have to keep our eyes focused on what really matters. Our kingdom is not on this earth. We're pilgrims here, friends.
When you and I get a temporal focus with a temporal preacher on temporal matters, how do we ever focus on the eternal gospel? If the plane is going down, I don't need a more comfortable chair. I need a parachute. If by titanic seeking, we're not trying to rearrange the furniture out on the bow, right?
You need a rescue boat. This is the gospel. We're looking for that. The true church proclaims the gospel with passion and zeal. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 2, he said, I determined not to know anything among you.
That's an incredible statement right there. I determined, I was set in my mind not to know anything among you save or accept Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 1 18, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. That's why people don't want to preach the cross. It's a foolish message. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
This is what we hold to. At the center of our faith stands a cross. The cross that Jesus carried for us, the cross that took our punishment, the cross that He poured His life out to die for our sins, we must proclaim the cross. Jesus took the judgment of God for our sins so that we might be brought back into favor. And if you've never accepted His sacrifice today, you need to come and repent and trust in Christ. He is your only lifeboat.
There's not another coming. Thinking you can save yourself through good works is like thinking you can swim off of the Titanic to land. You need a rescue boat. And if a rescue boat came up, you're not going to be like, oh, you're so, I don't believe in exclusive claims. You're telling me this one boat's the only one that can rescue me?
I want a better one than this. You're going to tell me that I can't get myself off this boat? I mean, what foolish statements would that be? You wouldn't care if there was one boat. You would just be thankful there is a boat, right? You're like, oh, this parachute, this is the only parachute you got?
You mean I don't have options here? We're Americans. Jesus said, I am the only way, the only truth, and the only life, right? That's what we proclaim.
I didn't come up with the message. Jesus did. And so the church preaches the true gospel.
That's our message. Secondly, let's look at the offense of the gospel. How did the disciples respond? Listen, to the first gospel presentation in Scripture, how did they respond?
How did they respond? Verse 22, then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. The true gospel was so offensive, not to a lost world, but to Peter, that he grabs Jesus and rebukes him for sharing the gospel. That's how offensive it is. If it's offensive to Peter, what do you think it's going to be to the world? I used to always think about it.
I thought, Lord, I'm over in Chillicothe. The church is doing good. You know, it's thriving over there. It's like a family. I love those guys. It's like a family.
I love those guys. I'm coming to a city. I'm not a fan of Xenia. My wife is not a fan of Xenia at the time.
But, boy, I love Xenia now. But, you know, I need to go into that city and I need to tell these people they're dying and going to hell and the only way they can get saved is through Jesus Christ. I'm going to offend everybody. And that's what you do. And guess what? You preach the gospel and he builds the church. He's like, Josh, you just preach the message and I'll take care of the building of it. You just obey the Lord, servant, and you follow his word.
You know what's amazing is this. Peter is rebuking the greatest act of love Jesus could ever make, laying down his life for them. Peter did not understand the plan of God, the purposes of God, and they were extremely offensive to Peter. But, listen, God's ways are not our ways and his thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts. Do you realize if Peter got his way, Peter and all the world dying go to hell forever?
Praise God he didn't get his way. The reason Peter opposed Jesus was Peter expected Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom. He's expecting this earthly messiah. Jesus had been giving hints all the way through. He said, they're going to reject the chief cornerstone, kill this body in three days, I'll raise it again, tear this temple down in three days, I'll raise it again. You know, when John the Baptist said, behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
I mean, there were all these things pointing to it. Now, how does Jesus respond to Peter? Verse 23, but he or Jesus turned and said unto Peter, Peter, you're going to have to really start understanding this.
Is that what he says? This is the strongest rebuke Jesus ever gives to any of his disciples. He looks to Peter, the same guy that he just said, hey, blessed are you, Simon Barjona. Verse 23, he says, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savourest or you do not mind, you don't have the mind of the things of God, but the things that be of men. Listen, when Peter spoke against the words of Christ, he became the mouthpiece of Satan. He literally joined sides against the Lord. To reject the word of God is to reject the God of the word. Why just don't believe the Bible when it says, well, when you and I stand against the word, we're standing with Satan against the God of the word. And it can happen to any one of us.
If it happened to Peter, it can happen to you and me, right? Now, Jesus says to him, thou art an offense unto me. The word offense there is the Greek word skandalon, like scandalous. And it was actually a word used in that day of like baiting a trap, like getting an animal to come in and you bait that trap to get him caught in that. You lure people into that and it would ultimately be their destruction.
You are a, some translations would have it as a stumbling block, an offense. Jesus was saying the words of Peter were a trap, a snare that Satan was seeking to set for Jesus Christ. Why would it be a trap? Because it would be tempting for Jesus not to go through the cross. I mean, if all your life, you know, the worst thing is coming, that is so agonizing that you would fall in your face and sweat blood, where you would pray, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. And your leading disciple says, go another way. You'd be like, I don't need any encouragement to go another way.
I don't need, I need encouragement to go that way. Then Christ was set, he would do the will of the father, but I can tell you, three times he prayed in the garden, if it's possible, let your cup pass from me. That's how agonizing this was. Hebrews 12, 2 captures it. It says, he despised the shame of the cross. He despised what was coming. It was repulsive to him. More repulsive than anything you and I have ever witnessed.
Take everything that you and in the world could ever be repulsed by. Nothing would have been more sickening and horrid than the bitter cup, which involved taking all of our sin on his shoulder, bearing all of that, and then being punished for the sin of the world by a holy God. You know, Satan tried to keep Jesus from the cross. The Bible teaches there was a cross before the crown, and Satan said, let's bypass the cross.
I'll give you the crown now. You remember in Matthew 4, verse 8, Jesus was taken by Satan up to a high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said, all these things will I give you if you fall down and worship me. You don't need a cross. I'll give you the kingdoms now. You don't need a cross.
I'll give you the kingdoms now. Jesus said, get thee behind me, Satan, right? Satan offered Christ the crown without a cross, but God's plan involved the cross.
And I want to also mention this. I think sometimes in life we're shocked when life gets hard. Is the servant above his Lord?
If they persecuted him, will they not also persecute us? And that's not simply in a physical, but sometimes in a spiritual realm. We don't wrestle flesh and blood, right? Ephesians 6. There are things that we will go through.
I think the trials of life benefit us because it keeps us from settling down too much on earth. Maybe America needs to go through some turbulence so that we see that this world is not our own. It's not our home. It's a temporary dwelling place.
This is just a mission field. Jesus said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Heaven is our retirement plan. Heaven is our home. Again, if you retire on the earth, just retire to serve God, okay? You can retire from your work, but don't retire from serving the Lord.
Now, I do want to mention this. Jesus overcame Peter offending him. He said, you are an offense unto me.
Anybody ever been offended by a Christian before? Or a pastor? Youth pastor? Yeah, I see some hands.
Alex is putting his hands up. I'm like the only pastor you've ever known. See me in my office after you. But I can tell you, friendly fire can be painful. Sometimes preachers, teachers, sometimes Sunday school teachers, sometimes people at church can be carnal. Sometimes they can be offensive. Sometimes they can be like Peter, the chief apostle. And then we get offended, and sometimes we don't serve Christ because we are so offended by, and so we just kind of stay home, and we get away from the church, and we get away from serving God, and we allow an offense, an offense to keep us to keep us from him. Are you thankful today that Jesus did not let the offense of Peter keep him from saving us?
And if Jesus didn't let offenses keep him from serving us, why would we allow offenses to keep us from serving him? If I need a perfect church to be able to serve in, that's heaven, right? I don't need mercy. I don't need grace. I don't need to show compassion.
I don't need to be forgiving. I don't need any of that because I live in a perfect church. But if you're at Lighthouse, you're not in a perfect church, okay, as we've seen by our assistant pastor there. Raising his hand toward me is what I meant by that.
Or you could put us both up here and see there's many flaws. And so, but we, you know, these are things that we have to remember. Now, Jesus gives the reasons why Peter wrongly opposed Christ. He says, you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. In other words, you're setting your mind not on God's priorities, but on what you desire. I can tell you one of the things that will hinder you spiritually is to place your physical life before your spiritual life. You think you're doing what's right, but it's not. When we start writing our own script that goes against the Bible script, I can tell you, you're not in line with what God says.
What I think this is, of course we think. The Bible says the natural mind is an enemy against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Those that are in the flesh cannot please God, Romans 8, 6 through 8. Peter offended Jesus because Peter was focused on what was best for him physically, not spiritually. And so, when we start writing our own script, we can offend Jesus spiritually. And so, we can offend Jesus when we oppose his word and by being earthly minded and not Christ minded.
Peter was offended over the trial and death the Lord would face, and today many have been offended at trials they face. Loss of loved ones, difficulties, and sometimes they'll blame God for that. You know, but God's not the author of death, he's the author of life. Sin brings forth death, and guess what? The only one that never sinned God. God's never sinned. Jesus brought eternal life.
Friend in life, when things happen that you don't understand why, just realize God can be trusted for what you and I don't have an answer for. That's why the Bible says trust in the Lord with all of our heart. And if you and I think sin has cost us a lot, it's not cost us anything compared to what it's cost Jesus. So, we see first of all the message of the church is the true gospel, the offense of the gospel, and then thirdly the cost of the gospel, verse 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Sometimes people say, you know, he's talking to just Christians here. This is second level discipleship, but in Mark's parallel account of this, Mark 8 33 says this, and when he had turned about and looked on his disciples he rebuked Peter saying get thee behind me satan for thou savourest not the things that be of God but the things that be of men. Verse 34, and when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also he said unto them whosoever will come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me.
That was such a big message that he assembled everyone before he gave it. He's like hey everybody come over here now and Peter's got to be thinking oh no oh you know he rebuked me private now he's you know for the disciples now he's going to round everybody up and put the hammer down on me. But that's not what he does he doesn't mention Peter again he just focuses on three conditions that are involved in coming after Jesus. If you want to be a believer in Jesus, if you want to be a Christian, if you want to if you want to be a follower of Christ who's coming after Christ, these three conditions Jesus lays out here. The first condition that is a it's it's it's known as an aorist imperative in the Greek this is a command by Christ that we are to deny ourself. He said let him deny himself. You know self-denial is not a big topic in a selfie generation. I appreciated the all the emails and texts I got of the place in Dayton.
It was like a selfie studio you could go in there I think in the mall or somewhere and it's got like 30 different little places you can get selfies and I'm like so I threw up about 47 times when people would send me those and I appreciate that kindness. The word but the word deny here a part Naomi means to completely disown or separate from. It is a word that means to act in a holy selfless manner to literally forget yourself to lose sight of yourself and your own interests. It's the antithesis of the selfish cultures that men live in and what Paul says would come. In 2 Timothy 3 1 he says this know also that in the last days perilous times will come for men shall be lovers of their own selves. That's going to be what in the last days people will just love themself and don't we hear that today you just need to love yourself. You just need to love yourself.
Yeah that's what it says will happen last day. You ever read in the bible where it says God says you need to love yourself more? You ever found that verse?
I've never found that verse. I've had people tell me through the years you know I think the problem is people just need to love themselves more and it feels good to say you know I just think I need to love myself more. I just need to put myself as a higher priority.
Maybe I'm just prioritizing maybe I'm being a little too selfless here. Maybe I'm just not elevating myself enough and I understand why people say that but the bible says the problem is not that you don't love yourself enough the problem is almost always that we love ourselves too much. Even the person that does terrible things they're putting their priorities first they're not putting God's priorities first you know it's it's it always amazes I'll go down that road too far but the bible says love others as we love ourself. Jesus said that the the condition that we're all in is a condition of self-love we need to start loving others like that. Now the the phrase here a part of my is is the same word used of Peter's denial of Jesus three times. Peter kept denying him denying him I don't know him I don't know him what he was doing was he was disavowing any relationship with Jesus like I don't know the man I have no association with him and his wrong way of denying Christ is the right way we're to deny ourself.
The way he treated Jesus is actually how we're supposed to treat us in our old sinful man. The bible says we are to put off the old man we are crucified with Christ we're to die daily. What does it mean to deny self? It is to replace self with Christ at the very center of your life. Denying self is not about you and I denying stuff it's about us denying us. It's to dethrone self and enthrone God is living a life where Jesus is at the heart and core and center of our thinking and actions.
That's why when I say if you want to be saved it is you getting out of the driver's seat and Jesus sitting in the driver's seat. Well I've been saved but and then you then you're going to tell me you don't want to obey him well you're the lord of your life you don't follow his commands and how do you fall in line with what Jesus says here? Self-denial as Jesus taught it does not involve involve denying oneself things as much as it involves denying one's authority over his own life. You recognize you are not your own. God holds the authority over you. The Greek word for denying self is also again as I mentioned in the Aorist imperative mood which in the Greek calls for a specific definitive decisive action.
You could translate it like this do this at once and once for all and it's in that mood is always given it with an urgency. So so deny yourself do it now and do it once for all that's literally what Jesus was saying. I would prefer if the Bible would expound it like that even at that level. Today is a call for you and I to fully surrender our life right now fully and totally for the rest of our life to Jesus do it now. That's what it's literally what he's calling for.
That's the first condition to follow him. The second condition he says doesn't get any easier he says take up your cross. Taking up your cross is not they would see that very differently than us we see a picture of a cross decorations people tattoo their bodies they didn't do those things in that day. Crosses were symbols of horrid death punishment 30,000 crucifixions happened under Roman authority during the lifetime of Jesus.
This this was this was a horrifying scene for them. For the believers this means you are willingly opening your life up to persecution and hardship for the purpose of following Christ. It is it is that you would suffer shame and suffering specifically because of your relationship to Jesus. The cross we carry isn't like you know my back hurts you know my knees are hurting you know this person at work or this it's the cross we carry is when we endure shame suffering hardships for the single purpose of our relationship with Jesus and which suffering would stop if you disassociated with him. And so this also is in the heiress mood which means do it now take up your cross now and once for all. Boy how different this is to the tv preachers that promote the health and wealth lifestyle. You never hear them like read these verses when they're doing that right.
Plant a seed and God will sing you a thousand dollars you know. The third condition he says here is to follow me. The word follow is a Greek word that means to take the same road as someone else does. It doesn't mean to walk behind them or in front of them it literally means to accompany them on a journey like you're going together down the same road. It's actually where the first two commands are in the heiress imperative this is in the present imperative.
The heiress imperative the heiress imperative are like do that once for all that's what you're to do and it's a decisive decision that that will that has done the rest of your life but the present imperative is a habitual thing you do it every day. So like this is like walk with the Lord every day follow him every day. You you are on the road with Christ he is your companion that's why Jesus said come into me and I'll give you rest. I will yoke up with you that's why I tell people the the hardest thing in life is not going all in the harder thing in life is going half in like you're riding the fence. It's so much easier when you go under the whole yoke and then you're like oh Jesus is carrying the other side and hey he's carrying the brunt of the weight. You ever do that? You ever carry like a refrigerator there's like six of you on it and you're like carrying it somewhere and you're like am I even well I'm not even carrying it yeah but you keep grunting because you don't want them to shift the weight right. What you want to do is always get some of them boys like you know they have a lot of testosterone and they're they're wanting to prove themselves and their back couldn't go out no matter what anyway so you line them up over here by you and over there and they're bearing the load and you as an older man can just kind of rest and give directions but this is this is following Christ who listen he carries the the weight he carries the lion's share and I can tell you if there's one road that I want to journey on it's the one that Jesus is on and you'll find a companion there and you'll find one that doesn't leave you isolated but one who journeys with you. He says you you come after me you go all in for me you be willing to suffer for me and I'll journey with you the entire way. That's the invitation you you want to be saved it might cost you your life but you died before you came you you you give it and look what he says here in verse 25 here's the divine paradox he says whosoever will save his life will lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it you know it is incredible how strong people have a desire to stay alive you know the the passion to stay alive is incredibly strong rightfully so God puts it in us you know even in us our adrenaline starts pumping doesn't it somebody could cut their leg off and they don't even feel it for a while because adrenaline they can begin to do things they're you know even in shock I just learned this the other day I forget where I heard about it but when when a person goes in shock it actually restricts I know where I heard it there's a gentleman in our church who comes here and he was with Tim Lee who lost his legs the marine he was there with him the day his legs were blown off and and amazing story he was walking through that and he said how did he not did not bleed out and because when you because when you go into shock your your veins restrict I mean your body is designed to survive isn't it incredible I mean you don't even think about this stuff and and it's incredible and and so we we are born to survive and Jesus says to come after me you have to be willing to die that's and if and if you reject Christ to live your life you will forfeit eternal life but those who give their life to Jesus will have eternal life the choice is yours deny yourself take up your cross and follow Christ you live eternally or live your life and face eternal death and he says in verse 26 notice what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul and what shall you give in exchange for your soul in other words what would you be willing to go to hell for is the world would it be worth going to hell if you had the whole world would you go to go to hell for the world what would you be willing to lose your soul for it's amazing to me when people say no I'm not ready to get saved so what are you what are you ready to do you're ready to die and go to hell I mean is that or you you understand the magnitude of this it's like somebody who could be cured from cancer stage four he's like you know I'm not I'm not gonna be cured yet I'm gonna be sick for a few a little bit longer it's just it doesn't it's just it doesn't make any sense they must not understand it Jesus taught total surrender of self to God listen to me Jesus taught total surrender of self to God is the most rational thing you can do it is it is the most sensible thing the conclusion should be that is the smartest most rational thing I could ever do in my life I believe Christianity is the most rational thing I've ever done not surrendering to God and fully surrendering is the most dreadful fearful thing you should ever come to I am so afraid of getting out of God's will I am so afraid of being in the driver's seat myself I do not want to be in charge I do not want to live my life I want to suffer for him if that's what he calls me to and if that comes let that come let me live for him and die to self that's the cost it's only reasonable and then lastly wrap this up very quickly because I'm gonna touch on some of this as we wrap into some things next week but I just want to hit it because it's here it says for the Son of Man verse 27 the reward of the gospel he says for the Son of Man shall come death is not the end I'm coming back and I will come in the glory of my father and I will come in the glory of the angels and then I will reward every man according to his what to his faith is that what it says to his works so are you saved by faith or by works okay you better be able to give me that answer right sola fide right by grace alone through faith alone you're saved by faith but guess what faith is the root but works are the fruit he's going to judge you based on what you're producing remember matthew 7 he said you'll know them by their fruit he says many will say to me in that day lord lord didn't we props on your name and do all these wonderful works he says I'll send you to depart from me ye that work iniquity you say you know me you say the roots there but the fruit's corrupt I can't be the root of your life when your fruit is like that you've deceived yourself when he comes back he will judge you based on your works not the faith you and I say we have oh I believe in Jesus Christ show me Jesus is a show me faith kind of God he's a James 2 God oh you say you have faith without works faith without works faith without works is dead works do not produce faith works are the product of faith if the faith is real the works will be real but if there is no true works of God there's no true saving faith you know the first work that he calls you to do is to be baptized if you won't get baptized that's an evidence that he may not be in you now you can be saved and not be baptized but you can't live your entire life unwilling to follow the first command of God and you think you're saved that's a that's it you should be terrified I'm just telling you what the B-I-B-L-E says he will judge you based on your works he says if you love me you'll keep my commandments he didn't say if you love me you'll believe on me belief produces true work that's the reward true faith true works dead faith dead works what do your works say about your faith today we saw the church proclaims the true gospel friends the true gospel is offensive the gospel comes with a cost but friends the gospel is what comes also with a great eternal reward let us go hide the gospel amen
