Questions #3

Northside Church

Questions Jesus Asked #3

Jamey Mills

12/11/22

What comes to your mind when you hear the word…”Joy”?

Would you say it’s easy?

What brings you joy?

Would you say it's illusive for most people?

What would you say causes most people to miss out on joy or robs them of joy in the world we live in?

My name is Jamey Mills and I am the lead pastor at Northside…

Such a blessing to be with you all today…

We are in the third week of our series… “questions Jesus asked”... I mentioned this last week… not sure why it surprised me but the gospels record about 340 questions that Jesus asked.

It wasn’t because Jesus was looking for answers… but it helps us understand Jesus wasn't just trying to pass along head knowledge… These are deep and life changing truths that Jesus wanted you and I to wrestle with, even in our day… and respond to them in the way we live our lives.

It is amazing to me, that we have these questions recorded… and can see the way that real people responded… in the short term and the long term… which again, points to Jesus’ understanding that this is a process… His desire is that we put ourselves in a position for Him to continually grow us… more and more.

It’s pretty incredible stuff and I do think that we learn a lot about Jesus within it.

Do you all know what this is? Picture of a mirage…

Saw a ton of this when I took the motorcycle trip to Moab…

It really is pretty crazy… you think you see something incredible and good, and so you head toward it… and as you go… it continually moves, you never actually find it… of it you actually do make it tho the spot where it was… you realize it was in illusion…

I think humanity… including me… does this with a lot of things.

Love is a big one. I wanna know what love is. I want you to show me… We want it, long for it, invest in it, chase it… sometimes at all costs… only to find out… in a lot of cases… the “love” we were chasing… isn't really love. Or maybe… that love takes a lot more work than we thought.

We do this purpose… we think we know, we fight for it, sacrifice for it and find out our view holds significantly less meaning than we thought it did.

We do it with peace… we think we know where it’s found…only to realize how fragile our view of peace really is.

We even do it with Jesus… many have a view of who they think He is or what they think He should be… and then struggle, just like the people in His day did, when they realize He’s different… in time we often realize different in all the right ways.

I could go on and on.

But lastly we do this with JOY.

For a lot of us, when we think about where JOY is found…

We think of an event, an achievement, for a lot of us it can come down to material things… this… brings me joy…

Not that those things are bad… but sometimes the way we view and pursue them is like a mirage… we find out later… if we are lucky… that joy isn’t what or where we thought it was.

There is a LONG list of those who have believed that joy is found in all sorts of things… that could never deliver. Who spend their lives chasing it, hungry for more… not because it doesn't exist… but because somewhere along the way we’ve gotten confused about where it's found.

This idea that joy can be bought and sold is a false narrative…

Joy is not a commodity.

And I know people who live with heavy regret… I have some of my own.

What is something worth… whatever someone else is willing to pay.

It reminds me of this question that Jesus asked.

Mark 8:31–38 NLT

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

(NLT)

31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. 33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

The passage we are looking at today has two audiences… Jesus is talking to his closest disciples… probably the 12…

Jesus tells him that the time is coming… that He MUST be rejected, suffer terrible things, and die…

It’s contrary to what they wanted… or at least what they were thinking. They couldn’t see this as a fulfillment of God’s plan, they see it as the destruction of it…

Each of them had an idea… who He should be, what He should be like, and what that should mean…

It most likely didn’t include being rejected by the religious leaders of that day.

It most certainly didn’t involve voluntarily going to Jerusalem where Jesus would most certainly be killed.

And they probably should have at least had an idea…

So many of OT passages point to Jesus, to his suffering and even to the cross…

IS 53 sounds like an eye witness to the cross…

The passover lamb all the way back in Egypt… was all foreshadowing this.

There are many… and it matters because they were written long before Jesus was ever born.

So when Jesus said… He MUST die…

They didn't want to hear it. It didn’t fit.

It’s interesting… if you were to look at the passage just before this one… It’s where Jesus asks who people say that He is… and the disciples admitted that others were confused… but in what I think is Peter’s finest moment up to this point… Peter says… you are the Messiah, the son of the living God.

So they knew who Jesus was… but maybe not what it would entail.

And right there, Jesus blesses him… changes his name from Simon, to Peter… which means rock…

And maybe that went to his head a little… Because it's Peter that pulls Jesus aside to reprimand or rebuke Him… His protest wasn’t small.

That word is a word that is most used toward someone who is under your authority…

Peter was saying… NO… my way is better than yours… follow me!

They knew that Jesus came to deliver His people… but this wasn’t a part of their plan.

And Jesus' response was rough… Get away from me Satan…

But just a minute ago you called me rock…

Most every scholar I read… connected this interchange to when Jesus was tempted in the desert… and Jesus responded the same way then.

And it's easy for us to be confused… what Peter it sounds like Peter is doing, sounds loving… and kind… and like what any good friend would do…

But Jesus tells them the problem…

They were thinking from a human perspective… instead of a heavenly one.

They were seeing things only through the lens of humanity…

Proverbs 14:12 (ESV)

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Isaiah 55:8 (ESV)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

James 4:4 (ESV)

4 Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

There is a difference between the thinking and will of God and humanity…

One of the major hangups of humanity is trying to have Christ on our own terms… To reject the way of the cross is to reject Christ. Man's way never leads to God.

Peter tried to defend Christ based on his own understanding… and it made him out to be an enemy of God…

But Peter got there… he went on to write this…

1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)

24 He personally carried our sins

in his body on the cross

so that we can be dead to sin

and live for what is right.

By his wounds

you are healed.

Sort of a side note…

As believers… it's important that we know why Jesus MUST die.

Not long ago, there was a study about this… and what they found was… that the majority of Christains either didn’t know this, or… at the very least couldn't explain it.

I hope you see that as problematic too.

Jesus had to face the cross because of sin… and the brokenness, death, emptiness and captivity that it brings…

And I hope we see that… if we are willing to look… it's obvious and everywhere…

What leads to brokenness in us, in our relationships, in our character… is exactly what God said… and it does exactly what He said it would do…

How would you describe why Jesus “must” die?

Jesus came to deliver us from sin… and its ultimate consequence… and bring reconciliation between sinful people… which we all are… and a perfectly Holy God that comes through trusting Him.

Mark 8:34–38 NLT

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

NLT

34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Jesus shifts from the 12 and calls the crowd over…

And when Jesus asks these questions, what do you think Jesus is trying to get them to think about, what conclusion is He drawing them toward? And what do you think Jesus would have them do about it?

I’m guessing that he had this passage and his life experience in view… when Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote “the cost of discipleship”…

He was a German pastor… fought against the tierney of Hitler and was later killed for it.

Bonhoffer warned of a day when the church would be captivated by and settle for what he calls “cheap grace”...

A discipleship that costs us nothing… without surrender of sacrifice, where forgiveness didn't come with confession and repentance, a grace without the cross and without dealing with Jesus… and empty, meaningless and costless grace…

Real grace… is like a treasure hidden in the field for which a man will go and sell all that he has… for which a man would plush out his own eye if it caused him to stumble… the call of a Jesus to follow that involved leaving his nets behind to follow Him…

Costly grace… is sought again and again… it’s costly because it requires us to follow… because it costs a man his life and its grace because it gives humanity the only true life. It’s grace because all at one time it condemns sin but justifies the sinner, but above all it's costly because God did not reckon His Son to dear a price to pay for your life… and deliver you from sin. Costly grace is the incarnation of God.

what is costly grace?

I read that and realized this dude saw things… and lived things… that shaped his view of life and God in ways I long for… but yet… but want to go through what He did to get there… which… in a sense… is Jesus point.

It’s not the first or only time Jesus spoke on this high cost of discipleship…

Jesus is saying… If anyone wants to be my follower, then follow me like this… it involves these three things…

Jesus names three things required to follow Him

Deny yourself

Take up your cross

Follow Him

Deny yourself… or give up your own way

We all have this natural pronation to sin and to selfishness… we’re born with it… we often call it our sinful nature…

The word for deny here means to completely disown… or to let go of.

My own will and my own way… my old way

It is impossible to take hold of Christ… without letting go of and denying my SELF and my way.

Galatians 2:20–21 NLT

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

‘

(NLT)

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Take up your cross-

All of them knew what Jesus was saying. Jesus reference to the cross… was terrifying.

There was prof out of Missouri that used to say it like this… Mark Miller

“I wonder what Jesus would say to us walking around and wearing the cross as jewelry. The equivalent today would be someone walking around with an eclectic chair around their neck… the cross was a sign of suffering… of shame and humiliation… a statement of judgment…”

The cross was literally humanity’s attempt at inflicting the most amount of pain and shame that they could on someone… its entire goal was brutality and mockery.

Jesus is saying… be prepared for hardship… Because His way is not our way… because it involves denying self… it won't always go well..

It will involve surrender; and in our culture, thats not our favorite thing.

Jesus himself said..

Matthew 10:21–22 NLT

“A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved.

(NLT)

21 “A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. 22 And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved.

It will be hard. It will involve sacrifice and in our culture, that's not our favorite thing.

And follow - obeying Him

Jesus is saying that our decision to follow Him will not leave our lives untouched…

Following Jesus… actually means… you know… following His lead, His teaching, and His example in our lives…

Jesus says fighting for your own way… trying to save “your” life… is how you lose it.

He’s not talking about a willingness to die for Jesus.. But something much harder… and that is a willingness to live for Him.

Life is found… real life and real freedom… in HIM

And then Jesus pops the question…

What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

What good is it if you gain literally everything that this world has to offer and what it seems to value but in the process lose your soul?

What happens if you indulge your every sinful desire which leads to losing your way?

RC Spoul says it like this…

Jesus almost uses Business terms… profit and loss…

Literally this is what it looks like…

(SLIDE)

You gain the entire world… everything it has to offer… but forfeit your soul…

He says you are entirely, utterly, shipwrecked and bankrupt. You’ve lost it all.

Jesus is saying that if we look for life, meaning, and joy in the things of this world and in the things that this world celebrates… it ends in disaster.

And the conclusion Jesus points them too…

Nothing this world has to offer compares with Christ and what is mine in Him.

Is it worth it…

Thats what Jesus is asking… spending our only life… forsaking Christ and choosing BS that just doesn’t matter… is it worth it.

What matters most… When it’s all said and done, what is important, what really matters, what do you cling to, what do you live for?

It's always important to think about…

But this time of year… for whatever reason… it hits me harder.

I hope that it colors the way you see and view this time of year… as we celebrate the birth of Jesus…

Years ago… selling houses… What is worth…

Jesus paid it all.

CONC…

Years ago we went to sell a house and I asked a friend who is in real estate what it was worth… anyone wanna guess what he said?

It’s worth what anyone is willing to pay.

We either value the wrong things…

Or… we don't value Him and what’s found in Him enough?

Gift under the tree.

Would you die for Jesus… such an odd question. I’ve never really understood that. The questions really is… would you live for Jesus?

The crux of the question…

What do get if you gain everything but lose your soul? What’s worth more than your soul?