Focus on God

Sermon

We are starting a new sermon series called “Focus.” We are letting the Gospel of Matthew show us various ways that we should focus on God and our relationship with him and with those around us. This week we will “Focus on God.” Our scripture comes from Matthew 16:21-28. The wordswill be on the screen.

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Please pray with me…

You mayhave noticed we enter today’s text in a weird place. We know that something has happened before the scripture, but we are not told what happened. What has happened is that Jesus asked the disciples a question “Who do you say that I am?”

We havePeter responding by stating that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This understanding of who Jesus is leads to Jesus to begin telling his disciples what is about to happen, and he does that in today’s text.

I wonder if Jesus began by asking if they wanted to hear the good news or the bad news first. We have both spoken today by Jesus. They may have said, “start with the bad news.” That is what Jesus does. He tells them that he is going to be killed.

The focus of the disciples was so much on the bad news that they seem to be unable to hear the good news. The news that Jesus will be raised from the dead three days later.

Good newsand bad news. Doesn’t this explain our life journeys? Lives filledwith ups and downs, positives and negatives, hope followed by doubt. Expectation followed by fear.

Scripture canhelp us discover that when it comes to the emotional rollercoaster we live, we are no different than the lives of those whose stories we read within scripture. They seem to also to have to deal with the good, the bad, and the ugly of life.

In fact, it seems to be human nature to focus on the bad news and forget about the good. We can get wrapped up in remembering the negatives that have occurred and are occurring around us. This can then lead us to missing out or forgetting about the good news.

This iswhat happens to Peter. The shock of hearing what is going to happen leaves him struggling with the implications for him, for the disciples, and for the Jewish people. Jesus was supposed to save them from the oppression of the Roman empire. He won’t be able to do that if he is dead.

Peter doesn’tquestion Jesus. Peter doesn’t seem to ask around if he had heard what he thought he heard. Fear has entered into his mind. Peter is freaking out because he knows what Jesus dying could mean to him personally. He hasseen what has happened to those that followed what turned out to be false Messiah’s in the past. They ended up dying next to the person they followed.

When Peter hears, that Jesus is going to die, in his humanness, he is unable to hear anything else. He hears that he is also about to die and his fellow disciples as well. This leads him to immediately calling out Jesus for having the nerve to make such a statement that cannot be true.

His focus is entirely on the human consequences. His focusis on what the outcome of the death of Jesus will have on his personal reputation, for his friends that are with him, and on the future of the Jewish people. Peter has a human response to a divine announcement.

It was not that long ago that we could relate to Peter. We found ourselves in unchartered territory. We had a global pandemic and many of us were left wondering if we were going to be able to return to church. Our focus became human and for many their doubts were directed towards God or through lashing out at those around them.

Human answers to human situations are not always wrong. What wecould consider wrong is us choosing to ignore the possibility of intervention by God. We should spend our lives focusing on what God can do instead of on the frailties of humanity.

A focus on God stops us from thinking that our situation is impossible. It allows us to have hope even in the most dire of circumstances. It helps us to keep going and to keep positive even when it seems that the world is falling apart around us.

A focus on God leads us to be able to focus on the things of God. Our first reading reminds us what that means. It means our focus is on love for God and love for our neighbor. Our desire is to do good.

We saw some of that during the pandemic. We saw people taking care of each other and showing love to one another. But we also saw a lot of human reactions. We sawfriendships ended and families divided because of different opinions concerning what was best.

We saw churches split and people who had worshipped together for generations suddenly being unable to speak to each other and to be around each other without accusations and division affecting those around them.

A focus on God can help end division. Jesus may have condemned the Pharisees, but he didn’t quit loving them. Jesus showed love to those that agreed with him and those that refused to believe that he could be the Messiah. We are always called to love not to hate.

Jesus placesthe blame not specifically on Peter for his statement. He recognizedthat in Peter’s fear and anxiety that Satan had found a place within him that led him to doubt what Jesus was saying could be true.

He doesn’tcall out Peter. Jesus calls out Satan. He requests that Satan get out of the way. Can you imagine where Peter’s mind went when he makes his statement and Jesus calls out Satan as if he is Satan.

Making choicesthat seem to follow the ways of the world instead of the ways of God can lead us to also be helping Satan. We are working for Satan when we in our humanness are working against God.

Jesus explainswhat making this choice does. It can hinder the work of Jesus and can lead us away from focusing on God. Choosing a worldly reaction to a situation instead of a godly reaction leads to negative results.

The work of Jesus can become affected. In the case of Jesus dying and then being raised from the dead, if the disciples don’t believe it, it would make it more difficult for those within society to believe it.

Like it or not our actions and reactions can have an impact on how people view Jesus and the church. It may not be fair but our statements and treatment of those around us can have an impact on the possibility of someone deciding to become a follower of Jesus.

We can acknowledge that we are all going to make mistakes. Where we are blessed is that we have a God that can overcome the barriers that Christians through their human responses have led people away from God.

God helpsthose that are missing him in their lives recognize what they are missing and can assist them in reaching the decision that they need a relationship with God through Jesus. We can make it tougher for God, but nothing is impossible for God.

A focuson a worldly response instead of a Godly response can also hurt our relationship with God. The world through Satan attempts to bring doubts into our relationship. Ephesians 4:27 tells us to “not give any opportunity to Satan.” Our lack of belief that all things are possible through God can give Satan that opportunity to move us away from instead of towards God.

Jesus continuesby pointing out what putting our focus on God does looks like. It meansthat we will “deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow him.” It meansthat we are willing to sacrifice our own ways of living and be willing to do what God desires for us to do.

We are to choose to put God and others above our own benefit and above our own self interests. We are to decide that the ways of God our better than what will help us become more popular, more successful, and or more accepted by the world.

Our firstreading offers us the ways that we show our focus is on God to those around us. First, we are to be a blessing to those around us. We are to choose to live our lives focused on others. We spoke of this briefly earlier. We are to sacrifice ourselves as Jesus sacrificed himself upon the cross.

How we do this is offered to us beginning in Romans 12:14 by telling us to “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another.” We are to choose to live our lives in a way that shows the love of Jesus through us.

We are to focus on living like Jesus. We are to not be haughty. This is not a word used very often today but we receive an explanation through the next line. We are to not think that we are better than those around us.

Jesus livedthis out through his treatment of those that those around him had chosen not to associate with. He spoke to the poor, the sick., the leper, the blind, the deaf, the beggar. Jesus didn’t let a person’s lot in life decide how he treated them.

We are to attempt to live peaceably with everyone. Our focus is to be on showing the love of Jesus to all that are around us. The saying nothing is impossible for God comes to mind. It is hard to be at peace with those that don’t want to be at peace with us, but we are to do all we can to live a peaceful life with those around us.

Serve thosearound you no matter how they treat you or feel about you. There aresome people that dislike Christians. Paul, the author of Romans, wants us to not allow their distrust or hate for believers in Jesus to prevent us from living the way that God desires for us to live.

Our firstreading ends with these words “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is easier said than done but is still a goal that we should strive to follow.

We attemptto focus on God here at Kirkersville through our mission statement. Our desire to with God’s help to form believers and be formed as believers, develop followers, and release disciples. The journey to become the person that God wants you to be is never complete. Let us continue to grow daily closer to God. We are able to best do this by focusing on God.

Please pray with me…