Jesus Is Not Who They Expect- Identity And Death (pt 2)

I. Introduction

1. Prayers

2. Scripture memory

Romans 8:29 ESV

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Schedule

Wednesday 12/13- Off

Friday 12/15- ICC Christmas party

Wednesday 12/20- Off

Sunday 12/24- Christmas Eve AM and PM services

Wednesday 12/27- Off

2. Catch-

How do christians today try to tell God we know better than He does and we have a better plan?

3. Review of the book

Remember, we are in Caesarea Phillipi

It was a city full of idols displaying the great power of Greek and Roman world mere footsteps from Israel

They were a conquered people, whose God, Yahweh, seemed unable to rescue them

Why would asking who Jesus was here seem strange?

How does Jesus seem to compare with all these “gods” right now?

II. Jesus teaches who He is through questions and corrections

1. Jesus’ teaching moment (18-20a)

i. Explanation

Jesus example of prayer (18)

Jesus practice of questions (19-20a)

2. The shining pupil and correction (20b-22)

i. Explanation

Peter’s revelation

Peter is the one who speaks up, as always

Peter says you the the Christ

This is the greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning anointed one

John 1:41 ESV

41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

An anointed one is one set aside for a holy task, much like the David as anointed with oil for his special task

You will remember that John the baptist refused the title of Christ

Luke 3:15–16 ESV

15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

So, Since Andrew, peter’s brother, was a disciple of John, he would know the signifigance of this statement

Peter got this from God (

Matthew 16:17–19 ESV

17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus responds praising this statement saying it was from the father

Peter’s words were not something he figured out or heard from someone else

John Calvin - And let those who have received faith, acknowledging the blindness which was natural to them, learn to render to God the glory that is due to Him

How do you think Peter would feel upon hearing this and then being told I will give you the keys of the kingdom?

Peter’s rebuke

Jesus Does the correcting

But in Matthew 16:20 we see the same words as Luke 9:21, Jesus warns them

The word charged is mostly translated rebuke or to warn someone’s behavior

This along with command is for emphasis as Jesus is making a big deal response.

You could imagine him smiling one moment to praise Peter, but then becoming very serious the next to discuss this

They are not to repeat this to anyone

Any guesses why?

Verse 22 says, “saying,” and particple/ing word that explains the previous part

They have to understand something about Jesus first

The son of man is Jesus’ favorite title

Remember he refered to himself this way

Luke 5:24 ESV

24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

This would not be understood by the teachers as a humble statement about him being human

Jesus said in Luke 6:5 “5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.””

All the bible scholars would have thought instantly of the amazing figure

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Peter is probably following at this point, thinking, yes, Jesus, we know you’re the great and powerful son of man. You’re the messiah, who is going to bring in the Kingdom of God we have been telling everyone about

Why don’t you want us to say anything Jesus?!

Then Jesus explains

This Son of man must suffer

To endure pain to a great extent

At the men’s breakfast on Saturday we were talking about how much jesus had to endure, not just from men, but from God.

"Psychologically in absorbing the sum-total penalty of every lustful thought and deed coming from the hearts of God's people—and that is one sin among many? Perhaps it was sheer despair that broke him down into death. If he was sweating blood at the thought of God's abandonment, what was it like to go through with it? Would it not have been the withdrawal of God's love from his heart, not the withdrawal of oxygen from his lungs, that killed him? Who could hold up mental stability when drinking down what God's people deserved? 'In the presence of this mental anguish,' wrote Warfield, 'the physical tortures of the crucifixion retire into the background, and we may well believe that our Lord, though he died on the cross, yet died not of the cross, but, as we commonly say of a broken heart,' It was the suffering of Christ's heart that overwhelmed what his physical frame could handle."

He must also be rejected the all the leaders of Isreal

Reject= from apó (575), from, and dokimázō (1381), to prove. To reject as the result of examination and testing of one’s qualification for an office

We see this happening

Luke 20:1- One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up

Luke 22:66- When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said

Jesus makes it clear, they will kill him, to death

Is there any ambiguity is Jesus’ statement

So there is no confusion in the next part

He will rise again on the 3rd day

This is the first time (cf. vv. 43b–45), Jesus clearly teaches the Twelve that his role as God’s anointed Messiah involves suffering and death

This is the first time he mentions resurrection too

Look back at verse 7… did they have any trouble with resurrection? Why or why not?

But the issue was the death. That was not ok

Peter was corrected, but he had to step in and do some rebuking of His own

Peter tries the correcting

Turn to Matthew 16:22-23

Matthew 16:22–23 ESV

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.”

Peter doesn’t do this in front of everyone, but pulls Jesus aside and starts rebuking him instead

John Calvin wrote, “It is a proof of the excessive zeal of Peter, that he reproves his Master”

RC Sprul wrote, “These words left Peter not only incredulous, but on the verge of rage”

he did not want his master talking about death

What reasons can we give that he would say no to Jesus?

Our Messiah is a glorious king who comes in power to vanquish our enemies. It can’t be that our Messiah will suffer and be put to death!

To Jews, a suffering messiah was incongruous, an impossibility. They thought that the nation might suffer, but not their Deliverer. However, His suffering and death make it possible for Him to purchase a people who will serve the Lord (Acts 20:28 does not use the term “Christ,” but does use the image of purchase

Jesus says get behind me Satan- Peter you are not supporting my ministry and God’s way, but that is what Satan himself wants to happen

This is the very thing that Satan tried to give to Jesus in the wilderness, a kingdom without a cross

And while they’re quite confused, this was prophesied

Luke 20:17–18 ESV

17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

Is a quote from

Psalm 118:22–24 ESV

22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

The cornerstone is probably the large stone at the corner of the building’s foundation,

The builders are the wise and knowledgeable, and they have rejectedsome particular stone as unsuited for this purpose. They were wrong in their judgment

Instead, this stone will break against others and those that attack it will be fallen

ii. Illustration

Jesus paints an upside down world that is hard to understand

It is like how lenses flip images, just like our brains

Light travels in straight lines, so when we look down, the light is actually hitting the top of our eyes

It takes our brain or the camera technology to flp it

So, in teh sasme way, it takes the truth of God’s word to flip the way we see the world

Defeat is not defeat, victory is not truly winning

iii. Application

Why is God’s call to accept apparent defeat one of the hardest calls to trust?

How does having a dying and resurrecting savior change that for us?

How can we know that this wasn’t a made up story by the disciples years later after Jesus had died?

the greek world thought the idea of resurrection was stupid, the body was bad, spirit was good. So no spirit who died would ever want to go back to the body

And here we see how they thought this whole dying and resurrecting ideas was a ridiculous one… this was not respectable and wouldn’t be accepted by the jews unless they couldn’t deny it actually happened

Peter ropes the others in

3. The call to follow (23-26)

i. Explanation- Jesus now gets to the hard part, saying this isn’t just His cross to bear, but everyone who follows him must expect the same

The cost (23)

Jesus turns to all

There is a little confusion here as

Matthew 16:24- Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Mark 8:34- And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So, which is it, the disciples or the crowd?

All the crowd of disciples that has followed Jesus out here, which is greater than the 12

Luke 6:13- And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles

Jesus says, if you want to follow me, you need to do this too

They had literally followed him to the place

In the Greek world, philosophers, religious leaders, and mystery cults attracted disciples. A person became a disciple as he sought out a teacher and followed him and his principles

So they want to follow him

To follow Jesus meant you had to deny yourself

Say no to what you want

and take up your cross

This picture makes it too nice

Crucifixion= Use of an upright stake as an instrument of torture and execution attained particular significance as the culmination of Christ’s persecution and thus as a symbol of his atonement for mankind

Persians (cf. Herodotus Hist. i.128.2; iii.132.2, 159.1), perhaps derived from the Assyrian practice of impalement. It was later employed by the Greeks, especially Alexander the Great

This was torture

Jesus painted a picture of difficulty in following Him

But he also showed

The reward (24-26)

If you lose your life for Jesus’ sake, you will actually save it

Plenty of people have died in anger or for some other cause, how is this different?

When James and John, Peter and Andrew, were called to be Jesus’ disciples, they left their boats and could not pursue their profession as fishermen (Mk. 1:16–20). In the same way Levi had to leave his tax collector’s booth and give up his profession to be a full-time follower of Jesus (Mk. 2:14)

In the end, nothing matters if you lose who you are

ii. Illustration

Christ and Calamity: Grace & Gratitude in the Darkest Valley Chapter V: When You Bear Your Cross, Christ Is Your King

Some have turned their back on riches and fame and taken up serving the poor and destitute in Jesus’ name. Others have given up promising careers in impressive fields and gone to seminary to learn to preach the gospel and pastor churches. Still others contend with physical disability or chronic illness every day of their lives. Some are mocked regularly and ridiculed as bigots or haters because they uphold biblical truth instead of cultural fads. Each of these instances fit into a larger pattern: the Christian life is upside down. It follows the pattern of Jesus’ cross. As he won by losing, so we live by dying. In his cross and by his death he won life for us all. So upon his invitation we follow Jesus even though it may bring us suffering, misery, and loss.

iii. Application

Today’s world says you have to follow your heart of find who you are

Traditional shame base cultures say your family, culture, group should define you

But Jesus says only God can show you who you really are and save you

In what ways does Jesus save us?

III. Conclusion

So what questions?

IV. Closing prayer

V. Discussion questions