Altar’d: Carry your Cross. Men’s BS

Introduction/Scripture

Matthew 16:13–28 NIV

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Aggies and longhorns

TWH and FMC

What does it mean to follow after Jesus?

We have all heard sermons before on the following Jesus part right?

Matthew 4:18–20 NIV

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Leave everything, abandon, lay it all down and follow after Jesus. What is so interesting about our passage is the act of leaving their nets, their families, their everything is going to move from a rote obedience down into a costly heart movement....or if it doesent then they will be left behind. Which brings us to this interesting interaction with Peter.

Context: What in the world is going on with this relationship between Jesus and Peter. Jesus seems a little bipolar here doesen’t he. One second he is “…well done student, you have answered correctly. I am proud of you.” Then the next second, “…NOT TODAY SATAN!”

Pay close attention to what is happening here. Look at Jesus words in the rebuke.

Matthew 16:23 NIV

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

How often do make discipleship about our personal gains? All the things I am doing. All the things I am working on. In our victories…oh man I have just been in the word or in prayer so much this week, etc. Or in our failures....I just have spent anytime with God.

The way of the cross is death of human aspirations. You see Peter just did not want to lose Jesus. He did not want him to die. At worst he was trying to make Jesus into his version of a victor that would rescue Israel. At best he was fearful of human loss.

Discipleship is about leaving human concerns and embracing the concerns of God

Jesus gets to the point

Matthew 16:24 NIV

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

There are three imperatives in this text that are pretty easy to pull out, even in the english text. I think understanding them and pondering the weight behind them will help this massive statement from Jesus.

Deny

The first movement of discipleship is dying to self. The immediate context of this scripture is the reminder:

Matthew 16:25 NIV

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

“To deny oneself means to know oneself, and no longer to announce allegiance to oneself—not out of a feeling of indifference of weariness because life seems to have no meaning, but out of free decision and with a clear goal in mind, giving up the lesser to win the greater, as Jesus renounced himself.”

I believe this first work is paramount for if this is not done then the rest of our conversation is not very important. This takes embracing the grace of God that transforms us from the inside out. This is the work where relationships are lost, where we walk away from good pursuits, where we leave jobs…this is the place where God begins to give us new dreams.

Take Up Your Cross

Insert really bad quote about person misusing this text.... “Can you believe that I was called in to work on Saturday? I mean no one else was! I guess that is just my cross to bear.”

NO!

Sometimes we get too quick in throwing us in the middle of scripture. I want to start with the original intent and then work to us. Think about the context again:

first verse....from that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed....”

A few days later the disciples would see Jesus carry a literal cross while being whipped and punished.

Now, how do you think these disciples would understand this imperative of Jesus? They eventually would lay down their lives for the Jesus movement. Some even literally crucified. Almost all meeting some martyr death.

Craig Keener: If disciples come after and imitate their teacher, their lives are forfeit from the moment they begin following him; to come after Jesus Peter himself had to return behind him. Self-denial in this text refers to following Christ to the death rather than denying him in the face of persecution. At the same time people often recognized the boldness of soldiers and others unafraid to die. Although genuine disciples may fall short on their commitment at times, the gospel tradition emphasizes that those who wish to follow Jesus must understand from the start that they are surrendering their lives to him.

Even in suffering. Deny yourself, and take up your cross....these two complete each other.

What about our context? In a place where this type of persecution is not prevalent do we just get a pass on this part of the scripture? Or do we just get to turn it into a metaphor? No, the way of the cross will always carry with it some level of suffering.

We need to learn how to suffer

This is not about choosing hardship just for the sake of some Jesus badge. This is more about the understanding that when we lay our lives down, suffering will come, and it is in the suffering that God brings life. We need to learn to embrace the suffering, not in some weird sadistic way, but in a way of acknowledging that it means something. It could be an avenue of transformation and growing in dependence on Him, it could be a place of God bringing hope to the world through suffering. It means something.

The Christian bears the cross with strength of Jesus, and with power…for they know that Christ has already carried it completely. They carry it with a quiet confidence. Like someone who knows something the rest of us don’t.

Follow

The final imperative and I think a fitting conclusion. These all go hand in hand. Follow. What does this word mean?

The greek word: used 89 times in the greek new testament. This word carries something more than what I think we often consider. Following someone can mean all sorts of things right. So is Jesus telling the disciples that they are just to follow in obedience to him? Does this simply mean to walk around some more carrying a cross? No, and this is important....this word denotes fellowship and imitation. This means that what Jesus is saying is that in denying and in taking up your cross, in following, there is ongoing relationship in the journey.

To follow after Jesus is to participate in God’s redemption in the world

Think about following Jesus:

Imagine what it would be like to follow after Jesus. There would have been all kinds of experiences. Jesus bringing out pristine wine collection out of dirty tap water. Jesus teaching with incredible authority...you know what it is like to be around someone that just has all of this wisdom? Like teaching that is greater than just someone who has studied it all really well....something laid on him in a supernatural way. Jesus healing sick, blind, crippled, removing leprosy. Jesus speaking wisdom and truth into people’s life....knowing things about people that he should not know. Jesus telling dead people to not be dead anymore. Can you imagine what it would have been like to go to the tomb of Lazarus? Or going up on the mountain to see the glory of God shining from Christ…? What about the following, the people that were curious, the people that wanted a show. What about the people that wanted to prove him wrong, wanted to trap him, wanted to beat him up, wanted to kill him. Imagine the experiences. Going through villages where he was adored and then going through villages that he was despised.

This is what Jesus offers us.

Friends, I wonder if most of us have not seen a glimpse of this kind of following Jesus.

So how do we do it?

So how do we do it? And why is it so hard?

Well I think it is because we have underestimated the power of the flesh. Even in salvation, we have not given enough respect to our sinful nature. Stephen L. Porter

Themelios: Volume 39, No. 3, November 2014 5. A Second Take on Flesh: The Relational Resistance View

The relational resistance view maintains that σάρξ is not simply ingrained inclinations to behaviorally sin, but more fundamentally ingrained inclinations to resist the Spirit of God and to live autonomously from his life-giving presence. Christ-followers do not come into the Christian life with merely habituated sinful desires, dispositions, and their resultant sinful behaviors (the deeds of the flesh), but more profoundly Christ-followers bring with them the habituated, idolatrous proclivities of their pre- and post-conversion attempts to live autonomously from God. So, this view is sensitive to the fact that while Christians do need to turn more frequently to the Spirit’s empowerment and thereby refrain from sin, such acts of submission to the Spirit are complicated by habituated relational resistance to the Spirit. To put the point another way, what stands in the way of progress in holiness is not merely σάρξ understood as the Christian’s habituated desire to sin, but σάρξ understood as the Christian’s habituated desire to be one’s own god. To make no provision for the flesh, then, is to put to death ingrained attempts to utilize one’s natural resources to live apart from God and instead to engage in practices of deepening dependence on the nourishment available by the Spirit, which brings forth the fruit of the Spirit. This means that the choice to “stop” rebelling and “start” depending is not ultimately a willpower issue. Rather, it is an interpersonal issue. In particular, it is an issue that involves coming to a greater trust/faith in the love and goodness of God as well as despairing of the attempt to find life apart from God.

It is more than a impulse or habit of sin. It is more about an addiction to suppress the Spirit.

It is in being rooted in Community that we work towards holiness. That we partner with God in the work of sanctification. Koinonia. Fellowship with God and fellowship with others. In small groups or people we are working with God and others to stop trying to be God, to grow in grace, and to learn what it means to follow.

Deny yourself= this is not just about walking away from sin, but of walking away from our proclivities of self at suppress the work of the Spirit.

Take up your cross= is this a metaphor? Or is this something more? I should think how every high this bar is, we are very far from it.

Follow me.