The Fortelling of The Great Exchange

Matthew 16:21-23

This morning we are beginning our Easter series called the great exchange. In this series we are going to walk through a couple of the highlight passages in Matthew. Today we start in Matthew 16:21-23. Next Sunday we will journey to the garden of Gethsamne and discuss the difficulty of the great exchange. Then going to the empty tomb and the result of the great exchange. Then we will go one more Sunday and hopefully go to the challenge of the great exchange in the great commission.

This foretelling of the great exchange that will take place is Jesus sharing more explicitly and more in depth the things that must take place in order for God’s gospel plan to be executed. My hope and prayer for us today is that we will see the weight of what Jesus is telling his disciples and how his rebuke is a loving and necessary action.

Verse 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 be raised up on the third day. “

Jesus is beginning to show, teach, divulge more fully that he is the key figure in God’s salvation plan. He gives just a few words but what he gives is the key facts of God’s salvation plan. First he must go to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is where God had chosen for the great exchange to take place. It is a significant place but what is more important than the actual place is the sacrifice that Jesus would give there for us. Jesus is going to enter Jerusalem with the people praising Him, worshipping Him, adoring Him. But he would exit the city being mocked by the people, despised by the people, and hurt for the people. None the less Jesus coming in on praises and leaving on mockery He would stay focused and would go willingly for those people to die for those people and by those people.

Jesus says he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. The suffering to come was from the elders, chief priests, and the scribes. The New Bible Commentary says that “The elders, chief priests and teachers of the law were the three groups which made up the membership of the Sanhedrin, the supreme council of the Jews. This was to be, therefore, a full-scale official repudiation of Israel’s Messiah by Israel’s highest court”. Jesus was going to suffer many things by the highest Israeli authority. The challenges, the mockery, the deception, the attempts to trip him up theologically, the betrayel by these religious leaders was just another added thing he would have to carry going to Calvary.

Jesus suffering on the cross was much more than just simply laying his life down for the sins of the world. There was to be a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual cost on his behalf. Jesus foretelling that the ones who should be recognizing him and heading his words the ones that stood in the synagoges and foretold of His coming these are the ones who would cause him much suffering. The suffering that Jesus was foretelling was heavy for his disciples to here. But it wasn’t just the suffering that was probably disturbing to them but the death coming.

Jesus said he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things by the religious leaders, and he must die, be killed, murdered. This was the part that perhaps got the disciples very concerned. Think of this from Jesus perspective. He is prophesying His death and and as every day passed He knew that the cross was coming, He knew death was coming, He knew the Fathers will had to be done. Perhaps it was at these times Jesus may have withdrawn himself from everyone else and communed with His heavenly Father. How would we handle life knowing exactly when Death was coming. Our reality is death is coming for all of us and we do not know when or how. But Jesus likely knew when His earthly time was coming to an end.

This is the part as I said perhaps what got the disciples attention but Jesus doesn’t end with foretelling His death, but we see Him here clearly foretelling His resurrection after three days. Jesus tells them even though He must be killed that death will not have the final say so. He assures them that Satan, death, Hell, and the grave do not emerge victorious. He foretells not just what appears to be a loss but He foretells the victory. He promises that God the Father in his sovereign plan of redemption will come to pass. The Holman New Testament Commentary reads

Matthew D. The King Takes the Road to the Cross (16:21–23)

At the heart of the plan, Jesus must be killed—as the sacrificial lamb, the Son of Abraham, for the sake of Israel and all nations (

Jesus is not only preparing Himself for the cross but I truly believe that He is preparing the disciples for what is to come also. He is getting ready to take on the sin of his Fathers children, the suffering of the religious leaders, the mockery of the crowd, the betrayel of Judas, the denial from Peter, the cowardness of the Disciples except John, but He promises victory fulfilled on the third day. And just like your and I probably would have the disciples get hung up on the death and loss and not the promise of the victory. After the death comes the victory but all Peter and the disciples got concerned with was the death and loss and even perhaps what they might have to go through.

Verse 22 “And yet Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You!”

Holman New Testament Commentary reads again that

Matthew D. The King Takes the Road to the Cross (16:21–23)

The disciples, still with limited understanding, focused on the tragedy of Jesus’ suffering and death. They seemed to overlook the triumphant ending of his resurrection. They had just come to their fullest realization yet that Jesus was the central figure toward whom all history pointed. Suddenly, they were blindsided by talk of this Messiah enduring suffering and death. Even though the suffering of the Messiah was foretold in the Old Testament (e.g,

This lead to Peter to do what Peter does best and pick the absolute wrong time to but in. Here Peter realizing that Jesus is talking of His death takes him to the side and begins rebuking Him probably not a harsh rebuke but more along the lines of a respectful but with urgent tone. The phrase God forbid it, Lord some translations read it as Never, Lord! was a common phrase and expression that meant May God be so merciful as to keep his from you. So what Peter was basically saying was Jesus may this death and suffering not happen to you by God’s mercy. Peter and the disciples wrapped up in fear, worry , doubt, confusion, shock, whatever that was consuming them caused them to miss what Jesus had ended the foretelling with.

How many times in life do we let this life, the enemy, the distractions, the drama whatever it is ho much of our lives do we act like the disciples and get so hyper focused that we seem to forget the promise of God’s victory to us through our Lord Jesus Christ? Have your circumstances ever caused you to be fearful and try to steal the joy and peace that Jesus has given us? It is human nature to worry and doubt and lose focus. The enemy wants to move our focus off the very promises of God and the truth of His word and magnify our problems, worries, and doubts.

Have you ever been like Peter when you read His word or come into a circumstance that you question Him, worry about what His plan is, ask Him if He is really sure about this? Peter told Jesus may this never happen to you by the mercy of God. Peter didn’t realize what that would mean. Peter saw the temporal issue and problem but was missing the eternal implications at at stake. Jesus had to die and suffer in our place, there was no plan B with God, there was no other option, Salvation for God’s people was not a buffet of options. It was Jesus from before the foundation of the very world that rejected him. It was Jesus who was to be the suffering servant, it was Jesus who was to be the once and for all passover lamb, it was Jesus who was to be the atoning sacrifice that would satisfy God’s holy and righteous anger and wrath toward the rebellion and sin of His very own creation. And Peter was telling Jesus not to be that.

The temporary has that affect and ability to blind and obscure our view of the bigger picture, the bigger plan, the very promises of God. We often do not understand why God does what He does and when He does it but we can and should trust Him because He is God and we are not. He paid the price for our sins with the blood of His only begotten Son. He is creator and we are not. He is the potter and we are the clay.

So with this being said to Jesus He kindly responds to the ol boy.

Verse 23 “But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but men’s”

Jesus response to Peter was very bold. But we need to remember that Jesus came to do the will of the Father. He came to rescue us yet He sought to Honor the Father above all and that meant coming, living, and dying for us. Jesus had the Fathers plan firmly rooted in Him to accomplish what He was sent to do. So Jesus meets Peter’s rebuke with His own righteous rebuke. The same commentary once more states that

Matthew D. The King Takes the Road to the Cross (16:21–23)

Jesus met Peter’s rebuke with righteous rebuke. Peter had tried to correct Jesus’ thinking, but Jesus showed Peter that it was his thinking that was inaccurate. In fact, in the following context (16:24–28), Jesus’ teaching targeted the misconception that Peter needed to change—that the Messiah-King could never suffer. On the contrary, he must suffer if he was to accomplish the Father’s will

Jesus in His rebuke was very possibly addressing the rest of the disciples as He was speaking to Peter, some translations read that Jesus simply just turned and began speaking. There is no doubt He is calling Peter Satan and a stumbling block. But We can almost get the idea that Jesus was chewing on Peter but it was also meant for them as well. The whole one bad apple spoils the bushel kind of thing. But Jesus is trying to get Peter and the disciples to see that it matters eternally that He go and die and suffer, that he must do all these things. Jesus calling Peter Satan was to let him know that by not seeing the bigger picture for whatever reason He was being like Satan like a deceiver. I think this also speaks to the importance of good doctrine and theology. When it comes down to the Christian faith a un-deniable belief because of what is in the word is that we believe in Jesus for our salvation and Him alone. And if peter and the others were going to teach Jesus death was not necessary that was a major issue. So church it does matter what we believe and how we read and interpret the word of God. There are non salvation issues that can be discussed and be differed on but the heart of scripture and God’s plan of salvation through the innocent life, death, burial, resurrection, and accension of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is not negotiable.

Notice also that Jesus calls Peter a stumbling block to him. Jesus is telling him man you are another area of trial and temptation in my life right now after I’ve told you I will rise again. Peter’s temporal distraction and worry has gotten him rebuked, called Satan, a stumbling block boy it’s not a good moment for Peter and the gang. Church the same thing happens of us, when we get caught up and hung up on a temporal issue, circumstance, whatever it may be we not only hinder and hurt ourselves but we can become a stumbling block for others.Someone might be doing really well in their walk with the Lord and then we come along and put the petiest, most insignificant thing before them and we blow it all out of proportion and make it seem like if this don’t get resolved or if this doesn’t get fixed how we want it then the church is gonna fold up and collapse. Now not only have you made it something it is not but you’ve got little suzzie all worried the church is gonna fold.

The overwhelming point this morning I pray we have seen is that we need to focus and seek God’s eternal kingdom and not let the temporal get us in so much trouble. That is what Jesus says to Peter as He closes this verse. for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but men’s. God has such a bigger purpose and plan for all of us it would shatter out minds if we knew it all. Church we need to trust that His ways our so much higher than our ways, we need to trust that He is God and we are not. And finally I want to begin to close by saying that I see another point in this rebuking. That is simply that I am convinced that Jesus is doing all of this to Peter and the boys because He loves them. Hebrews 12:6 states “For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He punishes every son whom He accepts.” Church when the Lord corrects us, convicts us, calls us out it is out of a place of Fatherly love. It does come from Him wanting us to not to be burdened and bogged down by the here and now but to keep looking up and toward Him. He wants us to be fruitful in our walk with Him. We don’t need to be stumbling blocks for ourselves or others. We need to be fountains and not drains as quoted in the movie The Forge.

And because the Lord corrects, convicts, and challenges us doesn’t mean that He is done with us. Look at Peter. The same peter that is standing here being rebuked, disciplined, called Satan, short sighted, and a stumbling block is that same Peter who Jesus will build his church on. This is the same Peter who will deny Jesus three times but He is the same Peter who will be restored by being asked do you love me? You’re failings do not have to define you, because we have a victorious great high priest who sits at the right hand of the father with nail pierced hands and feet who sits and intercedes on our behalf. His grace is sufficient and it is here for the 100th time today or maybe this is the first time you have ever come to the realization that you have never trusted in Him for salvation. I pray today be the day of salvation.