Imitation Matthew 16:21-26

I think there’s no greater privilege that a Father can have than to hear one of his children say, “I want to be just like my Dad when I grow up”. I know that as a kid, my dad was my hero and I wanted to be just like him. In fact, I’m really blessed to be able to say the same thing today. There are a thousand things in my life that I try to do the way that I watched him do them! I’m an Alabama fan because he led me. I drink my coffee with one sugar because that is the way that he drinks it. So much of how I have tried to live as a husband and as a father has been based on his example. That kind of imitation is at the heart of a disciple’s life as well. We look at Jesus and we do what He did.

If we are going to make more disciples, we have to imitate the example of Jesus and teach people to think, act, and live as He lived!

-Jesus calls His disciples to imitate His example of:

I. Suffering Obedience v. 21

In our passage, Jesus is teaching His disciples and the content is really important.

Jesus wants them to understand what His obedience to the will of the Father is going to look like

It is a path that leads to Jersualem, a place of persecution and danger

It is a path of suffering, physically, emotionally, and spiritually

It is a path of death!

However, this path of suffering obedience is the pathway that leads us to Resurrection life that can never be taken away

It turns out when we walk with the Lord, the cross precedes the crown

There will be suffering in our walk with Christ, but ultimately it will be worth the cost

4. We have to have a healthy theology of suffering obedience:

Apart from the suffering obedience of Jesus, there is no Gospel!

Through our suffering obedience:

We are used for the glory of Christ

We gain intimacy with Christ

We are conformed to the image of Christ

Romans 8:28–29

[28] And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [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. (ESV)

“The Son takes shape in those who abandon themselves to Him. Christ forms Himself in the lives of those who will let go of all the forms of life in which they have shaped on their own. Christ takes shape in a life that is willing to become putty in God’s hands. Christ presses the shape of His own face into the clay of our soul when we cease to be hard and resistant, and when we take our own amateur hands off and admit that we are not such good artists as He is.” John Piper

II. Spiritual Thinking vv. 22-23

Unfortunately, Jesus’s words here are an offense to Peter

Peter does not have the same mindset as Jesus does

He cannot see a scenario where His Lord, walking in obedience should suffer in this way!

Jesus corrects Peter in the strongest ways possible:

Peter’s mindset is Satanic

Peter’s mindset hinders the work of the Lord

Peter’s mindset is fleshly

I think we need to wrestle with this for just a moment:

Peter is not trying to be rebellious; he just wants the Lord to define the parameters of obedience in the way that he does

Sometimes the great obstacles to obedience are not immorality, but are:

Comfort

Convenience

Certainty

Over in the book of Exodus, we see a pattern that develops. The people grumble and complain because they are uncomfortable, inconvenienced, and uncertain. Before long, their hearts long for Egypt, they go after other gods, and they engage in all sorts of immorality. We need to understand the high cost that comes when we do not think like Jesus!

Philippians 2:5–11

[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)

III. Self-Denial vv. 24-26

Jesus engages with the disciples again and explains things a bit more plainly

If we are going to follow Jesus, we must live a life of self-denial

We are no longer living for our own sakes or for our own glory, but for the Lord

We join with Jesus in carrying a cross

We do not have to carry His, because the weight is far too great

But every disciple has his own cross to carry

When we do this, we discover the truth Jesus describes in paradox

In losing my life, I save my life

When I stop living for my own sake, but for the glory of the Lord, I find the real life I’ve been looking for all along

It turns out repentance is not just a repentance from the immoral, but is frequently a rejection of:

The Comfortable

The Convenient

The Certain

I may give up everything else, but in the end, I get Jesus. When I do, I will find that it was worth it!

Philippians 3:4–11

[4] though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. [7] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—[10] that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11] that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (ESV)

At the age of 23, George Beverly Shea (1909 – 2013) had a hard decision to make. He could accept a job offer in a secular singing position in New York City, with a great salary and wide respect; or he could continue singing in churches and on Christian radio programs.

“The poem was written by a lady named Rhea Miller. Mother thought it to be a very wonderful poem and wanted me to read it. She then asked me to try my hand at writing a melody for the verses.” He was immediately impressed with the words and so “deeply moved” that he began to compose music for the lines. “I began to play as a melody came to me. It seemed to fit the lyrics and so I began to sing, for the first time, 

I’d Rather Have Jesus

I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I'd rather be His than have riches untold; I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand Than to be the king of a vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.

This song became his song and he sang it on every continent and every state in the USA as part of the Billy Graham crusades. But I have a question for you today: Is this your song?