Be a Disciple

Intro [Slide1]

I want to start off by saying that I have a problem with [Slide 2] Jesus. Yes I just said that. I have a personal problem with the Son of God, the Lord of the Universe, the Saviour of humanity, the Alpha and Omega. That guy. Before you call me a heretic which some of you may already have, I’ll tell you what it is:

I can’t relate to Him.

Jesus does everything right, I do everything wrong. Jesus restores things that are broken, I’m usually the one who breaks stuff. Jesus cleans His room [probably], I suck at it. I think the only 3 things Jesus and I have in common is that we both don’t like crowds, we’re both dudes, and we both walked on water… Except I can only do it when it’s really cold.

So when I read all about Jesus’ miracles, His life, His teaching, it ticks me off! Especially when He says stuff like, “You’ll do all the works I have done and more.” Like get real!

[Slide 3] But then I got introduced to the disciples. A bunch of dunces, the most blunt tools in the toolbox. Guys who give Jesus a migraine on the daily. Now THOSE are some guys I can relate to. Now I know what you might be thinking, “His sermon is called ‘Be a Disciple’ and he’s calling them stupid… Does he really expect us to be disciples after hearing that?” YES! Because these mediocre muttonheads [Ya you can save that one to your personal dictionary] will later change the world and bring BILLIONS of lives to eternal salvation in Jesus Christ. Today we’re going to look at a key roadblock that stops us from growing as disciples. That roadblock is our own tunnel visioned opinions and presuppositons and letting them rule our lives. Let’s set the stage for our story today:

Setting the Stage

I want you to imagine you’re in Israel. You’re part of Jesus’s Bumbling Battalion. Jesus just fed about 4000 people (not to be confused when he fed the 5000), he got into a squabble with the Pharisees, the religious rulers at the time, and is now on his way to the Mount of Transfiguration where His glory is fully revealed. On His way, He decides to give His disciples a pop quiz, which by the way, would be the most stressful thing ever. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Matthew chapter 16:13 where we’ll start. If you don’t have your Bible, feel free to stare at the person’s next to you until they get uncomfortable and share… Just kidding. We’ll have it up on the screen so you can follow along.

Peter’s Triumph [Slide 4]

Matthew 16:13–15 ESV

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Jesus here asks a question about what people think about Him. This would be the ancient version of Googling yourself. Now the disciples aren’t as stupid as they look, they’ve heard, they listened. They give the Google answer that people believed he was one of the prophets returned from the dead. A little creepy, but He had some popularity. He then wants to hear what the people who follow Him closely think. So he asks the disciples. Here’s what happens next: [Slide 5]

Matthew 16:16 ESV

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter takes a stab and in essence, says that Jesus is the chosen one. The one the prophecies spoke about, the one who will liberate God’s people. What an on-the-spot answer eh? Look how Jesus responds: [Slide 6]

Matthew 16:17 ESV

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.

[Slide 7] Now you might be wondering why this Peter guy has so many names. Simon Bar-Jonah Peter. Well his original name was Simon. He was the son of a man named Jonah. So Simon-Bar Jonah would be to us, Simon Jonahson. Jesus continues: [Slide 8]

Matthew 16:18–20 ESV

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. 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.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Wow! [Slide 9] So Simon now gets a name change to Peter meaning Rock, or Rocky for the movie lovers. Jesus gives him the ultimate ego boost! You are now [Slide 10] Simon the Rock Jonahson… See what I did there? Anyways He gets told by Jesus that he will be given the keys to the kingdom, the VIP keyholder! Simon the Rock Jonahson, will now be the spearhead of God’s newborn church! What a day! Okay now if we just like the ego boost, let’s stop the sermon here and go home. But the story continues...

Peter’s Fumble [Slide 11]

Matthew 16:21–22 ESV

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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”

So Jesus here starts sharing some scary truths. He says that He’s going to go into Jerusalem, suffer, be tortured, and die. This is not who the promised Messiah was supposed to be! Who was in power at the time? [Romans] The Romans! The Romans were brutal to the Jewish people. [Slide 12] So they believed that the promised Messiah was going to overthrow the government as a military ruler, and usher in Israel as kings of the world! So this talk of Jesus dying doesn’t make sense, and Peter sure didn’t like it. Now if there was something that needed to be said, Peter said it. If there was something that DIDN’T need to be said, Peter said it. So he pulls Jesus aside saying, “Hey Jesus! You’re the Messiah! Get your head in the game! Messiah’s don’t die. I should know, I’m Simon the Rock Jonahson [I’m not going to stop saying this]. You should get familiar with your Bible.

We get this beautiful look at what Petersplaining looks like. As a professional mansplainer myself, I totally find myself relating to Peter here. We see here that Peter thought that Jesus was a military ruler. But how does Jesus respond with getting told He’s wrong? [Slide 13]

Matthew 16:23 ESV

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.”

Poor Peter, he was having such a good day. Don’t you hate it when you’re having the best day of your life only to be called the lord of evil by the Lord of the Universe? Now why did Jesus call Peter Satan? Like Jesus called some of the Pharisees children of the devil which is harsh but what’s worse than getting called children of the devil? The devil himself. So why did Jesus say this? [Slide 14][Hebrew/Greek Sah-tahn/Adversary]. Naturally Jesus is calling Peter His adversary in this moment. Jesus knows that the only route to completing His mission is His death. Peter is telling Him to never die. Naturally, he is standing in Jesus’ way, although he doesn’t intend to. So naturally, Jesus needs to make a point. [Slide 15]

The Point

Matthew 16:24–28 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 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? 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. 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.”

Peter didn’t understand how God’s Kingdom works. [Slide 16] The Kingdom is what is often called the Upside-down Kingdom. It opperates by naturally defying our expectations. You gain life by losing it, the King wins by dying, being a Christ follower doesn’t win you fame and glory, it costs you your very life. So when Jesus tells His disciples earlier to not tell anyone about who He is, we now know why. If Jesus’ very disciples couldn’t understand who He is, how would anyone else?

[SLIDE **18**] I think we can kind of act like Peter in our lives. We begin to make assumptions about God, ourselves, and each other that totally miss the mark. What are some wrong assumptions we make about God and ourselves? [A few answers] Personally, I often find myself underestimating God’s role and overestimating mine. For example, I naturally tend to think, “How can I grow this ministry? That’s my job, is to grow this ministry.” That’s false. It’s my job to love people; it’s God’s job to grow HIS ministry. I tend to think that if I’m just having a bad day, God will understand if I treat someone terribly. That’s just not true. I put my own opinion in and justify my wrong behaviour. My pride, greed, and laziness can very easily let me drop my cross and go be comfy on the couch. In Catholicism, there are 7 deadly sins. These vices are pride, greed, lust, jealousy, gluttony, wrath, and laziness. These are the behaviours that lead to our own spiritual downfall. All of us struggle with at LEAST one of these. If you don’t, you definitely struggle with pride at minumum because you’re lying. It’s not bad to struggle with it, but where we struggle is when we need to deny our pride to look perfect on social media, to stop buying the newest iPhone every year and just passing it off as “high maintenance,” staying pure and faithful to the Lord and your significant other, stop wishing you could’ve had that vacation or new car rather than THAT person, stop overindulging yourself, to breathe and not lash out at others, and even to get up and do something instead of nothing. It’s tough, you’ll slip up, you’ll feel guilt for it. That’s okay, there’s Good News. Jesus understands your struggles, He understands you’re not perfect. He offers patience, and constant redemption for you to do a little better each time, encouraging and empowering you through the Holy Spirit to do it.

Now Peter will do a lot more stupid stuff throughout the Gospels. But after his mess-ups, he changes and becomes the leader Jesus saw in him. It’s recorded that Peter would lose his life at the hands of Emperor Nero but I wonder if he finally understood the concept of the upside-down Kingdom when at the time of his crucifixion, he was asked to be crucified upside-down.

Conclusion

This is where we will hit our [Slide 17] Big Idea: If you want to be a disciple, you need to Die to the ‘Me’ to Live for the ‘He.’ Die to the ‘Me’ to Live for the ‘He.’ Being a Disciple of Jesus means we’ll always have to do work on ourselves. Being a disciple of Jesus means we’ll fail and say/do lot of stupid stuff. Being a disciple of Jesus means we’ll have opportunities to be rebuked by Him. Being a disciple of Jesus means we’ll have to honestly look at what or who is ruling our lives. Being a disciple of Jesus means we’ll have a chance to admit our wrongdoings and change. And being a disciple of Jesus means through our humility and willingness to put down the evil desires we have, we’ll be transformed and used for the Kingdom’s glory and be a part of the greatest story ever told. And finally, being a disciple of Jesus will lead to our living in His presence for all eternity. Die to the ‘Me’ to Live for the ‘He.’ Are you willing to still be a disciple? [Slide 18]