Sharing Heaven's Mind
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:30
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· 8 viewsSetting your mind on the things of God means embracing the cross before receiving the crown.
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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 on the third day be raised.
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.”
Setting your mind on the things of God means embracing the cross before receiving the crown.
Setting your mind on the things of God means embracing the cross before receiving the crown.
We’ve explored what the church is in its foundations.
What the church does through its responsibilities and authority.
But today we will consider an insidious idea:
The quality of your Christianity will reflect the Christ you serve.
A crooked mirror produces a distorted reflection.
A distorted Christ produces distorted Christianity.
The church can never rise above the Christ it imagines.
This is exactly how you get churches that image a Christ that we would know nothing of.
Some churches only “know” of a squishy-gushy Jesus that looks like a modern progressive.
Others only “know” a hardened John Wayne version that quickly strikes down law and order.
This is how every politician can site that Jesus is in their corner.
We have been considering Peter’s great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).
Following this amazing confession by investing authority/power into Peter and all who come after.
The church will affirm entrance in the gospel and guard the gospel by removal.
But what comes after that may surprise you…
20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Here’s this amazing truth and Jesus warns to tell nobody.
Why would He command this?
First, the disciples didn’t understand who He was yet fully, as we will see.
Second, the crowds had a distorted view of the Messiah.
They believed that the Messiah was the political leader that would conquer the Romans.
Third, Jesus’ time hadn’t come yet.
The Gospel of John specifically uses the phrase, “his hour” ten times.
This hour refers to the crucifixion and Jesus’ glorification by obeying the Father unto death.
But the time wasn’t there yet, so to begin declaring that the Messiah was here would have been improper.
Application – Jesus’ activity of concealing His identity here is specific to the time and place of the gospels.
We live after the crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God, so we do not remain silent in an effort to conceal Jesus’ identity.
We live full tilt the other way!
When we hear Peter profess that Jesus is the Messiah we know the whole story.
They saw the Messiah as the conquering Messiah.
Jesus is not the kind of Messiah that the people think Him to be.
What kind of Messiah is Jesus?
There is a remarkable shift to the Gospel of Matthew at this point.
Martin Luther distinguished two primary kinds of theology that humanity falls into.
One was a theology of the cross.
The other was a theology of glory.
God’s way leads to the cross.
God’s way leads to the cross.
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 on the third day be raised.
The language, “from that time” makes clear that a remarkable shift has occured.
This marks a crucial turning point in all four gospels.
He begins telling His disciples that He will go to Jerusalem and suffer and die at the hands of the leaders.
When you realize why God demands the cross, it changes everything.
God demands the cross because our sin is so gross before Him that it deserves the worst punishment.
God demands the cross because the only way to make sinners clean is through a spotless man.
God demands the cross as a covering sacrifice for the sins of His people.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
It’s like we hear Jesus in the garden pleading with the Father to provide another way, and the Fathers answer was: “This is the only way.”
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
God demands the cross to give to sinners what they couldn’t achieve on their own: His very righteousness.
God’s path demands suffering.
God’s path demands suffering.
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 on the third day be raised.
Notice that Jesus uses the future tense here, “he MUST go to Jerusalem.”
This plan isn’t up for debate.
This plan has been resolved by the Father and communicated by the Son.
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
The death of Jesus Christ was not an accident.
The death of Jesus Christ was planned before the foundations of the world.
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 on the third day be raised.
God’s promises call for trust.
God’s promises call for trust.
Suffering will be the path for the Messiah.
Throughout the OT, there was not a clear connection between the conquering Messiah and the suffering servant.
Conquering Messiah – Psalm 2:9, Psalm 110:1
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Suffering Servant – Isaiah 53:3
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
These two portraits govern Jewish thought for the Messiah.
And they are seemingly contradictory.
Throughout the OT, people would conceive of these as two different people.
Except that they are found in the same person: the suffering servant and the conquering King are One and the same.
It’s only in the person of Jesus that it begins to be clear.
There is not a conquering king and suffering servant.
But One individual who will conquer through suffering. Jesus knew who He was.
He knew what He had come to do.
But it demanded that He live by faith.
Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.
The Father had already spoke over the Son, who He says He is, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17).
But when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the devil acknowledges Jesus’ divine power and he is encouraging Him to act outside of what the Father has commissioned Him to do.
9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
It demanded that He believe God would fulfill the promises despite what He saw before Him.
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 on the third day be raised.
God’s victory is resurrection to glory.
God’s victory is resurrection to glory.
We must not miss that Jesus promised not only the difficulty of going to the cross.
He promised resurrection.
Though the disciples were initially confused, He promised to be raised up.
There was a joy set before the Lord Jesus.
We would be mistaken to think that Jesus did not gain anything in following the plan of His Father.
How would the disciples have first heard this?
Man’s way seeks a crown without the cross
Man’s way seeks a crown without the cross
“The great danger here is a theology of glory that hasn’t passed through the prism of the gospel of Jesus. We risk projecting our own darkness and selfishness onto the living God, making him far less good and beautiful than he really is.
This will always be the result of starting out with our own assumptions rather than his word to us.” —Daniel Hames, God Shines Forth
What happens when your perception conflicts with reality?
When your ideas are in conflict with the Word of God?
22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
Peter’s Predicament
Peter pulls Jesus aside. Peter’s response could not be sharper, “God forbid!” or “May God never allow this to happen to you!”
“We have followed you for years now and we’re hoping that you will conquer the Romans because you’re the Messiah!”
“You’re the Messiah! That means you need to go conquer!”
Their conception of conquering looked radically different than Jesus’.
Peter uses the strongest possible terms to tell Jesus that He’s wrong and He needs to see this rightly.
And how does Jesus respond to this?
Jesus’ rebuke for wrong priorities
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.”
Jesus just called Peter a rock, but now He will accuse him of being a stumbling block.
Jesus sees Peter’s confrontation as an attack from the evil one.
Not only is Peter misguided, he is attacking God’s very plan.
Jesus even recognizes Peter as the same diabolical source from the garden of Eden!
In the garden of Eden, Eve was confronted from a serpent.
The serpent came to her making promises and lying about God’s character.
And Jesus interprets Peter’s pulling him aside as an attempt of the same thing again.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke b. The First Passion Prediction (16:21–23)
Jesus recognizes the same diabolical source behind the same temptation. For him to acquiesce would be to rebel against the will of his Father.
It’s not as though Jesus is saying here that Peter is somehow possessed by Satan.
But the spiritual evil that animated the serpent in the garden is the same spiritual evil that stands behind Peter’s rebuke of Jesus.
Worldly priorities are always marked by key characteristics.
Man’s way ignores God’s priorities.
Man’s way ignores God’s priorities.
This theology of glory he reasoned was a kind of self-centered “glory.”
These ideas are appealing because they present a quick fix.
They present a promising fix.
This is the theologian of glory.
Application for all
Good intentions do not always align with God’s purposes.
A person may have the best of intentions, but this does not mean it aligns with God’s plan.
Peter’s error reflects the constant human temptation to trust worldly wisdom over God’s revealed plan
Smart Enough
This can also be called, “We know better!”
Smart enough means that we place our own intelligence over Scripture.
It sounds like, “I live by my gut instincts!”
Good Enough
This can also be called, “Three steps to….”
Good enough means that we place our own morality out front.
We can be good enough.
It sounds like,
“Three steps to removing this persistent sin”
“Seven steps to having a better marriage.”
Strong Enough
This can also be called, “Try harder!”
This idea is appealing because if we just...
“Have the right marketing department”
“Have the trendiest designs as a church.” “Have the right church ascetic.”
Peter confesses the Messiah and then tries to go on to correct the Messiah for His misunderstanding.
Application for new believers
We need to beware of presenting a form of Christianity to new believers that life will not be filled with suffering.
To be a Christian is to suffer.
Jesus calls His followers to suffer in a similar manner to His own suffering.
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Application to
“When we begin to see Jesus as himself the Glory of the Father and let him shape our idea of glory, we find that God is far better than we ever dared to believe, and his glory, beautifully different from our own.” Daniel Hames, God Shines Forth
Application for the spiritual realm
The evil spiritual realm doesn’t come to us with a gun, it comes with false ideas.
You and I interact with anti-Christs everyday.
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
These anti-Christ’s rarely get us to try and oppose Jesus.
They get us to REDEFINE Him.
This past week, my tour guide from Israel spoke here on Israel.
After our time, I asked him one question,
“What would it take for me to become a Jew?”
His response is telling,
“Be born a Jew…to become a Jew would be hard we would make you earn it.”
That’s demonic.
That’s speaking like the serpent.
That’s speaking like an ambassador of the evil one.
6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Those who reject the Apostolic authority, found in the Holy Scriptures, that one speaks on behalf of the devil.
22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
Man’s way rejects suffering.
Man’s way rejects suffering.
What Peter means by,
“This shall never happen to you…”
Includes…
“This had better never happen to me either!”
Peter was unwilling that Jesus should suffer.
But more central was his own form of suffering.
There are many kinds of rejections…
Theres a kind of rejection of suffering…
1. Compels Peter to hack a guys ear off in defending Jesus (Matthew 26:50-51).
2. Compels the disciples to quibble over their position in Jesus’ kingdom.
3. Compels onlookers to think a person is somehow blessed because life goes well and vice-versa.
“It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God’s.”
Application for Sanctification
To fall into the same trap as Peter in the Christian life, it actually looks a little different.
It’s not merely thinking Christ to be a political Messiah.
Setting our minds on earthly things actually also affects the way we grow in grace.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—
21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
The earthly minded things have no ability to stop the flesh.
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
We are able to receive suffering for several reasons:
1. We recognize that all things proceed from the gracious hand of God.
Even challenges and adversity pass through the gracious hand of God.
2. We realize that suffering is transforming us into the image of God more fully.
3. We rest in the fact that our Lord and Master has passed through the heavens.
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
He has conquered and He sits enthroned forever.
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.”
Man’s way desires an immediate crown.
Man’s way desires an immediate crown.
Peter couldn’t imagine having to endure the cross without a crown.
And this reflect carnal thinking.
Carnal thinking or “man-centered” thinking means we try to reason our way to God.
We try to assume that God works in the ways we work.
A human approach seeks a crown without a cross.
A person may claim to follow Christ, but their conduct truly reveals their heart at the end of the day.
17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
The mind that is set on earthly things is the mind that ignores God’s priorities, rejects suffering, and demands an immediate crown.
A person can think they are a follower of Jesus while following their own passions (their own bellies).
A person’s belly is known for demanding food (Philippians 1:15).
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Setting your mind on the things of God means embracing the cross before receiving the crown.
Setting your mind on the things of God means embracing the cross before receiving the crown.
