Sermon Tone Analysis

God always has a plan, and His plan is always Plan A, and never Plan B.

Because you and I are finite in our thinking and knowledge we cannot always rely on our own version of Plan A. Very frequently we need to go to Plan B. If you were to ask Edison how many plans he had to go through before he invented the light bulb, he would have told you that he had exhausted the entire alphabet many times over.

But God’s knowledge and understanding are infinite.

He knows the end from the beginning.

For Him it is always Plan A.

Because of man’s sin nature he can never fulfill the requirement of God to live a perfect life.

As Paul told the Romans:

God’s plan, from eternity past, was that His beloved Son would temporarily empty Himself of His inherit glory, and be found in the fashion of a man.

It would be His Son who would fulfill the righteous requirements of the law on behalf of His people.

It would be His Son who would inaugurate the New Covenant promised by Jeremiah, by pouring out His blood for the many who would place their faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior.

As Jesus said in

If you have not done so yet, please turn in your Bible to .

Our text for this morning shows a surprising turn of events.

First Jesus makes a surprising announcement, then Peter foolishly rebukes Christ, and then it concludes with Christ’s stern reply.

Let’s read our passage together.

JESUS’ SURPRISING ANNOUNCEMENT

A Shift in Ministry Focus

The first phrase of verse 21 “from that time” marks a shift in ministry focus for Jesus.

The same phrase was used to mark the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in

Now it seems to mark the ending of His public ministry and the transition to private ministry with the twelve.

Four “Must Do’s” for Jesus

As we consider the “must do’s” for Jesus we need to remind ourselves that God has a plan.

There was always a plan — there was never a Plan B. It was always Plan A.

Must go to Jerusalem

Must suffer many things

Must be killed

The term for killed is not the term that is used for legal executions, but the term used for murder.

Must be raised on the third day

It would seem that Peter and the twelve did not catch this part about Jesus being raised from the dead.

They were so grieved by the message of His death that they blocked the message of His being raised from the dead.

I’d like to focus for a few moments on the fact that Messiah must be killed.

It is quite obvious that almost everyone in Israel had failed to understand the writings of the OT regarding the fact that Messiah would be killed.

Even the apostles did not understand this until after the resurrection of Christ.

On the day of His resurrection, Luke’s Gospel account informs us that Jesus traveled with a couple of disciples (not apostles) on the road to Emmaus.

While traveling with Him they did not recognize Him, and they began to speak to Him about the things that had happened.

(As a side-note, they in fact were witnessing to Jesus about Jesus).

Then, still under disguise, Jesus said to them:

It seems to me that this is very similar to the conversation Jesus had in our present text with the twelve.

Unfortunately Israel had misunderstood the writings of many of the prophets.

,

As I already mentioned, God always had a plan for the redemption of His people.

It was necessary that Jesus must die, and be resurrected from the dead.

The cross of Christ is the thing that holds all things together.

Without the cross there would be no forgiveness of sin; there would be no reconciliation with God; there would be no justification; there would be no peace, and certainly no future glorification.

Did you know that even the human body points to the cross.

This past week a person I knew as a child sent me a link to a conversation an unknown preacher had with a scientist about how the body points to the cross.

It was simply awe inspiring.

Did you know that even the human body points to the cross.

This past week a person I knew as a child sent me a link to a conversation an unknown preacher had with a scientist about how the body points to the cross.

It was simply awe inspiring.

There is in the human body a protein molecule that holds everything together.

I won’t try to impress you with science talk, since I’m not very good at it, but I find it interesting that this molecule is shape like the cross.

There is in the human body a protein molecule that holds everything together.

I won’t try to impress you with science talk, since I’m not very good at it, but I find it interesting that this molecule is shape like the cross.

We have been looking at Jesus’ surprising announcement.

Let’s turn our attention now to Peter’s foolish rebuke.

We have been looking at Jesus’ surprising announcement.

Let’s turn our attention now to Peter’s foolish rebuke.

PETER’S FOOLISH REBUKE

We have noted frequently that Peter was the spokesmen for the twelve.

Most often the things that he said reflected the view of the twelve.

In last weeks passage his confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, most likely reflected the view of the twelve.

But how could he go from confessing that Jesus was God, to rebuking Him? Let’s note a few things:

Peter’s Rebuke Reflected an Intimacy with Christ

It is easy to miss the fact that it was because of his intimacy with Christ that Peter felt bold enough to offer a rebuke.

Intimacy in itself is a good thing.

But often our most intimate friends and relatives seek to stand in the way of our doing what God has called us to do.

How many prospective missionary has had family members try to talk them out of going to the missions field?

Peter’s Rebuke Reflected Ignorance of God’s Word

Peter’s Rebuke was Somewhat Insincere

The Greek term which is translated “God forbid it” is the same term that is sometimes translated as mercy or propitiation.

Young’s Literal Translation puts it this way:

We’ve looked at Jesus’ surprising announcement and Peter’s foolish rebuke.

Let’s turn our attention now to Christ’s stern reply.

CHRIST’S STERN REPLY

Satanic Influence

Notice first that Jesus turned to Peter before addressing him.

Most likely He looked Peter straight in the eyes, which is a physical gesture that conveys the idea of “pay close attention to what I am about to say!”

Notice next that Jesus told Peter to get behind Him.

That can be taken in at least two different ways.

On the positive side Jesus could have been telling Peter to get behind Him and support Him rather than deter Him.

He could have been admonishing Peter to follow His lead.

However, the more natural way to take this statement is to understand Jesus to be saying to "get out of my way!

Stop tempting Me with the easy road.”

Finally, notice that Jesus addressed Peter as Satan.

Understand that Peter was not indwelt by Satan.

Nevertheless what he was saying to Jesus what pretty much what Satan had when he tempted Him.

Detour Warning

I don’t know about you, but I hate detours!

What is even worse is a detour with no marked signs as to where to go.

That has happened to me right here in the Britton area.

Apparently they assume that everyone driving on the roads around here knows how to get around a detour without the help of signs.

When Jesus told Peter that he was a stumbling block, I believe it was in reference to a detour — a detour of the cross.

We’ve run across the Greek term for stumbling block before.

It’s the same term that is translated as offense in .

When we looked at that text we noted that is the term scandalon from which we get the word scandal.

Peter’s act of trying to get Christ to take a detour around the cross was scandalous, it was offensive, it was a stumbling block.

Recently I ran across a stumbling block in my own life.

I was walking down a wooded path when I tripped over a tree root.

It was offensive to my body (and mind as well!).

After I fell I proceeded to tumble down a slope just like in the movies.