The Follower Paradox
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· 7 viewsFollowing Jesus is costly, counter intuitive, and contrary to the World’s wisdom
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Last week we looked at passage before today’s
In those verses Peter is given this amazing revelation by God -
Jesus is Messiah - God’s Chosen King who will rule over creation forever
And we talked about importance of knowing we are following the true Jesus of bible
And you may remember Jesus gives Peter & disciples special status as leaders of His new Church
But straight after having such his amazing divine revelation - Peter falls on his face
And attempts to tell Jesus what Peter thinks he should do
So we’re going to look at Jesus response to Peter’s verbal trip up
And hear what Jesus says about what it takes to truely follow Jesus
Now I’ve titled this sermon the follower paradox
That’s because choosing to follow Jesus seems like a crazy absurd mystery
That makes no sense to any one on the outside looking in...
So let’s see why...
The World’s Counterfeit
The World’s Counterfeit
After Peter’s revelation Jesus decides to tell the disciples exactly what’s going to happen in future
He explains he’s heading to Jerusalem where he’ll be tortured by Israel’s 3 main groups of religious leaders
He’ll then be killed but 3 days later will rise from dead (slide)
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
As said before - disciples expectation was God’s chosen king / Messiah would conquer Romans
And set up God’s forever Kingdom so all Israel would be free
But here is Jesus saying almost complete opposite & it made no sense to disciples (slide)
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
So Peter literally pulls Jesus aside shocked at what he’s just said
and says “God forgive you for saying so mistaken and shocking a thing”
Now remember Peter is disciple - he’s one following Jesus, who’s teacher / Rabbi & Lord
And Peter has just said Jesus is Messiah, God’s chosen King But now he’s telling Jesus what to do
He’s in a way trying to take charge - be boss of Jesus - tell Jesus what He should be doing (slide)
He was being disrespectful to Jesus & presumptuous - thinking he knew what God wanted
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
That’s why Jesus turns around & tells Peter to get behind him
He’s telling Peter that he needs to know his place - he’s the follower not the leader
He then says something that seems really harsh - he refers to Peter as Satan & calls him a stumbling block
Thing is Peter’s advice was in fact same offer devil had given Jesus when tempting him in the desert (slide)
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
In other words both devil & Peter were wanting Jesus to avoid the suffering & death on cross
An instead become King of a kingdom straight away - bypassing cross & suffering
Peter was channeling wisdom of devil giving Jesus advice
He thought it sounded sensible, wise, right thing - but in fact it was completely contrary to God’s plan
That’s the thing about wisdom & values we pick up from our society - world around us
They both seem like they are sensible, make sense, are right thing to do - or even just ok (slide)
But values inspired purely by human wisdom from this world are tainted / stained / coloured by devils influence
Like James says:
Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.
(Slide)
Illus - I think of world’s wisdom & values are a counterfeit to God’s wisdom & values
Like counterfeit money - it looks real enough, it might even fool some people
Like this woman in Jan this year used some coutnterfiet money in Hamilton & Morrinsville
She was caught on CCTV purchasing some items with the fake notes
The Reserve bank says there are 4 main ways you can tell a fake note
The real note feels plastic, it has raised printing, the ink looks sharp, holograms in the little window
That’s thing about following Jesus - its not easy or straight forward
& doesn’t make sense from worlds point of view
So we need to make sure we’re not only following true biblical Jesus
But that we’re also walking same path Jesus walked… And that’s just it (slide)
Following makes no sense to the world because it means a life of suffering & putting self to death
The Price for Following
The Price for Following
Following Jesus is hardest thing we will ever decide to do
Jesus lays out to disciples exactly what it costs us to follow him (slide)
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
So Jesus says “if we’re to follow him, his example (or come after him) we need to deny our self
Then we’re called to pick up our cross - which in Jesus day meant ...
march shamefully carrying heavy horizontal beam of your own death-instrument...
through a jeering mocking mob to your execution fit only for criminals & slaves
So Jesus calls us to follow or imitate his example & pay same price he did
For us that means to disconnect ourselves from our selfish desires, motivations, & actions
To put to death our personal ambitions & goals,
Following behind Jesus means forfeiting all we are & all we have
And be willing to identify as a follower of Jesus - even if it costs us everything (slide)
illus - I read an article by Allison Vesterfelt (writer for Huffpost) - she wrote about what it cost to become a writer
She talked about giving up everything for her dream, her nice apartment, fancy furniture, hope of owning a house
Said she travelled around US working as a freelance writer trying to get a break as a serious writer
This picture was the couch in their 1 room apartment - a place she felt embarrassed about, never had friends over
She believed she was suffering for her dream, humbled by her unglamorous circumstances
She made the point that if you genuinely want to purse your dream it will cost you something
That seems like good advice - right? - sounds similar to what Jesus was saying - right?
However that isn’t what Jesus was referring too - that isn’t real suffering, that isn’t denying self
Following Jesus is daily choice to be faithful to Jesus - even if it means giving up your dreams or goals
Now we hear that & we think - that’s harsh… that’s too hard… why would Jesus demand so much (slide)
Well He explains why in next verse...
The Paradox of Faith
The Paradox of Faith
And this is where the weird mystery - the counter intuitive bit comes in
Jesus basically says we must loose our worldly physical life of today in order to gain real future eternal life (slide)
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
He then asks the question - which is worth more - everything this world offers or everything eternal God offers?
We can gain all money, possessions, qualifications, houses world can give us
Total worth of all world contains is less than worth of our eternal future life & existence with God
There’s no comparison (slide)
John’s gospel put’s it another way...
The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
In other words its wither one or other - you can’t have both
Following Jesus, imitating Jesus means we either invest everything into our physical life today
Or we invest everything in our future eternal life with God
If you choose to focus on life today - decide to put your self interests, desires, ambitions, goals first...
Jesus says you forfeit you future eternal life
Reality is our life decisions made today will mould who we become tomorrow
Our decisions made today can’t be taken back - we can never get today back again & live life over (slide)
If we don’t deny our self today we will suffer the consequences in the future… when Jesus returns
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
This is a common theme we read throughout the bible
The idea that every person will have their life’s actions judged from OT… (slide)
and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.
To end of NT - where in John’s vision Jesus says (slide)
“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
When Jesus returns will he reward us for a life of suffering, of denying our selves
A life that is contrary to world’s values & wisdom...
Or will we choose to live for pleasure, for self happiness today… and take our chances in the future
It all comes down to what we believe is valuable in life
Illus - David Rose worked at garbage dump for 15 years -
one day out of some rubble he pulled out top hat, cigar, and collection of letters.
He took these to present on BBC's "Antiques Roadshow" in March 2019,
And learned items used to belong to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
A specialist valued his finds at over $13,000
Items considered rubbish by one person turn out to be amazing pieces of historical treasure for another
It comes down to how we perceive worth...
If we genuinely believe Jesus is God made man, risen from death, & returned to heaven to return in glory...
Then surely the one who created all we see, who will return to restore & renew all creation...
Who will get rid of disease, suffering, pain, sadness, poverty, injustice, death, sin, evil...
And will create a whole new place where God & humanity can live together forever
Surely following him is worth giving up whatever we need to today?
So we’re left with an important question - can we deny our self today for a future life with Jesus in eternity?