Jesus Foretold His Death

Introduction

Good Morning Friendship Church...

Tension

So I have always been taught that ever Pastor needs to be a student of two things. First of all, and the one that comes easiest to me, is that Pastors need to be a Student of the Word of God. You probably could have guessed that one, and if I am honest it has become my favorite part of being a pastor. The fact that I actually get paid to spend as much time I do in God’s Word just blows my mind, it is a dream job in that way.

But the Word of God is not the only thing that I need to study to fulfill this calling as a Pastor, I also need to be a Student of the World around us. The first one I study so that I may know God and what a right relationship with Him looks like , and the second one so that I will be equipped to communicate what this “right relationship” looks like in the context of who ever I am speaking to.

So as much as I love living with my family out in our little house out in the woods, I know that to be the pastor that God has called me to be I can’t just be a student of the Word of God, but I also have to keep an ear to the ground of what is happening in the world around us. Because part of my responsibility is to equip our Church to respond Biblically to things that our world is throwing at us.

And the reason that I am explaining all of this, is because our message today is going to have a unique feel to it in it will clearly be divided into these two focus’. The first half will be a teaching on a particular Biblical truth, and the second half will be a teaching on how a prominent world view stands against this Biblical truth and many others. My hope is to equip us all with at least the beginnings of an understanding of the danger of this ideaology, as we look to engage this world in such a way that they wold come to know the truth of the Gospel.

So yeah, gonna be a little different today so I wanted to just prepare us all for that from the get go, and then encourage you to hold on tight and we will get through this together. So for the first half, lets open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 17, page 822 in the Bibles in the chairs, and then I am going to pray because we are all going to need this today. Not that we don’t need it every day, but maybe especially today.

Truth

So those of you who were with us last week might remember that I gave you a little teaser for the message this week. As we walked our way up to the Transfiguration we made a quick stop at Matthew 16:21 where read...

Matthew 16:21 ESV

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.

Then I stopped to emphasize how important Matthews statement here is to a particular doctrine. A doctrine that teaches us that Jesus was not a victim to unexpected consequences but instead He knew all along what the plan was and He was following in that plan.

So the title of the message today is that “Jesus Foretold His Death” and here in chapter 16 is the first time that Matthew records this, but then he gives us two other times where Jesus also told his disciples what was going to happen and when. We are going to look at the other two times today. So our first theme for the week is that:

1. Jesus’ mission included both the crucifixion and the resurrection (Matthew 17:22–23).

Matthew 17:22–23 ESV

22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.

The one piece that Jesus adds here in this telling is that he will be “delivered” or maybe your translation says “betrayed” which paints a little different shade of the Greek word παραδίδωμι (paradidomi). The idea was that Jesus was very aware that his death would be desired by powerful men and that someone would betray Him into their hands. Of course, sitting on this side of the story we know He is talking about Judas, but the Disciples had no idea yet what Jesus meant by this.

In fact, they couldn’t get past the words “kill him”. Remember that even though the Disciples now knew that Jesus was the Christ because Peter had boldly proclaimed it, they largely still believed what they were taught since they were young. That the Christ would come in and destroy the oppressive powers that loomed over them, so the idea that Jesus would in any way succumb to them was unthinkable.

But this is what Peter just couldn’t get over the first time Jesus told them. It’s what caused Jesus to call Peter “Satan” because he did not have God’s plan in mind, but his own ideas about what God’s plan should be. Eventually, though Peter will come to understand these things rightly. In the book of Acts, which is the Biblical record of the early church we can read about Peter giving the very first truly Christian sermon. Through the power of the Holy Spirit he boldly and publically declared the truth of the heavenly plan that he could not grasp before:

Acts 2:22–24 ESV

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Here we can plainly see that Peter got it, but in our text for today we find him grieving with the other disciples over this new revelation, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the plan was not only that Jesus would die, but that He would rise again. It seems that the Disciples only heard one part of what Jesus was saying that day, and missed the other important parts.

Aren’t you glad that we don’t struggle with that? That “selective hearing” were we only hear one part of what Jesus has told us, and miss other just as important parts. The disciples missed what Jesus was saying about rising again because they were grieving over the idea of His suffering and death, but we to often rest securely in the promise of resurrection, but somehow miss how being a follower of Jesus even means following Him in His suffering.

But Jesus shared with His Disciples exactly what was in store for Him, as our second theme for the week says:

2. Jesus understood what His mission would require of Him (Matthew 20:17-19).

Moving forward a few chapters in Matthew moves us forward in Jesus’ story. Here in Matthew 20 Jesus is no longer ministering up north in Galilee, but He has led his disciples southward towards Jerusalem. And they are about to enter into Jerusalem, the city where Jesus said these things would happen. And once again, Jesus stops to remind His Disciples of what He had already told them at least two other times, but probably even more.

Matthew 20:17–19 ESV

17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Here we see Jesus adding even more detail to the events that were about to transpire. He was preparing His Disciples for what will happen because He did not want them to be confused when it did. He didn’t want them to think that somehow the plan had gotten off course. He didn’t want them to think that their Rabbi, Teacher, Master and Lord who they had watched heal the sick, calm the storm and raise the dead to life was somehow now in a completely powerless position. As if the things that were about to happen were completely out of His control.

As I said last week, Jesus was not a victim. He was never powerless. He was never in a position that He did not willingly walk into in order to accomplish the mission that the Father had sent Him to do. And as these events came closer and closer to be, Jesus gives His disciples more and more details. Not only did He know that He would be killed, He knew who, where, when and how it would be done…but most importantly…He knew why.

The disciples could not figure this part out. After all they had seen of Jesus’ power, they just couldn’t imagine that He would succumb to the power of Roman oppression.

But that was the whole point of telling them beforehand what was going to happen. Jesus never submitted to the power of Rome, He submitted to the will of the Father. He submitted to that the plan that was set in place before the foundation of the world. A plan that Jesus perfectly understood as He walked into it. A plan that included both the crucifixion and the resurrection.

And so this is the point when I switch gears a little bit. We are not moving away from the Biblical text but instead we are bringing this Biblical text to bear directly on a cultural reality. We are going to shift from being “Students of the Word” to being “Students of the around us”. To learn what is currently forming the world around us in order to see how it differs from what God tells us in His Word and how we can respond when we encounter this ideology or world view in conversations we have with our neighbors, coworkers, friends or family members who don’t see the danger here.

So I am going to take a few minutes to identify and explain this ideology in just a small way, because of our time and because the truth is that part of the great danger of this perspective is that it is not easily boiled down to simple terms. So my hope is that what I share this morning will inform some of us, but inspire others of us to do more study on this on our own.

Because I don’t claim to be an expert on these things, far from it. In fact typically I would say that I know just enough to be dangerous, but in this case I think it is probably more accurate to say that I know just enough to see how it’s dangerous, especially as I have seen it creep into my own conversations with friends and family.

The world view that I am want to warn us all about is something called: Critical Theory

Critical Theory is not new, but we are seeing a resurgence of it’s ideas and they are being applied in broader, multifaceted ways. It’s formal beginning was around the 1920’s and it was initiated by a group of Marxist philosophers and sociologists who were dissatisfied with the slow progress of communism. So they proposed “Critical Theory” as a new way of making truth claims. In other words, it is was a new way to say that something is “true” that would help communism grow faster.

Their new Theory was presented in contrast to Traditional Theory, that was a foundation of the Scientific method to this point. So I think it will help us to see these two things side by side

Traditional Theory seeks to understand our world from a neutral and objective perspective, while

Critical Theory sees everything in our world as a struggle between oppressed groups and their oppressors.

These are two different ways of looking at the world, two different lenses to see our world through. That is what a “world view” really is. And as best as I can understand it, Traditional Theory attempts to approach every subject in our world without any presuppositions. Of course, this is impossible to do because we all have presuppositions, but in Traditional Theory to goal is to try our best to lay aside those presuppositions and be open to facts and observations as they reveal themselves. Then we employ reason and logic arguments to determine what is good or bad, right or wrong, helpful or harmful. This has been an essential aspect of how Christians have done evangelism and apologetics as we interact with those who believe different than us.

Critical Theory, on the other hand, begins with the presupposition that every aspect of our our world needs to be critiqued through the lens of two categories: The “Oppressed” or The “Oppressor”. And the way to rightly understand each aspect of our world is not through conversations using reason and logic, but in recognizing your place in one of these two categories: Oppressed or Oppressor.

You might be wondering, well that seems weird but what is the danger in that. It is probably good to identify the oppressors in our world. As followers of Jesus don’t we want to stand against “Oppressors” and work to help those who are “oppressed”. Well, of course we want to do that, that is why this world view is gaining so much steam, because on the surface it kind of sounds good…but the problem comes in how they identify “Oppressors” and “Oppressed”.

In Critical Theory, you are not considered an “Oppressor” because of any of your individual behaviors or attitudes, you are and “Oppressor” because you belong to a group that the “social” has marked as “Oppressive”.

So what groups could we belong in? Well the list seems endless but some of the most common ones are: race, ethnicity, class, gender, cognitive aptitude, sexuality, physical ability, age, weight, and a host of other “identity markers” that will place you on one side of the divide or the other. So it doesn’t matter if you have ever said, done or thought anything oppressive against the other side of the group, you are intrinsically oppressive because you are not among the “oppressed”.

Are you seeing the danger in this yet? And again, where this matters for us is not just because some people out there are putting people into groups - that is not new. I wish that was all this was, but this is much more than that. It is an ideology that is attacking how we talk about and how we make truth claims.

So let me introduce you to one more essential term in this world view that you need to be aware of. The system of determining what is true and what is not in Critical Theory is something called “Intersectionality”. The term is borrowed from a different field of study, but it has come to mean that the more “Oppressed” groups that an individual belongs to the better their grasp is on the truth.

You have probably heard how in so much of our world their is an acceptance of truth as relative to the individaul. So you can have you truth and I can have my truth and there is no absolute truth. And of course we reject that as being untrue, but “Intersectionality” brings “truth claims” in this whole new direction, where something is more true or less true because of who said it.

The person whose “identity markers” intersect the most in their lanes of “oppression”, they are the ones who have the firmest grasp on truth, everyone else just needs to sit down and be quiet. Truth doesn’t exist outside of the person and can be observed and understood through logic or reasoning - that is a aspect of Traditional Theory. In “Critical Theory” you can’t know the truth if you belong to any of these “Oppressors” group. You are too privileged. You are too powerful. The only way to make this world right, is to give the power to determine truth to those who we have judged to be “oppressed”.

I am sure some of your heads are spinning right now, trying to process all of this and I can only imagine that many of you are wondering, “Why is Pastor Dan teaching on something so…worldly”. I mean of course the world around us is going to hold views different than us…why does this matter to us?

Well it matters because many evangelical Christian Churches are not talking about it, and they are buying into it. And I almost can’t pick up a book these days from the pastors, authors and speakers that I respect and not read of their warnings against this. Not just because it is out there in the world and if we are going to engage the world in conversation we need to know where they are coming from, but because it is working it’s way in so many Christian Churches. Not just the fringe, ultra liberal churches, but churches that our Christian neighbors, friends and family members attend.

And I get it. I see the draw for these Churches. I mean, if you don’t dive deep and only take a surface level glance over this stuff, I can see the draw for people who are looking to follow Jesus. On a surface level it almost seems like it is a desire to stand up for those who are oppressed and downtrodden. To give them a voice and genuinely listen to their perspectives and these ARE things that followers of Jesus should be doing.

To work toward racial reconciliation, and ridding our world of injustices, and bringing freedom the enslaved and rescuing the truly oppressed…that all sounds like Jesus stuff, but go beyond the surface and you can see that is not what Critical Theory is or does. It uses language that sounds like this, but it is not just a set of ideas that addresses the problems of oppression. It is a deceptive worldview. In light of our teaching last week, I would say that is is a “Satanic” or “Demonic” worldview in that is stand against the Word and will of God.

But I wouldn’t want to make such a bold claim without backing it up, so let me show you that stands against the Christian Worldview at many different points. Let me give you just four areas that “Critical Theory” stands directly against Biblical Christianity. I know there are others, but for our time today I will share these four, that I borrowed from Alisa Childer’s book Another Gospel which is a great resource to understand this issue and others.

Who are we?

According to historic Christianity, we are human beings made in the image of a holy, loving, and just God. According to critical theory, our identity is not found in who we are created to be, but in how we relate with other groups as defined by our class, gender, sexual preference, and so on.

What is wrong with the world?

According to historic Christianity, sin against a holy God is what's wrong with the world.

According to critical theory, oppression, or a disparity in power and privelage, is what's wrong.

How can this be problem fixed?

According to historic Christianity, the sin problem is fixed by Jesus taking the punishment for our sins upon himself, dying the death we deserve, so we could be reconciled to God.

But according to critical theory, the problem of oppression is fixed by activism, raised awareness, and the overthrow of oppressive systems and their power. (Remember their definition of “oppressive systems” would include things like God’s design for family, marriage, sexuality and submission to governing authorities”)

What is the meaning of life?

According to historic Christianity, it's to glorify God.

According to critical theory, it's to free groups from oppression,

This is a great world view exercise to compare and contrast what Biblical Christianity teaches verses what other worldviews would teach about these questions.

Gospel Application

So you might be wondering, after all of this, where does “Critical Theory” intersect with our Biblical Text where Jesus’ foretold of His being betrayed in the hands of the religious leaders, delivered to the Gentiles, being mocked, flogged, crucified and then raise again in three days… What does all of this have to with that?

Well according to “Critical Theory”, truth is held by those who are the most oppressed. The most powerless. This means that Jesus could not be a teacher of truth unless we paint a picture of Him that was completely powerless.

And in one sense that is not hard to do. When you see how Jesus was frequently opposed by the Jewish religious leaders, the Roman political leaders and even eventually how the crowds turned against him. Jesus did experience oppression…and Christians who are buying into “Critical Theory” would present this as a reason to listen to Jesus’ teaching.

But Jesus was more than just a man, He was the God-Man who was submitting to His Father’s will, not succumbing to the will of earthly Oppressors. When Jesus was finally arrested, Peter drew his sword in protest over this injustice...

Matthew 26:52–54 ESV

52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

Landing

There is just no way to reconcile “Critical Theory” with how Jesus willingly walked right into suffering and oppression in order to bring us the greatest good. And more than unraveling a demonic worldview, this truth shows us in an even deeper way how much Jesus loved us. He was not a victim, but He chose to obey the will of the Father in their plan to save you and me from the death that we deserved.

Philippians 2:8–11 ESV

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.

Let’s Pray