The Way of the Cross
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
All the AP Classes
All the AP Classes
This week we went to the Bollman Future-Forward campus: Registering Logan for classes AP. This is basically a plan to be stressed and miserable (and maybe fail) someday soon.
We want exactly the right balance of suffering. Enough to help us grow, not enough to see it end in failure. We understand short-term loss, long-term gain.
And if it’s too much, what are we going to do? We are going to march into the counselors office and make a change! It’s “too much!”
What are the symptoms of “too much” for school?
Losing sleep.
Stressed out, maybe not eating enough?
That’s strange, right? In general we know to avoid suffering and failure. Fire hot, don’t touch fire.
Pain is a “don’t-do-that” signal hard-wired into us.
Failure is, by definition, a bad state to be avoided.
And yet, at times, we understand that short-term pain is necessary for long-term gain.
When Suffering is Worth It
When Suffering is Worth It
When I work out, I have learned to LOVE the short-term soreness, the DOMS, because that pain means I am growing and getting stronger. Getting better.
And whether Logan appreciates it in the moment, and he does now at 17 when he ABSOLUTELY didn’t at 13… taking on academic challenges to break his brain makes brain BIG BRAIN!
We have been talking for weeks about being “cross centric” and cross-centered. We want to know and follow the crucified Jesus, not because he isn’t resurrected and glorified, but because he said “take up your cross and follow me.”
So we reject popularity to be popular with Jesus.
We reject greatness-ism and success-ism to be great and successful with Jesus.
And that means we have to embrace suffering and failure.
and that goes against every tenet of our culture and instinct of our flesh.
We see it in the life of Jesus in our man, Peter.
Peter - Fight Failure
Peter - Fight Failure
Peter confession of faith:
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?”
Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
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.
… on the rock of your confession I will build my church… and then:
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.
This is what we have known all along, Jesus has known all throughout his ministry: he is on the road to the cross.
Jesus has rejected popularity to be popular with His Father.
He has rejected the world’s ideas of Greatness or Success to be obedient and faithful even to death on a cross. And now he is teaching this to his disciples.
And Peter thinks this is straight up crazy town!
This is defeatist language! No one plans for defeat, no one walks willingly into pain and suffering… at least not pain and suffering like this where he doesn’t see the point or the purpose.
Peter doesn’t see the Win in the suffering and failure of the cross.
And so he is respectful about it. He isn’t going to embarrass Jesus in front of the rest of the crew. He takes him aside:
And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
Or “God have mercy, Lord.” Or the Message: “Impossible, Master, That can never be!”
It’s not like Jesus doesn’t get the impulse. He isn’t pretending he wants this. He isn’t pretending he is excited about it. He prays in the garden for God to “take this cup from him...” but also “not my will but yours be done.”
So he recognizes the temptation to turn away, to flee, to avoid suffering and failure of the cross.
He recognizes the temptation coming straight from the devil, through the very human and understandable words of Peter. Peter who is 100% rational from the human perspective but… he doesn’t understand how God works.
How often God enters into our pain and suffering and works through it rather than removing it.
The way God shapes and reforms us, he stands with us in the fire rather than dousing the flames.
Jesus says:
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.”
You want to know how God works? It’s like this:
Jesus continues with these famous words we have quoted again and again.
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.
That is the upside down economy of the Kingdom of God. It’s backwards, it isn’t logical, it is divine.
It took Peter forever to learn this. Not until after the resurrection, awhile after, God worked on him. Days later, he still didn’t get it. When they came for Jesus, what did Peter do?
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Forget that whole “obedient to the cross” bit, we can take these guys!
Dude. Peter. Chill out.
Remember the cup? “Not my will but yours be done.” This is that. Jesus is going to walk willingly into suffering and failure, knowing that’s where God is calling him.
Over and over again Peter acts to avoid suffering and failure… and finds himself acting in opposition to the will of God.
Jesus is faithful to obey God, walks the “way of the cross” and commands us to take up our crosses and follow him.
Jesus embraces weakness. Suffering. Failure.
How do we actually do this?
The Hair Shirt
The Hair Shirt
One method
In the monastic movement, starting in the middle ages but still today, some wear hair shirts underneath their clothes. Devotionally “suffering for Jesus!” That’s not it, either. That’s just self-flagellation. That isn’t holiness, it is bad underwear.
Jesus didn’t cause himself pain unnecessarily, or seek pain and suffering for its own sake.
He listened to what God was calling him to do and did it, even when it brought suffering and failure.
The “Persecuted” Jerk
The “Persecuted” Jerk
Here’s another method. Just call any adversity or pain you ever experience “persecution!!!” Suffering for Jesus!
I love the Babylon Bee.
No. Peter learned this lesson well, maybe because he lived both the “Jerk” side of things, and the real thing - suffering for Jesus.
First, he counsels Christians to embrace the trial, sufferings of many kinds:
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
That right there is profound. We rejoice, not because the suffering feels good. It doesn’t.
But the honor, the privilege, we are united with Christ in his sufferings when we suffer for his sake. It is a miraculous alchemy… it doesn’t make us feel any better. Still feels like suffering. But there is glory in it.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
But there is soul searching here, that you aren’t suffering because you’re just a jerk, or you’ve done wrong.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
Quite the spectrum there!
Meddler. A “busybody.” You go and scream about Jesus on my front door at 2am, I might call the cops on you. As they drag you away, don’t go thinking your suffering for Jesus. You aren’t, you are suffering for being annoying.
So there is a process of humility, “God are you calling me to repentance here?”
The soul-searching of Job. It wasn’t wrong to ask “is there sin here?” Job’s friends were just weirdly and wrongly insistent!
The ultimate answer to Job, and to us when we suffer in His name is here:
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
That’s clear.
And sometimes it might be absolutely unquestionably obvious that you are being persecuted for Jesus. “They hate me because I love Jesus.”
What does “suffer as a Christian” mean?
Suffering Without Purpose
Suffering Without Purpose
What about when you don’t know why you’re suffering?
It isn’t clear at all!
I’ll argue this is where Peter is.
This is where Peter speaks to Jesus. He doesn’t see the purpose. He doesn’t see the point.
He doesn’t see this as suffering “as a Christian.” And he’s just wrong. Seeing it, understanding it is optional.
Faithfulness is not.
KK’s Ankle
KK’s Ankle
7 months ago KK’s ankle was shattered and 6 months ago KK had this surgery.
We don’t see the purpose. It doesn’t make sense. Mostly seems like God took KK off the mission field for months… and likely with some lifetime issues.
She can tell the weather now.
Is that suffering for Jesus? Is that the glory of the cross?
Like Peter, I don’t see it or understand it.
But there’s a soul searching process here.
Is this “suffering as a Christian?”
Sometimes God gets our attention through suffering and adversity to bring us to repentance.
Do some soul searching. Is there sin here, was I “meddling”, what can I learn here?
Was she “meddling?”, as Peter says?
She was serving, on the mission field, in the park. Helping people. And then her ankle was shattered, our life was upended, and while she continues to heal, it will never be the same barring a new miracle.
Is this “suffering as a Christian?”
Paul was struck with a weakness. Maybe a disease, maybe a wound, maybe a “thorny” temptation. We don’t know.
He didn’t pretend it was a good thing. It wasn’t. He still prayed for healing, for deliverance over and over.
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
God said no… and God’s answer and Paul’s response have been my life verses for the last many years.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
When I am weak, then I am strong.
It doesn’t feel that way… and it never will, really.
Embrace Suffering and Failure
Embrace Suffering and Failure
Jesus didn’t seem to feel strong on the road to the cross.
But he embraced suffering and failure to be faithful and press on to God’s Greater Glory.
Jesus had the choice to come down from the cross… or to stay on it.
This isn’t just for when we “see the purpose.”
It isn’t just for when we know why we are suffering. Why we are failing.
Christians aren’t called to run from weakness.
Christ-followers don’t avoid suffering on the road of obedience.
Christ-followers don’t shy away from failure.
We listen to where God is calling us. His Way, His Will, His Timing. And we follow… no matter what.
I’m tired! Yes, expected.
I’m hurting.
Listen - what is God calling you to do? Do it.
And we walk forward with that listening - waiting on the Lord posture. As Jesus put it - we only do what we see our Father doing.
And our expectation as we walk the road to the cross is what? That we will experience suffering and failure. Why? It’s the “way of the cross!”
When blessing comes, we enjoy it. When miracles intercede and bring healing and restoration, we celebrate it. We rejoice at 10,000 blessings all along the way, we love it. There is beauty and glory and good.
And we know that it is still on the “Way of the Cross.” And that when weakness comes “then I am strong in the Lord.”
When suffering comes, “I share in the suffering of Christ.”
It is a glorious alchemy, no wonder Paul could “learn to be content in all circumstances.” If you give me blessings, I rejoice, if you give me suffering, I rejoice. If you kill me, I rejoice!
That is the Way of the Cross.
When I feel unprepared for ministry. To preach this sermon. When I feel weak and like I’m going to fail… but also the tug of the Holy Spirit leading me forward.
Okay, here we go. Embrace weakness and failure.
Church
Church
Last week I filled out our yearly report to the denomination. I updated our membership numbers. Our previous number was 62. Early 2020.
I couldn’t put that same number. It’s mostly just a clerical voluntary reporting thing… but 62 wasn’t true anymore.
Heavy-hearted, I put 30. Because that’s the rough count of “active” members.
Feels like suffering and failure.
I’m not good at this. I want to skip to “better days.” I want to highlight the very best, hold to hope, and skip past the hard.
I’m not good at entering into the suffering and failure. I want to skip past the cross.
But His grace is sufficient for me. His power is made perfect in our weakness. That’s the cross.
So I don’t understand why my wife has had to suffer these last six months. But even though we don’t see the redemptive value… yet… this is the cross.
I miss faces here in church. Some I still have regular fellowship with, some I haven’t seen in a year or more. And… that hurts.
I can both pray, with Paul, for continued healing.
And, I can with Paul, learn to be “content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.”
… and boast in our weakness.
Glory of the Cross
Glory of the Cross
This is the glory of the cross.
God gives us blessings, we respond in joy and celebration.
God gives us suffering, we respond in joy and celebration - for share in His sufferings.
God gives us strength - time, talent and treasure to be invested for His Kingdom.
God gives us weakness? In weakness we are strong because His power is made perfect in weakness, his grace is sufficient for us.
The enemy can’t win. Christian you have invincible joy!!!
This is the Way of the Cross, which leads to the Paradoxical Glory of the Cross, which leads to Resurrection and Glorification. (More of that next week). Easter is coming!
So we survey the “wondrous cross” and the crucified Jesus.
Deciding to know nothing but Jesus and Him crucified.
Deciding to boast in nothing else but the cross of Jesus Christ, through which the world is crucified to us and we are crucified to the world.
We take up our cross and follow Jesus.