Sermon Tone Analysis

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Quarterly Business meeting next week

A very short Finance team meeting after service today

INTRODUCTION

This morning we will be continuing in our series through Matthew and we will be learning about “Discipleship is imitating Jesus”.

Many people have their own idea of what it means to follow Christ, but the only idea that really matters is what the Bible tells us.

The picture Jesus paints for us today, is one that is often hard to swallow.

To make it as simple as possible it means to imitate Jesus.

I don’t mean to be perfect, know all truth, and tell powerful parables.

I mean to be a follower of Christ means that we walk as Jesus walked, that we are willing to suffer for Him, that we will deny ourselves and serve Him, and that we will give our entire life for the things of God just like Jesus did.

And I am positively convinced from my study of God’s Word that those things are a must for anyone expecting to go to heaven when they die.

And we are going to see today that this is exactly what Jesus is saying to us.

The divine will for Jesus was to suffer, be killed, and be raised on the third day

Things in this gospel have changed.

After the disciples have settled on the matter of who Jesus is, He now tells them what His destiny is.

And what we should notice from this verse is that his destiny is God’s will.

It is not to wander from town to town healing people.

He came for a reason.

Notice the use of “must” which refers to the divine will of God.

Jesus said he MUST go to Jerusalem, He MUST suffer, He MUST be killed, and He MUST be raised on the third day.

What was in Jerusalem?

The temple.

The place where sacrifices were laid upon the alter and killed as sin offerings for the people.

This is also where the check priests were who were already plotting Jesus’ death.

Here we have the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and He is headed right into the place where the adversary lives.

Why must suffer?

Because part of his following God’s will included suffering.

It was part of God’s plan.

It was prophesied by David and Isaiah who said, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”

And then the Jesus said He must be killed.

Here was the thing that they could not understand about God’s will for Jesus.

The Messiah was supposed to come and conquer.

He supposed to free them from oppression, bring them into a place of blessedness!

And then He must be raised on the third day.

That is because had Jesus not been raised, He would simply be an ordinary man.

Had Jesus stayed on the grave, we would never make it out.

But his life was given as a ransom, and his triumph would come on the third day.

This is the first time Jesus has spoken these things so plainly to the disciples, and as you could imagine they were surprised.

And wouldn’t you know it, big mouth Peter who just confessed Jesus as the Christ, now rebukes him for doing exactly what God had sent Him to do.

Now Peter did not mean anything wrong, but his mindset was in the wrong place.

He was focused on his own interests instead of the interests of God.

And this is a key when it comes to discipleship.

It’s no longer about our interests.

Following Jesus is not doing what we want to do, or what we think we should do, it becomes about God’s interests.

We must not ever think that we can go and build our life the way we want it and expect God to come and put His blessing upon it!

This was Peter’s mistake!

He had his own idea of what Jesus would be in his life and going to the cross was not part of it!

Secondly, Peter was a follower, a believer, a man whom Jesus Sid He would use to build his church.

And in the next breath he is being used by Satan in an attempt to overthrow God’s plan.

KNOW THIS:

You do not have to be lost to be used by the enemy

Satan will use people in the church, he will use people in the home, he will use friends family, pastors, women, men, God-fearing people to try to stop God’s plan for your life.

And do you know how not to be used by Satan?

Make sure your mind is set on the things of God.

How can you not be a fool in Satan’s belt?

Keep your mind focused of the thing of God!

The eternal things!

The heavenly things!

The things that really matter in this life!

Be sure, before you ever rebuke anyone for trying to o follow God’s will for their life that you are thinking about what God wants and not what you want.

But Jesus does not simply rebuke Peter.

He wants them to truly understand what it means to be a disciple and so he gives them one of the clearest definitions of a disciple that I believe is found on the pages of Scripture.

If you want to know what a Christian is, this is it.

There is no lesser kind of believer, it is this or nothing.

The very definition of a disciple is: imitating Jesus

Recognizing and confessing belief in Jesus as the Messiah is only the beginning of discipleship.

Jesus invites every person to follow, but those who desire to follow him must have three attitudes: (1) a willingness to deny themselves, (2) a willingness to take up the cross, and (3) a willingness to follow

A willingness to deny yourself

The natural tendency of the human race is to affirm oneself, to concentrate on what serves our own interests, to make oneself as prosperous as we can.

Jesus says, forget all that and “leave self behind”.

This does not mean we should strip ourselves of all dignity or self-worth.

What Jesus was speaking of had to do with the disciples’ careers—their future, their own will for their lives.

We must have the willingness to say to no to ourselves and yes to God in any situation.

It is a willingness to let go of selfish desires that we have and our earthly security.

It is the willingness to no longer make life all about us and make our lives God centered.

“I am no longer in charge of my life, God is”

A willingness to take up his cross

In the Roman world it was common for the condemned criminal to carry his own cross to the place of execution.

The disciples had seen this many times and would have easily made the connection.

The cross always led to the crucifixion.

For us, it means death to our former way of life.

It means submitting to the Word of God regardless of the commandments regardless of culture, regardless of what our friends think, regardless of what we think.

Our allegiance is not longer to this world, it is no longer to ourselves, but to God.

There is a cross to bear for every believer.

And this is not talking about some minor discomforts, but that every follower of Christ must die to their former way of life.

Those who have not taken up their cross, have not started following Jesus.

A willingness to follow Jesus

To follow Christ is also a moment-by-moment decision, day by day, week after week, years after year.

Jesus is saying to follow Him means that we take the same road of sacrifice and service that he took.

Now we read this and think why in the world would anyone do this.

And there are likely some in here today thinking I can’t do that.

What does it really matter?

Can’t I just live my life like the rest of the world?

Can’t I have fun, find pleasure, enjoy my life like everyone else?

And Jesus will now explain why it really matters

When you look at things from an eternal perspective, Jesus’ offer of discipleship is well worth it!

Whoever wishes to save his life.

How could one save his own life?

By not giving it to God!

By not denying himself!