13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 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.
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. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!1 This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance2 to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.25 For whoever would save his life3 will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Footnotes
[1]16:22Or “[May God be] merciful to you, Lord!” [2]16:23Greek stumbling block [3]16:25The same Greek word can mean either soul or life, depending on the context; twice in this verse and twice in verse 26
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 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.
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. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!1 This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance2 to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.25 For whoever would save his life3 will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Footnotes
[1]16:22Or “[May God be] merciful to you, Lord!” [2]16:23Greek stumbling block [3]16:25The same Greek word can mean either soul or life, depending on the context; twice in this verse and twice in verse 26
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
Our scripture tonight is Matthew chapter 16. We'll be reading a a good portion of it, but, but as we begin, I I would just like to read one one line, and then we'll pray, and then we'll dig in together. Matthew 16. Matthew 16, I'm gonna read verse 24. Let us listen carefully for this is God's word.
Jeffrey Heine:
Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Let's go to our lord in prayer. God, as we just sang, we ask that you would help us by your spirit to to lay ourselves down and that by your spirit you would rid us of ourselves and that we would trust in you and you alone. God, we know that you know each and every one of us in this room better than we know ourselves, and through Christ, you have set your love on us, and so we abide in that love tonight. We come to your word.
Jeffrey Heine:
We come to your truth, eager to hear from you. So dear lord, please speak to us through your word and your spirit tonight that we might be both confronted and comforted by your truth of who you are and what you have done. And help us to not only adore you, Christ, but to obey you. And so we come to your word tonight expecting to meet with you. So speak, Lord, your servants are listening.
Jeffrey Heine:
Amen. So for the next month, we're gonna be looking at some different kind of community church community commitments that we have. So the next 4 Sundays, we're gonna be looking at 4 different topics that are commitments within our church family. And, there are lots of different that we could have picked, but we picked 4. Discipleship this week, gospel living, then I'll I'll be doing those 2, and then Thomas Ritchie, our elder, he's gonna be preaching on shepherding.
Jeffrey Heine:
And then Colin Hanson, one of our members and home group leaders, he's gonna be talking about community. So for the next 4 weeks we're gonna be walking through these different commitments and tonight is discipleship. And there are lots of different questions that come up regarding discipleship. I get I get asked them a lot as as a pastor that questions about discipleship. I I have questions myself about what it what it means to, to do discipleship.
Jeffrey Heine:
And may maybe you have had one of those experiences where you've heard someone talk about their discipleship experience, like they they got some wise, like, Gandalf Sage person that just started mentoring them, and it was just beautiful and amazing and and you're like, I I want that experience. And so you find somebody and and it's just not that experience. And so, like, you you kinda you go from thing so you're wondering, like, is there do I need to get a different book? Like, do I just go to Books A 1,000,000 and find, like, the discipleship section and and do something there? Or you know what?
Jeffrey Heine:
I'm I'm really gonna commit. I'm gonna dig in. I'm gonna read my bible for, like, an hour every morning for 2 days in a row, and then that doesn't even happen. And so you you have I have these problems. I don't know if you have these problems, but we come with these questions to what is discipleship.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's a really important question, it's one that we wanna answer here within our church family. So what is discipleship? And really to dig into answering that question, we have to go back to fundamentally what does it mean to be a disciple? This this this process of being a disciple, this discipleship, what does it mean to actually be a follower of Jesus? Because if depending on what our expectations are here, that's gonna change everything.
Jeffrey Heine:
Those of you that are married, you know that, like, hopefully somebody talked to you at some point in premarital counseling or just a conversation. Like your expectations really change things. If you go in with different sets of expectations, like, that that's just a recipe for disaster. And likewise, when we have these different expectations of what discipleship, what church is supposed to be like, and we come into a place like this and we say I've got these expectations, they better be met or what? There's another church like literally next door.
Jeffrey Heine:
I can just go I can really I can park in the same spot and just go elsewhere in Birmingham. And so so that's kind of the the MO a lot of the times is I have my expectations, I'm gonna go to this place, and then I've gotta find where those expectations are met. And so it's really important for us to ask these kinds of questions. What is discipleship? What are your personal expectations for discipleship and and how did you get those?
Jeffrey Heine:
Where did they come from? Are they biblical? And so so when it comes to asking that question, then we fundamentally come to, what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? And so we come here to Matthew 16. So where we stand here in Matthew 16, just a little bit of it's a 1000 years later.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's a 1000 years later. Jesus is teaching his disciples, and what's happened in this 1000 year time is that for about 400 years Israel had a king, or 2 kings with a divided kingdom. Things were kind of moving along. You had good kings, you had bad kings, things that kind of ebbed and flowed and all of that. But then you had threats from Babylon, you had threats from Assyria, you had all these threats going on.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so the monarchy, like who was ruling Israel, was really in flux for a while until it all just kinda came crashing down 586, Babylonian captivity. So they're exiled. Then they come back in, they build the temple back because Solomon's temple has been just completely destroyed. They build that back up, and then from from the get go, it is other kings and kingdoms coming in and taking reign over and over and over. That happens for 100 of years.
Jeffrey Heine:
And about 90 years previous to this moment then the Roman power really comes in. And so Jesus is teaching here at a place that we'll see in verse 13, the Caesarea Philippi, where where they go to that place, there are foreign gods and idols and foreign worship, pagan worship happening all around. This was that city that David had fought for. This was the place where the throne was established. And all of this chaos is ensuing.
Jeffrey Heine:
Complete chaos is surrounding the disciples of Jesus. And so he asked them a question. Look with me in Matthew 16 verse 13. He asked them a question. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?
Jeffrey Heine:
And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. And then he asked this question, verse 15, he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:
Let's pause. So what's happening here is that Jesus is asking them, okay, for 16 chapters now we've been walking through, Matthew's account of the life of Jesus. He's been teaching. He's been healing. He's been tell telling parables.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's been doing all of this. And so now it's like the this, this kind of catch up point. Okay. Now what are people saying about who I am? They go through prophets, maybe you're Elijah, John the Baptist, come back from the dead.
Jeffrey Heine:
Okay. Now who do you say that I am? And this is really this first confession that we see in all of Matthew, this confession that you are the anointed one. That's what's meant by Christ, the messiah. You are the anointed one.
Jeffrey Heine:
These promises, these expectations that have been going on for a 1000 years, the the throne of David toppled over, the temple itself destroyed, built back up, and foreign gods coming in. On the altar in the temple pigs being sacrificed, unclean animals being sacrificed to Zeus. The the entire thing come undone. All of these expectations, there's a promised one. In fact, the response that Jesus got there made some people say that you're Jeremiah.
Jeffrey Heine:
Well, Jeremiah said this, behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch from from David, from the root of Jesse. I I will bring a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. This is what they were holding on to. It's not completely over. A king will come, and he will be righteous, and he will bring justice.
Jeffrey Heine:
For centuries in exile and deportation, for centuries in exile, in deportation, in captivity, in being brought back, in building up their temple, and having foreign kings come in and rule them, there was this hope. There's this expectation, and they said, we know who you really are. Peter. Peter says this. I know who you are.
Jeffrey Heine:
You are the anointed one. And Jesus's response to him was, blessed are you because you didn't figure that out. You didn't just like unlock all the parables and you're like, I figured it out. Like I did decoder ring, like I figured it out. Like he this Jesus guy that we've been following around for a while, he's the messiah.
Jeffrey Heine:
Like, it didn't happen like that. He's saying that God the father has revealed this truth to him. Flesh and blood did not reveal this truth, but God in his power and his sovereignty and in his grace, he has revealed this truth to Simon Peter. He is the Messiah. And they have all of these expectations, but some of those expectations need to be clarified.
Jeffrey Heine:
So look with me in verse 21. Matthew 16 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 3rd day be raised. And Peter, same guy, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. You don't wanna be this guy.
Jeffrey Heine:
You don't wanna be the one who who says, okay, God has revealed this to me. You are the anointed one. You're the Messiah. You're the one who's going to take the throne of David. And now you're talking crazy and I'm gonna rebuke you.
Jeffrey Heine:
But that's what Peter does. He's a bold man. Okay. So he takes him aside, and he he begins to rebuke him. And he says, far be it from you, Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
This shall never happen to you. Verse 23. But he turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. So what's happened here is that Jesus has now rebuked Peter and he said, you don't understand. You've heard these promises, you've heard these expectations, but but I need to clarify what these expectations mean.
Jeffrey Heine:
And that is that I have to go and suffer in Jerusalem. That has to happen. You say this will never happen. I say it must. This is the way.
Jeffrey Heine:
This is the only way that those expectations of the anointed one and the messiah come about. It's through this road of suffering. These expectations had to shift, they had to change. And in many ways, what we think it means to be a disciple, that that also needs to be clarified. And so Jesus clarifies for his disciples what it means to follow him.
Jeffrey Heine:
Look at verse 24. 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. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
Jeffrey Heine:
And what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Jesus is teaching here about what it means to be a disciple, what it means to be a follower. He's laying out this hard truth of what it means to be a disciple.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's clarifying these expectations. If anyone wants to be a disciple, know this. You must deny yourself. You must take up a cross, and you must follow me. Now to give some historical and and to be really clear with interpretation here, Jesus is speaking immediately, like the first audience to these words, to men who really would see literal crosses.
Jeffrey Heine:
So the the the first hearing of this was to men who would have that kind of physical threat, that physical persecution. And really there are millions of people, millions of Christians all over the world who face that kind of threat. But much like Jesus' teaching in Matthew 10 where he says he's gonna set, you know, a son and a dad, and a daughter and a mother, and a daughter and a mother-in-law. He's he's gonna set them against one another. That doesn't mean that everyone's gonna have that family structure.
Jeffrey Heine:
That that kind of family pain in being a disciple. It doesn't mean that everyone's gonna face that, but but that is to capture what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And similarly, this is just as striking for us, even if we might not ever face a literal cross, a literal physical persecution, it's it's just as striking because the metaphor that Jesus uses here for a disciple is a cross. You see that that changes that expectation that discipleship fundamentally is not a program or a course, it's not a good mentor, it's not a workbook or any book. Fundamentally, discipleship is a cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's what Jesus says here. And we have to make sure that any any manner of discipleship that we might think about and endeavor in, And all those things that I listed, mentor, books, classes, all those can can be greatly beneficial in the life of being a disciple. But fundamentally coming back to Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. A cross, that's the image he gives. But what does he mean by that?
Jeffrey Heine:
You see, it's not just important to talk about deep things. We have to understand what they mean for it to really matter. And so so what does that mean? That discipleship is a cross, what does that mean? Jesus is saying that the cross is a reality.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's a reality for all of those who want to be disciples. You must deny yourself. You must die to self and follow me. One of my friends, Joel Busby, he's a pastor, and about 6 years ago I heard a sermon that he preached on Luke 9. And I still recall when he said this, and I'm gonna paraphrase here.
Jeffrey Heine:
He was talking about how so often we hear people say Jesus died on the cross so you don't have to. Jesus died on the cross so you don't have to. And that's partially true because Jesus did die on the cross. He he he became sin on our behalf. He took the wrath of God on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God, that He would give us His righteousness, and that we would not suffer.
Jeffrey Heine:
There is no condemnation. We would not suffer that death. That's true. But in another way, he didn't die on the cross so we wouldn't have a cross. He's calling us to our cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
We must die to self. He's calling us. He didn't die on the cross that we would be spared a cross. He says, take up your cross and follow me. We must die to self.
Jeffrey Heine:
Paul envisioned this death of self like this in Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We are set free from our selfishness.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's what happens when we deny ourselves, and when we die to self. We are set free from the curse of selfishness. In Christ, we are liberated from being so self consumed and so self absorbed. Okay. Let's let's walk through that.
Jeffrey Heine:
The curse of selfishness. Where did this curse come from? Well, Genesis 3, hear these words. As they heard the sound of the Lord this is this is after the apple, after the fall. As they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden of the cool of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves in the from the presence of God among the trees of the garden.
Jeffrey Heine:
But the lord god called the man and said, where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. You see, Adam's rebellion against God, that curse is that psychological isolation where selfishness and fear He was afraid of God. That fear, that's where that takes root. See, Adam rejected the authority of God.
Jeffrey Heine:
And what came into place hear that. When Adam rejected the authority of God, what came in place was the authority of self. That is the worst of who we are. And you you know this. You you know how selfish people are.
Jeffrey Heine:
Here Think about this. Think about someone, even like specifically, like think of a particular person. Think of someone that is just tirelessly selfish. Like you can't have a conversation, like everything like you're having the conversation, they're like, okay, back back to me here. Like you you know those you have those friends where they're just continually bringing it just circles everything like right back to me.
Jeffrey Heine:
Alright. Think of that person. Somebody, not all the time, but somebody sometimes thinks that about you. We are terribly, terribly self absorbed. And there is really nothing, and and we are about to to walk into this for for around 2 here.
Jeffrey Heine:
There is nothing like a newborn to show you how selfish you are. The next best thing is that it's getting married. Like when you get married, you see how terribly selfish you are. They just they walk around like a mirror just showing you how horribly selfish you are. And a child does that for sure.
Jeffrey Heine:
So helpless. So so needy. And at every turn, like, there's nobody else that comes in that's just like, okay. I'll do You know, you're just like just terribly just shows you how selfish you are. I I recently read, Jim Gaffigan's book, Dad is Fat.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's called that because that's his son's first sentence that he wrote ever. Dad is fat. He's got 5 kids 5 kids in New York in a 2 bedroom apartment. They live 5 flights up. No elevator.
Jeffrey Heine:
So it's He he's got some insight into all this. And he said, he said there's nothing like having a child to show you what a narcissist you are. He said, but the good news is I found out that I'm a really great, really special, wonderful narcissist. And that's how we feel sometimes. We're like, I might be a a a narcissist, I might be selfish, but I'm really good at it.
Jeffrey Heine:
Like I'm really special. I I I You still believe your guidance counselor from elementary school that you are just like the most special snowflake and there's never been anyone like you. You're so wonderful and special. And we believe that and we just turn in on ourselves and we just get so consumed with ourselves. And it's not just the Christian message that that picks up on this problem of selfishness.
Jeffrey Heine:
This guy named Steven Pinker, he's a a cognitive psychologist and scientist and he he wrote this. And let me read this really briefly to you. He said some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked, but they are flattering the researchers and anyone who would claim to have discovered that. No one needs a scientist to measure where whether humans are prone to selfishness. The question has been answered in history books, in newspapers, and in letters to Ann Landers.
Jeffrey Heine:
But people treat it like an open question, as if someday scientists might discover that it's all a bad dream and we will wake up to find that it is human nature to love one another. See we recognize that we are just so selfish, so self absorbed. And this is the worst of us, our selfishness, our pride. And we know it. But Christ and his gospel speaks into the very worst of us.
Jeffrey Heine:
Christ and his gospel speaks to the very worst of us. Not just maximizing our potential, hey, you've got some really good things. Let's just take it to the next level. It's not not like a life coach, but it's like a surgeon. It goes He goes to the worst part of us, our selfishness, and he confronts it, and he says, I want that out.
Jeffrey Heine:
In Christ, when we deny ourselves, when we pick up our cross and we die to self, and we follow Jesus, that is a farewell to self. Do you hear that? As as discipleship being a call to the cross, that the denial of self at the death of self and following Christ, that is the farewell to self. And the goal here Let me be clear. The goal here is not selflessness as as the world might try to encourage.
Jeffrey Heine:
Like, just be more selfless. Like, you know, go go build wells and do work and houses and do this now that can be the outworking of following Jesus. In fact, it should be part of the outworking of following Jesus. But fundamentally it's not selflessness. It's godliness.
Jeffrey Heine:
And maybe to say that more clearly, it's Christ centeredness. We're not just aimlessly being selfless. There there are monks who will set themselves on fire in other countries and be tremendously selfless, but that aimless selflessness has no business here in what Jesus is talking about. He is talking about denying ourselves, picking up our cross, and following Him. It's not aimless, it's following him.
Jeffrey Heine:
So what does this look like? What does this look like? If this is what we're being called to and discipleship is the cross, then what does it look like day to day? I'm gonna mention 2 ways here that we'll kind of unpack. The first one is this, we are set free to love and serve the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
We are set free to love and serve the Lord. It's not aimless selflessness. It's not generic kindness. It's not just goodwill. It is loving and serving the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
And since this is kind of close by, John 15, John's gospel, if you would go a little bit further in your bibles from Matthew, John 15, Jesus teaching here. John 15, we're gonna look at verses 8 through 11. Jesus teaching here about what it means to live out this discipleship, to live out being a disciple of Jesus, and he says this, John 15 verse 8, by this is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove proof, so prove to be my disciples. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
Jeffrey Heine:
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Alright. What Jesus is saying here is to The the fruit, the proof of being a disciple, which means that you are denying yourself, that you have taken up your cross, and that you are following Jesus, means that you are obeying him, that you would obey him, that we would keep his commands. See, we are called to die to self and follow Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:
That means obedience. That means surrender. Some of you probably spend more time seeking out the advice of friends when a situation comes up than seeking the Lord. I do that. But when we are denying self, taking up our cross, and following him, That means that in this in in being set free to love and serve the Lord, that looks like listening.
Jeffrey Heine:
Listening in prayer, in his word, some of some of us will scour blogs for advice far longer than we will scour the scriptures and ask God for wisdom. True? This is why we would just prefer some simple book. Just give me a book of sign me up for a 3 week class on discipleship. Like just sign me up, like let's just tie a nice little bow on it.
Jeffrey Heine:
But when he sets out the cross, it can't be like that. It can't be like that. So what does this look like? It looks like listening. If your aim is to obey, then you must listen.
Jeffrey Heine:
2nd thing. So the first one was this, we we are set free to love and serve the Lord. The second thing is this, that we are set free to love and serve one another. In a place where this is fleshed out as as Paul is encouraging the the Philippians, he says this, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. That that's a point of proof right there.
Jeffrey Heine:
There's some fruit right there. Are you counting others as more significant, more important than yourselves? That's what following him looks like, counting others as more significant and more important than yourselves. We are called to be a community, a church family of people who count others more important than themselves. That's that's that's a good working definition of what the church is supposed to be.
Jeffrey Heine:
People who because of Jesus, because of his cross, because of the redemption that he purchased for us, the grace extended to us that we would be a community where we are actually looking to the needs of others more than our own needs. That means that we cannot be a community of self absorbed leeches that just say my expectations aren't being met. My expectations aren't being met. I'll be honest with you. More often than not I find myself in that expectations not being met camp, been looking out for the needs of other people and actually valuing them as more important than my own.
Jeffrey Heine:
You might feel the same way. So if the if the previous one of loving and serving the Lord, if that was listening, then I would say that this one of loving and serving the people around us, it's looking. That we are looking at other people, valuing them as more significant than ourselves, and it's looking for ways that we can serve them and love them. That we would actually have our eyes open. That we would be attentive, and we would look for opportunities to love and serve the people around us.
Jeffrey Heine:
And Jesus was so clear on that exact thing that he actually again, he says another proof of being a disciple, John 13. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. More than any event that we could hold, more than any money that Redeemer Community Church could spend, more than anything else, what will draw this community's attention to what's happening here, what God is doing here, is our love for one another more than anything else. By extending grace to one another, by not bearing grudges against one another, by seeking reconciliation with one another and the people around this very building, That more than any dime we can spend on an event will make people say they must be disciples of Jesus. Do you believe that?
Jeffrey Heine:
Luke does something interesting as he is, recounting this teaching of Jesus. And I think that he does this to kind of give a little bit more body to to how we should understand these words, and he adds a word in there. He says that we should deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily. This is important. This this is a fuller bodied kind of image of of thinking about what this actually means played out.
Jeffrey Heine:
He says, this isn't a one time aisle that you've walked, a prayer that you've prayed one time. This is a life of following Jesus is that you deny yourself daily, that you pick up the cross daily, that you follow Jesus daily. Now this is the outworking of redemption. This is the outworking of the children of God, sons and daughters. You were bought.
Jeffrey Heine:
This is not to earn salvation, but this is because of it that we would live this out in denying ourselves, dying to self, and following Jesus. And we see that played out in loving and serving the Lord, and in loving and serving those around us. And like I said, a good word for this is surrender. That we would be completely surrendered to our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And that's something that daily we really need to go over.
Jeffrey Heine:
Have I surrendered? I've I've got a list of things that usually, if you've heard me preach before, I would rapid fire through. But but what I would prefer to do is to actually say them 1 at a time and you think about surrendering these things to God. Surrendering our priorities. Surrendering our time, surrendering our money, surrendering our sexuality, surrendering our jobs, surrendering our families, surrendering our politics, surrendering our thoughts, surrendering our past, our present, our future, our everything.
Jeffrey Heine:
Surrender. Jesus says that if anyone would follow after me, if anyone would desire to be a disciple, deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow me. When we die to self, he gives us a new self.
Jeffrey Heine:
He gives us himself. This is the hope that we cling to. But this is also the hard work that we endeavor is those who trust in Jesus, his atoning work, and seek to follow him as a disciple. He changes these expectations. And Pete Peter would later see his expectations come undone as king Jesus came not to be served, but to serve.
Jeffrey Heine:
As he came to save sinners, as he came to give his life as a ransom for many, his expectations were turned upside down because he came to deny himself. He came to pick up his cross, and he came to follow the commands of the father for the joy set before him. And now he promises that joy for us as we follow him as disciples. Let's go to him in prayer. God, help us to join with Peter in declaring that you are the Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
Jesus, you are the anointed one, the Messiah. And as you promised your disciples in Matthew 16, you will come again. You will come again in glory. Lord, help us to be disciplined in such a way that we would live out the working of redemption in our lives, that we would live as children of the most high god. Lord, that we would live lives worthy of our calling to your grace, knowing that this work is not to earn salvation, but it's because of it.
Jeffrey Heine:
Help us to listen. Help us to look for the needs of others, not to just blind selfless selflessness, Lord, but to Christ centeredness. That we might see the fruit, that we might prove one to another and delight in the fruit of loving one another and obeying your commands. Oh, god, help us. Help us for your name, for your kingdom, for your glory, to deny ourselves, to pick up our crosses, and to follow you.
Jeffrey Heine:
We pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen. So what we're gonna do now is to take some time to reflect on God's word, his truth, to pray. Perhaps as as I was going through that list of things, something really, resonated with you. Maybe all of them.
Jeffrey Heine:
Maybe a couple of them, and you need you need to think about that. You need to go to God in prayer, and you need to surrender. May maybe that's you and and you need to take time. Because there are there are lots of things that the world can give you, but one thing that the world rarely will give you is time. And so what we would like to do is to take time in here to quietly, to in our own reflection to to pray and to ask God to work his truth deep into our hearts for his name and his glory.