A sermon based on Matthew 16:21-28, Rev. J. Orlando Flahn
INTRO: Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, we observe and celebrate our Kick-Off Sunday—a cherished tradition here at our church. Kick-Off Sunday marks the start of our church’s calendar year, featuring a combined indoor worship service and family-focused, fun outdoor activities for fellowship, including hotdogs, burgers, snacks, and drinks. Of course, we pray for all our students, their teachers, educators, and parents, asking for God’s blessings, protection, and provision as the kids return to school. Thank you for being a part of today’s observance.
As we look ahead with our vision team, seeking to cast a new vision for the future God is leading us toward, I believe today’s Gospel lesson is especially appropriate for considering the kind of discipleship community the Lord desires us to become. We must answer this one question—individually and collectively as a Church: What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
To a greater extent, I believe we can all identify with the Apostle Peter in today’s Gospel lesson. In our self-centeredness and brokenness, we often want the Christ of the Cross, but not the Cross of the Christ. We seek a Christ who is our life-enhancer and therapist, but we shrink back in fear when following Jesus calls us to a walk of self-denial and sacrifice.
ILL: We need to know that when Jesus told a first-century crowd to “take up a cross”, it sounded like telling a 21st Century crowd to “come and bring your electric chair with you”. It means an end to self-rule and a complete surrender of your personal agenda……For Jesus, this is where true happiness begins……Sadly, many of us today simply desire the glory, the crown, and the triumph of the Cross without being willing to make the sacrifice required of a true discipleship.
“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame,
And I love that old cross where the Dearest and Best; For a world of lost sinners was slain.”
I grew up singing “The Old Rugged Cross.”…..Believers across the world cherish the cross because it speaks of the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. In that sacrifice, God the Father expresses His love to us, undeserving sinners. In what appeared to be a total shame, horrific, and defeat, God victoriously triumphed over humanity’s greatest enemies—sin, death, the grave, and the devil….that He might offer us forgiveness and the hope of eternal life.
ILL: Following 9/11, who would have thought that the notion of the cross would reach new heights when, for several months, we saw on the news an iron-girder cross towering over Ground Zero? A construction worker, Frank Silechia, found this intersecting 17-foot-tall steel beam structure—resembling a cross—in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 13, 2001.
In the following months, that cross became one of the most frequently televised symbols at Ground Zero. It soon became a place for prayer and a source of comfort for rescue workers, grieving families, and survivors. Today, that cross is permanently displayed as part of the 9/11 National Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan.
Dr. Scott Hoezee, in his commentary, “For many people in this world, that’s the function of a cross: to mark a bad and tragic thing.” APP: Look at the fields of crosses at Arlington National Cemetery….everybody wants the cross associated with their traged! Dr. Hoezee concludes, “That’s what we do: we place the cross at locations of death. But we do not generally, however, sink crosses into places of life, liveliness, or anything else that has to do with our everyday business.”
You see, prior to 9/11, no one would have thought of placing a cross anywhere in the plaza of the World Trade Center….People would have cried out, “It is a violation of Church and State…”
A young editor at Time Magazine put out a special edition following that fateful moment: He wrote, “If you want to humble a nation, you attack its cathedrals.” His point is clear: The Twin Towers were cathedrals of commerce. Before 9/11, we needed no cross in the Twin Towers. Who needs a cross for something that stood for power and wealth, anyway? Who thinks of death when life is going well? …..Who thinks of bad health when the job is bringing so much income? But, my friend, the irony is, it is by dying to “self” that we truly live.
That’s what wants to teach us in today’s gospel. He points out that real living means embracing all that the cross stands for: its sacrifice, its shame, its price, and death……This is the only way to true living…But here’s the reality…… this way of life is countercultural…foreign to our very sinful nature
But Jesus demands, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? ”
Now, this moment is pivotal in the mission of Jesus. The disciples have already acknowledged His divinity as the Christ, the Son of the living God, although their expectations were still unclear about what that truly meant. They had followed Him for years and witnessed all of the hair-raising signs and wonders that clearly pointed to Him as God the Son. But at this moment in His ministry, events were not unfolding in the way the disciples had expected. Jesus was not turning out to be the kind of Messiah they had imagined…..And this was distressing, to say the least.
I mean, what kind of a Messiah who start to talk about losing His life…dying in the hands of His enemies… so that He might gain it again? And then calling on those who wished to follow Him to die also, so that they might gain their life? Who does that in a culture that elevates and prides itself of “ego” and “self”?
Matthew’s gospel says, “From that time on, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” …..Notice that it says, “Jesus must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed…” It is clear, Jesus will usher in His kingdom reign through His sacrificial death on the cross.
Of course, Peter will not have this…..who wants a dead messiah? And so rebukes Jesus. “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to You” (16:22)….The word “rebuke” here carries the idea of “chastising, correcting someone, or trying to school someone out of the wrong direction…Peter is seeking to control the situation….trying to derail Jesus’ plans, and overrun God’s purposes…….Listen! I believe Peter is doing this with the best intentions…..He has a sincere concern for Jesus’ well-being. But you see, good intentions are good, but often they are demonic when they contradict the cross.
Jesus’ response was swift and harsh…… “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance, a stumbling block to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but the things of man” (16:23).
It is of necessity for the Messiah to go to Jerusalem and lay down His life to make atonement for mankind..…But humanly speaking, it doesn’t make sense to Peter…Here’s the guy, who just a few verses up in this text….just last Sunday, we heard him making this Great Confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Now, Jesus is referring to Peter as “Satan.” What went wrong? Jesus called him the “rock,” and on that “rock”—that confession—He would build His church….
How in the world does Jesus go from calling Peter the rock on which He would build His church (v. 18) to calling him “Satan!” and “a stumbling block” (v. 23)?…...I bet, Jesus knew that the Evil One was behind this!
APP: And like all of us, Peter had one basic problem: FEAR,,,fear of death! ……We all share this fear. When Jesus said to Peter, “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s” (v. 23), is like Jesus saying to Peter, there is that one very “human thing” the Evil One is using to blind you from discerning the will of God right now, the fear of death.
APP: The fear of death is that one very “human thing” that keeps us from entering fully into the grace of God and becoming what He has ordained for us to be. Death and the fear of it is the problem….The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death…” (Rom 3:23)……And Jesus calls us to embrace “death” to our sinful flesh if we want to be His disciples.
APP: Whether it’s death to our attachments—our family, our desires, our pride and prestige, or to our possessions, profession or occupation—death comes in many forms…..But who wants to die?…Like Martin Luther says, we are trapped in the “Bondage of the Will”………..Like Peter, we’d rather focus on the bright side of life and downplay the darkness we associate with dying.
However, like Peter, there is one point we too often miss in what Jesus is saying here: On the third day be raised again!” ….. That we have to die in order to live. Giving up our lives is the only way we can gain the life to which Christ calls us.
And like Peter, we may think we have a good idea of what following Jesus should look like…..My nice car, home, my fat bank account, my family, my career…..And yet, because of our sinfulness, our ideas and desires are often grounded in the things of this world, not the things of God’s kingdom.
CONCLUSION:
APP: As we begin this new calendar year as a church, we encourage you to allow God to use your gifts and talents as we seek to build His kingdom here for His greater glory….He’s searching that are willing to die that might live.
Jersus knows that the cultural pressure to put ourselves first – as appealing as it sounds – doesn’t really satisfy our deep hunger for meaning. Deep down, we know we aren’t enough…..we hunger for more! And Jesus says by dying, we find what we are longing for.
Quote: Mitchell Reddish writes, “The call to take up our cross is “a specific demand placed upon those who would be the followers of Jesus. They must be willing to surrender their own self-centered ambitions, goals, and lifestyles for the way demonstrated by Jesus.”
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