Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
The sermon
text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St Matthew. And
we read from his gospel:
If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Prayer: Let
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O
Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our Gospel reading last week,
we read the passage where Peter, on behalf of the twelve apostles, makes a
wonderful confession of faith: Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the
living God. And Jesus says to Peter: Blessed are you, Simon, Simon
Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who
is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
This is such a wonderful passage,
and gives us such encouragement. It gives us encouragement to make a bold and
faithful confession in the presence of Jesus. It gives us the encouragement to
want to speak with Peter a confession of faith together with him, and not to be
worried about the consequences. And these words of Jesus also teach us that
even though we might be gathered here on Sundays as a pretty motley sort of a
crowd, with all kinds of baggage, with all kinds of problems and struggles,
that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, when we make this
kind of confession of faith, which is given to us by God himself. And then we
learn about these wonderful keys to the kingdom of heaven—that when we hear the
forgiveness of sins spoken to us that the doors of heaven are opened for us so
that we can walk in and enjoy all the benefits of heaven both now and for the
rest of eternity.
But then we read something very
strange at the end of the reading from last week. It says: Then he strictly
charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. Hang on a
minute! – Jesus has just praised Peter for making this confession of faith that
he was the Christ. He has just said that on this rock, on this confession of
faith, that he will build his church. And now Jesus says, “Don’t tell anyone”?
Why? And not only that, but we read that Jesus strictly charged the
disciples. He was adamant that should not tell anyone, he was strict about
it.
Now why was this? One day in the
future, Jesus was going to be on trial. He was going to be betrayed by Judas
with a kiss, he was going to be arrested and taken to appear before the high
priest. And on that occasion, it is going to be demanded of Jesus himself that
he say exactly who he is. We read: The high priest said to him, “I adjure
you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” The priest says: I adjure you by the
living God. This means: I command you, I demand of you to speak the truth,
and to speak the truth in the presence of God under oath. It would be like
someone today giving someone a bible and saying: “Put your hand on this bible,
and swear to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
And so what does the priest
demand that Jesus should tell him? He says: Tell us if you are the Christ,
the Son of God. This is exactly what Peter said: You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God. And so Jesus said: You have said so. But I tell
you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power
and coming in the clouds of heaven.
What a wonderful confession faith
Jesus makes in the presence of the high priest! Later Jesus is taken before
Pontius Pilate and Pilate asks him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” And
Jesus says to him, “You have said so.”
So only after this, only when
Jesus has made his confession of faith in public before the high priests and
Pontius Pilate, is Jesus going to then going to send Peter out with all the
other disciples to tell the whole world that he is the Crist, the Son of the
living God. They are going to follow in his footsteps. They have the keep
their mouths shut now, and not speak a word, but after Jesus had laid the path
for them, and shown the disciples exactly what it looks like to make this kind
of confession, then they will go out to all nations and make disciples.
Do you see now why Jesus strictly
charged them to tell no one that he was Christ? They had to be patient, the
had to wait, they had to wait for their Saviour, their Lord, their master, to
take the lead, and then they would follow.
And so in our reading today we
read: 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. And Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen
to you.”
Jesus praised Peter for his
wonderful confession of faith, but here we learn just how little Peter knew.
Jesus tells the disciples something which to us seems so obvious: Jesus must
go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priest and
scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. The disciples know
that Jesus is a wonderful king, but they don’t yet understand that he must
suffer. And this is so strange, because we here today who celebrate Good Friday
and Easter every year, know that this is the most important thing: Jesus must
make a perfect sacrifice for us to pay for each and every single one of our
sins and failures and the sins of the whole world. And so that we know this
sacrifice was in fact perfect, Jesus rose from the dead. Because Jesus rose
from the dead, we know that Father accepted Jesus’ sacrifice completely and
perfectly. And this resurrection from the dead, we come and commemorate every
Sunday, because Sunday is the day when Jesus rose from the dead.
Can you believe that here in our
reading, all the disciples, and Peter, had no idea about any of this? And so
Peter says: Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you. And
[Jesus] 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.”
Peter has no idea that this very
fact that Jesus is going to suffer and die is going to be the very centre of
the Christian faith. Peter has no idea that the sign of the cross is going to
be the sign that is built onto every church building for the next 2000 years. He
has no idea that every time a baby is baptised they will have a cross put on
their forehead and their breast, and that every time a church service begins,
pastors throughout the world will make the sign of the cross. He has no idea,
and neither do any of the disciples.
Peter is tempted by Satan here.
And through this temptation, he comes and puts the temptation on Jesus. And
Jesus knows who is at work now. This is Satan, the tempter, the devil, the evil
one, who doesn’t want Jesus to die, because the devil knows that through the
death and resurrection of Jesus that he will be defeated.
And so Jesus says to Peter, Get
behind me, Satan! And so we know also that whenever we talk about Jesus but
in such a way that he is not the same Jesus who laid down his life for the
sheep, that this is not the real Jesus anymore, but this is Satan’s picture of
Jesus, because without this suffering and death of Jesus, Satan is not
defeated.
This passage gives us a lot of
encouragement though. Just think how such a basic part of the Christian faith
Peter himself didn’t even know yet. And this is the way it always happens:
Jesus doesn’t reveal everything to us and convince of everything all at once.
We have to learn things gradually and slowly. Jesus teaches us just what he
desires for us each week, each day, each time we hear and read and study his
word. Each time this happens, Jesus gives us a new insight, and builds us up
one brick at a time into maturity. Sometimes like Peter, even the most advanced
and knowledgeable Christians who think they know everything, we have to be
careful to keep our mouth shut and patiently learn from Jesus his will and his
word. Otherwise we could easily blurt out some of our own human knowledge and
opinions and ideas, and even be used by Satan himself. This is why Jesus says: You
are not setting your mind on the thigns of God, but on the things of man. So
as we gather here each week, let’s pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten us in
all our darkness and pour out his blessings on us, and educate us, teach us the
words of Jesus.
So after this, Jesus then
instructs the disciples some more. He says: 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.
Jesus is going to go to the
cross. He is going to make a faithful confession before the high priest and
before Pontius Pilate, but then what? Then he will be judged falsely, whipped,
beaten, executed. Remember John the Baptist lost his head, and then Jesus comes
after him and starts preaching the same thing. Are you surprised that Jesus
should be executed too? But then Jesus is going to send out the disciples into
the whole world and preach the same thing. Is it any surprise that the
disciples are going to also have a cross? Jesus says: If anyone would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
We Christians today are often
caught between two worlds. We might want to be faithful followers of Jesus, but
at the same time, we might realise that there might be some aspect of our life
where we don’t yet want to follow Jesus, because we might be scared of the
consequences. Perhaps there’s something in your workplace. Maybe someone is
unfairly treated, and you don’t want to defend them because you don’t want to
get in trouble either. Maybe you have children, and you don’t want to read them
too many bible stories because you’re worried that they might say something
religious and holy when they’re around your friends and make you look like a
religious nutcase. I could make up all kinds of scenarios, but Jesus himself
will make this known. Sometimes we might look to him and say, “Jesus, you are
calling me to do something courageous, but the very courage you seem to require
of me is the very thing I lack?” Maybe you think, “If only I didn’t fear
people, if only I didn’t fear what other people think of me, if only I didn’t
feel losing a friend here or there, of losing some money, or losing my
reputation and my standing.”
Don’t be afraid. Don’t be
worried. Jesus has looked after you every day in your life until now. Do you
think he’s about to let you down now? There’s nothing to be afraid of when we
are with him, because he is risen from the dead. And so he says to us: If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me. If anyone is going to have a cross, it means that you are going
to be put on trial by the world, and sentenced. So was Jesus.
And Jesus wants to encourage us.
He knows the fear that lies deep within us: he knows our failure. And yet he
calls us even deeper into his presence than we have ever been before. For
whoever would save his life will lose it, but 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? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Do you think about your soul? Do
you think about its eternal well-being? Or do you just think about money, food,
career, success, good reputation? What about your soul?
You know, it is becoming much
more difficult to live a Christian life now. The world promotes all kinds of
rubbish and coats it with nice sounding words. There are all kinds of things
which are self-destructive, corrosive for human society, corrosive for your
soul, all the greed and smut, and yet people say that these things are: love,
justice, progress, achievement, beautiful, good. And then people look at the
Christian worldview and the things that Jesus teaches, and says:
hate-mongering, backward, conservative, stupid, mediaeval, unloving.
And so just as Jesus was falsely
judged, we Christians today are also falsely judged. But we are not our own: we
belong to Jesus. And Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and follow him.
We think from our human understanding that he’s calling us into thick darkness,
into despair and pain and misery for the rest of our lives. But in actual fact,
he is calling us to exactly the opposite: into eternal light, eternal hope,
eternal joy and eternal happiness for the rest of eternity.
There is such wonderful passages
in the bible which gives us so much strength. Psalm 139 says: Even the
darkness is not dark with you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is
as light with you. Or Psalm 18 says: It is you, O Lord, you lights my
lamp. The Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a
troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. Or also Psalm 94: When the
cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
You see, Jesus wants us to know
that the world is not our judge. Who is our judge? He is! Jesus says: 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.
This is such an encouragement for
us. Every time we have taken up the cross and followed our Lord Jesus, Jesus
promises that that cross will be replaced with a wonderful crown. Every time we
have brought our sorrows to him, he promises his joy. Every time we have
brought our needs to him, he promises to fill our cup to overflowing. Every
time we receive the world’s sentence of death, Jesus gives us a new sentence, a
new judgment, a new hope: the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting.
So, let’s draw close to Jesus and
his word, and learn from him. He knows us so much better than we know
ourselves, and he will never let us down. Every time he has put his cross deep
in our hearts, this is not a sign that Jesus is absent, but a sign of his deep
and abiding presence. This is a sign of the Holy Spirit and his deep love.
So don’t be afraid of the cross,
and whatever God himself might send you. We believe in a God who raises from
the dead, and we believe in his Son Jesus Christ, who is the Son of this living
God. Amen.
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