I. Introduction

A. Illustration – I want to start out this morning by reading a quote from G. K. Chesterton that helps us see the point that Jesus is making in today’s Scripture. This is what Chesterton wrote: Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die. "He that will lose his life, the same shall save it" is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an alpine guide or a drill book. The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then there will be a suicide, and he will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

B. Context – That in a nutshell is what Matthew 16:21-28 is all about. Let’s read it together, and I’m reading from the New Living.

II. Scripture Passage

A. Matthew 16:21-28 (from the New Living) – (NEW SLIDE) From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that he had to go to Jerusalem, and he told them what would happen to him there. He would suffer at the hands of the leaders and the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. (NEW SLIDE) He would be killed, and he would be raised on the third day. 22 But Peter took him aside and corrected him. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” (NEW SLIDE) 23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” (NEW SLIDE) 24 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. (NEW SLIDE) 26 And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lost your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul? 27 For I, the Son of Man, will come in the glory of my Father with his angels and will judge all people according to their deeds. (NEW SLIDE) 28 And I assure you that some of you standing here right now will not die before you see me, the Son of Man, coming in my Kingdom.”

B. (NEW SLIDE) Our mission statement says that we exist to apply the Bible and prayer to real life. Which means that we exist to become devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. We call it discipleship, and that’s what Jesus is talking about in this passage. He’s telling us some things that discipleship means, and if we’re going to remain faithful to Him and His purposes, we’d better sit up and pay attention.

I. Discipleship means Suffering according to the Father’s will.

A. (NEW SLIDE) First, discipleship means suffering according to the Father’s will. Who is the Father? God. Why is it important that our suffering be only according to God’s will? Because the purpose of the suffering He allows in our lives is to draw us closer to Him and to make us more like Him. Francois Fenelon, in The Seeking Heart, wrote, Self-denial has its place in a Christian’s life, but God doesn’t ask you to choose what is most painful to you. If you followed this path, you would soon ruin your health, reputation, business, and friendship. (NEW SLIDE) Self-denial consists of bearing patiently all those things that God allows to pass into your life. If you don’t refuse anything that comes in God’s order, you are tasting of the Cross of Jesus Christ (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Discipleship means suffering according to God’s will. There are some truths Jesus is teaching us about this suffering that we’ve got to get a grip on.

B. (NEW SLIDE) In this passage, we learn that our natural response to suffering according to the Father’s will is rebellion against His will in the area of our hearts or lives we’re suffering in. Peter took Jesus aside and told Him, “Ain’t gonna happen, and you’d better stop talking like this!” Why? Because to Peter the worst thing that could possibly happen would be for Jesus to die. Peter loved Jesus. But Peter loved being with Jesus, spending every waking moment with Him, probably more that he loved Jesus Himself. Jesus was telling His disciples that they had to grow up in a hurry, and Peter rebelled.

C. (NEW SLIDE) We also learn that, if we don’t fight against and suppress our natural response, God will reprimand us and work to set us right. God will always take corrective measures when we’re in rebellion against Him. What did Jesus call Peter? Satan. Was He saying Peter was possessed? No. What Jesus was telling Peter was that, by not suppressing his natural response, Peter was taking Satan’s side on the issue. That may not wash too well with our idea of a gentle Jesus, but He will always do whatever it takes to try to get us to stop rebelling against.

D. We learn something else from verses 31-23. (NEW SLIDE) If we don’t fight against and suppress our natural response, we run the danger of taking others down with us. Think about it. Jesus is the Son of God. During His whole life here on earth He was fully aware of this fact and fully filled with the power of the Spirit. Yet, Jesus said, “You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” Jesus told Peter that he was tempting Him to leave God’s will for His life behind. That is a powerful insight! If Jesus the Son of God could be tempted to leave God’s will because Peter didn’t suppress his natural response, how many people do we take down with us when we choose not to fight against and suppress our natural response of rebellion? We’d better be mighty careful in this area. Discipleship means suffering according to the Father’s will.

IV. Discipleship means Work

A. (NEW SLIDE) Second, discipleship means work. For some strange reason we get this idea in our heads that everything about being a Christian should come naturally. That it should be easy. That praying should be easy, that reading the Bible should be easy, that memorizing Scripture should be easy, that all the other spiritual disciplines should be easy. But they’re not. Why? Because we fight against our natural response of rebellion. We don’t have the mind of Christ, and the only way we can get it is through committed dedication to discipleship through spiritual disciplines. Discipleship means work.

B. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means working to surrender selfish ambitions. Jesus said that being His disciple or follower requires us to set aside our selfish ambitions. That’s hard work for us, especially since oftentimes we’re not even aware some of them are there. Satan has a way of using little things to cause those ambitions to rise in us. We’d detect and hopefully fight off a full frontal attack, so he will use any method he can to try to get us to look out for ourselves first and foremost. Remember that phrase we’ve heard so often – “I’m looking out for number one!” In God’s economy, He is number one. But our society teaches us that we are number one, so we have to do everything we possibly can to get ahead in life and to make sure nobody else gets ahead of us. That’s selfish ambition. It happens in churches all over America where power and prestige and position rule. It happens in our political process, as we saw in our recent elections. It happens in our workplaces, schools, and homes. (NEW SLIDE) Anytime we put ourselves first, selfish ambition is taking control of us. Discipleship means working to surrender selfish ambitions.

C. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means working at disciplining ourselves to do only God’s will. That’s what shouldering our cross is all about. We tend to have this idea that taking up that cross means doing whatever is most painful for us. But as Warren Wiersbe wrote, To deny self does not mean to deny things. It means to give yourself wholly to Christ and share in His shame and death. To take up a cross does not mean to carry burdens or have problems. I once met a lady who told me her asthma was the cross she had to bear! (NEW SLIDE) To take up the cross means to identify with Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering, and death (as cited on PreachingToday.com). When we identify with Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering and death we are disciplining ourselves to do only His will. We can’t identify with Christ, become like Him, if we don’t have this kind of focus and we’re not putting it into practice. It’s like a laser beam focus – but not on what we want – it’s on what God’s will is. Discipleship means working at disciplining ourselves to do only God’s will.

D. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means working on our relationship with Jesus – knowing and following and obeying Him. It’s not enough to work on obedience, although that’s a good thing. Without knowing and following Christ it only leads to legalism. It’s not enough to only work on knowing and following Him, although that’s a good thing. Without obeying Christ it only leads to license – doing whatever we want to in the name of Christ. (NEW SLIDE) We work on our relationship with Jesus when we involve ourselves in the spiritual disciplines. Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, lists twelve of them: meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. Some of these may be unfamiliar to many of us, but really all of them are important to our lives. Discipleship means working on our relationship with Jesus.

E. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means working to surrender our rights to God. Again, a tough one. Why is it so hard for us to surrender our rights? Part of it is that we don’t fully trust God. We trust Him to do His will, but we don’t trust that His will is going to line up with ours. Part of it is that natural rebellion that lives inside of us and that Satan keeps feeding to try to keep us from surrendering to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It’s so hard to do. And we are so easily deceived about whether or not we’re surrendering them. We’ve all heard sermons and read books that talk about surrendering our rights, and we all have had times when we’ve heard those truths and said, “I’m glad I’ve already done that! I’d hate to have to do it again!” And yet, even as we speak these words we’re deceived. (NEW SLIDE) Surrendering our rights is a constant process, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. It involves making choices about what we allow ourselves to think and feel and say and do. It involves making the choice to allow God to dictate what we think and feel and say and do. That’s why surrendering our rights is so hard. Discipleship means working to surrender our rights to God.

F. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means working at making God’s mindset our mindset. It means allowing God to change the way we think by the power of His Spirit. Romans 12:2 says, Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. When we allow our mindset to be transformed, we begin taking on what’s called a biblical worldview. We look at everything in life through the filter of the Bible. That brings us into direct conflict with our society’s worldview, which is rapidly becoming secular humanism – no God, no room for Him, and man is the ultimate being and has the potential to do and be anything he wants to be. That’ll cause some serious clashes! But the lack of a biblical worldview lived out by American Christians is the exact reason the Church has failed in her mission to transform our culture. (NEW SLIDE) Spiritual disciplines are the only way to allow God to build His mindset within us. Discipleship means working at making God’s mindset our mindset.

G. There’s one more way that discipleship means work. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means working at learning God’s priorities and making them first in our lives. In his Confessions, St. Augustine wrote, Sin arises when things that are a minor good are pursued as though they were goals in life. If money or affection or power are sought in disproportionate, obsessive ways, then sin occurs. And that sin is magnified when, for these lesser goals, we fail to pursue the highest good and the finest goals. So then we ask ourselves why, in a given situation, we committed a sin, the answer is usually one of two things. Either we wanted to obtain something we didn't have, or we feared losing something we had (as cited on PreachingToday.com). (NEW SLIDE) God’s goals are the highest and finest goals, and we find them through prayer, Bible study, and other spiritual disciplines. They enable us to set goals for our lives that will help keep us aligned with what God says is important. Discipleship means working at learning God’s priorities and making them first in our lives.

I. Discipleship means an eternal perspective

A. (NEW SLIDE) Third, discipleship means an eternal perspective. It’s more than thinking about eternity. It’s more than talking about eternity. An eternal perspective means that all we say and do and think and feel is colored by our knowledge that Jesus is coming again. Discipleship means an eternal perspective.

B. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means living as though everything we do will be judged, because we will be judged. Jesus said, “For I, the Son of Man, will come in the glory of my Father with his angels and will judge all people according to their deeds.” All that we say and do and the motives behind them will be judged. Now remember that verse 24 says that Jesus is specifically talking to His disciples. So we can’t just toss this off and say, “Well, only non-believers will be judged.” Not true! Christians will be judged. They will be judged based on whether or not they surrendered their selfish ambitions, shouldered their cross, and followed Him. They will be judged based on whether or not their thoughts and deeds and words reflect the fact that they have lost their lives for the sake of Christ. (NEW SLIDE) We will all be judged, and that ought to sober us up a bit. That ought to give us some pause the next time we’re tempted to choose our way over God’s way, our preferences over God’s will, our will over God’s word. Thomas a Kempis, in The Imitation of Christ, wrote, Look, it all consists in the cross, and it all lies in dying; and there is no other way to life and true peace within (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Discipleship means living as though everything we do will be judged.

C. (NEW SLIDE) Discipleship means living as though Jesus may come back today, because He might. Jesus said, “And I assure you that some of you standing here right now will not die before you see me, the Son of Man, coming in my Kingdom.” Now we know that He was referring to the fact that three of His disciples were going to see Him transfigured right before their eyes in a few days. But Jesus’ message was also for all of us. He’s telling us that we don’t know when He’s coming back, so we’d better live like it will be today. Comedienne Lily Tomlin said, (NEW SLIDE) “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat” (as cited on PreachingToday.com). She’s dead right. We don’t need much of what the world says we do. Our hobbies and homes and jobs don’t need to consume us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, wrote, (NEW SLIDE) If we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What decisions and partings will it demand? To answer this question we shall have to go to Him, for only He knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ who bids us follow Him, knows the journey's end. But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. Discipleship means joy (as cited on PreachingToday.com). What Bonhoeffer is talking about is an eternal perspective, one that remembers that any day at any time, Jesus may return. Oswald Chambers wrote, (NEW SLIDE) The meaning of sacrifice is the deliberate giving of the best I have to God that He may make it His and mine for ever: if I cling to it, I lose it, and so does God (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Discipleship means living as though Jesus could come back today.

V. Conclusion

A. I’d like to close today by sharing something pastor and author and seminary professor Calvin Miller wrote: (NEW SLIDE) Many Christians are only "Christaholics" and not disciples at all. Disciples are cross-bearers; they seek Christ. Christaholics seek happiness. Disciples dare to discipline themselves, and the demands they place on themselves leave them enjoying the happiness of their growth. Christaholics are escapists looking for a shortcut to nirvana. Like drug addicts, they are trying to "bomb out" of their depressing world. There is no automatic joy. Christ is not a happiness capsule; he is the way to the Father. But the way to the Father is not a carnival ride in which we sit and do nothing while we are whisked through various spiritual sensations (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, wrote, Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. (NEW SLIDE) Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace ... is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Discipleship means suffering according to the Father’s will. Discipleship means work. Discipleship means an eternal perspective. Are we willing to be disciples?

B. Please bow your heads and close your eyes out of respect for each other’s privacy. What has God’s Spirit been speaking to your heart this morning? Are you a disciple of Jesus? Is your level of discipleship where God wants it to be? Let’s spend a few moments and listen to what God’s Spirit has to say to our hearts.

C. What has God spoken to your heart? If you need to surrender yourself, your heart and your life to Christ to be His true disciple, please raise your hand as a sign of that commitment and I will pray for you. Let’s pray.