september 3 2023
September 3rd 2023
Old Testament: Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm: Psalm 26
Epistle: Romans 12:9-21
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-28
Sermon Text: Matthew 16
Sermon Title: “Take Up Your Cross”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Jesus began to show His disciples that He must … suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised”. (Matthew 16:21) “Peter began to rebuke Him saying … this shall never happen to you”. (Matthew 16:22) “Jesus said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan, you are a hindrance to Me”. (Matthew 16:23b) Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me”. (Matthew 16:24) “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul. For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father”. (Matthew 16:27a)
The Gospel readings for the last two Sundays are quite a contrast. Last Sunday, we heard the Apostle Peter give a beautiful confession of faith in Jesus saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. (Matthew 16:16) His reaction to Jesus’ teaching is quite a bit different in today’s reading. “From that time, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised”. (Matthew 16:21)
Jesus is speaking of what He had come to this earth to accomplish and how He would accomplish it. Contrary to what most believed, reconciliation with God would be accomplished through the cross; His atoning death for the sins of mankind. In the immediate future, Jesus will suffer, die and rise bodily from the dead. Knowing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; Peter immediately said, yes Lord, whatever you say Lord! That’s what Peter said? Right?
No, you heard exactly what he said. “Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him saying; far be it from You Lord! This shall never happen to You”. (Matthew 16:22) Somewhere between the last two readings, Peter had seemingly forgotten his confession and began to argue with his Lord in the strongest possible terms. Trying to put the best construction on this, we might assume that Peter’s intentions were good; but that though his confession was true, Peter did not fully understand what he was saying; thinking the Christ/Messiah would be an earthly king and could never suffer in this way.
To put it quite bluntly, Peter told Jesus to disobey the Father’s will; which was that the Christ would suffer for the sins of the world. It is never a good idea for God’s creation to correct or rebuke Him as Peter did here. (And) Our Lord uttered a clear word of condemnation for what he had said. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me Satan! You (Peter) are a hindrance (a stumbling block) to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man”. (Matthew 16:23)
You see, whenever anyone speaks or acts counter to the will or Word of God, it is Satanic; that person is in that moment acting as an adversary of God; taking the devil’s side; and this hinders the work of God. Imagine if Jesus had listened to Peter and not been crucified and raised from the dead; then “our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain … your faith is futile and you are still in your sins”. (1st Corinthians 15:14, 17) In the same way, any attempt to in any way justify/save ourselves is futile and it is self-idolatry.
Consider this, if Jesus needed to rebuke Peter, the leader of the disciples, in this way, calling him to repentance, (and this was not the last time He would have to do this) do you think that He might have to do the same with us? Repentance is not a one-time thing in the life of the Christian, it is a lifetime thing. Martin Luther wrote, “for the Christian, such repentance continues until death, for all through life it contends with the sin that remains in the flesh”. (Smalcald Articles, III, par. 40)
So, this is a lifelong struggle, as Paul speaks of in Romans 7 and elsewhere. When your pastor or any other Christian confronts you with your sin and calls you to repent, they are not (necessarily) calling you an unbeliever, but they are warning you, reminding you of your daily need to turn from (repent of) your sin, For, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”. (1st John 1:8) If you allow sin to do as it pleases in your life, refusing to turn from it, Scripture and our Confessions teach, “the Holy Spirit and faith are no longer present”. (Smalcald Articles, III, par. 44-45) “The wicked person will shall die in his iniquity”. (Ezekiel 33:8b) “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out”. (Acts 3:19) God “commands all people everywhere to repent”. (Acts 17:30b)
Our corporate confession of sins at the beginning of the service shows our need for this. Each Divine Service, we confess, “I, a poor miserable sinner confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities … I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them”. This is what Luther speaks of in the Small Catechism under part IV of Holy Baptism, where he writes of repentance being part of the “daily” life of the Christian. “What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam (sinful nature) in us should by daily contrition (sorrow over sin) and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever”. (Luther’s Small Catechism, 4th part of Baptism and explanation)
Here is how the Augsburg Confession describes repentance. “Properly speaking, true repentance is nothing else than to have contrition and sorrow, or terror, on account of our sin, and yet at the same time to believe the Gospel and absolution, that sin has been forgiven and grace obtained through Christ … amendment of life and the forsaking of sin should them follow, for these must be the fruits of repentance … rejected are those who teach that forgiveness of sin is not obtained by faith, but through satisfactions (works) of man”. (Augsburg Confession, Article XII, par. 3-6, 10)
This necessity of contrition and repentance is illustrated by making comparisons using Holy Scripture. Now, Judas, who betrayed our Lord, and King Saul were in some sense sorry for their sins, but their sorrow did them no good, for they did not have faith to grasp hold of the forgiveness of their sins. Judas admitted, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood”, but he did not have saving faith in Christ, “and throwing down the pieces of silver … he went out and hanged himself”. (Matthew 27:4-5) King Saul also had disobeyed God’s Word in many ways and forfeited the blessings God intended for him. He was truly sorry that this had happened, but instead of turning back to God, he went further into disobedience and rebellion and “he died a brutal death at the hands of the enemy God had chosen to defeat”. (LSB study Bible, page 486)
On the other hand, King David and the Apostle Peter provide us with examples of true repentance. King David sinned in countless ways in his affair with Bathsheba. First, he committed adultery with her; then, to cover up the adultery, he had her husband Uriah murdered in battle; even though he was a faithful/loyal soldier. David even tried to justify what he had done, But, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront the king with his wickedness and he confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord”. (2nd Samuel 12:13a) There were severe consequences for King David’s actions; but there was also true repentance, “and Nathan said to David, the Lord has put away your sin”. (2nd Samuel 12:13b)
The Apostle Peter also, despite his brave words to Jesus, “I will never deny You” (Matthew 26:35a) did exactly that. “He began to invoke a curse upon himself, and to swear, I do not the man … and he went out and wept bitterly”. (Matthew 26:74-75) Peter, like David, was granted forgiveness and restoration as an Apostle by Christ after His bodily resurrection. “And Jesus said to him, Follow Me”. (John 21:19b) Jesus continues by talking about this life of repentance in the remaining verses of the Gospel this morning.
“Then Jesus told His disciples, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me”. (Matthew 16:24) “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me”. (Matthew 10:38) Are you taking up your cross daily? You see, this is the life of a Christian; daily repentance and the cross; not “Your Best Life Now”; The Christian faith is not a means of building up your self esteem to make you feel better about yourself; not as a means of earthly success; health or wealth. As CFW Walther (the founder of our LCMS) preached, “A true Christian wants to recognize … everything that is sin according to God’s Word … hating and fearing even the smallest sins in word, deed, or desire”. (Sermon on Matthew 16)
Jesus continues, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake (for the sake of the Gospel), 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”.? (Matthew 16:25-26) Clinging to (or giving in to) the things of this earthly life will not have the effect we think it will; instead, we may well forfeit our soul for all eternity. There is nothing we can give “in return for our soul”. (Matthew 16:26b) There is noting we can do to save ourselves.
So, the Apostle Paul exhorts us, “Seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God … not on the things of the earth. For you died (in your baptism) and your life is hidden with Christ in God … therefore, put to death (repent of) what is earthly in you; sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry”. (Colossians 3:1-5) “Hate what is evil and hold fast to what is good”. (Romans 12:9b)
Of course, the “whole world” will look upon the person (we) who think according to God’s Word, who are “taking up their cross” (Matthew 16:24b) as a fool, but that should not matter to us; for it will become apparent soon enough that they are the ones who are the fools. As the Scriptures declare, “the fool says in his heart that there is no God … they are corrupt” (Psalm 14:1a) and “Fools despise wisdom and instruction”. (Proverbs 1:7b) So, we take up our crosses, confident of God’s promise to care for us in this life and the life that is to come.
Now Jesus speaks briefly of the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, “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 they have done”. (Matthew 16:27) Jesus’ divine and human nature will be clearly seen on that day, when there will be no more opportunity for repentance, but rather the final separation of the sheep and the goats, those who believe in Christ and those who do not. So, Jesus warns, “you must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”. (Matthew 24:44)
Still, for the believer in Jesus, that day is a day to look forward to and so we pray, Jesus said, “Surely, I am coming soon. (to which we add the prayer) Come, Lord Jesus”. (Revelation 22:20) We look forward to that day because Jesus promised that He would, “go and prepare a place for you” (John 14:3a) and “when these things begin to take place, (things such as war, famines, persecutions, etc.) straighten up, raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near”. (Luke 21:28) The writer of Hebrews also proclaims, “Christ … will appear a second time … to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him”. (Hebrews 9:25)
As we wait for that blessed day, we live in daily repentance; for the Apostle Paul declares, “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us”. (Titus 2:11-14a)
In light of Jesus’ coming, Paul speaks many such words of comfort saying “we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words” (1st Thessalonians 4:17b-18) “Build one another up”. (1st Thessalonians 5:11b) He doesn’t want you to be afraid of that day, but to long for it with eager expectation that “He who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Philippians 1:6) Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding …