A wonderfully Paradoxical Trio

David Poland

Matthew: Kingdom Authority • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

Matthew 16:21–28

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Sermon 51 in a series through the book of Matthew

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Psalm of the Day: Psalm 142

Psalm 142 ESV

A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer. With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me! Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 50:7-9

Isaiah 50:7–9 ESV

But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

Sermon:

Good morning Church! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

This morning, just to dove into it, we will be looking at Matthew 16:21-28 - The end of chapter 16. And on one had, it was good and right to divide last weeks sermon from this one. Last week in particular needed, I believe, its own weight and deserved its own time and attention. But it it impossible to fully understand our passage for today with understanding and tying this passage directly to the passage that came before it. It we remember back to last week, it was peter confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. As Matthew intentionally moves the narrative form Jesus ministering out and about to Jesus going straight towards Jerusalem and his crucifixion. It started with a question: Jesus asked his disciples who do people say that I am but as we noted that is not what Jesus really cares about, and not the issue at hand, jesus then asks the disciples: Who do you say that I am? And Peter responds: you are the Christ the son of the Living God. Good job Peter. Of all the things that you have gotten wrong over the course of your life and things you will get wrong, we have many of them documented, but here, in this, what is in some ways the ultimate test, and the most important one, Peter gets it right.

But now we are left with a question: what sort of Christ is he. It is not enough just so say: he is the christ, we can make that statement and still be wrong, so HERE Matthew wants to answer the question: well what sort of christ is he? And so while I don't want to read the whole section yet, Here is our clue that something different is going on. Verse 21, our first verse for the day:

Matthew 16:21 (ESV)

From that time

From that time. So Matthew wants us to see that from the time peter confesses who Jesus is something changes. What is it? Well what we will see is that by and large gone are most of the moral teaching, though that s surely here. But the intent and focus, that is more the right way to say it, the intent and the focus of his teaching begins to shift. To what? to continue:

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things

This is why I was willing to say and will stand behind what I said last week that this is the beginning of the end. Because here it is told to us plainly. This is when Jesus kicks into full force. i am going to Go. I am going to die. and so today as we dive into our text for today I want us to first understand how difficult this must have been. What Jesus is introducing us to here is a huge paradox. You are the Christ! Peter proclaims. Who will die at the hands of the scribes and Pharisees. The King the SON OF THE LIVING GOD must die. It seems wrong. and in fact, it is one of many things that in our passage will seem wrong. I have pulled out three.

Just to brag a little bit. I had first titled this sermon. a Trio of wonderful paradoxes. But then I realized we had ONE-derful PAIR-adox and TRIO. So i because I am rather proud of this I want to point it out that we have a WONDERFULLY PARADOXICAL TRIO. It took a whole dinner to come up with that, you can ask Desiree. I really wasn’t too helpful one family dinner as i tried to figure that one out. But today we are looking at three different paradoxes. These three are in some sense confounding, on an earthly level, they do not make much sense, but for those of us who lay hold to these they bring to us joy and peace and life and salvation. Lets start by reading our passage.

Matthew 16:21–28 ESV

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.” But he 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.” 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, 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? 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.”

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Lets begin with a word of Prayer.

Dear Lord we do thank you for today. Another day that you have made that we may rejoice and be glad in it. WE praise you for you are great and greatly to be praised. You are high and lifted up, you alone is God, there is no other. WE know, for your word teaches us, that your thoughts are high above our thoughts. We know that you use foolishness to confound the wise. SO we pray that you would open up our eyes to see and know and hear the things that you have said. Speak to us through this foolishness, these things that seem to make no sense. May they resound in our hearts, and give us life and love. In Jesus Name we pray. AMEN

So As I said we have for us here three paradoxes to look at this morning. Three ways that Jesus teaches that what we think, what we see and what we think we know are not what matter. and they might not even be right. For God is the one that knows all truth. The one who knows how things are and how they will be the one who has proclaimed the end form the beginning, the one who is sovereign and mighty. Omnipotent omniscient almighty king of kings. And so we must listen to what he says rather than what we might think. And the fist one that we noted we should start with a caveat. For us this paradox is much more easy to grasp. For we know the whole story. We have seen things, Scripture teaches us that we have seen things that angels WISH to understand. WE know, even what the prophets wrote about more than they did. We see and can understand. but to the disciples and to Peter in particular we will see that this was a huge Paradox. So Paradox 1 is THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST.

Paradox 1: THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST

Peter Proclaimed boldly: you are the CHRIST. Jesus says: you are right. Good job. “Great, you are going to Jerusalem. That’s where Our Kingdom should be, Davids Kingdom was there. If you are going to do this, i you are going to reshape the world, if you are going to free us and be our savior GREAT. you are going to Jerusalem.” Jesus continues. AND SUFFER MANY THINGS. Maybe we could bite this bullet. Maybe this could make sense. It is not going to be necessarily an easy fight. If we are thinking in Davidic terms we know that David himself suffered. If David is the example then we know he suffered a lot. Saul hated him and sought to kill him, he had to run and hide in caves. He fled for his life, there was civil war, so OK we Got you Jesus, the Christ will suffer OK but Jesus continues. The Suffering comes at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. Maybe we can wrap our heads around this, but usually these are not militant guys and we shouldn't be fighting against them, I mean Rome is our biggest issue, but they have been against Jesus already, so OK, maybe We can make this make sense, but Jesus continues again: AND BE KILLED.

That is not the plan. That is not how it is supposed to Go. Sure Jesus go to Jerusalem, fight our fight redeem us from the curse of Roman oppression. But that is not what Jesus had in mind. OK Messiah, Christ, go do your Messiah Chrsit Job. Jesus says: I am. I am going to die. To the disciples, who especially, well let me, if I may, use what one of my pastor friends calls “sanctified imagination” if I may use my imagination for just a second. Matthew probably giggled in his heart as he wrote this. He knew this was true. but he was there when Jesus said this. He knows what Peter is going to say. And he even knew his own heart. As he spent most of his life working for the perceived big enemy as a tax collector. SO Matthew, being o the wrong side of the fight for so long knew how this was supposed to work. He knew the way everyone hated him and Rome. He knew that is not what the crucified Christ came for, and now he knows is. I picture in my heart and in my mind him sort of smiling as he remembers all the zealots against Rome who heard this and were incensed who became zealots for Christ when they finally understood what Jesus was talking about here.

But here Jesus knew what his role was. In theological circles we often talk about what is called the pactum saltis that is your fancy Latin phrase to impress your friends an loved ones with this Thanksgiving. But this one is kinda easy. Pactum we could think of pact or really for us promise. salutis is salvation. So Pactum salutis is the promise of salvation. when we talk about the pactum what we are speaking of s how, in eternity, before the foundations of the world were lain, in the perfect fellowship communion and love within the holy Trinity there was a promise to save. That The son, the second person of the trinity would be the one who saves. that the father would call, the son save and the spirit seal a people. Even before there were people. This promise was made before the world was. And so Jesus knowing, in some sense, this is hard, but in some sense he knew what it would take to save his people.

He knows the truth that no one else grasps yet. he knows that he must be the crucified christ. that in fact, the Messiah cannot be the messiah without being crucified. This is what makes this first paradox so important for us to understand. It sounds wrong, but the only way salvation works is if it is true. For it turns out what we did not need was salvation and redemption for roman oppression. What we needed was salvation and redemption for the great enemies of mankind, sin and death, and the cross purchases both of those.

The Christ that peter maybe wanted, that he thought he knew and understood, the one that the majority of people desired was sort of the reigning [political powerful messiah. But they were skipping over the servant songs. they were skipping over when Isaiah spoke with passion and clarity and he said that the chastisement that brings us peace was placed upon him. That he was stricken, he was afflicted, he was pierced for OUR transgressions. again the chastisement that brought us peace. That’s what he came do do, this is what was placed upon him. SO though it seems like a paradox, in truth the only way that the Christ can save us if he is the crucified christ.

But what happens if we don’t fully get that. Well, now we are introduced to our second paradox. THE DEVILISH DISCIPLE.

Paradox 2: THE DEVILISH DISCIPLE

Peter heard this, he heard Jesus loud and clear. Jesus often teaches in parables, he teaches in sort of hidden words that we have to mine these things out. so in truth it makes sense that the disciple might mss this clue or miss that teaching or hint. But when Jesus changes his tone here he begins teaching more directly and a little more clearly. Part of how I know that is that Peter for sure understood the surface level of what Jesus is saying here. So he pulls Jesus aside and says like hey Jesus, you are teaching some CRAZY stuff. Verse 22

Matthew 16:22 ESV

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”

I told you Jesus you are the Christ, and Jesus, the Christ and this crucifixion, this suffering and this dying stuff, it cannot happen. It cannot happen like this. Peter pulls aside Jesus to say: “Hey, didn’t want to correct you in front of everyone, that might have been a little awkward for both of us, but you are wrong.” Jesus turns to him, one passage after, it is on the same page! you are Peter and on this Rock i will build my church. I will give you the keys to the kingdom such that what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven. Peter, you have authority and power and the church is built here on you and on your testimony. Lets do this, but a paragraph latter we read: GET BEHIND ME SATAN!”

Jesus is not calling peter, well he is calling his satan. But he is not insinuating that Peter is the devil, Beelzebub, Lucifer incarnate. He is saying that he is acting satanic. In sort of the worst possible way. Lets remember back to the first time we had Satan appear in the book of Matthew. He was tempting Jesus. And this is very important for us to Get. Matthew chapter 4. Jesus is baptized ad then he is Matthew 4:1

Matthew 4:1 ESV

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And the temptations involve, in some way shape or form, subverting the promises of God and replacing them with something less than. I know you are hungry, why don’t you turn these rocks to bread. Jesus responds: don’t need bread, i need the words of God. OK, says the devil, I know you might think you are the son of God, but why don’t you put God to the test. Why don’t you just hop off this tower. That way you don’t have to worry or have any doubt, I mean, his angels will catch you, so just hop on off. No says Jesus it is not important that I know or prove to you, it is important that I do not put god to the test. OK, Fine, the devil takes off his kid gloves and goes straight to the heart of the matter. The way of the Christ, and fascinating here, the DEVIL knew that the way of the christ would be difficult. Jesus knew the way of the Christ would be difficult. so the devil tries to give him a way out. You know what, don’t take the hard way, just bow before me, i will give you all the world. Jesus says no. and here Peter comes back with that exact same thought.

Jesus, you are bringing up the hard way, you are bringing up the crucified, this hard painful way. OK Jesus You know, you are not in this on your own, you Got me and the 11 other disciples, lets figure out a way to do this. After Peter says something that he can only say because the father has reveled it. As he contemplates who Jesus is he is given supernatural revelation. God reveals to him the truth, you are the Christ, the SON OF THE LIVING GOD and here not one paragraph later he immediately looses that and he begins setting himself not on the things of God but on the things of Man. In truth he lost sigh of who the Chrsit should be. He lost the thread of what it truly means to be the son of the living God. and instead is thinking about empowerment. and who am I going to follow if Jesu is gone and thinking of what am I supposed to do? This doesn't make sense.

I think there is an important lesson for us here. It is very easy for us to loose our focus. I try to identify with the disciples, because I know that the same sinful heart beats in my chest as did theirs. and so as i see Peter struggling, he has just been on this sort of huge mountaintop where he is saying and speaking things that the Father has revealed to him, he is speaking the truth of Who God is and what God has done, and he is speaking these blessed profound universe altering truths, but he does not stay there. he immediately falls. This then is the warning and lesson for us. no mountaintop is impregnable, be on guard.

But I also want to note a lesson and some hope. Spoiler alert, I can say this because we have a whole advent series before we get to the very ext passage, so you will forget this to a certain extent, but after this peter will go to another this time literal mountaintop and there have a profound experience as he sees the transfigured Chrsit shining in all his glory. And here is the beauty. See it is God who reveals, hence peters first confession and then it is God who sanctifies and he raises peter up out of this devilish thoughts and having his see the glorified Chrsit. That’s the move from this rebuke to seeing the beauty of his savior. To the command to have no fear, to the intimate and beautiful teaching he receives from his Messiah. This paradox, if we are frank and honest is the truth of who we are, but thanks be to God that he has the race to save us, rebuke us and sanctify us. and part of how he does that is trough the third paradox.

he begins to teach the disciples hey, you guys still are not getting this. Not only do I have to suffer and die. y’all got some problems coming up to. The paradox that Jesus teaches to explain the way the words works is this: OK hears the deal: NO CROSS, NO CROWN.

Paradox 3: NO CROSS, NO CROWN

That is true of Jesus, as he teaches the crucified christ he s saying this is true of him, but here he makes it explicit that it is not just for himself, but also for his disciples.

Matthew 16:24 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

We reading that have the benefit of knowing that this is literally HOW Jesus himself would suffer and die, for we know the end of the Story. But the disciples might not have known. For no where has Jesus been explicit that HE would bear the cross, only his disciples. Just that he will doe. Not only do I have to die disciples, but guess what. You yourselves must pick up this brutal symbol of Roman oppression. Jesus saying pick up your cross, we sort of say that all the time ad we have certain thoughts or ideas in mind, we might not have the full picture and grasp on what this meant to the disciples. It is not JUST THAT I, the messiah will suffer and die. I am not going to be the messiah you are looking for, but after that, and really not just after that, Jesus mentions no scope of time here. But he says if you are gong to follow me, not only will you have to deal with roman oppression, but you will have to o your own back wear this symbol of roman oppression.

Take up your Cross. Whoever wold save his life. if you think there is another way out of this, if you think you can follow Christ by dong anything other than giving him all your strength and all your might, if you try to save any part of your life you will loose it. But if you loose your life for Jesus sake you will find it. We have heard this verse countless times:

Matthew 16:26 ESV

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?

Here Jesus hits them with the truth. I am not coming to save this earthly kingdom from Roman oppression. I am coming for something much more precious and much more important. I am coming for your SOUL. SO how do yo save your soul? You loose it. You do not worry about physical monetary temporary earthly gain. You don’t, to quote Jesus earlier in Matthew, Lay up your treasures here on earth where moth and rust can and will destroy. Instead lay up your treasure in heaven. a the ,most important and valuable treasure that you could have in heaven is your soul being secure in the hands of the one who made you, loves you and saves you. So don’t try to hold so tightly to your soul, give it up to him.

When all is said and done, and you have all the money and all the fame, all the power, you cannot trade it for your soul, so what is it really worth? nothing. Jesus says that you will find your life when you loose it. and you find a very profound and rich one. Verse 27: I am coming.

I have been conveniently skipping something that Jesus was teaching in verse 21. To read it again:

Matthew 16:21 (ESV)

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.

Peter, you are so focused on this death you are not hearing this last part. Disciples you are so caught up and focused on picking up your cross ad all this other stuff, hear this today this last part: I will be raised. ad that becomes the source of all these other things.

So verse 27:

Matthew 16:27 ESV

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.

There’s your crown. there's the reward. There is what we are hoping and longing for. That he will return. See the disciples were looking for some sort of temporary earthly political messiah. We have our hope our eyes and heart set upon and eternal and heavenly messiah. Who when he comes and returns will bring forth, we read this in revelation, he will usher in a new heavens and a new earth. All wrongs will be made right. All things, all sins punished all good deeds rewarded, he will burn away the chaff. We know and believe all these things. The paradox is that it will cost you. Take up your cross. Follow him. Forfeit everything for the sake of following christ, and there find everything.

When I was a youth Pastor I remember one Camp we went to in particular. and the camp pastor was preaching pretty much exactly this. He was trying to teach young people to understand just this. Trying to show them, you have to give up everything: your hopes, your dreams, your wants, your desires, even your plans for the future, you HAVE to give it all up. And I remember afterward in our small group time some of the kids really (rightly!) wrestling with this.

What does it mean that we have to give everything up? - Great question. It means that you have to give EVERYTHING UP! Does it mean that i have to go and become missionary? Not necessarily, but if he asks you to will you? Does this mean I have to delay college one year delay ad find a way to serve him in a gap year? Not necessarily, but if he asks you to, will you? But what if my parents say this or my friends do that? Again, I don’t know what he is asking you to, but if he asks you to, will you? does this mean I have to stay single my whole life what If God asks me not to ever find someone and get married DO I have to give him even those hopes and dreams? Yeah, you do. Again, what I am saying is not easy, but it is the cost, whatever he asks of you - will you do it?

To know if we are truly giving up everything, taking up our cross and following him, this is the question i find most helpful. If he asks: WOULD YOU? Then you ask: IS HE ASKING? For me in my heart and mind i find this to be helpful in revealing my idols. If God asked me to give up X Y or Z - would I? Because here is the hope, here is the promise here is the truth. if we have no cross we get no crown. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Chrsit Jesus who humbled himself even to the point of death, even to the point of death on the cross. If it was true for our savior who, though he died on the cross, has now been given the name greater than any other name, the name that every knee will bow to and every tongue will confess, like peter did, Jesus Christ is LORD. If it was true for him it must be true for us.

But when we begin to understand how the paradoxes play out in our lives, we begin to see the truth hope and beauty of who our savior is, we will be encouraged and blessed. Lets pray