Jesus Predicts His Death
Matt Redstone
The Road to Resurrection • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 24:59
0 ratings
· 9 viewsEaster is right around the corner. Over the next couple of weeks, we will set the stage for Good Friday, looking forward to Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why did Jesus have to die? What was so significant about His entry into Jerusalem? What was the Pharisees problem? Most importantly, what implications does Easter have for you?
Files
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Is there anyone here this morning that is struggling with something? Maybe it is a person at your work. Maybe it is your health or financial pressure.
It is safe to say that most of us are struggling with something. It is also safe to assume that you probably haven’t shared your struggle with anyone. There is this perception that if you share your trials, you will be looked down on as weak, so most people will keep their struggles to themselves.
If you are not, then you are part of an elite group of people. But I would encourage you to not tune out of the message this morning because there is a good chance that a struggle or a trial is coming. Or there is a good chane that you have wrestled with something in your past and you may not be overly thrilled with how that situation got resolved.
The truth is, trials, challenges, whatever you want to call them, they are a part of life. Sometimes you can see something coming, and sometimes it kind of catches you off guard.
As we kick off our series, The Road to Resurrection, you are going to see how the disciples handled one of the biggest challenges of their life. This morning, we are going to look at the three times Jesus warned the disciples that He was going to die, and how they reacted to His predictions. The lesson this morning is not so much how they reacted, but how Jesus used those moments to teach the disciples, and by extension us, some valuable lessons about faith, life, and the challenges that come.
The passages we are going to be looking at are in Matthew. If you have your bible, you can turn to Matthew 16 to kick things off. If you don’t have a bible, there is one on the table, and of course the scripture will be on the screen and in the sermon notes on the app.
From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
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, not from God’s.”
blank
Prediction 1
Oh Peter. There is a little context required before we can appreciate what is going on here. Just moments before this little exchange between Peter and Jesus, Peter had just confessed Jesus to be the Christ. Now he is being rebuked by Jesus. What is going on?
Peter is like a lot of people. When it comes to Jesus being the Christ, the Messiah, Peter is all in. The Messiah was going to come and make everything right. Deep down, Peter, like many of Jesus’s followers, were hoping Jesus was going to overthrow the Roman empire and return Israel to it’s former glory.
Even today, lots of people love the idea of Jesus forgiving sin and heal their sickness. They really like the victory part of Jesus.
But then there is the death part of Jesus’s story, and Peter is not a huge fan. In fact, he takes is upon himself to rebuke Jesus because death doesn’t line up with what Peter, the disciples and the other followers are hoping for. If Jesus dies, how is He ever going to restore Israel?
This is why, not only is Peter rebuked, but Jesus takes the opportunity to remind the disciples that anyone who wants to be a follower of His must daily take up their cross. It is a reminder that being a disciple comes with certain victories, but it also comes with certain challenges. The world, the devil, it is all working to hold you back. There are trials that come with being a disciple. Taking up the cross is not just a call to bear through sickness or inconvenience; it is a call to faithfulness in the face of suffering, shame, rejection, and even death.
Jesus told the disciples that if the world did it to Him, the world was definitely going to do it to them, and we should probably prepare ourselves for the same.
After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.
He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
blank
Prediction 2
Jesus again warns the disciples that he is going to be betrayed, killed, and three days later be raised from the dead, and the disciples grieve.
The response is understandable. Their friend and mentor of the past three years is telling them that their time is coming to an end. He is going to die, and Jesus doesn’t tell lies, so they respond wth grief.
But they are missing the last part of the story. Jesus tells them He is not going to stay dead. He is going to come back. But they are not hearing that part; they are stuck on the death part.
The same can be said about most people today. You can become so consumed with an issue or problem that it becomes all you see. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no relief, there is only the death that comes with the very present trial.
It is interesting that the Gospel of Mark adds, they didn’t understand what was going on, and they were afraid to ask. Some of them heard the part of Jesus coming back from the dead, but it didn’t make sense to them because no one had ever done that before. Was Jesus talking in riddles again?
What do you do when a problem becomes all consuming? Do you reach out for help, or do you just hope that it work itself out, meanwhile suffering and pain may be mounting?
I like what happens next in the Matthew account. Matthew 17:24-27
On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”
“Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house. But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”
“They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied. “Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free!
However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”
blank
now it would be easy to be distracted by the conversation about taxes, but there is something pretty significant happening in this story, and it is happening at Peter’s expense again.
Jesus tells Peter to take a line and catch a fish. Now to the average person, this doesn’t seem signficant, but for Peter at this time, it would have been quite the blow. Remember, when Jesus found Peter, he was a full blown professional fisherman. As a pro, he used nets and boats. He coordinated teams of people and he didn’t just catch fish; he caught hundreds of fish. For Peter, using a line was like going back to basics. A line was something amateurs used, something a child would use. This is not something Peter would use.
This would have been a humbling experience, yet in the midst of the humbling, something amazing happened. He caught a fish that just happened to have enough money to pay the taxes for him and Jesus at the temple.
For some of you, you are going through a trial, and you are looking for Jesus’s direction, but your faith journey has complicated things. There are steps to your devotion life and you need to check every box or you feel incomplete. This morning, the Spirit might be asking you to simplify, go back to basics, and make room for the Spirit to speak. It might be hard, because secretly you’re really proud of your routine. This morning, like Peter, Jesus is asking you to get back to basics and let Him speak to you.
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him.
“Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die.
Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”
blank
Prediction 3
Jesus once again tells the disciples that He is going to die. This time, he goes into great detail, leaving nothing out. Jesus is probably hoping that if the disciples know what is coming, it won’t be such a shock. As we know from reading the story, it still catches them by surprise.
But there is something significant that Jesus has said all three times, and somehow the disciples keep missing it. In three days, He will be raised from the dead. Three times Jesus tells them, emphasizes that He will come back. Jesus never talks about the cross without mentioning the resurrection.
Sometimes this happens in the church. Believers get fixated on everything the cross has accomplished for us that we miss the hope that is found is resurrection. It is by the cross that you are forgiven, but it is in the resurrection that you have the hope of eternity. The cross takes away the sin, but it is in the resurrection that you have new life.
The same can be said about the challenges that you have faced, are facing, or will face in the future. Yes the trial is tough, maybe even all consuming. But the trial you face today is not the end of the story. There is hope on the other side. The challenge you are going through maybe your cross, but resurrection follows.
It why the apostle James tells us
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
or when Paul writes
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
blank
what I’m not doing is undermining the trial you may be facing. I don’t know what you are going through, and I don’t know how hard it is for you to go through it.
But what I do know is that God can use it to accomplish great things in your life. God can use it for your good. He can use it to refine your character or strengthen your faith. This challenge that you are going through will not be wasted. Jesus didn’t waste an opportunity to teach the disciples the life lessons they needed to remain faithful, and He continues to use the trials of life to refine us.
As a council we going through a study called, “Grow character” and in it the author says that the person or situation in your life that makes you the most uncomfortable maybe a gift from God, smoothing out some of the rough spots in your life.
Some of you may know how God is using the trial to refine you. It is very evident what part of your character is being refined. Maybe it is not so clear. Maybe it is something that will become clear in the rearview mirror. Maybe you just have to ask Him how He is going to use it.
Application
that is what I want you to do this week. Whatever it is that you are going through, I want you to take time this week and ask God how He is using this trial to refine you. LIke I said, some of you already know, but maybe you don’t, or maybe you did and need to be reminded of it.
But more importantly, as tough as it may be, thank God for the trial. Not because of how hard it is, but because you know, based on the word, that God can use it for your good. As James said, consider it joy when trials come. So ask God to fill you with His joy in the midst of the trial.
If you can do that, you will begin to see the trial in a new light. You might gain some perspective, you might have new strength to endure it, or you might have new confidence to overcome it. The point is to not let it overwhelm you, to not let it consume you, but to be consumed with the Holy Spirit, be consumed with the peace that surpasses all understanding. Above all, thank the Lord that you don’t face this trial alone, but He is with you through it all. No matter how tough it might seem, imagine facing it alone, without the Creator of the universe going before you.
This week, keep the whole story in your sight. Don’t become consumed with the problem, but keep your eyes on the resurrection, because it is coming.
Let’s pray
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
1. What stood out from this morning’s message?
1. What stood out from this morning’s message?
2. What challenge or trial are you facing? Share it with the table in as much or little detail as you are comfortable with.
2. What challenge or trial are you facing? Share it with the table in as much or little detail as you are comfortable with.
3. Pray that God would reveal to each of you how He is using the current struggle to refine you. What lessons do you need to learn?
3. Pray that God would reveal to each of you how He is using the current struggle to refine you. What lessons do you need to learn?