Love's Reward

Jesus means his followers to share in Peter’s confession: to share too in the suffering and power of the Christian life. Followers of Jesus must not forget that there is inevitably a lifelong battle to fight. - MMT

The Messiah was expected to inflict suffering and death on Israel’s enemies and on the wicked within Israel, not to experience it himself.

The disciples were incapable of hearing anything beyond the negative part of the announcement. Jewish writings had much to say about the final resurrection of the dead but nothing about the resurrection of a single martyr. – IC

21. [Before this] he had mainly taught them only one point, that he was the Christ. Now, Christ must through sufferings and death enter into his glory.

The most learned body of men of the nation wanted to kill Jesus. – J.W.

22. Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke him.

23. Jesus rebuked Peter by way of rebuking speech from Satan. Peter was acting like Satan, hindering the plan of redemption, and giving Jesus the worst advice.

Directly: “Resume your proper role as a disciple; learn from me, don’t try to teach me.”

Figuratively: “Don’t stand in my way; follow me to the cross!”

Peter was telling Jesus to favor himself over others.

The only good response is the one Jesus gave. “Get behind me Satan”

If Peter would not, he would make others stumble in their faith.

Self-interest always comes from corrupted humanity, not God.

To human thinking, the cross must ever remain a scandal, (what kind of God allows himself to be crucified) but it plays an indispensable role in God’s salvation history.

Skandalon, used figuratively, it referred to causes or occasions of sin (see Matt. 13:41; 18:7) or hindrances to faith (1 Cor. 1:23 and Gal. 5:11 refer to the cross as a skandalon).

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ one must deny or renounce their own will for the will of God.

This kind of following Jesus conflicts with our sense of ease and comfort.

It would involve following him in suffering and hardship (21).

It would involve following him in self-denial and forfeiting their lives (24–25).

It would mean taking on the forces of unbelief that refused to accept Jesus as Messiah.

24. None is forced, but if any will be a Christian, it must be on these terms.

All things that are painful and cause suffering are opportunities to embrace God’s will, moving us towards Godliness.

“Great crosses are occasions of great improvement.”

“Daily and hourly crosses make effectual oblations of our will to God.” - IC

To “deny oneself” is not native to Hebrew and Aramaic, Matthew interprets this idiom as meaning “love [yourself] less,” to give a lower priority.

“Deny oneself” thus means to subordinate one’s appetites and desires to God’s will for us as made known in Jesus.

Self-denial for the sake of self-denial is an expression of the self’s need for control, not of submission to God’s thinking (v. 23).

Properly understood, calls for affirmation of oneself as a child of God. Following Jesus means being ultimately subordinate only to God.

Submission among Christians, must be reciprocal (see Eph. 5:21).

To take up one’s cross thus means to accept ridicule and hostility from those whose thinking reflects this world, not God’s.

We must be prepared to be rejected as our master was rejected.

Bearing one’s cross and taking up Jesus’ yoke are complementary: we learn from him how to remain obedient to God in a disobedient world. - IC

25. Can any man hope, to renounce himself, if he cannot do it in the smallest instances? - JW

It is not enough to confess Jesus as Messiah and Lord. He must be acknowledged as suffering and crucified Lord, and this acknowledgment must not be one of theory but of practice. To confess Jesus truly means to walk the way of the cross in one’s daily life. - IC

27. There is no way to escape the righteous judgment of God. – J.W.

Matthew’s version has Jesus refer to his glorious future destiny in this modest way, using third-person language and the mysterious self-designation “the Son of man.”

In this judgment saying Matthew employs not “deeds” (plural) but “practice” (singular).

The context emphasizes suffering, praxis may here refer not simply to active deeds but also to one’s passive suffering, one’s bearing vis-à-vis the world. Taken in this way, the saying functions less as a warning than as a consolation: If you affirm the crucified Christ in your life-style, you will be affirmed!

Christ telling Peter, and thereby all future believers, to get behind him, means that all that we do must be subject to the will of God.

Sometimes, God’s will is made plain to us by God’s grace given to us while we are suffering.

Other times, the will of God made plain to us through words, in order to clearly understand it.

Why should we give up our lives?

Why deny ourselves, isn’t that unhealthy?

Shouldn’t we take care of ourselves?

Pain & suffering are hurtful and harmful, shouldn’t Christ deliver us from them?

Jesus made it plain to his disciples.

Peter did not know what he was truly proclaiming & Jesus clarified it for him.

Sometimes the disciples needed direct confrontation of Christ in order to clearly know the will of God.

They are called to follow their Master in suffering but are promised a share in his triumph (24, 18). – MMT

24. God is the author of all events: that none is so small or inconsiderable, as to escape his notice and direction.

Every event therefore declares to us the will of God, to which thus declared we should heartily submit.

We should renounce our own to embrace it; we should approve and choose what his choice warrants as best for us.

Let us bear these little things, at least for God’s sake, and prefer his will to our own in matters of so small importance. – J.W.

A rebuke from Jesus is better than any honor of another person.

To be a scandal in the world by way of suffering for Christ is to be rewarded by God.

What [we] loses on earth he shall find in heaven. – J.W.

To lose one’s natural life for Christ means finding one’s soul, in the sense that God will bestow on it the gift of eternal life.

Here “kingdom” means not a place but royal rule.

Jesus the Messiah will return in glory, fully empowered to exercise his royal authority on God’s behalf. - IC

28. And as an emblem of this, there are some here who shall live to see the Messiah coming to set up his mediatorial kingdom, with great power and glory, by the increase of his church, and the destruction of the temple, city, and polity of the Jews. – J.W.

The promise of Jesus’ glorious arrival with his angels remains unfulfilled.

It was possible to hold on to the hope of a literal fulfillment of this promise given way to the vision of an enormous missionary task.

Jesus’ return in glory, cannot take place until the gospel has been proclaimed to all the Gentiles (24:14).

The Messiah’s death will have saving power (“a ransom for many,” 20:28). It is sufficient to know that God’s plan for his Messiah includes suffering.

God’s grand purpose for the Gentiles must take precedence over the provisional promise concerning “some standing here.” – IC

In Romans 12, Paul defines the bounds of love for us.

Real love must:

Be Sincere

Holds onto the good

Devoted to each other

With Zeal & Fervent (with Passion & Intensity)

Joyful in Hope

Patient in Affliction

Faithful in Prayer

Sharing with the Needy

Practice Hospitality

Bless the Persecuting

Be Compassionate:

Rejoice with Others

Mourn with Others

Live in Harmony

Love is NOT:

Proud

Conceited

Vengeful

Coercive

Show enemies Mercy, Give them food & drink

Become the Contrast of Evil by Doing Good

By Doing Good we receive our due reward:

Crown of Life (no loss of divine life)

An Incorruptible Crown (no loss of faithfulness)

Crown of Righteousness (no loss of goodness)

Crown of Glory (no loss of hope)

Crown of Rejoicing (no loss of joy)

God sends us his peace in our suffering, through his presence.

God sends us his grace and mercy through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We share in the suffering of Christ in our suffering, but we cannot share in the redemption without having faith that his death is a grace extended to us to cover our sin.

Christ on the Cross is enough for us to know what love ultimately looks like.

We can’t hope to best it, we can only hope to exemplify him.

Only by choosing discomfort and stepping out to do as Christ commands, through enduring love, deny ourselves, revealing the grace of God sent as a balm for our pain and suffering.

Related Media

Related Sermons