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October 17, 2004
20th Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 16:21-26
Pastor Joel Zank

BE A TRUE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST!

(Matthew 16:21-26) From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

In Christ Jesus who gave his life as ransom for sinners, dear fellow redeemed,
In a book entitled, "When I Relax, I Feel Guilty" author Tim Hansel writes, "I was almost your person today, Lord. Then I thought what it would have been like if Jesus had done the same thing...What if Christ were almost born and almost lived and almost died? My "almost Christianity" took on a much different light. I realized how many times I had played the game of being one of Jesus' "almost disciples." I recalled how many times I had prayed almost believing and walked through my days as if he were almost risen."

Tim Hansel's brand of Christianity is quite different from our own as WELS Lutherans. His books must be read with a discerning eye. But I sure can relate to what he says about being an "almost disciple" of Jesus. I would guess that the Apostle Peter could too. Just moments before the events of our text unfold, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven" (Matthew 16:15-17). What a high this must have been in the life of the disciple named Peter. But it was just a few minutes later that the same man experienced what had to have been one of his lowest lows. In verse 23 of our text it says, "Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me."

One moment Peter spoke words inspired from heaven; the next his thoughts came from the devil himself. Peter went from hot to cold almost instantly. I'm quite sure that everyone of us can empathize with the Apostle, for we all must plead guilty to the same sin-the sin of spending too much of our time being what Tim Hansel describes as "almost disciples."

But let's be sure to understand what this means and what it doesn't mean. In the eyes of our all-seeing God, each of us is already a real and complete disciple of Jesus Christ for one reason and one reason only - because our gracious God has snatched us sinners from the flames of hell by bringing us to faith in Jesus through the power of his gospel. And this second truth is just as important: God who has given us faith is the one who keeps faith alive in us through the same gospel of Christ. So all the credit and all the glory belong to God alone as the Apostle Paul points out in the familiar words of Ephesians 2:8-9: "By grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-9 not by works, so that no one can boast."

With this truth firmly established by Scripture itself, now let me say that discipleship, that is living the life of a disciple, involves a lot of effort on our part. We do nothing to become disciples; that's God's work. But now that he has called us to be his disciples, now we gladly take up the work of thanking God for all that he has done to save us. To the world around us, and perhaps even in our own eyes, this work of ours will involve a good deal of sacrifice, but if that is so, our sacrifice will always be one of thanksgiving. And it will be a sacrifice only in the sense that we will want to give up whatever would tear us away from Christ, so that we might devote ourselves instead to knowing him more fully through his Word and serving him more gratefully in our lives.

All this effort, this sacrifice is necessary because, as we know too well, we sinful followers of Jesus tend to grow careless in our discipleship. Too often we live and act as if we were almost, but not quite, grateful followers of Christ. Our carelessness concerns the Savior who does not want to lose a single one of us to Satan's schemes. And so today, the Lord who has made us his disciples, calls on us to live by faith he has given us. His Word urges each us: "Be a True Follower of Christ" by denying yourself and by taking up your cross.

Jesus first spoke about self-denial and cross-bearing to the Apostle Peter whose ideas about discipleship were so different from the Savior's. Our text begins with Jesus informing his disciples about his impending death and resurrection. But Peter didn't want to hear about these things. The kind of future that Jesus was talking about sounded difficult and painful, not only for Jesus, but for Peter and for all who followed the Savior. Peter was convinced that Jesus' saving mission could be accomplished without such a great sacrifice by Jesus or his disciples. So he tells Jesus, "Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!" (v.22).

You've heard the Savior's harsh response to Peter's words: "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me;" What Jesus being overly critical? Not at all! Satan was using one of Jesus' closest friends to try to destroy Jesus and so ruin God's plan to save sinners. But Jesus didn't fall for it. Without even a moment's hesitation Jesus pushed the temptation aside and pointed out his disciple's sin: "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men" (v.23).

Following Christ was what Peter wanted to do as long as it didn't inconvenience him in any way. Peter had plans for the future, big plans that no doubt involved being successful in his work, having plenty to live on and being comfortable for the rest of his life. Peter had in mind the things of men-the things that the people of this world live for. But Jesus had in mind for Peter, the things of God. He wanted to redirect Peter's thoughts to matters of eternal importance, lest Peter pursue his own ambitions and lose his soul in the process. So Jesus warned: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it" (vv. 24-25). And then the Lord asked Peter, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (v.26).

Jesus poses the same question to us today. He's asking us, "What matters most to you?" Well? How are we living? How do our priorities line up with those of Christ? Are they the same as his or almost the same? Remember, in our walk with Christ, close doesn't count. If our number one goal on earth is living the most comfortable life here that we can, we don't share our Savior's mind set. If we're so busy studying the markets that we have no time to study God's Word, if all we can think about are the toys we want to buy and the time we want to spend enjoying them, we do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Let's be honest. We've been selling out our souls to the devil a little bit at a time for a just few earthly pleasures; and now we find out that even if we could offer up the whole world to make things right with God again, it wouldn't be enough.

The psalmist says, "...the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough" (Psalm 49:8). Not all the riches of this world could free one of us from the eternal punishment we've earned for ourselves. No, for a ransom that precious, we must look beyond the boundaries of this world to heaven above and even there only one substance is valuable enough to free the human soul from the curse of sin. That substance is the holy blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. In fact, so precious is his blood that when he willingly spilled it on Calvary he freed not just one of us from sin's death grip, but all of us, together with all sinners everywhere.

You see, there is nothing we need to offer in exchange for our souls. The greatest exchange of all took place, as Jesus told his disciples it would, in Jerusalem where Jesus denied himself his very life so that we who were once dead in our sins might now live forever with God. And so it will be my friends, because he who died for us was raised on the third day. He lives to forgive our sins, to comfort our conscience and to renew in us, on a daily basis, a desire to deny ourselves the sinful thoughts and pleasures that could only ruin the faith that saves us. You and I don't have to answer to our sinful nature any longer, because that part of us was nailed to the cross on Good Friday. We say with Paul in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Now when the enemy within calls us away from Jesus, saying, "Here's a better way to spend our time, our energy, our talents, our money..." we can say, "Get away from me. I don't know you. I don't want to know you. I have all that I need in Christ."

That, dear Christians, is self-denial. It sounds rather simple, but it's never easy. In fact, it's quite possible that denying the impulses of our sinful nature will in some ways make our lives more difficult than ever before. So today the Bible urges each of us, "Be a True Follower of Christ by taking up your cross."

Christian cross is the hardship that comes to our lives because we follow Jesus. The Savior once said, "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child... All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:21-22). As we speak and live as followers of Jesus, we may draw the anger of those around us. There was a time when Jesus' own brothers thought he was crazy because of what he said and did. Maybe right now there's a member of our family thinking the same thing about us. Maybe he or she says we're spending too much time at church and giving away too much money as offerings. Perhaps we have a neighbor who jokes about how religious we are. Maybe there's someone at work or school who hates us for speaking so candidly about sin. Maybe co-workers or classmates avoid us because we sometimes talk about Jesus. Maybe we can't get a date or be part of a popular group because we won't take part in sin.

As long as we live in the world, we will face such trials; and as along as we live in this world, we'll be tempted to avoid them. That's what our enemy wants. Satan hopes to wear us down. He wants us to drop our guard of faith and simply blend in with the crowd. But how can we, when we have such a friend as Jesus, one who endured such a horrible cross for us to pay for all the times we've dodged our crosses for no more reason than to spare ourselves some grief and embarrassment?

"Almost disciples," that's what we've been. But thanks to Jesus, that's not how God sees us. No, when he looks at us, he sees 100% pure, full-fledged, full-time disciples, because the faith he's given us covers us with Christ's holiness. You see what that means don't you? We get a fresh start today-a new opportunity to thank God better than we ever have before. And because of God's forgiveness, we'll enjoy the same clean slate tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that. So don't give up, dear friends. It's worth all the effort. The sacrifice of thanks that seems so foolish to the world, is so pleasing and acceptable to God. I think the young missionary said it best. About to be killed for following Christ, he confessed, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to have what he cannot lose" for Jesus' sake. Amen.