Living Life to the Fullest, Matthew 16:21-27
One of my favorite things to do is the read church history, as well as reading through Christian biography. As we read through church history one of the things that should impress us is the number of Christians down through the centuries who have been imprisoned, tortured, have had all of their possession stolen from them by various governments, and even been executed because of their faith in Christ. Some of them lived short lives. We think that a long life measured in years is somehow related to the fulness of life, but many martyrs of the church did not live to be a very old age. We recognize that some lived many years in prison where they did not have food, may have been tortured, and were subject to disease and many died from disease.
We think today of the pastor from Idaho, a US citizen, who has been in prison now for three years in Iran. We remember that there are many believers throughout history who have suffered persecution and loss for Christ. And that is odd for us as Americans because we live in a historical bubble, a time when since the beginning of the 1700s Christians in this country don't get persecuted for their faith. I think things are changing.
Recently I read the example of one of the lesser-known martyrs of church history, John Dick, the son of an Edinburgh lawyer. He was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh where he studied theology in preparation to be a minister of the gospel. He never made it. I would sometime like to write a book on the martyrs who trained and prepared for the ministry only to have their life taken as they were on the threshold of that ministry. God has still prepared them, their lives had significance and meaning; but that's not what they thought. And that is true for all of us. Sometimes we think we know what God's plan is for us and it is a different plan.
John Dick was in preparation to be a Presbyterian minister but this was at a time when Britain's king Charles II was restored to the throne and all Presbyterians were identified as outlaws and criminals. He was brought before the Committee of Public Affairs on August 29, 1683. They found him guilty of treason and sentenced him to death by hanging. He was placed in the jail by the courthouse and tossed into a cell with two dozen other religious prisoners. The men joined together in prayer seeking God's help as they planned a mass escape. News, though, leaked out and Presbyterians all over Scotland were praying for a successful breakout. On the appointed night they sawed their way through the bars on the window. There was a narrow street in the back and as they did so one of the bars from the window to land on the street not far from a sentry. They held their breath hoping and praying that this would not have alerted the sentry, and it did not. The next morning it was discovered that they had all escaped and for the next several months they were all successful in hiding. Six months later he was the only one to be recaptured.
At that time he wrote his 58-page testimony: “Testimony to the doctrine, worship, discipline and government of the Church of Scotland, and the covenanted reformation in the three kingdoms.” Despite it's title it circulated widely; it was one of the best sellers. But he was captured, taken to the scaffold to be hung, and on that scaffold like so many other martyrs he sang hymns to the glory of God. He sang from Psalm 2, he read Ezekiel 9, and preached his last sermon saying, “Remember when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac said, 'Here is the wood and the fire, but where is the sacrifice'? And John Dick turned and gazed upon the gallows and said, 'Now blessed in the Lord; here is the sacrifice' (referring to himself).
Down through the centuries there have been untold believers who have suffered for their faith in Jesus Christ. But for us as Americans we have never had to encounter that. We have a life that seems very abundant with all of the material blessings with our jobs and our careers and all of the things that we have. But how would it be in our lives were threatened on a daily basis with the loss of everything that we have.
In 1683 when John Dick was martyred the idea of freedom of religion unhindered an uninterrupted by the power of the state was pretty much unknown. By the time we get into the middle part of the early 1700s there had come a recognition in the colonies that people were here because they needed to worship freely without interference from the government. That was finally set forth in law when the US Constitution was adopted and it was made part of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. That has been the focus; that has been called the establishment clause, and for probably the last fifty or sixty years since WWII most of the judicial decisions have been related to that. But the next clause is equally significant, especially today in the light of what has happened with same-sex marriage: “... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.
Where would you think that people would freely exercise their religion? If you listen to some people who are hostile to Christianity today, they say, “Well this is fine and good, you can exercise your beliefs at your church, at home, but don't bring them into the market place. Don't bring them to work with you. If you work for the government, are in the military, are a court official or a magistrate, you are now under the authority of the government. We have a new law that mandates that you perform same-sex marriages in violation of your conscience.” So free exercise, yes, but keep it at church. This is going to change things for a lot of Christians as we look at this new situation in the United States. The Christian life that we have experienced in the country where in our religious expression in the public market place was not questioned, now is being questioned.
This last week we had this county clerk in Kentucky arrested and put in jail because of her conviction that God has condemned same-sex marriage and that homosexuality is a sin. The issue is not her theology because under the First Amendment the issue isn't what a person believes but the sanctity of their beliefs, and that they have the right to believe what they believe—sincerely held religious belief. But that has brought about a clash. So now we see looming on the horizon for each of us that suffering, persecution, and perhaps even martyrdom is at the shores of the United States and North America. In much of the world Christians experience this all the time and this has been the norm throughout the church age. We in America have just lived in this historical bubble for about 300 years. In the rest of the world they don't have a First Amendment to protect them and when they trust in Christ they put everything at risk.
We are going to see some passages that focus on what our attitude should be in preparation for some persecution and hostility that may come in our own direction. Jesus has taken His disciples from Bethsaida up to Caesarea Philippi. It is not really said that he went there for R & R but He is not going to be with the crowds and to teach, and the only thing we are told is He goes there to give a specific lesson to His disciples. That is this Q and A that takes place beginning in verse thirteen.
As He asks them this question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” He is trying to get them to think through His identity and the implications of His messianic identity. They already knew He was the Messiah. There had been several times up to this point that they have recognized that He was the Messiah. So as they have gone through the last two and a half years the implications of that identity have gradually dawned on them more and more. They were aware of that and Jesus is just trying to bring out a little more. He has been training them since chapter thirteen for their future role as leaders in the church. This section sort of culminates in that and then it also provides a transition for our passage into Jesus' preparation of them for what will take place in terms of His crucifixion, death and resurrection. “Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'.”
Then Jesus said two things. He pointed out that understanding this on the part of Peter was a blessing for Peter, and that ultimately this was not something that Peter figured out on his own but because God had revealed it to him. Then Jesus makes His point gives this new teaching based on the realization of His messiahship. He said that He was going to build something new: the church. It is said to be something future, not something already in existence. He said He was going to build this church on “this rock”, a reference to Himself. He is referred to as the chief cornerstone. Third, He said “the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” Hades refers to the place where the dead go. What Jesus is saying is that death won't prevail against Him. He is already alluding to the fact of His resurrection. That is the implication there; He is not talking about the angelic conflict, about the fact that Satan won't defeat Him. Then He said that the authority in the kingdom of heaven, not the church, would be given to Peter. The keys refer to authority. The term “kingdom of heaven” always refers to the messianic future kingdom, and so Jesus is talking about the authority that they will have in the kingdom.
Then He says, “and whatever you bind on earth shall have been
bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in
heaven.” The terms binding and loosing were used idiomatically in rabbinic
literature for making a decision. If they bound something, that was positive;
if they loosed it, they would allow it. Basically, what that translates to, to
put it in our vernacular a little more: “Whatever you forbid on earth must be
what is already prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth must be
what is already permitted in heaven”.
Matthew 16:21 NASB “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 be raised up on the third day.” This is after announcing to them that He is going to build this new entity, and that they have authority in the kingdom of heaven. Their minds are already filled with the glories of the kingdom, because remember they are products of their Jewish culture; and their Jewish culture at that time had looked at the prophecies of the Old Testament, and like most of us who sort of overlook the bad things and focus on the good things. When they read about the Messiah they primarily thought about the Messiah bringing in this glorious kingdom. The primary view at that time was that the Messiah would come, would raise up an army and defeat the Romans, and re-establish David's kingdom on the earth. They completely ignore the prophecies that were related to His suffering. This was typical; they wanted the crown without the cross.
Like their counterparts in the culture the disciples were still very much focused on this earthly glorious kingdom. In fact, after the crucifixion and just before the ascension what was one of the last questions that the disciples asked Jesus? “Is it now that you are going to bring in the kingdom?” Even at that point they still hadn't quite grasped the fact that this kingdom was going to be postponed. It was not that this was going to be a spiritual kingdom but that this literal geophysical kingdom the Messiah was going to establish was going to be postponed and it would not come until His Second Coming. In fact, in v. 27 we have the first suggestion of the Second Coming that we have in the New Testament: NASB “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” He talks in v. 21 about the fact that He will be killed and raised again the third day and then in v. 27 He says the Son of Man will come. That is the first indication of what the general outline of the future is. So Jesus begins to talk to them about what is going to take place. He is going to prepare them for what is happening.
Matthew uses the phrase “from that time” [21] and that indicates a shift in Jesus' teaching. From chapter thirteen to this point we have seen Jesus teaching and training His disciples but from this point to the crucifixion Jesus is preparing His disciples for the crucifixion and what will come after. And they still don't quite get it. The phrase “from this time forward” is used previously by Matthew in 4:17 when he introduced the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. So this is a clear indication that a major shift is taking place in the way Matthew is presenting the life of Jesus. Here he says, “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples ...” He is going to help them understand what is about to take place.
He has hinted at this a little bit, that His death was impending. For example, in Matthew 12:40 He says that the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In John 2:19 which takes place very early in Jesus' public ministry He said to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” In John 12:7 He talks about His burial. In passages such as Matthew 17:9, 12, 22, 23 He will talk about the fact that the Son of Man will die and then be raised from the dead after He has suffered at the hands of His enemies. Jesus is continually mentioning this but their minds just can't wrap around the idea that their Messiah, their Jesus, is going to be crucified. He is so wonderful; He is so great. Look at how He has fed the crowds; look at His teaching. How in the world can he be crucified?
Matthew says that He said to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem. The word that is used there in the Greek is interesting. It is not that this is probably going to happen, but this is necessary to happen. This is the idea here. It is that God's plan must be fulfilled; it is necessary for these things to take place in this way. We should ask the question: Why is it necessary? The first and obvious reason is because of sin, because of spiritual death that came into human experience when Adam ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and at that instant died spiritually, plunging all of the universe under the corruption of sin. So it is necessary for the penalty for sin to be paid in order for God to redeem not only the human race but all of creation. That payment for sin has to be paid because of the character of God, because His righteousness demands a sin penalty. His justice demands that that penalty be consistent with the decree of death and that that spiritual death must be paid for by a qualified substitute. No human being, no creature could qualify for that.
Four things were necessary. First He had to go to Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem? Because Jerusalem was the focal point of the prophetic plan. Jerusalem is the place where the temple is located. This is the place that Abraham took his son Isaac as an early picture of the substutionary death of the Messiah. God provided a substitute sacrifice through a ram that was caught in the brush and Abraham sacrificed the lamb instead of his son there on Mount Moriah. This was foreshadowing what would take place eventually. Jerusalem is where He will be crucified.
Second, Jesus has to suffer many things because the suffering is the result of His rejection. He came offering Himself as the King, offering Himself as the sacrifice, but He would be rejected. This is indicated in the first two verses of Isaiah chapter fifty-three.
Third, He is going to be killed. The word that is used here in the Gospels is APOKTEINO, which can refer to other categories of killing but most often it refers to a violent form of death. In the New Testament where it occurs seventy-four times it is most often used in the four Gospels, and it is used to refer to the violent killing of God's messengers again and again. The word that is used here indicates and connects Him to rejection and to death. Years later Peter will write about this blood of Christ, spotless and without blemish; He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Fourth, it is necessary that He be raised up on the third day so that He can demonstrate newness of life, and in preparation for His future return and Second Coming.
Jesus starts to teach this and He is showing them—probably from the Scripture because the word there indicates He shows them something—and when Peter hears this he just can't get his mind around it. It doesn't make sense to him because he expects this glorious kingdom. We see the reaction that he has to this. Picture this scene. Jesus is instructing the twelve about the fact that He is going to be rejected and killed; He will die and be raised from the dead. Peter has just been on this mountain top experience because he got this praise from Jesus a few moments ago, and now he is hearing that this Jesus who he loves, who is the Messiah, is going to die, and he just can't think like that. It's like he is saying, let's take a little break here and have a little chat. So he takes the Lord aside and basically starts to straighten Jesus out. Now right away you ought to know you're in trouble when you try to straighten Jesus out but Peter is just blind to what is going on here. Matthew 16:22 NASB “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God forbid {it,} Lord! This shall never happen to You'.”
We see this incredible reaction from the Lord. The Lord uses the same language that He used in the third temptation with Satan. He says, “Get out of here; be gone!” Matthew 16:23 NASB “But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s'.”
What we see here is this conflict between man's way of thinking and God's way of thinking. We see a conflict between divine viewpoint which looks at history through the lens of redemption, through the lens of the angelic conflict, through the lens of God's need to provide a solution to sin and what that must be, and man's idea of what is necessary to bring glory. Peter is still operating on human viewpoint and on his ideas and Jesus has to straighten him out. It is so true that even believers—these have been believers for a couple of years—can get pretty confused and get off on the wrong foot, getting involved with human viewpoint thinking. It is an example of God's plan versus man's plan and God thinking versus man's thinking. Peter just shows his foolishness. This is what is indicative of human viewpoint. Proverbs 14:12 NASB “There is a way {which seems} right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” That is not talking about physical death; it is talking about a death-like existence.
When we are born we are born physically alive and spiritually dead. When we trust in Christ we become spiritually alive. Paul says in Romans chapter six that we can continue to live in death, like we were spiritually dead. That is what happens when we walk according to the sin nature and why it is necessary to confess our sin and be restored to fellowship. Otherwise we live on the basis of human viewpoint and it results in a death-like existence. Proverbs 8:36 NASB “But he who sins against me [personification of wisdom, which is the thinking of God] injures himself; All those who hate me love death.”
Proverbs 14:27 NASB “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death.” So the Bible presents this bipolar reality. It is either death or life, wisdom or foolishness; it is either walking by the Spirit or walking according to the sin nature; it is either the truth of God or it is a lie. There is no middle ground; it is God's way or no way. When it is not God's way then it conforms to Satan. Human viewpoint is Satan's viewpoint. Satan is the adversary of God and he is the one who seeks to destroy God's plan and purposes; he has a better way; he has a better idea. Satan's plan is to prevent Jesus from paying the penalty for sin and carrying out God's redemptive plan, so that kind of thinking is what influences Peter.
Think about this. Whenever you are operating on human viewpoint you are basically operating as the devil's disciple. You are basically operating on human viewpoint, lies, and on your concept of how reality ought to work rather than God's way. In human viewpoint it is the glory, the political power and the success that is primary; but in divine viewpoint the path to glory was through suffering; the path to success was through failure; the path to power was to be abused by the human empirical power of Rome.
And so what Peter is saying to Jesus is, your death doesn't fit with my understanding of who you are and what you should do. You are too important to die, so let's change the plan. That is what we often think in our arrogance. But Jesus turns to him and says, “Get behind me Satan; your thinking is Satan's thinking, so you are acting like the Devil's disciple at this point and you are an offense to me”. This word for offense is the same word that is used to describe Jesus as the rock of offense, the stumbling block in the prediction of Isaiah 8:14, which is quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 2:8. The Jesus who is the stumbling block, who is the true rock, is now accusing Peter, the little rock, of being of offense.
So we recognize that we only have two options. We are either going to be in line with God's plan or the devil's plan, and we need to focus on divine things and not human things.
Now Jesus uses this to address the whole group. He uses it as a teaching point in front of the other eleven disciples. Talk about a lesson in humility! Matthew 16:24 NASB “Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me'.” We have seen this before. In Matthew 10:38 He used the same imagery of taking up a cross and following Him. Jesus is talking about following Him. This passage is not about getting eternal life; it is about realizing the fulness of life. Salvation is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. However there is a distinction between the free gift of salvation and the rewards that come to a faithful servant. That is what lies behind the whole call of discipleship. Discipleship is not becoming saved. All disciples are believers but not all believers are disciples. A person who is trusting Christ as savior is a believer, but then the challenge comes: are you willing to follow Jesus, and to what degree are you willing to follow Jesus?
Jesus is laying down the conditions here for those who are going to be true followers of Himself. He talks about the fact that He is going to be persecuted. He is going to suffer many things; He is going to be killed and raised from the dead. But what we know is that Jesus is going to go through rejection, betrayal, hostility, arrested, brought up on charges, publicly scorned, ridiculed and deserted by His closest friends and associates. He will suffer physical pain, heartache, be tortured unmercifully, and He will die a horrible agonizing death. And now He says that if you want to follow me you must be willing to step to the plate also.
That is a challenge, but what is the alternative? What Jesus says here is that if we want to have real life we have to be willing to deny ourselves and to take up that cross and follow Him. In Roman culture you couldn't crucify Roman citizens, they were under the authority of Rome. But if you were a non-Roman, if you were a Jew, if you were a criminal who had violated the authority of Rome, then when you were going to be executed by this horrific death you would carry your cross to the place of execution. The point was a visible show to everyone that you had now been forced to submit to the authority of Rome. So this became an idiom in the ancient world that the person who took up his cross was someone who submitted to authority. What Jesus says here is that you have to give up your own ideas of authority and doing it your way, and you have to be willing to submit to the authority of God no matter what that brings in your life, and follow me.
Matthew 10:38 NASB “And he who does not take his cross
and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” What Jesus is saying is that in human
viewpoint the path is straight to glory without the suffering—we don't want the
hardship, we just want the treasure—but what the Scripture says is the path to
glory for God is through suffering. That is what was involved in His mission as
the Messiah.
1 Peter 1:10, 11 NASB “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that {would come} to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” Often when people look at these verses they are thinking in terms only of the work that Christ did on the cross—that work of salvation. But when Peter starts in verse 10 he says, “As to this salvation” we have seen that this is salvation or deliverance from the sufferings of this life. That is the context of verses 8 & 9. He says that this salvation, i.e. this idea that we have to go through suffering and testing as God refines us through the difficulties and the heartaches of life as we trust in Him, that is how we grow. And the prophets, he says, came to realize this: that the Messiah didn't come in glory first but that He would suffer first and the path to the glory came through the cross first and then the crown.
In verse 10 he says that this salvation, this deliverance through fiery trials, was understood by the Old Testament prophets. They understood that it was the cross first, then the crown. But in the first century they didn't understand that, they had forgotten about the suffering part. God has promised us that we can handle the suffering. This was Paul's attitude and what our attitude should be when we face the opposition of the world.
Paul says, “I count all things loss”. What do you put first—your
pleasure, your comfort, your job, your career, the ability to pay your bills,
or do you put Bible class first? Do you put growing in the grace and the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ first? Do you put your spiritual life first,
no matter what else matters?
Philippians 3:8 NASB “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, [9] and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from {the} Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which {comes} from God on the basis of faith, [10] that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings ...”
If you want to be a disciple it is not just arranging your schedule so you show up at Bible class two or three times a week or that you read your Bible for fifteen minutes every morning. A lot of Christians can't even figure out how to do that. If you can't figure out how to arrange your priorities and your schedule to make the Word of God your greatest priority so that you can truly grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and be strengthened in your soul for the difficult times that come, then when those times come—and they are coming—you are going to have serious trouble in the years to come. We have to prepare now before the times are necessary.
Another great promise: 2 Timothy 3:12 NASB “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” But Paul says in Philippians 4:12, 13 NASB “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” What this is saying is, I can handle the good times and the bad times because Jesus strengthens me.
Matthew 16:25 NASB “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” That is the opposite of what people think; we want to preserve our life. The idea here is that if we want to save our life and live it on our terms it won't be the life that we think it will be. It is not going to bring us the happiness, the joy, or the peace. It may bring us comfort, security and stability for a time but it is not going to last. If you want to know the fullness of life, really enjoy life, it is not doing what you want, it is doing what God wants. It is living your life in obedience to Him. Sometimes that leads to the jail and to the dungeon; sometimes it leads to martyrdom; sometimes it leads to losing everything that you hold dear in this life. But what matters is the glory that comes afterwards because we have lived our life for Christ.
Jesus says the same thing in John 12:25 NASB “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” What is the condition? [26] “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me ...” Jesus says to make this choice is wise, because if we want to really have life then we have to follow Him. If your personal career or money or comfort or children, or any other detail of life is more important to you than the Word of God and your spiritual life then what Jesus is saying is, you will ultimately lose life. He is not talking about going to the lake of fire here; He is talking about what is referred to in other passages of Scripture as the abundant life.
Remember, Jesus went to the cross and died and suffered there for us not because the cross was joyful, but because of what it would accomplish. Hebrews 12:2 NASB “... for the joy set before Him endured the cross ...” We may be called upon in this life to follow the Lord through difficult, devastating circumstances to maintain our faithfulness and to obey Him; but that is the path to life, it is not the path to loss. Human viewpoint says that is the path to loss. What we are talking about here is real life. Jesus says that if you want to have real life the path to life is giving up what you want in order to serve Him completely.
John 10:10 NASB “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have {it} abundantly.” That is what we are talking about here. Do you just want to be saved and that's it? Or do you want to have the abundant, rich, full life, real living that comes from pursuing spiritual growth and spiritual maturity.
Matthew 16:26 NASB “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” What profit is it if you have a great family? What profit is it if you have a nice home? What profit is it if you get your PhD or rise to an executive position and make a high six-figure salary? What profit is it if you do that and you don't have real life, if you sacrifice your spiritual life in order to gain things in this world? The word “soul” in this verse also means life. What will a man give in exchange for his life? Is it worth it to have success in human terms and to lose success in God's terms?
Matthew 16:27 NASB “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” This is the Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation. Are we going to sit there with our hands empty at the judgment seat of Christ, or when we die and come into the presence of our savior are we going to hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”?
Are we willing to rearrange our schedules, rearrange our lives, to make our spiritual priorities first and foremost so that our lives count for eternity? The result will be an abundant life today.