I. A Turning Point 00:25
I apologize for the distraction here as we get going. I am talking today about the Gospel, which is a pretty central Gospel, as I’m sure you know. Anybody ever heard the phrase “Take up your cross and follow me,” maybe once or twice? We’re going to be hanging out right in that story. Here we go. The title today is “We Are Going Where He Has Gone.” That’s really what we’re doing as Christians: we’re following the way. He is the way, and we are following the way, and we’re doing the thing in him, with him, for him, following him. It’s going to be great.
So we’re at this moment, as you can feel, in this strange transition point between summer and fall. In fact, if you paid attention, pumpkin spice lattes are back in stock at Starbucks. That’s a big thing for certain people. Very basic people. But you notice also all of the stores are bringing out their Halloween decorations. If you were at Costco, they have Christmas decorations on sale right now. And sometimes, in the midst of a world that is optimizing not for health and rhythm but for dollars and cents, you lose track of time. And so what’s good about coming on Sunday mornings, following the liturgical calendar, staying in the story of Jesus and the church, is that we can keep our time a little better.
And I’m telling you today that, like the transition we’re in between summer and fall (obviously summer is still holding on strong), we are at a moment in the church, in Saint Michael’s, where we’re at a turning point. We’re at a moment where things are changing at Saint Michael’s, where God has done a work in us over the past 10 years, more recently the past 3 years especially, where he’s bringing in people who maybe weren’t a part of us before, who are now huge parts of us. I mean, think about Deacon Donnie himself. Five years ago he wasn’t here, and now he’s a deacon. That’s a big turnaround. Things are changing. Things are shifting. And that’s just one great example of the people God is bringing into our community. There are people here who don’t recognize the person they were 5 years ago. God has so impacted and transformed them.
And what I see, and what the leadership of Saint Michael’s sees, is that God is preparing us for the next steps he is calling us to take. And so, in the midst of this Gospel lesson, the disciples have been prepared for two and a half years. They’ve walked it out with Jesus. They’ve been prepared to then usher in his kingdom in the world. They’ve been prepared to go with him to the cross, to see his resurrection. They’ve been prepared. And then Jesus takes a turn and says, “Okay, let’s go.”
We’re at this moment at Saint Michael’s where God is transforming our church, turning us to begin to care more about the people who need to be a part of us than we do about ourselves. That’s the turn that I think God is challenging us with in our hearts. And we’ve heard about this from our bishop. We’ve talked about this for many years: what we do here is about them out there. But God is bringing that turn to become essential to who Saint Michael’s is. And so, if you think about it, what are we being called to do in the story? We’re being called, as Saint Michael’s, as the body of Christ, to take up our cross corporately and follow him where he leads.
So pay attention over the next few months, as we unfold what God has entrusted to Saint Michael’s to accomplish. Father Powell will talk about a great work we’re going to do, in a couple of weeks here. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but there’s one great work that you will all appreciate, I promise. But it’s so much bigger than that. There are things that God is doing, that he is calling us to. So I’m just asking you to pay attention, because it’s going to be your story, being caught up in his story. And every one of us has a part to play, just like the disciples here. We’re at a turning point, like they are. We’ve seen God move in our midst. Now comes the turn.
II. The Story So Far 04:31
Let’s talk about the story so far in our Gospel reading. The disciples are doing miracles. People are literally following them to see their lives transformed, because they need to go where the demons are being cast out, the dead are being raised, the lame are walking, the blind are seeing. The disciples are doing all of this. And then, at a pinnacle moment, Peter declares, “Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16.16). All of this has happened. God says, “Peter, you’re amazing. That’s exactly what God is doing and revealing to you. God has revealed this.”
And then things start to change. One more aspect, from last week’s story: he also said, “Guess what? You get the keys of the kingdom.” Imagine what they’re thinking. They’re like, “We’re casting out demons. We’re raising the dead. Nothing’s going to stop us. We can even feed thousands of people from five loaves of bread and two fishes. We’ve got everything on our side.” And he goes, “And you are going to be the leaders. You’re going to have the authority in the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth is bound on earth and in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth is loosed on earth and in heaven” (Matt 16.19). They are ready for their destiny.
III. The Turn 06:00
And then we enter into our story today:
21 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. Matt 16.21
Quite a turn. “Okay, Jesus, slow your roll. What is going on? What do you mean you’re going to suffer and die? I thought those people have no power. These scribes and Pharisees aren’t casting out demons. They aren’t raising the dead. They aren’t doing the things that the Messiah, the Anointed One, does. We are. They’re going to beat you up and kill you? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Maybe they’re thinking Jesus is just scared. He’s scared of the old religion. He’s trying to be too good. They’re like, “Jesus, you’ve got the power. You can change it all.” That’s the way they’re thinking. “You don’t have to submit to them. They’re the old fogies. They’re the generation who doesn’t get it anymore.” They have their own world that they’re building in their mind, about how we’re going to replace them. “Why would you submit to them?”
And that’s what Peter ends up saying. Peter’s like, “Don’t worry, guys, I got this. Jesus, let me have a little conversation with you over here. Let me bend your ear.” And what does he say?
22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Matt 16.22
And Jesus says to Peter, “Oh, thank you. That’s a load off my mind. I thought I was going to have to suffer tonight.” No:
23 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.” Matt 16.23
Really fascinating, because what did he say to Peter literally the verses before this? He says, “Peter, that revelation doesn’t come from men. It comes from God”: the revelation that Jesus is the Christ. Now he says, “Okay, you’ve done a flip. You’re now talking from men, not from God.”
It reminds me a little bit of what we might do sometimes in our own life. We go to a great conference. We have an awesome Sunday morning. We have a great revelation. Somebody’s like, “Wow, that was really good. I love what you said there.” We’re sitting high, and then Monday morning rolls around, and we’re complaining to God about the job that he gave us. We’re complaining to God about the house that he gave us. We’re complaining to God about our spouse, God forbid. And we have all of these things in our mind that God is doing wrong. We’ve got a list of grievances against God, the good, good Father. And we get caught up in our own moment.
What do you do when you are opposing God? You take up your cross and you follow him. It’s the only answer. You’re not going to win. You’re not going to hold out. You’re not going to bend him into a different shape. Do you know why? He loves you too much to let you do that.
I don’t know if you know this, but if you’re a parent here, you’ve probably figured this out: giving in to your children’s demands actually doesn’t make them happier. No matter how much they beg and plead and cry and shout, if you let them, they are more miserable. It’s really easy to see, too. It’s like, “Okay, fine. You can have that candy. Just shut up.” I’ve never said anything so harsh to my children. No. You give in, and then 2 seconds later they’re complaining, because of some new problem that they want you to solve for them. Because you never taught them that their problems are actually internal, not external. The problem wasn’t that they didn’t have the candy. The problem was they needed to have self-discipline, gentleness, patience. They needed to be changed as people.
And so when you encounter those things in your life where you think, “God, you have not done this correctly. It is not according to plan,” maybe the plan is actually to change the plan. Maybe the plan is to rewrite your heart, so that you desire the things God has for you rather than the stack, the list of demands that you have for him. With Peter, it is essential to Jesus that Peter’s priorities change. He will not be able to lead the church that will be martyred, crucified, beaten to death, he will not be able to lead that church, if he is still convinced that he doesn’t need to suffer, if he’s still convinced that Jesus would never suffer.
IV. The Temptation to Power 11:08
No, that’s actually the temptation to power. Why did Jesus react so vehemently? Because he could not let that seed take root in the life of his followers: the temptation to power. What did Satan tempt Jesus with in the wilderness? The third temptation, the final one, is, “Okay, Jesus, I will give you all the people of the world.” He said kingdoms, but the people are what matters. “I will give you authority over all the… All you have to do is worship Satan.” And Jesus said, “Not that way.” The temptation to power, the temptation to control: no, Jesus didn’t want it that way. In fact, the power to make everyone’s lives good is precisely that which Jesus rejected. Instead, he offered salvation freely: “Come and take it, if you would. I’m giving it to you. Receive my gift.”
C. S. Lewis has this great quote from The Screwtape Letters. If you haven’t read The Screwtape Letters, it’s quite fun. It’s a really great book. It’s this older demon advising this younger demon about how to tempt somebody. And so it reveals a lot of our heart, as you see this imaginary conversation. And one of the things the older demon says is, “You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless.”
Okay, I love that line. If God were to show up, you wouldn’t be able to resist him. If he were to reveal himself in all his glory, guess what the Scripture says? You die, if you encountered that. So he says he doesn’t reveal himself that way, because it would be for him useless. He cannot ravish; he can only woo. He can only draw people to himself.
So why does that matter in the context of this temptation? The temptation that Satan is laying before Jesus is: use your power and demand that they serve you. And Jesus says, “No, I’m going to give up my power. They can do their worst to me, and I will still invite them to be with me.” It turns everything on its head. And then his very weakness is the power that overthrows the universe. Everything is based on the self-emptying love of Christ from now on. He will not ravish; he will only woo. So he’ll invite you. Even today God is inviting you to a new place of laying your life down. When he says, “Take up your cross and follow me,” he doesn’t say, “Or else.” He invites you on an adventure with him. That power of sacrifice means salvation is now freely offered to all.
And he has to quash the idea in his disciples that any other way works. In fact, you’ve seen the church exercise power in a satanic way throughout history. Some of the greatest travesties are when the church wields the sword, the power to demand: the Inquisition. The Crusades have often fallen into this, although they aren’t… that’s a whole other story for a different day. But there have been times when the church has demanded that people follow Christ, and it has always been completely anti everything Jesus did. The church is meant to lay its life down for the world, and invite them, as they take up their cross, to follow in his footsteps.
V. Take Up Your Cross 14:52
So he will not use the way of power, but instead he replies with “Take up your cross.” “You heard what Peter said. You heard how I treated him. Now let’s get to the solution.” He’s not going to leave Peter there, calling him Satan. “No, I’m going to invite him to a different way.”
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 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? Matt 16.24–26
Some of the wisest words ever spoken. I mean, think about, through all of history, how many people have traded their soul for the whole world. How many stories, the Midas touch, many other stories, have been centered on this idea: that if you have the wrong thing at the top of the hierarchy, then you end up dead and lifeless. If power is at the top, you’re wrong. The only thing that can possibly be at the top is the kingdom of God. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt 6.33). Everything else is added.
Bonhoeffer summarizes the call of Jesus: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Now, this sometimes can be a challenge. How often do you think the early church reread the words of Jesus, or, more likely, in the very, very beginning, before the words were written down, told each other the words of Jesus? “Remember when Jesus said, ‘What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul’? Remember that?” So when the centurion comes to beat you and kill you, remember: even if you give in, you get nothing. The only way to find your life is to lose it. How often did they comfort one another when their brother was martyred? Stephen, the young deacon, the first martyr of the church: he’s stoned to death, and they’re looking at one another like, “What are we going to do?” And then somebody says, “Remember, Jesus told us that. He said we’d have to take up our cross and follow him.”
And yet today we hear these words and we go, “Mm-hm. Does that mean that I have to be nice to people I don’t like? Oh, what a cross to bear.” Or one of my favorite memes: “God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers,” and you see a young woman dropping her coffee outside of the coffee shop. Life is just so hard for us.
VI. Living From Christ 17:06
No. The challenge today is that we fight to build the life we imagine. We struggle to live for Christ. But the invitation is to lay down our life and live from Christ. That’s harder to do when a centurion’s not knocking at your door. What I mean by that is, the choice becomes a lot less clear. What part of my life does Jesus want? Because you have everything you need. (If you don’t, send me a text. I’ll buy you some milk and bread. I’ll do it.) We have such an abundance that they didn’t have. And so we, in fact, have to learn how to live our life for Jesus in a way that is counter to every instinct in our fallen nature.
So our instinct is to build our life, to draw a circle and say, “Jesus gets this stuff, I get this stuff, and we will find a balance somewhere between my stuff and his stuff. He gets my Sunday mornings. He gets my home group attendance. He gets my 15 minutes of prayer every day.” Some of us don’t even give him that. “But he gets these little things.” And yet he doesn’t say that. No, he wants it all. He gets your Monday mornings, your Saturday afternoons. He gets every part of you. You don’t just put away your in-Christness. You don’t hang it up on a shelf to go have a party. You don’t hang it up on your shelf to go do your factory work, screwing in rivets. You actually get to be the hands and feet of Jesus everywhere you go.
That’s intimidating. I’d rather have my time and his time. I’d rather just check out and do my own stuff. But instead, the invitation is to bring him with you to all that stuff. It’s actually better. It does require that you die; that is the one prerequisite. But it’s so much better, because then you live the resurrected life everywhere. That’s what he was trying to teach these disciples. The temptation is to live for ourselves and not live from God.
Jesus repeated it over and over again. Jesus, the one who had every right to live his own life, said, “I only do what I see the Father doing” (John 5.19). That’s all. We’re like Martha. We run around trying to accomplish all our tasks. We’re anxious for many things, when one thing matters: Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10.41–42). So what would your life look like? What would you have to give up? What would you have to do, if you took up your cross and did only that which God called you to do?
VII. Doing It in Him 20:14
I’d argue that first you have to ask him what he wants you to do. You actually have to know what he’s calling you to do. How much time do we spend just fulfilling an endless list of tasks, and God’s up there going, “I never asked him to do any of this”? Now, I’m sure that nobody is completely lost in pointless activities. What you’ll probably find out is that God called you to do some really important things, and there are some really important things God called you not to do. He’s going to shape you in that relationship, though. It’s so much better when you can do it with him, in him, through him.
I’m not saying here that you have to give up all your dreams and go start an orphanage, or have a new vision of, “I’ve got to be a missionary.” That’s the big one. Did you get called to mission service? Did you get called to start an orphanage? Are you going to go feed the homeless? That might be you. And if that’s you, praise the Lord. But he also might call you to just be a nurse, or a firefighter, or a teacher, banker, waitress, construction worker. He might call you to be a manager at a Stuff Mart. He might call you to do any one of these things, but he calls you to do it like he did. He calls you to do it in him, through him, with him.
The question you have to ask yourself is: what are you striving for that would leave you empty if you got it? Because it’s not him. We have some great things that he may have even called you to do, but because you’re doing them apart from him, you’re not getting any of the blessing. You’re living outside of him. All the provision is in him. And in fact, the only way that Jesus gained his inheritance was to follow his Father, take up his cross, and lay it all down. Why do you think it’d be any different for us? We can learn our callings, and we can learn to lay down our life instead of striving to take it.
And this is trust. Ultimately, what separates us, what keeps us running in all these directions, is that we think we have to do it, when we can trust him with it. If you think about the call of Saint Michael’s to be about those people out there, what comes up in your heart? “Well, what about us? What about my ministry, my building, my comfort? I want to build this kingdom,” when really we’re called to build his kingdom. And so when we think about this, and we hear this call of the disciples, if you will take this call seriously, then Saint Michael’s will change. Then the people of Saint Michael’s, all together, can be about what he is calling us to. It starts with you and me.
We’ve got three young people going to Africa tomorrow. Very exciting. Michelle and Christian and Jane, and Jim and Chris are going to be going there, Father Jim and Chris. And that’s a really awesome example of laying down your life for Jesus: putting everything on hold to go and serve people around the world. Most of us don’t need to do that right this second. What we need to do is wake up tomorrow morning and say, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice” (Phil 4.4). For most of us, most of the time, it’s that simple: making the life that you’re already living about him and in him, living from him and his provision.
VIII. The Promise 23:57
And he gives the disciples a promise that you can also have, if you’re willing to orient around him:
27 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. Matt 16.27
What? I thought it was not by works, only by faith alone. Okay, let’s not enter into that debate today; it is too hot. But what I can say is, the invitation is for more than you have right now. And if you just go, you have no idea the rewards at the end of this road. Even Jesus, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross (Heb 12.2). We’re not saying, “Be good so you can be gooder.” We’re saying, “Be good, because it will only get better.” Follow him, and it will only be better. The reward is there.
28 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. Matt 16.28
Once again, it is too hot to tease this verse out. What I can tell you is that we are living in his kingdom and seeing it right now. Today, you are there. I love that verse later on in the New Testament where it says the people like Abraham, Moses, Isaac, all those heroes of the faith, David, would kill to be where you are right now, living in the kingdom of the revealed glory of Jesus Christ.
We are living in the promise today. So what’s holding you back? What’s that thing that you have to lay down when you take up your cross? Because the promise is, his yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matt 11.30). So if you’re feeling pretty run-down, go to Jesus. Take his yoke. Give all that stuff to him. We are living in the promised kingdom today. We are going where he has gone. Amen.