Back to the Bible: Matthew 16:21-28
As soon as Peter made His confession of Jesus as the Christ, Jesus explained His mission. He, the Son of Man, must suffer, be rejected by the religious leaders and experts, and then be raised from the dead three days later. What a shock that must have been! Everything they thought about the Messiah was turned upside down in just a moment. How could He accomplish God’s plan if He’d be rejected by the religious leaders and Jews, if He was going to suffer, if He was going to die? The path for the exaltation of the King would be through suffering (see Isa. 52:7-53:12).
Peter pushed back. Remember– He had just confessed Jesus as the King. But, now, He disagrees with Jesus’ words! Jesus says that Peter is His adversary and He needs to get out of the way. Peter’s view is not in keeping with the Lord’s way, but only in line with human thinking.
Jesus went further. Not only was He headed to His cross, He calls you to deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Him. The call to “deny self,” is the call to deny our will and our way in pursuit of doing the will of God. To take up the cross is to be willing to take whatever comes as a result of faithfulness to Jesus. You cannot have the King without the cross— neither His nor ours. His suffering for the cause of righteousness serves as a pattern and example for us (I Pet. 2:19-25).
Why would someone commit to Jesus like that?
First, our physical life can’t be kept. If we live only for here and now, we’ll lose it all. But, if we’re willing to lose out on the here and now, we’ll gain the true life.
Second, we could gain everything the whole world, lose our soul, and would ultimately lose out on everything that matters. But, if we follow Jesus, we could lose our lives, and ultimately gain everything that counts.
Third, Jesus is going to be enthroned. Jesus alludes to Daniel’s prophecy of the Son of Man receiving His kingdom (see Daniel 7:13-14). If someone wasn’t willing to stand with Him, they would not have a place when He received His kingdom from the Ancient of Days. If they were not ready to follow Him, even to suffer and die with Him, they would not be ready to reign with Him.
Jesus declared that some who were standing with Him would not die until the kingdom of God came with power. That is, Christ would receive His kingdom from the Father within the lifetime of some of those within the audience. Jesus received His kingdom when He was raised from the dead to sit at the right hand of the Father (Matt. 28:18-20; Eph. 1:20-22) and such was demonstrated in power by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the apostles (Acts 2:25-35).
We’re thankful to share these considerations of God’s word. It’s best if you have a Bible close to evaluate what we say. We want to go “back to the Bible” for all we teach. Tune in to 100.7 WGOL Sunday at 8:30am for our Back to the Bible Radio Program. Reach out with your questions, comments, or requests for personal Bible study at backtothebiblepodcast.com or at info@backtothebiblepodcast.com.
