“The Necessity of Death”
(Matthew 16:21-28)
Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]
Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD
First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida
January 12, 2020
The Passage
Matthew 16:21-28
21 From then on Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. 26 For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Introductory Comments:
Have you ever had a moment of great triumph only to have it followed up with a moment of great failure? At one moment you’re on top of the clouds; the next moment you’re down in the dumps.
We’re going to see that this was the case for Peter in today’s passage.
We’re going to see that Jesus had some harsh words for Peter because Peter and the other apostles didn’t understand what it meant for Jesus to be Messiah.
Jesus is going to teach us about what it means for Him to be Messiah and what it means for us to follow Him as Messiah.
Let’s pray together and ask God to speak to us as we study this passage.
(prayer)
We see from last week’s passage that Peter and the other apostles understood that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. However, they didn’t know what all of that meant.
As Jesus started to explain to Peter what it meant for Him to be Messiah, Peter has a negative reaction. Jesus meets that with a more negative reaction.
Then, Jesus offers clarity for His disciples. These words help them understand what kind of Messiah He is and they help us understand more about Him as our Messiah and Lord.
As we learn from God’s Word, we will discover two necessities in this passage.
First, . . .
I. The necessity of Jesus’ death. (vv. 21-23) [on screen]
Remember, the common thought was that Jesus would come as a conquering king Messiah. However, Jesus came instead as a suffering servant Messiah.
He points His apostles to that reality here in this passage. Let’s take a look.
Look at verse 21:
21 From then on Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.
Jesus was getting more detailed in His predictions about what would happen to Him at His arrest, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. In fact, Jesus gets real specific here:
Jesus says He will go to Jerusalem.
Jesus says He will suffer many things from the religious leaders.
Jesus says He will be killed.
Finally, Jesus says He will rise from the dead on the third day.
This is very detailed and specific and the disciples are starting to realize what is going on.
However, they don’t necessarily like what they are hearing!
Listen to how Peter responds. Listen to verse 22:
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to you!”
Peter said, “Never! Never, Lord!” We see later in the Gospels that Peter even takes measures to try and prevent Jesus from being arrested.
Jesus is their teacher, friend, master, and more. He is their Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Peter and the other disciples didn’t think that the Messiah should suffer. They didn’t think He should be hurt at all by the bad guys. He should be the one hurting the bad guys.
What they didn’t understand is that the will of God for His Son was that He would suffer.
It was necessary for Jesus to die.
Jesus knew about the necessity of His death and He didn’t want anyone to try and stop Him from fulfilling the Father’s will for Him, which is why He had such a harsh response for Peter.
Let’s check it out. Look at verse 23.
23 Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
Can you imagine how crushing this was for Peter to hear this? Peter was just celebrated by Jesus because of His great faith and understanding that Jesus was the Messiah and now Jesus calls him Satan.
Peter must have thought, “Jesus, I love you. I want what’s best for you. I don’t want you to suffer. How can you call me Satan?”
Here’s the heart of the problem: Peter wanted to determine what was best for Peter. Peter was not concerned with what God’s will was for Jesus.
Jesus says as much. He says, “You’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
Even though Jesus loved Peter. Even though Jesus knew that Peter got things right some of the time, Jesus still took this moment very seriously because Jesus didn’t want anything or anyone, no matter who it was, to distract Him from the purpose for which He came to the earth: to give His life as a ransom for many.
Satan is trying to weasel his way into the scene to tempt Jesus through one of His beloved disciples but Jesus is not having any of it.
Don’t you know, church, that Satan will try to deceive you and tempt you through any way that He can? Sometimes, he’ll even try to tempt you through people whom you love and who love you.
Jesus didn’t fall for it. He was faithful. He was laser-focused on His mission!
It was necessary for Jesus to be arrested, be sentenced to death, to suffer death on the cross, to be buried, to rise again, and to ascend back into heaven with the Father.
Listen, church, if none of that happened, we would all still be lost in our sins. Jesus knew this, and He stayed faithful.
We see first, the necessity of Jesus’ death.
Next, we discover . . .
II. The necessity of our death. (vv. 24-28) [on screen]
Jesus takes this whole discussion about death even further. We learn that not only is it necessary for Jesus to die, but it is necessary for us to die as well.
Let’s see what Jesus says. Look at verses 24-27.
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. 26 For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done.
Jesus was willing to stay committed to His task because He wanted to be faithful, but also because He knew the rewards were so much greater than the sacrifice. So also, Jesus says that the reward for us is so much greater than the sacrifice.
If you want to save your life (spiritually speaking), you will be willing to lose your life. Also, any sacrifice in this life because of Jesus will lead to you finding real life in Jesus!
Jesus is talking about real sacrifice here. He says that if someone wants to follow Him they must be willing to take up their cross and follow Him.
The people of that day would have known what Jesus meant. Roman execution by dying on a cross was common in that day. To carry your cross meant to walk to your execution. Jesus is saying that you must be willing to lay your life down to follow Him.
I don’t think we grasp the seriousness of this calling.
Some of us aren’t even willing to stop gossiping in order to follow Jesus. Some of us aren’t even willing to sacrifice finances or time to follow Jesus. Some of us aren’t willing to give up alcoholism, pornography, or our own pride to follow Jesus. Some of us aren’t willing to stop hating people of a different political party, or another race, or immigrants, or family members, or even church members in order to follow Jesus. Some of us aren’t willing to give up our comfort or anxiety to walk across the street and love our neighbors in order to follow Jesus.
Jesus is talking about real sacrifice.
Many of us have no idea what it means to really follow Jesus because we have no idea what it really means to sacrifice in order to follow Him.
We can’t experience real life in Jesus because we’ve never died to ourselves. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life because of me will find it.” Well, some of us haven’t found it yet because we haven’t lost it yet.
Do you want to know what it looks like to follow Jesus? Learn to sacrifice for Jesus!
The beauty of losing everything to follow Jesus, in addition to the fact that we will find real life, is that Jesus will reward us along with his angels. How about that?
Jesus sees all of our sacrifice, all of our faithfulness, and all of our good deeds, and He will reward us with heavenly angelic rewards.
Let me tell you something, church: you haven’t seen rewards until you’ve seen the rewards of Jesus!
Find true life in Jesus! Find true rewards in Jesus! Take up your cross and follow Him! Sacrifice everything in order to follow Jesus the Messiah!
In verse 28 Jesus offers another prediction for the disciples, one that raises question as to exactly what He is talking about. Let’s read verse 28.
28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Oftentimes, when we think of Jesus “coming in his kingdom” we think of the return of Jesus to the earth to conquer evil and call His own to be with Him in the new heaven and new earth. However, that doesn’t appear to be what Jesus is talking about here.
Jesus says some standing here will not taste death until Jesus comes in His kingdom. Well, Jesus has not yet returned by 2020 and all the original disciples have died, so that doesn’t appear to be what Jesus is talking about.
What could Jesus mean? Well, there are several different theories, but two main suggestions that I think are likely.
First, if you flip over to chapter 17 and just scan things you can see that the next story in the Gospel of Matthew is the transfiguration of Jesus. At the transfiguration, Jesus will be supernaturally glorified in front of the disciples. That could be what Jesus is referring to.
Another suggestion, one which I like a little better, is that Jesus is referring to His resurrection and ascension back into heaven. At the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the disciples will begin to understand what kind of Messiah Jesus is, they will begin to look forward to His return, and the age of the church will begin. This is a total transformation of the kingdom of Jesus.
Either of these suggestions would fit what Jesus said and both highlight the deity, power, and glory of Jesus the Messiah.
So, whereas verse 27 seems to refer to the second coming of Christ at the end of the earth as we know it, in verse 28 Jesus seems to indicate that His kingdom will continue to be revealed incrementally, including the disciples seeing something great in their lifetime.
Indeed, the disciples would see something great. They would not only see Jesus give His life on the cross, which was necessary, but they would see Him conquer death by rising from the grave and they would see Him rise to heaven to be with God the Father.
Concluding Thoughts:
The disciples are starting to learn from Jesus more and more about what kind of Messiah He would be and more and more about what it means to be His disciple.
We must learn these lessons as well.
We must understand that the reality that Jesus was the Messiah meant that He would suffer and that those who follow Him must be willing to suffer as well.
That takes us to our bottom line:
Bottom Line: The death of Jesus leads to our death to sin, which leads to our death to the world. [on screen]
(repeat)
We are dead to sin and we must die to the world, its temptation, and its rewards. We must live for Christ, His blessings, and His rewards.
Be moved and challenged by the words of Jesus, once again: “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. 26 For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done.” [on screen]
Challenge yourself to live out the words of the Bible this week in the following ways:
Weekly Challenge: [on screen]
- Stand in the death of Christ. [on screen]
Your salvation would not be possible were it not for the arrest, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As tragic as Jesus’ death and crucifixion were, they were also eternally beautiful. Those events secured the forgiveness of sins for all of those who would trust Jesus.
The events at the end of Jesus’ earthly life should give you great hope in your standing with God.
We can stand in confidence in the death of Jesus, which secured us in God’s great love.
It was necessary for Jesus to die so that you could live. Be thankful, be confident, be changed by Jesus’ death.
- Demonstrate that you have lost your life. [on screen]
In Jesus, you have died to the world, so that you can live for Him.
Demonstrate that you have been changed. Deny yourself and live for Jesus.
I understand that to deny ourselves is difficult. We think about ourselves and our desire frequently. J. Vernon McGee points out in his commentary on this passage, “To deny myself dessert is hard enough, but to deny myself is difficult indeed.” I agree. It’s a hard thing to deny ourselves and live our lives for Jesus and others, rather than for ourselves. However, that is our calling.
Show your changed life this week in some way. Decide this week that you’re going to conquer that besetting sin by the power of Jesus. Lose that and find Jesus! Make a commitment this week to give up that addiction. Kill it so you can live for Jesus! Deny yourself this week and sacrifice on behalf of Jesus. Give up your own preferences in order to love others, as Jesus did.
Die to yourself and your old life and find your new life in Jesus!
Closing:
If you’ve received new life in Jesus, live that new life in Jesus! Let the light of Jesus within you shine for the glory of God!
If you’ve risen from the dead, spiritually speaking, don’t live like a dead person anymore. Live like someone who is finally alive!
If you’ve never died to yourself so that you can live by the power of Jesus, He can change you today and He can change you forever!
Jesus said, “What will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life?”
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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