No Gain Without Pain

“THERE’S NO GET WITHOUT GIVE AND NO GAIN WITHOUT PAIN”

(Mat. 16:24-28)

3/31/2005

The words that Jesus spoke here and that Matthew recorded for us…strikes a Death Blow to the current trend of modern day contemporary Christianity.

So much of our modern day Christianity is bent on a self-centered consumption.

People today want to identify with Jesus Christ…

They want to call themselves Christians…

And their whole perspective towards this is…for what they can get out of it.

• Self-esteem…

• Self-image…

• Self-love…is at an all time high not only in our worldly society, but it has crept into our worldly churches as well.

The truth is…

Ill-informed and Biblically illiterate preachers and teachers have… prostituted the Divine Principle of what Christianity is all about.

• They are teaching something that simply is not right.

• They are proclaiming something that is not Biblical.

“Do you want to be Happy? Come to Jesus.”

“Do you want to be Well? Come to Jesus”

“Do you want to be Rich? Come to Jesus.”

“Do you want Prosperity? Come to Jesus”

And in doing this…they are saying that its all GET and its all Gain.

Jesus comes along and says just the opposite:

He says…

• Before you can GET…you’ve got to GIVE.

• Before the GAIN…comes the PAIN.

• Before you can WIN…you’ve got to LOOSE.

Jesus puts it all in the RIGHT order:

• The CROSS comes before the CROWN.

• The SUFFERING comes before the GLORY.

• The SACRIFICE comes before the REWARD.

In Biblical Christianity…and in the Teachings of Jesus Christ…

You’ll never GET…until you have first GIVEN.

You’ll never WIN…until you have first LOST.

THIS is the Truth that Jesus Repeatedly taught throughout the New Testament.

He taught it in Matthew’s Gospel and Mark’s and Luke’s and John’s Gospel.

• This was Important!

• This was Necessary!

• He taught it over and over and over again!

You GET by GIVING.

You GAIN through PAIN.

You WIN by LOSEING.

Up until this point in time here in Matthew 16, Jesus has taught them time and time again about…

The Cost of Discipleship…the Sacrifice involved…the Hostility they could expect…the Reproach they would endure…

BUT STILL…THESE DISCIPLES HADN’T CAUGHT ON!

And there’s a reason why they hadn’t.

 These men were literally raised on a “Glory” concept of the Messiah.

When the Messiah arrived, they expected Him to

Overthrow Rome.

Dethrone Herod.

And Establish His Kingdom.

It was hard for them to accept the fact that even when Jesus was presented with the opportunity of becoming King of Israel…He flatly rejected it!

BUT…They had seen Him perform Miracles that could not be explained!

AND…they had heard Him speak with such authority like none other…

And in their heart of hearts…they KNEW He was the Messiah!

NOW…let’s back up a bit to verse 13…and work our way back to the text.

By this time, these men had been with Jesus some 2 and a half years.

*Vrs.13, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”

Peter eventually speaks up and says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

We know You are the Messiah.

We know You are in essence One with God.

We know You are the Son of the Living God.

Jesus responds back by saying…Peter, only God could have revealed My Deity to you…and Upon My Deity I will build My Church.

Then Jesus says in vrs.19…that not only will I build My Church…but I’m going to build My Kingdom.

And I’m going to give you a place of Authority.

I’m going to allow you to be a ruler within My Kingdom.

WOW! This was Great News! Finally the Kingdom was going to come! Finally the Messiah was going to assert Himself!

THEN…in the next breath…Jesus says, “And by the way…we’ve got to go to Jerusalem…I’m going to be KILLED.

And He also told them that he was going to be raised from the dead 3 days latter (Vrs.21)

 But they didn’t hear that…all they heard was the word, “KILLED”

Immediately…Peter began to rebuke Him.

Peter says, “Wait a minute Lord!” “Hold on a minute here Lord! “Stop right here!”

“We’re talking Kingdoms! We’re talking Thrones! We’re not talking Death!”

Vrs.22, “…Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee.”

Peter wanted the GAIN…but he didn’t want the PAIN.

Peter wanted the GLORY…but he didn’t want the SUFFERING.

NOW…look at the first word in verse 24, “Then.”

That means…Right Then! Immediately! Right Then…Jesus knew He had to straighten Peter out.

Jesus says, “Hey…stop Right There…don’t say another word…We’ve got to get something straight before we go any further!”

NOW…here’s the Death-Blow that strikes at the heart of contemporary Christianity…and here’s the Death-Blow that struck at the heart of Peter: