Matthew 16:21-28
Projectionist: Play Clip 5 from Risen DVD
So we are going to start a little different this morning. This is a balance beam. You’ve seen them in the Olympic games. Imagine that we are at the Olymics…I approach the beam with confidence, and then, I lay on beam and wrap arms around it and hold on for dear life!
While laying on beam continue: Dr. Scott Dudley, Sr. Pastor of Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue Washington states that “we have created today the most risk-averse society in history. We are the most seat-belted, bike-helmeted, air-bagged, knee-pad wearing, private-schooled, gluten free, hand sanitized, peanut avoiding, sunscreen-slathering, hyper-insured, massively medicated, pass-word protected, valet-parked, security-systemed, inoculated generation in history—and all it has done is make everyone more afraid of everything.”
We are so afraid of uncertainty, that we refuse to venture out—to take any risks. We insulate, inoculate, isolate, then pray that we’ll die in our sleep without any pain and wake up in heaven, never facing any real challenges.
(Dismount beam with great fanfare, throwing arms in the air like I just completed a great routine.) Come on, be honest—could you imagine watching someone do that in the Olympic games and expecting a great score? Probably not. Truth be told, a person with the skill set I just demonstrated wouldn’t even be in the games!
But here’s the big question: When did we as Christians get the idea that God calls us to safe places to do the easy things? Where do you see that in the Bible? Abraham was called to leave everything he knew to follow God and was never even told where he would be going. Moses was called to go back to the country that wanted him for murder and deliver generations of slaves. David was called to face Goliath, a shepherd boy in a life and death battle with a trained and skilled soldier. And Isaiah was called to devote his life to a ministry that by all human accounts appeared to be a failure—called to preach to a people who did not want to hear Him. We could go on and on and on.
So, when did we start thinking that God’s will is an insurance plan, not a daring plan? We live in fear and we allow that fear to cause us to approach the will of God with a better-safe-than-sorry mentality. We get trapped in a cage of fear and we allow those fears to dictate our decisions; and we generally want some sort of guarantee before we are willing to step out in faith! If we think there are risks involved, we opt for the “tried and true” safe route.
There is an interesting account in Matthew’s Gospel—Matthew 16:21-28. Jesus had just quizzed his closest followers about what the word on the street was about Him. They report that some people think He is John the Baptist come back to life, others think He might be Elijah the prophet, or Jeremiah, and then there are others who aren’t sure who He really is, but they agree that He has to be one of the prophets.
After hearing these answers, Jesus narrows the question and asks them, “’But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’” (Matthew 16:15, NIV84) And “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” (Matthew 16:16, NIV84).
That sets the stage for today’s message. “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Matthew 16:21, NIV84).
Nobody likes bad news. These guys to this point have been riding high. Up to now Jesus has been very popular with the people, evidenced by what they are saying about Him, and Peter made the declaration of a lifetime, and in response Jesus praised him, said that his insight was God given, and then told them that on Peter’s confession an entire movement would form that hell itself could not stop!
These guys were excited! Then, with this one statement, Jesus bursts their bubble! In the midst of popularity Jesus talks of suffering. After just receiving accolades of being God’s anointed one--the Messiah, the Christ—He’s talking death and resurrection.
Here’s what we know: they heard the death part, they apparently missed the resurrection part. We know this from Peter’s response in our text, and we know it from all of His followers’ response to His crucifixion. The only people who were worried about Jesus coming out of the tomb were the people who were responsibility for putting Him in the tomb—the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law. They got it, they remembered this part of Jesus’ claims so they set out to make sure there would be no shenanigans; no missing body.
A guard was set, 1,030 soldiers strong, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, and a Roman seal placed on the mega stone that covered the entrance to that private tomb. Jesus’ enemies at least understood His claims, but His followers missed those claims until after the resurrection.
How do we know that? First, I don’t think we would have the same reaction of Peter that we see in our text if he had caught the resurrection part. We’ll look at that in a minute. Second, don’t you think if they expected a resurrection they would have been at least near the tomb counting down the seconds on day 3? Third, when the women do go to the tomb, it is to finish embalming the body, not to witness a glorious resurrection.
Peter is so much like us in this text—he demonstrates selective hearing. He hears, suffering and death, so what does he do? “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’” (Matthew 16:22 NIV)
Peter gets a bad rap for this, but you really can’t blame him, like us he prefers to avoid the hard stuff and just get to the good stuff.
“Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’” Matthew 16:23 NIV
Like Peter when we start looking for the easy way it is so easy for us to become the very instrument the devil will use to cause people to stumble. When we look at things from the human perspective, from what we want instead of what God wants we become a stumbling block in the advancement of the kingdom.
So, here’s my question: are we playing to win or just not to lose? There comes a time when enough is enough. When are we going to quit being happy and think we’ve done something by maintaining the status quo? When are we going to get tired of making decisions based on personal comfort? When are we going to get tired of playing not to lose? When are we going to get tired of just hugging the balance beam, so we won’t make a mistake? We either need to stand up, step in or step out.
Here’s what I know: Jesus didn’t call us to make us safe; He called us to make us dangerous! Look at His call: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself or herself. This is a call to be all in. He calls us to deny our wants to do His Will.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross . . .’” This is probably one of the most misunderstood phrases in all the New Testament. We talk about some difficult relationship as “my cross to bear.” Or some illness or physical limitation as “our cross to bear.” And we demean and cheapen and make Jesus’ call easy, safe.
When Jesus uttered these words, they weren’t pretty, they weren’t comforting, they were not easy. Jesus isn’t talking about following God in the hard times and trusting Him through those times, He is calling us to die completely to ourselves.
Back in the 19th and into the early 20th Century, there were a group of missionaries who became known as “one way missionaries,” because they packed all their earthly belongings into coffins and purchased one way tickets when they departed for the mission field. They knew they’d never return home.
The story is told of one such missionary named A. W. Milne who felt called to a tribe of headhunters in the New Hebrides. When he set sail for New Hebrides, he did so knowing that all the other missionaries to this tribe had been martyred, but that didn’t stop him.
He lived among the tribe for thirty-five years and never returned home. When the tribe buried him, they wrote the following epitaph on his tombstone: ‘When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness.’”
So I ask us once again, “When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things?” When did we become so selfish and self-centered? The twenty-first century church needs more daring people with more daring plans. Men and women who are willing to deny themselves, take up their cross and come and follow Jesus.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’” (Matthew 16:24, NIV84)
Jesus didn’t die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous. Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It’s storming the gates of hell. The will of God is not an insurance plan. It’s a daring plan. The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn’t radical. It’s normal. What is abnormal is thinking we can follow Him on our own terms.
It’s time to go all in and all out for the All in All. Pack your coffin! And here is a warning and a promise, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25, NIV84)
In 1955, five young missionaries, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian felt called to reach a dangerous and isolated tribe of Indians in the dense rain-forests of the Ecuadorian Jungle. They worked for many months establishing contact and trying to demonstrate their friendly intentions to the Auca Indians, as they were called by the other indigenous people, Auca meaning “Savages.”
Contact was made on Friday, January 6th when they were visited in their jungle camp by a man, a woman and a teenaged girl. The meeting was friendly, but ended abruptly when the Indians made a hasty departure.
On Sunday afternoon, January 8, 1956, at about 3pm, all five missionaries were speared to death at their camp. What you may not realize however, is that the missionaries who gave their lives that day, were fully armed and had the ability to defend themselves.
Youderian was a World War II paratrooper who had fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was a part of General Eisenhower’s honor guard and a specialist in wilderness survival. All of the men knew that the Auca Indians had never outsiders who were carrying guns. So each man was carrying in full view a side-arm and had rifles as well. They had decided that they would, as a last resort, fire the guns into the air to ward off an attack, but would shoot no one, even to save their own lives.
Later it was learned that they did just that. Only after killing these men did the Waodanis realize that they were indeed friendly—they had had the ability to kill their attackers with ease, a point they realized when one of their number was grazed by a bullet while hiding in the bush. It was only then that they realized that these five men chose to die rather than kill the attacking Indians.
When news of their death reached America, Look Magazine did a feature article on the martyred missionaries and concluded it with the phrase, “What a waste.”
Found in Jim Elliot’s diary, however, were these words, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25–26, NIV84)
It’s time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.
What is lacking in the church of Jesus Christ is not education or resolve. . .most of us are educated way beyond the level of our obedience . . .what is most lacking is good old-fashioned guts!
Jesus didn’t call us to live safe lives, He called us to follow His example. He didn’t die to make us nice, safe people whose goal in life is to never rock the boat, He died to make us a radical people who can storm the gates of hell and come away victorious!
So, here is my challenge to us, quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Don’t let fear dictate your decisions. Take a flying leap of faith. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Go all in with God. Go all out for God.
If it were not for the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, none of this would be practical. But the fact that He is risen, changes everything! When you become convinced of that, really convinced, it will set you free! You will not live to be safe, you will live fearlessly for the Savior who marched fearlessly into Jerusalem for you and for me.
Let me pray for us.
