M16: REACTION TO THE REACTION
MATTHEW 16:21-23
#m16sermons
READ MATTHEW 16:21-23 (ESV)
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. 22 And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 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.”
INTRODUCTION
I was thinking and praying over the passage that we just read, and for some reason, Isaac Newton’s Third Law popped into my head. Newton’s Third Law states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” For example, birds flying; birds push down on air and the air pushes birds up. For example, a swimmer pushes water back with hands and feet and the water pushes the swimmer forward. For example, a ball is thrown down to the ground and then bounces up from the ground. This is a normal “law of physics” that describes mutual influence.
I was thinking that this “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” rule of mutual influence is true in the physical world and in science, but it is also true in relationships like friendships or marriage or even with people we dislike. Any action we take in a relationship, whether it's showing affection, deciding, or expressing a feeling, will provoke a reaction from the other person. That person reacts and then those behaviors prompt responses from us. Our words, actions, and emotions affect the other person and vice versa.
In the passage we just read, the initial action was Jesus asking the question in verse 13: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The reaction was the disciples shared with Him everything they had heard about Him from the crowds in verse 14. Jesus then reacts and asks: “But who do you say that I am?” in verse 15 which then prompts Peter’s confession in verse 16. There is action and reaction and reaction to the reaction. All of those reactions bring us to Matthew 16:21-23. I want to read the verses again briefly so you can see the build up of the actions and reactions. Verse 21 frames our passage because it says: “from that time,” meaning… from the time of Simon Peter’s very important confession. The confession of Simon Peter “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God” is the reaction that frames our whole passage.
READ MATTHEW 16:21-23 (ESV)
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. 22 And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 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.”
TRANSITION
Our passage has Jesus reacting to the good confession of Simon Peter (Matthew 16:13-20) and beginning to help the disciples understand that His purpose is not to just teach some good things or do some miracles, but that His predetermined purpose was to die for sins. His purpose is bound up in salvation and deliverance and forgiveness and grace. In verse 21, Jesus reacts to Peter’s reaction of His action.
Jesus’ arrest, mistreatment, scorn, pain, bleeding, and death did not take Him by surprise. Jesus knew what awaited Him at the end of His earthly ministry. After the good confession of Simon Peter (Matthew 16:13-20), Jesus tried to prepare His disciples that He would suffer and die. We can read in Matthew 26-27, Mark 14-15, Luke 22-23, and John 18-19 all about what happened to Jesus. What do we find in verse 21?
VERSE 21: HE MUST SUFFER
RE-READ MATTHEW 16:21 (ESV)
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.
Jesus says He will die, yet Jesus was not the first One to say that He would die. The Old Testament points forward to His suffering and to His death. His suffering would include beatings, being spat upon, mocked by people, tears, and betrayal by those He trusted.
BEATING AND BEING SPAT UPON
Part of Jesus’ suffering was being physically beaten and spat upon. The prophet Isaiah wrote several prophecies about the One Who would come and deliver people and complete God’s plan of salvation. There is a large block of passages in Isaiah 49-56 which talk about the Messiah… the Christ... the Promised One from God Who would come. For example, Isaiah 50 says:
READ ISAIAH 50:5-6 (ESV)
“The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”
MOCKED BY PEOPLE
Part of Jesus’ suffering was being mocked and made fun of by all those around Him. The prophet Isaiah was not the only one who looked forward to how the Christ would suffer. King David saw how Jesus would suffer and how those around Him would mock and he wrote his prophecies down in song form in the Psalms. Jesus even quotes David’s words on the cross from Psalm 22.
READ PSALM 22:1 (ESV)
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”
Later in Psalm 22 David reflects on the mocking:
READ PSALM 22:6-8
“But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
And even later in Psalm 22 David sees the same type of suffering that Isaiah reflected upon:
READ PSALM 22:16-18 (ESV)
“For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
GREAT TEARS AND MOURNING
Part of Jesus’ suffering was people mourning and in great tears like one would mourn for an only child. The Prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 6:26 and Amos in Amos 8:9-10 and Zechariah 12:10 all three talk about a day when one would be pierced and the grief from that would be great. Amos also mentions it would be a dark day. The prophet Zechariah says:
READ ZECHARIAH 12:10 (ESV)
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him Whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”
These are only a small fraction of the prophecies about Jesus that the Old Testament records for us. The Bible even shares predictions that Jesus would be betrayed for money (Zechariah 11) and that He would not answer accusations against Him and that His followers would scatter. In the passage we read today from Matthew 16, Jesus tries to begin to prepare His disciples for His death. This would be a shock to them… He knows… but He wants to prepare them nevertheless.
APPLICATION FOR VERSE 21
As we think about verse 21, may we take to heart the seriousness of our sin and the seriousness of the pain and anguish that Jesus suffered to free us from our sin. We often do not take our sin serious enough. We often lose the power and the blood and the suffering of the cross because it feels like something that happened so long ago and isn’t really connected to us. May we in our hearts treasure the beatings of Jesus, our Savior being spat upon, His being mocked by people, the tears, and the betrayal by those He trusted most. That was all endured for us. That was all endured for us that we might be adopted as children of God by His will.
As we think about verse 21, may we take to heart the seriousness of our sin and the seriousness of the pain and anguish that Jesus suffered to free us from our sin and the fact that none of what Jesus endured was an accident. Jesus was born to die. Jesus knew His purpose. Jesus knew that the end of His life would come and that it would be torture and pain and bloody and exhaustingly separate from God because He would take on the sin of the world. That. Was. The. Plan. May we not forget.
TRANSITION
So, verse 21 of our passage has Jesus reacting to the good confession of Simon Peter. Jesus’ purpose is bound up in salvation and deliverance and forgiveness and grace which goes through His suffering and death. Peter then reacts to Jesus’ reaction by trying to dissuade Him from the suffering path. What do we find in verse 22?
VERSE 22: JUST SAY NO JESUS
RE-READ MATTHEW 16:22 (ESV)
“And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
The word that is used in verse 22, “rebuke,” is a word that means to scold, to reprimand, or to warn. It is difficult to see in English, but the rebuke is actually shown in the original language as 2-fold and super strong. Peter 1x says “far be it from You” and then 1x says “This shall never happen to You” 1x. These two together indicate a very strong scolding from Peter to Jesus. I imagine loudness of voice, firmness of tone, angry eyebrows, gritted teeth, and perhaps even Peter grabbing Jesus by the arm to tell him what-is-what.
What we see in the Scriptures from the reactions of Herod the Great and the wise men (Matthew 2) and here with Peter and perhaps even in the heart of Judas Iscariot and even in the reactions of the people as Jesus enters Jerusalem the week before His death (Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, John 12)… is that the Jewish people generally thought the Christ would be a commanding general that would boot all enemies out of the Promised Land and would bring back the Golden Age of the power of King David and the wealth of King Solomon and would rule Israel as a king. They were not mistaken that the Messiah would come, but they were mistaken about what kind of Messiah He would be. Yes, Jesus established a kingdom, but the Kingdom of God is not what anyone thought. Salvation was not an earthly based kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom that echoes through eternity. The difference the Christ would make was not for one nation, but for the whole world.
Simon Peter’s attitude and treatment of Jesus shows little he understands the kind of Christ Jesus would be. The word “began” suggests that Peter gets only so far before Jesus cuts him off and stops his very strong language. Simon Peter’s strong will and heart along with his preconceived notions and desire for Jesus to live and do great things produce a shocking bit of arrogance and mistreatment of Jesus. He just confessed that Jesus is the Son of God and now He is telling Jesus what to do and how do be and what the future will hold. That is bold. Boldly wrong.
APPLICATION OF VERSE 22
This reaction of Simon Peter is not what we expect, but it is what Peter does. I heard a statement a few months ago that stuck with me and I have no idea where I heard it: “It is not my actions that I struggle with, it is my reactions.” I identify with that. Peter had a reaction in which he began to rebuke the Christ and he was dead wrong (as we will see in a minute in verse 23). His reaction got me thinking about how I react to things and how I can react better.
How can we react to people better? How can we react to situations or comments or events that are out of our control better? How can we react to the nightly news better or to shifts in our country we do not agree with better? How can we react better? In order to answer that, I wondered what Simon Peter should have done!
I think Peter should have rooted himself in self-control in prayer and reflection. He should have really listened to what Jesus was telling he and the disciples and then he should have taken time to pray and reflect on what he heard. God will help us manage our reactions, but we have to let Him in to do so… otherwise we are reacting only in our flesh.
I think Peter should have rooted himself in love and compassion with some humble self-reflection. The older I get the more I see that being self-aware of our motivations and our emotions and our preconceived notions is half the battle in life. Peter could have realized that he brought notions of what Jesus should do to the table for which Jesus never agreed. Peter needed to check himself and perhaps he would have found bad attitudes before rebuking Jesus.
I don’t think Peter needed to do this in his particular situation, but we might. We might need to take a step back in love, compassion, and self-control and settle our heart on loving the people around us and dealing out forgiveness. Instead of tit-for-tat when it comes to our reactions, we can pray and reflect and ask the Holy Spirit to motivate us for compassion and forgiveness. Sometimes instead of anger for people we need to have pity instead. When we feel provoked or upset, we can run to Jesus to help us respond with love and compassion rather than anger or resentment.
I think Simon Peter reacted without thinking or reacted without any prayer and this always gets us into trouble. It got him into a bit of a pickle and it is the same for us. How we act is important, but so is how we react to people, situations, events, and feelings around us. I myself am not good at this, but it is still true.
TRANSITION
So, verse 22 of our passage has Peter reacting to the news that Jesus would suffer and die. Jesus’ purpose is bound up in salvation and deliverance and forgiveness and grace which goes through His suffering and death and Peter does not like what he hears. What do we find in verse 23?
VERSE 23: REACTION TO THE REACTION
RE-READ MATTHEW 16:23
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.”
Jesus sees in Peter’s reaction to His reaction to his reaction to His action the work of Satan. Peter has confessed Him as the Son of God and then Jesus was sharing more about His purpose and Satan chooses that moment to attack. Often, mountain top spiritual moments are ripe for spiritual attack. Moses found this out. Joshua found this out. Elijah found this out. Peter found this out. Perhaps you already know this as well. Often, mountain top spiritual moments are ripe for spiritual attack.
We often think that because Matthew 4 and Luke 4 contain an account of a time when Satan came to tempt Jesus away from His purpose that this was the only time in Jesus’ life that Satan attacked Jesus. This is not so. Satan attacked Jesus at every opportunity that was presented. Luke 4 tells us:
READ LUKE 4:13 (ESV)
“And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”
Even Hebrews 4:15 reminds us:
READ HEBREWS 4:15 (ESV)
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
In this opportunity, Satan tempted Peter to dissuade Jesus away from the purpose for which He came. Peter was being a stumbling block to Jesus. I imagine that Jesus knew what would happen, but He did not relish it or look forward to it or wished for it. Peter was feeding into that part of Jesus that wanted this cup of suffering to pass by Him (Mathew 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42, John 18:11). The word that Jesus uses in verse 23, “hindrance” is a very specific word that means “a stumbling block” or “a thing that may lead to sin.”
Jesus not only puts Peter in his place, but shoves Satan out of the situation along with any temptation to give up or go another way or do something different. The temptation was there and Jesus resisted it. Jesus set His mind on the things of God and pushed Satan out. Peter was being used by Satan to tempt Jesus and Jesus met this temptation head on.
Jesus reminds Peter that he is the disciple and he must do the following. I was doing some reading and the commentary mentioned how just a few verses before Jesus called Peter’s confession “a rock” and now just a few verses later Jesus is calling Peter “a stumbling rock.” The one who confessed the rock-solid confession is now a rock-solid stumbling block. Ironic I think.
Jesus reminds Peter that he is the disciple and he must set his mind on God’s will. Here again we have some huge irony in what Jesus describes. Jesus told Peter a few verses before that his confession was not told to him by people or even come to by himself, but that it was revealed to him by God. He confessed God’s thoughts. Peter had been tracking with God just a few verses before, but now he was only thinking like Satan. Peter was spouting Satan’s thoughts. What an ironic shift!
APPLICATION OF VERSE 23
As we think about verse 23, may we take to heart the seriousness of being a disciple of Jesus. A disciple of Jesus surrenders to Him and we live, work, play, talk, and spend His way and not our way. We may have our own ideas about how life should go, but a follower of Jesus is just that… a f-o-l-l-o-w-e-r.
Being a follower means support and alignment with the leader. Being a follower means taking direction and listening. Being a follower means trusting the leader for growth. Being a follower of Jesus means He leads and we shove Satan away and follow Jesus and set our minds on the will of God.
He leads.
We shove Satan out along with any temptation to give up or go another way.
He leads.
We follow.
He leads.
We set our minds and hearts on the will of God.
CONCLUSION / FINAL THOUGHT / PREVIEW
At the beginning of looking at this passage, I mentioned Isaac Newton’s Third Law: “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This rule of mutual influence is true in the physical world and in science and often in relationships as well. Do you know what relationship it is not true with? A relationship with God.
You see, in a relationship with God, God does all of the initiating and acting and causing and it is not for us to have an “equal and opposite reaction.” We cannot and should not want to react to God with our own action or our own will. Peter did that and look what it got Him! No.. our response to what God does and wills is not to act equally to Him for we cannot do that… but our reaction to His action should be…
… submission and change.
… obedience and humbleness.
… following and stuffing our own ways.
Next week we are going to finish up in Matthew 16 and we are going to dig deeper into what it means to have submission and obedience and humbles to God because Jesus uses a very specific phrase to dig deep into this idea… “to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.”
* May we remember the seriousness of the suffering of Jesus.
* May we invite God into our reactions to others.
* May we take seriously the call to surrender to Jesus.
PRAYER
INVITATION
This morning I mentioned the good confession of Simon Peter. If you were not here last week, in Matthew 16:16 Peter confesses his belief about the identity of Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That is a powerful statement of belief in Jesus. I invite you today if you have never made that type of confession and been immersed into Christ accepting Him as your Lord and Savior to come forward and make that same confession today.
I invite you forward for prayer.
I invite you forward to place membership at our church.
