Sermon 08-30-2020 Cycle A
Rev. Arturo Mendez
Theme: Take your Cross and Follow Him
Jesus Predicts His Death
21 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, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Last week we heard the statement of the apostle Peter confessing that He, Jesus, is the Messiah a statement where Jesus himself lets Peter know only this answer is revealed by the Father who is in heaven and is declared through the Holy Spirit by the mouth of the apostle Peter.
Jesus himself makes a very important statement to his Disciples, letting them know that he had to go to Jerusalem to fulfill his purpose for which he had been sent. To die on the Cross and give his life for all of us sinners and in turn to be resurrected on the third day.
But there is something that is not very clear to his disciple, Certainly the same disciple who had declared that he was the Messiah the Savior of the World, now, he is trying to prevent from happening, but Jesus also rebukes the apostle Peter.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 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.”
The disciple that had stated with great certainty who Jesus was now preventing him from going to Jerusalem and having to suffer the Punishment of Death on the Cross like a Criminal.
Certainly we, just as Peter tend to declare who Jesus is, certainly makes it clear to us that He is Our Messiah? Our Personal Savior or just Our Savior in Times of Difficulty? Our human tendency, like this distinguished apostle is always to do sinful things and deny that God is the only one who has control over all things, and we tend to want to hinder God's purposes for our lives, we are certainly so tempted that all the things in life we are living, as asalting us well and we hope to find a Savior in the world who will lead us , guide us, and rescue us from the evil that we are living on this earth, a Earthly Messiah, just as they all expected an earthly messiah to save them from the oppression that they were suffering from cause of the Roman Empire. Our sinful tendency is only to focus on the temporal in what we are suffering in those moments that we place our trust in false Messiahs, as a Politicians, Presidents, Ruler Kings or anyone else who promises to rid us of earthly suffering, and we forget that these false Messiahs cannot offer us what really matters, an eternal life filled with Glory with the father in heaven. The only and real Messiah is Jesus, who delivers all he has, stripping himself of all his majesty and coming into the world to give his life in exchange for ours with an eternal and irrevocable promise, not with false promises like earthly messiahs, this promise of Jesus the true Messiah is the promise to forgive all our sins and through faith in Him as Our Lord and Savior we can receive the gift of Grace and salvation in Jesus Christ and thus we can enjoy eternal life together with the Father.
Jesus rebuked Peter telling him to turn away "Satan" "you are a stumble block to me." Peter didn't want Jesus to die on the cross. After the same had been declared by The Messiah the Savior of the World the Son of the living God, and Jesus had called his confession you are peter (petros) petra (rock) now the same peter could see himself as a stumbling block for Jesus and not fulfill the mandate he had to fulfill to redeem the world from Our sins and carry his cross to Death for our salvation.
So Jesus rebukes us. We do not want Jesus the Messiah to guide us on the path of our own cross, we are not willing to carry it.
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me
Jesus calls us take our cross and follow Him, first tells us that we will need to deny ourselves, how can we do this? If we are people by nature sinful and all we do is evil in our hearts, we are people so selfish that as long as we are well and have comfort in our lives, what happens to other people, We just don’t care. denying myself involves stopping being the person I am, governed by my own sinful instincts, refusing to Christ be the one who rules your life, but we cannot do this by ourselves, We need Christ who rescues us from all these evil sins and leads us on a New path through faith in Jesus, and allows us to deny ourselves, through his proclaimed word and offer us His forgiveness of all of our sins, through our family devotionals and prayers. it is how we can find that denial to ourselves and want to do what God commands us to do through seeking our daily Sanctification.
On the way of Our sanctification. God the father asks us to keep his Ten commandments, which is impossible for human beings to do. But there are two things in which he asks us to seek to do with a lot of care, the first, to love God above all things, and the Second to love your neighbor as yourself, when we manage to do this, is when a transformation begins to work in our lives through the Holy Spirit who guides us and keeps us in the word of God that strengthens us day by day so that we can fulfill what Jesus asks us to do, to deny ourself and take our Cross and to be able to follow him. We have to affirm, that it is not me, but Christ who dwells in my Heart and makes me a new person day by day.
Philippians 3:8-9
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith
Matthew: 25 For whoever wants to save their life[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. 28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
You want to save your life, Jesus is very clear in his words invites us that for his sake for the love of Him we are even willing to lose our own life, because in this life we will have no reward, the reward that awaits us it is in eternity with the father, is much greater than anything that this life can offer us.
Certainly, what is the value to winning the world and lose our own lives, this world can offer us certain material things, comforts, financial stability, etc. but certainly all this that will serve us, if we are losing the most important thing eternal life is in Christ Jesus.
Or what can we give in exchange for Our Soul? We certainly cannot do anything in exchange for our own Soul, for the word of God reminds us that we are rags of impurity Isaiah 64:6 , Jesus refers to the fact that absolutely no one can do anything to exchange his soul and earn his own salvation. Our sinful nature keeps us from being able to gain eternal life, We need a Savior to be able to have part in eternal life with the father, and this only happens through the Death and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we can gain eternal life, if we put all our trust and faith in Jesus, who has forgiven us all our sins, as we repent all of them, He forgives us and gives us eternal life, through Faith in Him. When we were brought into the waters of baptism the father sealed us in his death and his resurrection. When we hear the words through the mouth of the Pastors proclaiming forgiveness of sins that comes through Christ, when we participate in the lords supper He is giving us His forgiveness and strengthen us with His Word and Sacraments and giving us Eternal Life in His Kingdom, He loves us so much the He give His life for all of us of all nations. Thus, we will be prepared for when the Son of man comes with all his Glory.
27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Jesus warns us of his second coming he tells us, He Will come again to Judge the World, He will come with all his Glory his angels will accompany him together with the Glory of his father, it is the heavenly Glory and his Divine nature of Jesus, He will come and judge all those who have rejected the gospel of Christ, all who have denied the deity of Jesus will be condemned to the lake of fire and eternal death, all those who do not repent of their sins and reject the gift of Christ's Grace through his death and his resurrection on the cross, will be separated from that Divine Glory of Christ that offers us free through faith.
The ones who lost their lives for the love of Christ. Those who are believe in the Gospel of Christ, to all who have trusted in the salvation and forgiveness of their sins all those who have lost their lives for the love of Christ, that is to say lose their past lives full of evil deeds and selfishness full of idolatry, and lack of love for the neighbor, when Christ comes into our lifes to rescue us, a transformation begins, there is a change in us and it is when we begin to die ourselves, we begin to lose our own lives, because now our life do not belong to us, now belong to Christ and we begin to act differently as the apostle Paul teach us in his letter to the Galatians 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I do not live , but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!, In the end we will receive the eternal reward with the Father who is in heaven because God the Father has forgiven us through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus through the Faith in Him.
Jesus said certainly you will see me again, Jesus will promise us, to see him again it will certainly be his promise, but certainly Jesus also teach us that although physically for now we cannot see him, we know He is present with us, Him is present in His word and in the sacraments, His word taught us that where two or more people are gathered in His Name He, will be there. When we partake of the Holy Supper of the Lord and eat and drink his body and his blood, He is present with us and we can physically see it through the elements in the bread and wine. He also mentions that we not will die until you see the Son of Man come in His Kingdom.
The fact that Jesus was referred to when he said this to his apostles Certainly some apostles have him seen again after his resurrection, we know that Jesus was appear to His Disciples to testify that He is Jesus, the Son of the Living God and to fulfill the scriptures, Jesus promised them to see again the coming of his Kingdom and this certainly happens at Pentecost and in the growth of his Church, the Disciples do not have to wait to see the end of the world, to see that His gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to the whole world for the testimony of all nations.
Colosians 1:3-6 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you , 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people—5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace
but at the same time Also, Jesus lets us see what is the final destination for all those who have believed in the Gospel of Christ, certainly tells us that we will not die and that we will see him again, the son of Man with all his Glory. what a beautiful promise he has given us, that is our Faith and that is Our hope in Christ Jesus that through his Death and Sacrifice on the Cross we too are United to Him alone by His merits, His love and His mercy, by the Perfect Plan of God the Father towards all mankind, God invites us today to carry our Cross and to die in Him. knowing that also the last day we will be resurrected together with Him and we will see His Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Amen!!
may the peace of God that trespasses all understanding keep you heart and mind for the life everlasting Amen!
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