Are You Willing to Die to Follow Jesus? (Matthew 16:21-27)

Is Jesus inviting you to die? Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Mt 16:24).

"If anyone sets his will on coming after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross..." (Leon Morris).

If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself…” (CEV).

• "The center of salvation is the Cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much"? Oswald Chambers.
• The cross is the climax of Jesus' work as the Messiah, the true King of the world.

Paradox (Matthew 10:37-42)

Full quote below.

"Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it" (Mt 10:39).

1. Priority / Allegiance / Exclusivity /Preeminence. Why does Jesus' command you to love Him more than your family (Mt 10:37; 22:37-38; Dt 6:5; Lk 14:26)?
   
• Does this contradict the command to "Honor your father and mother" (Exo 20:12)? Why or why not?

What is a Christian?

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Therefore, the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5:17).

• Why has Gal 2:20 and 2 Cor 5:17 been regarded as among the best verses that describe what a Christian is?

When God Disciplines You, You Discipline Yourself (Hebrews 12:1-13)

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however..." (Heb 12:11).

Overview: What do you do when you are disciplined? 3 verbs + a few more:

1. FIX (Heb 12:1-3), "throw off," "run" (Heb 12:1) and "consider" (Heb 12:3).
2. ENDURE (Heb 12:4-10).
3. WAIT (Heb 12:11-13), "strengthen" (Heb 12:12), and "make level paths" (Heb 12:13).

Caveat: If the discipline is tolerable, bearable, not too bad, and not that painful, it's NOT discipline.

The Imitation of Christ. Day 8: When the Cross Finds You. Book 2. Chapter 10-12.

Day 7. When the Cross Finds You (Book 2. Chapter 10-12). The only way God makes us more like His Son is through the Cross. It is through both active and passive mortification that the Cross finds you.

• Ch. 10: Gratitude for God's grace. Grace is always offered to one who gives proper thanks. It is given to the humble and taken away from the proud.

• Seek patience more than consolation and carrying the cross more than enjoyment. Spiritual consolation surpasses all wordly delights and the bodily pleasures. I do not want any consolation that would take away my repentance/compunction.

• Be grateful even for punishment and chastisement.

The Cross of Christ, A.W. Tozer

The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men. The cross of old Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took Him down 6 hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.

Ps 22 Forsaken (Psalm 22)

The most profound mystery. When Jesus screamed his agonizing cry on the cross (Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34), it might surprise some that Jesus was NOT abandoned by God in the sense that God was not present. God was there as implied by the fact that Jesus prays, for you cannot address someone who has gone off. Thus, God is watching as Jesus was tortured, suffering as profoundly in his spirit as Jesus suffered in body and spirit. What unbearable agony it would be for a man to watch his son or grand-son be tortured in agony and not stop it when he could! In essense God listens to Jesus on the cross, screaming, "Why have you forsaken me?" and does nothing.

Healing and Refreshment (Acts 3)

“Whoever confesses his sins … is already working with God. God indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God. Man and sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear ‘man’ – this is what God has made; when you hear ‘sinner’ – this is what man himself has made. Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made … When you begin to abhor what you have made, it is then that your good works are beginning, since you are accusing yourself of your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth and come to the light.”—The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Acts 3-7 describes the life and increase of the early church in Jerusalem (Ac 1:8a), and the simultaneous opposition to it from the Jewish religious leaders. Acts 3-4 is a drama in 3 parts:

1. The mighty work (3:1-10). Healing of a man lame from birth.
2. The mighty word (3:11-26). Peter preaches to the crowd his temple sermon, his 2nd sermon.
3. The mighty ones (4:1-21). The bold, brave courageous and ordinary apostles on trial.

1. 
   What can you learn about prayer from Peter and John (Ac 3:1; 2:42; 4:24; Lk 18:1; Mk 1:35)?
• How have they changed (Mt 18:1; Mk 9:34; Lk 9:46)?
• [The temple hours of prayer were set at the 3rd, 6th and 9th hours.] Can you pray 3 times a day (Ps 55:17; Dan 6:10).
2. What was the strategy of the lame man and/or those who "carried" and "put" him daily  at the temple (Ac 3:2-3)?
• Putting yourself in the place of the beggar (Ac 4:22), how would you have felt about your life?
3. Why did Peter say, "Look at us!" (Ac 3:4)?
• Do you feel comfortable looking at and asking beggars to look at you? What was the beggar expecting (Ac 3:5)?
4. Did Peter have "silver and gold" (Ac 3:6; 2:45)?
• What is the value of "the name of Jesus" (Ac 3:6, 16; 4:10)? 
• Whose faith healed the lame man (Lk 5:20; Mt 9:22 Mk 5:34; 10:52; Lk 8:48; 18:42)?
• How do you respond when others ask for help? What do you have to give them?
• What has Peter and John experienced over the past 60 days that has changed them?
5. How quickly was the lame man healed (Ac 3:7)? What did he do (Ac 3:8)?
• What similarities do we all share with this lame man (Ac 3:2; Gen 8:21; Ps 51:5; Rom 3:23; Eph 2:8-9; Ac 1:8; Rom 1:16)?
6. How did the people respond (Ac 3:9-11; 2:22, 43)? To whom did the crowd attribute the miracle (Ac 3:12)?
• When God blessed and used Peter to perform such a great miracle what temptation is there for him (Dt 9:4-6)?
• Does church leadership draw attention to the leader or to their particular church? Is the leader holier, better, closer to God and with superior powers that others do not have access to?
• Could God use you to be part of a miracle? Why or why not?
7. Why did Peter connect Jesus with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ac 3:13a)?
• What did Peter accuse the Jews of doing (Ac 3:13-15; 2:23, 36; 4:10)? Is this a justification for anti-Semitism? Was it only the Jews who had Jesus killed? Are you responsible for the death of Christ? Do you speak boldly against sin? What did God do (Ac 3:15b)?
• In serving God, do you do so "by faith in the name of Jesus" (Ac 3:16), OR do you depend on your good intentions, your gifts and talents, your money, your zeal and passion, your past experience, you position of authority, etc?
8. Why did Peter say that the Jews and their leaders were ignorant in killing Jesus (Ac 3:17; Lk 23:34)? Are there not then consequences? Are they then not responsible?
• Who had foretold that the "Messiah would suffer" (Ac 3:18)?
9. What 4 successive blessings follow when you repent (Ac 3:19-21, 26)?
• What does it mean to repent (Ac 2:38; Mk 1:15)? Is it to feel sorry and feel bad about your sins? Is it mainly about self-improvement? Doing better? Do only non-Christians need to repent? What about Christians (Rev 2:4-5, 16, 21-22; 3:3, 19)?
• Are you confident that you have "turned to God" [be converted]?
• Can you explain refreshment that follow repentance: rest, respite, relief, restoration, regeneration, renewal (Mt 11:28; Jn 14:27; Phil 4:7)?

10. What did Peter conclude with prophecies from Moses, Samuel and Abraham (Ac 3:22-25; Dt 18:15-16, 19; 2 Sam 7:12; Gen 12:3; 18:18; 17:4; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14)?

www.westloop-church.org/index.php/messages/new-testament/43-acts-messages/689-acts-3

Following Jesus is Serious Business (Luke 14:25-35)

Bishop Barron calls the large crowds following Jesus as "The Fair-Weather Fans of Jesus (Lk 14:25-26)."

• From last Sunday's sermon (9/4/22) on Time and Money how do those closest to you shape how you use your time and money?

1. Why might large crowds be travelling with Jesus (Lk 14:25)? Is Jesus telling them to hate those closest to them (Lk 14:26; Mt 10:37)?
2. How might the crowd have felt about Jesus' "slap in the face" challenge? Why did he use such strong language (Lk 13:24-27; 14:16-20; Mt 10:37-39; 22:36-40)? What is Jesus affirming about Himself (Col 1:15; 2:9; Heb 1:3; Phil 2:5; Jn 1:1-3)? Did Jesus perceive them to be "fair-weather fans"? Do they know what following Jesus means?
3. What does it mean to those following Jesus to "carry their cross" (Lk 14:27)?
4. What do the 2 parabolic stories (Lk 14:28-32) tell us about what we should do if we are serious about following Jesus (Lk 14:33)?
5. What does it mean for salt to lose its saltiness (Lk 14:34-35a)? What should we hear from Jesus (Lk 14:35b)?

The Crucifixion (Fleming Rutledge)

Fleming Rutledge Preaching the Cross of Christ (Jan 2021). The Crucifixion, Advent and Preaching (2020). 10 Reasons to read Fleming Rutledge’s ‘The Crucifixion’.

1. The Passover lamb, 
2. the goat driven into the wilderness, 
3. the ransom, 
4. the substitute, 
5. the victor on the field of battle, 
6. the representative man—

each and all of these and more have their place, and the cross is diminished if any one of them is omitted. We need to make room for all the biblical images.

• "You have not yet considered the gravity of sin." Anselm. Scandalous Cross of Jesus [Barron on Rutledge, 9 min, 2016].

• "Your sin is the biggest problem in the world. Do you hate it? Do you make war on it?" – 
  @JohnPiper.
• Karl Barth specifically notes that sloth [spiritual laziness which is the prime deadly sin of today] gives rise to
• callous indifference, 
• racism and xenophobia, 
• increasing competitiveness [jealousy], 
• excessive consumption [appetites], 
• the desire for total security from threats [fear], and 
• a willingness to use violence to achieve one's ends [anger].
• Paul Tillich speaks of self-complacent [satisfied] finitude.
• One mark of godly Christians is that you fear sin more than you fear suffering or covid.

• A narrative sermon has a plot. It has
1. a beginning,
2. a destabilizing center,
3. a resolution. The resolution should come as a surprise, as a welcome surprise. Living words for life in the midst of death--every sermon ideally should be that. It should take the hearer from death to life.

• Preach a sermon that summons the congregation to an apocalypse, a revelation, something revealed, something new, something transformative. The purpose of the narrative is to lead the congregation from depression, despair, indifference into an eye-opening new way of understanding what God has done. God is the agent.

• Do sermons as dramas. I believe in that. The sermon is a drama, not a teaching. People say my sermons had beginnings, middles and ends. That's the best way to do it because the gospel itself is a story. The story of Jesus Christ is a story.

• There's a Jesus kerygma [proclamation; announcement; the preaching of the apostles as recorded in the NT] and there's a Christ kerygma. The NT is a Christ kerygma, which we often turn into a Jesus kerygma. That means if we tell enough stories about what Jesus did and summon people to do what Jesus did, that's a Jesus kerygma. But that's not the same as the justification of the ungodly, the phrase Paul uses twice, which is the center of the gospel.
• The justification of the ungodly is NOT a message about how we should try to be like Jesus. It's a message about what Jesus has done and his ongoing life.

• Preach every Sun about the ongoing life of Jesus in the community: "Look what we can do because of this ongoing life of Jesus." NOT "Be like Jesus," but "Listen for his voice, his living voice; listen for the gospel; listen for what God is doing and has done and will do. Even through you, this little Christian church / congregation, God is working even through you, even in the midst of this terrible, demonic plague, God is still working through little bodies of Christians." Look at what is happening through these little bodies of Christians, NOT "go and do likewise," but look at what Jesus is already doing, what God is already doing, what the Holy Spirit, the Trinity is already doing. In other words, not exhorting, but enabling, not just teaching [what 3-point tends to do]. Sermon is not just teaching; it is enabling---and enabling not only belief, but enabling action that arises out of the belief. So when Jesus says, "Go and do likewise," he doesn't mean "Copy me." He means, "Here is my power, living in my vine, my beloved, my chosen."

7 Characteristics of Liberal Theology.

• Liberalism is a diverse, but identifiable approach to Christianity, one that differs significantly from historic orthodoxy, evangelicalism and fundamentalism.  Liberals believe they are making Christianity relevant, credible, beneficial, and humane. Evangelicals like J. Gresham Machen believe they are making something other than Christianity--the dividing line a century ago, and the division persists.

• Lifting Jesus’ teaching above any claims about his person. The true religion is the way of Christ. Asserting that Christianity is essentially a life, not a doctrine. Cf. Traditional Protestant orthodoxies place the substitutionary atonement of Christ at the center of Christianity.

• Liberal theology is defined by its openness to the verdicts of modern intellectual inquiry, especially the nature and social sciences; its commitment to the authority of individual reason and experience; its conception of Christianity as an ethical way of life; its favoring of moral concepts of atonement; and its commitment to make Christianity credible and socially relevant to modern people.

• 
  The idea of liberal theology is nearly three centuries old. In essence, it is the idea that Christian theology can be genuinely Christian without being based upon external authority. Since the 18th century, liberal Christian thinkers argue that religion should be modern and progressive and that the meaning of Christianity should be interpreted from the standpoint of modern knowledge and experience. cf. the view of scripture as an infallible revelation and theology as an explication [vs. explanation] of propositional revelation.

• The movement in modern Protestantism which during the 19th century tried to bring Christian thought into organic unity with the evolutionary world view, the movements from social reconstruction, and the expectations of ‘a better world’ which dominated the general mind. It is that form of Christian faith in which a prophetic-progressive philosophy of history culminates in the expectation of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Cross-Shattered Christ, Stanley Hauerwas, 2004

"Mystery" suggests that what we believe defies reason and common sense. What we believe does defy reason and common sense; but yet I believe what Christians believe is the most reasonable and commonsense account we can have of the way things are.

17) The End (Mark 14:53-15:39)

"Christianity is the only religious faith that says that God himself actually suffered, actually cried out in suffering." Tim Keller, King's Cross, 208

"If you see Jesus losing the infinite love of his Father out of his infinite love for you, it will melt your hardness." 210

"Spiritual darkness comes when we turn away from God as our true light and make something else the center of our life." 203
"When you are in spiritual darkness, although you may feel your life is headed in the right direction, you are actually profoundly disoriented." 203

"Also, if you center on anything but God, you suffer a loss of identity. Your identity will be fragile and insecure... It's based on human approval. It's based on how well you perform. You don't really know who you are. In the darkness you can't see yourself." 204

A Lamb Bound By His Four Feet

Are you wounded more than this lamb that is bound by his four feet?

We are wounded when we give in to the perpetual sinful desires raging in our own hearts. But our wounds are also inflicted by others: our parents, our family, our friends, and even by Christians in the church who believe in God and believe in the Bible.

As frail and fallible humans, we have a terribly hard time truly forgiving others, or letting go of the hurts and wounds that are inflicted on us, and deeply embedded in us. In fact, I'm convinced that we can't forgive others by our own human strength.

I've spoken to many young adults who were so brutally traumatized by their parent's divorce, which they experienced personally as a betrayal of the deepest cut. Surprisingly (but perhaps not so), I am also beginning to hear of those who were terribly wounded by Christians who believe in God and who believe in the Bible. Reinhold Niebuhr said, "There is no deeper pathos in the spiritual life than the cruelty of righteous people."

Sometimes, it's hard for me to figure out which wound is deeper: those inflicted by your own family, or by your church family.

This is one of our human dilemmas. We love our family, but we were terribly hurt by them. We love our church family, but we were also terribly hurt by them. What is the solution or the resolution?

I think the answer is in this picture of the lamb who was bound by his four feet.

When I thought of what would happen to the lamb after he was bound, I shuddered and broke down. The butchers would do to the lamb what they normally do. Then the lamb would no longer look so cute and so lovely. He would become an unrecognizable, disfigured, bloody mess (Isa 52:14).

Jesus is that lamb. Jesus is the kernel of wheat that fell to the ground and died (John 12:24). He wasn't forced to do so, but did so willingly (John 10:18). Why? Here are some reasons:

• He had to be cursed by God in our place (Gal 3:13).
  
• He became our sin in the presence of God (2 Cor 5:21).
  
• He bore our sins in his own body and was mortally wounded in our place (Isa 53:5; 1 Pet 2:24).
• He had to suffer and be put to death for our sins (1 Pet 3:18).

O this side of heaven, we may never be fully free of the inflicted wounds in our soul. But there is One who received a far deeper wound. And only by his wounds are we healed.

How have you been wounded? Do you find peace and healing in the Lamb who was bound unto death?