Matthew 16:21-26
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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 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.”
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his lifewill lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, September 3 is from Matthew chapter 16, verses 21 through 28. It reads, 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, he raised and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. 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. Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul, for the Son of Man is going to come with His angels to the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here, who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So this passage is an interesting contrast with what we read last week. Last week, we saw Jesus go to the disciples and and say, Who do you say the Son of Man, or people say, and they give all sorts of answers, and Jesus asked, But who do you think I am? And Peter says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus heaps praises on this and says, on this rock, I will build my church. Now, immediately after this, Jesus begins to tell the disciples what he's going to do, that he will suffer, die, and on the third day be raised, this is the mission. This is what Jesus was sent for. And Peter responds, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. And Jesus goes, Get behind Me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Can you imagine? You go from this Hi, amazing moment where Peter is, is saying, the height of the confession of faith, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then Jesus calls Peter Satan, Get behind Me, Satan. Yikes, Jesus, can't you be a little more Christ like and a little less judgmental. It's almost like you can hear that in your mind, right? But what Peter's trying to do is prevent Jesus from suffering and dying so that we can be saved. Peter is actually setting his mind on the things of man, kind of a theology of glory, saying that successful things are the things that human beings find glorious. Whereas the theology of the cross shows that the successful things are the things that have the power of God, which, to us is a suffering and dying Savior, who then rises three days later. And we see it again, in some of the most difficult words that Jesus says to any Christian, when he says, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Now, does that sound like a glorious life? Is that the perfect plan that God has laid out for everyone with this glorious future? deny himself take up his cross and follow me? That's the theology of the cross, where Christians look to see the power of God in the hidden in the suffering, in self sacrifice, and not in the glorious and the powerful and the rich and the wealthy. Jesus continues, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with the angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. So now, here we go. And we look ahead and we see the glory. Right now the life of a Christian is denying yourself taking up our cross and following Jesus in the future, when Jesus returned, that is when Christians see the glory when he comes with the angels and judges, the living and the dead, and repays each one person according to what he has done. Now, you might hear that and go whoa, whoa, whoa, Jesus. I thought we believed in salvation by grace and that That's what it is. He's repaying each person according to faith in Christ, those who are with him and those who are not. And so we rejoice in looking forward to the day that Jesus comes and gives salvation to his people and saves them and makes them glorious. That's the end of our gospel reading. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai