Jona Lawson - Class 3: Take Up Your Cross

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   Bible exhortations, classes, and talks. Bible exhortations, books, and talks. He summarized beautifully the path that Peter has tracked to this point. And we want to continue his transformation tonight as we look at this subject of take up your cross. Now, it's easy to follow someone, isn't it, when they're very popular and everything's going really well.

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   That's relatively easy and everyone, there's a big crowd behind you and everyone's there and everyone's streaming behind and everything's great. It's a lot harder to continue to follow someone when their popularity wanes. And all of a sudden, things that they're saying are getting very hard and people are becoming disinterested in what they have to say and things get hard.

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   That's a lot harder to stay the course and follow someone when that happens. And that's what happened here in the life of Peter and the life of Christ. By the time we get to John chapter 6, which is our story we looked at a couple of days, yesterday, yesterday morning, which was the feeding of the 5,000.

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   Jesus had reached the peak of his popularity. And we saw that yesterday, didn't we? We saw when Jesus had done that amazing miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, that people were all over him. And what did they want to do? Well, he knew that they wanted to make him king. And there was this popularity surge behind the Lord at that point.

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   And everyone thought, this is the man that's going to save us from the Romans. But Jesus knew that that was not to be the case. And he had one year left of his ministry. And what we're going to see happen in this last year of his ministry is the popularity of this man begins to decrease.

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   And it decreases quite rapidly. Let's just come to John chapter 6, where we see the turning point of the Lord's ministry here in John chapter 6.

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   And what the turning point was is that the very next day, after Jesus had done that amazing miracle, the crowds followed him back over the Sea of Galilee. And they were eager for him to do more miracles. Because what did they want? They wanted more bread. They saw what this man could do.

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   And they were like, wow, we want more bread. But Jesus realized that that's not what it was about. And that he had to start changing the way these people think. And make them realize and understand that it's not about the bread. It's not about the temporal food. Because that temporal food will come and go in an instant and it will disappear.

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   He wanted them to see what was really important. And what was really important was the bread of life. And the bread of life was his words. And his words understood and recognized in the life of a person. And what that would result in would be a change of life. And so that's what he told people about in John chapter 6.

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    He told them about his words. And that he needed them to start to take his words in. And not just be overawed by the magic tricks and the miracles that he was doing. And you know what? People didn't like it. People didn't understand what he was talking about. Look what he says in verse 60 of John chapter 6.

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    He says, Many therefore, after he said these things, of his disciples. So people who'd been following him who said, Lord, I'm one of your disciples. Many of those people that said heard this. And what did they say? This is a hard saying. I can't hear it. I don't know what you're talking about, Lord.

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    I understood what you were talking about when you were producing bread and fish from nowhere. But now I don't understand. Because this is hard. Because this means that you're saying I have to start changing my life. And go in a different direction. And look what Jesus says in verse 61. And when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

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    It's interesting that word offend, right? Because it's the same word that Jesus used. Don't turn there because I'll quickly read it for you. It's the same word that Jesus used when he told the parable of the sower. And he talked about the stony ground. You remember the stony ground? The stony ground were those people who, when they first saw the message, they loved the message.

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    And they took it on board immediately. But then verse 21 of Matthew chapter 13 says this, But they had no root in themselves. And they endured for a while. But when tribulation or persecution arose because of the word, by and by they became offended. And that's what happened to this group of disciples, who'd been so passionate and interested about the teaching of Christ when they first heard it, and when he was doing all these amazing things.

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    But when things got a little bit hard, they found that there was no root in themselves. They'd never actually taken the time to actually put roots down themselves into the ground and establish their faith and what they really believed. And sadly, look what it says in verse 66 of John chapter 6. And from that time, many of his disciples went back and they no longer walked with him.

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    That must have been sad for the Lord, mustn't it? That must have been devastating for him. All these people who'd followed, and now they're turning away in their droves. And then Jesus turns to his disciples and he says to them in verse 67, And Jesus said unto the twelve, Will you also go away?

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    Are you going to stay with me? Or are you going to leave and walk away too? And then Peter. This is one of his greatest moments. And I'd get a coloured pencil and I'd colour in Simon Peter here because this is one of the key moments where this man is going to change from Simon to Peter on his journey.

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    And when the Lord asked Peter that question, he says this in verse 68, And Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, where are we going to go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You imagine how happy the Lord must have been when he heard the words of Peter that came out of his mouth.

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    And they weren't just flippant words, were they? If you read those words carefully, they are considered words that this man has thought upon. See, Peter wasn't just a man who took on anything. We've already seen that in our studies. We saw that in study one. He wasn't a man that just, when Jesus said, follow me, that he automatically followed.

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    He was a man that wanted to be sure. And so he researched and he investigated and he looked into the words and he listened to Jesus to find out if he was the Christ. And he weighed it up. Look what he said in verse 66. He said, where else are we going to go?

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    I've looked everywhere else. I've looked at the other options. I've seen the other prophets. I've seen the other things that people have said about life and where it can lead. And I've weighed it all up. And you know what I've worked out? You're the Christ. The Son of the living God. And you know where he got that from?

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    He hadn't got that from nowhere. He understood the words that Jesus had been saying in John chapter 6. He said, I've got this from your words. And I understand, Lord, what you've been saying. That it's your words that contain eternal life. And I've been listening. And I'm convicted. And I'm confirmed. And I'm confident that you are the Christ.

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    Now, as I said, Jesus must have been so pleased with that, mustn't he? And so pleased with the rest of the disciples that they had come to that understanding. It had taken them a while, but they'd come to that understanding like we saw yesterday through the word, through searching the word, through active involvement.

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    And then through trial and persecution, they'd come to understand that he was the Christ. But now what Jesus realised he needed to do with these men was he needed to, now that they had that faith, he needed them to learn the importance of holding onto it.

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    Holding fast to that faith for the long term. Because there were things that were going to come into their life that were going to try and steal that faith away from them. And he needed them to be firm and secure and be able to resist no matter what that came upon them. That's what the Lord needed them to do.

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    And that's what we all need to do with our faith. Faith is such a precious thing. And it needs to be cultivated and looked after it. We sometimes treat, I think, flippantly, I talk about myself, maybe I'm not talking for you, but we treat flippantly perhaps the upbringing that we have and the precious hope that we've been handed, the understanding we've got of God.

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    And when we have that faith and we come to that belief, don't let go of it. Because it's actually so precious. And Jesus realised that there were going to be things that are going to come into the lives of these men that were going to potentially take their faith. And he wanted them to learn to hold confidently to that confidence that they had.

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    And that's what Paul says in Hebrews chapter 3. And one of my favourite passages in all the Bible actually, he says this, for we have come to share in Christ. That's what the invitation that we've been given, to share in Christ. In everything that Christ is going to bring to this earth, we've been invited to share in that by faith.

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    And he says, how do you get it if you indeed hold on to your original confidence firm to the end? That's what we need to do. We need to hold fast our original confidence firm to the end, no matter what. And Jesus is going to teach them in the passage that we'll look at tonight what we need to do to hold on to the faith that we've been given against opposition that will come and different voices that will come and different opinions that will come.

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    How we hold on to that faith right through then. And he's also going to talk about how we can hold on to our faith and endure through suffering and persecution that might come upon us as well. And he needed his disciples to understand this key message. Now, the opposition of Jesus from this point would only get worse.

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    Not only would his disciples start to leave him as they already have, but the opposition from the Jewish elders with only one year out would become increasingly dangerous. Look at chapter 7 and verse 1. It says there that after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk in Jewry. He would not walk in Judah.

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    He couldn't go down to Jerusalem anymore because Jesus knew as soon as I go down to Jerusalem, I'm gone. I'm going to be killed or they're going to be taking me. And so he said, and he says there, because the Jews sought to kill him. And so he had to limit his activities to the north for this next period of time.

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    If we look at our timeline, we're actually got to right to here now. We've seen that's the feeding of the 5,000 we looked at yesterday and we looked at Peter walking on water. And this is the last year now of the Lord's life. And for the majority of this last year, Jesus spends his time right up the north from Galilee and Galilee up because he's trying to get away from Judah and Jerusalem where there was real danger that his life would be taken and the life of his disciples.

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    And Jesus will focus really in this last year of his ministry almost exclusively on those 12 men and those 12 men alone. It's awesome when you think of what the plan that Jesus had. We would think, oh, aren't you annoyed, Jesus, that the crowds have gone away? And I'm sure he was frustrated that they'd gone but Jesus knew that that would be the case and it was always his plan to just get these 12 men ready.

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    And if he could just get those 12 men ready when he was gone, those 12 men would be enough to light a fire that would go throughout the rest of the world and that's what they did. So he's just got to prepare those 12 men. So in this last year, from Passover 3 to the last one when he died, he's focusing his attention now on those 12 disciples and trying to build in them endurance and patience and understanding.

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    Now the heat not only was on Jesus but the heat started to come on the disciples as well. Just turn to Matthew chapter 13 and you'll see that the Jews started to target not only the Lord but they started to target the disciples.

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    Actually, it's in Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15, they come to Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees and they say a question to him in verse 2. Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. So they came up to Jesus and said, what's going on with your disciples here?

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    They're actually transgressing the laws of the fathers and the traditions of the fathers. So all of a sudden the disciples are now targeted and they start to feel vulnerable because look what they say in verse 12 after Jesus just wipes the floor with the scribes and Pharisees, they say to Jesus this, then came the disciples unto him and said unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended by what you said?

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    Like Jesus, maybe you should just tone it down a little bit because these guys are getting aggressive and they're not only getting aggressive towards you, they're getting aggressive towards us. So they started to worry for their own situation. And that was increasingly going to be the case as time went on. And then what Jesus does is Jesus then goes heads north and he heads up here, this is like the little Lake Hula, I think that's how you pronounce it, someone I'm sure will come and tell me that it's wrong, but that's above the Sea of Galilee and Jesus went from this point up and he preached to the Gentiles of the area and he fed the 4,000 around this particular area and then he took the disciples way up north here, right up towards Mount Hermon.

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    And it's there that we find this passage that we read for us tonight in Matthew chapter 16 and here Jesus has got an important test and important lessons to teach the disciples and we read that he comes up there in verse 13 of Matthew chapter 16. it says, and when Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked the disciples, so he came up to the coasts of Caesarea Philippi and here is that city here and Caesarea Philippi was a Roman city, alright, ruled over by the Romans and previously before that it was ruled over by the Greeks but it's interesting that he doesn't actually go right into the city of Caesarea Philippi it says there in verse 13 that he went to the coasts which means the suburbs the outer suburbs of Caesarea Philippi why was Jesus going there?

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    well he was going there for a very specific reason because the lesson that he's going to try and teach them is actually relevant to something that happened in that spot in the Old Testament and what that was, we don't have time to go back to it but we'll just have to briefly go over it so that you can remember it.

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    Here it is here, it was the place of Dan and it was just a few kilometres outside Caesarea Philippi and it was in Dan you might remember when Jeroboam became king after Rehoboam so Solomon came to power Rehoboam comes to power after him and then after him Jeroboam comes to power and what Jeroboam said was this is really annoying what's going to happen because I'm the northern kingdom all of my residents or the people that live in my kingdom are going to go down south to Jerusalem every year and they're going to worship and I'm going to lose people to them and so he said what I'm going to do is I'm going to set up here right up in the north in this place called Dan I'm going to set up a false idol there a golden calf and that's going to be a place of worship and what he did was he included a lot of the stuff from the festivals of God like the Passover and the Feast of Pentecost he had all the ones but he just changed them slightly he mixed truth and he mixed error he mixed man's opinion with God's opinion and he created like a sword of truth but not quite and he got everyone to come up and go there and many people went down south and said no we want to hold on to God's law and God's what we believe in and listened to him but many ended up listening to the opinions of that man and stayed up there worshipping in Dan and lost the truth and Jesus took his disciples specifically to that

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    area to teach them this lesson and he asked them a question when he gets up there and that question is in verse 13 he says who do men say that the son of man is I want to ask you I want to do a survey who do you who does the 12 disciples who do men what's the general opinion out there of me what's the general popular opinion about who I am and this is what they say verse 14 interesting isn't it that no one anymore was saying that he was Jesus Christ they had all these different other opinions of who he was some said he's John the Baptist and that theory actually came from Herod Herod was like who is this guy right I reckon he's John the Baptist maybe come back from the dead and other people had all these different ideas about who this man actually was and Jesus had just warned them about that previously in verse 12 look what he says then understood they how that he bade them to beware the leaven not the beware of the leaven of the bread but the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees in Mark's record he says this I want you to watch out I want you to be careful of the leaven or the teaching of the Pharisees and the teaching of Herod and he calls it leaven because it spreads easily leaven that's what it does through bread doesn't it and Jesus was warning the disciples to be careful about the opinions of these men because their teaching would weave into the truth that he was teaching and

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    corrupt it you got to be very careful of that to hold on to my message that it's true and by this time their message had started to take an influence hadn't it because you notice that no one is now saying that he's Christ now why weren't they you remember yesterday like this is only six months ago they were all saying that he was king they thought yes he's definitely the Christ what changed why weren't they saying that he was the Christ now well look what had happened John chapter nine the authorities had started to crunch down and squeeze down on the people and they said the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess that Jesus was to be the Christ he was to be put out of the synagogue so this was already a big question wasn't it that was a big thing back then to be put out of the synagogue that was your whole life that was the life of your family and they said if you say that Jesus is the Christ you're not coming in the synagogue now that made things hard didn't it that made things hard for the people and many people had backed !

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    away and said I don't know ! I did believe on him even the higher echelon of the authorities believed on him but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it they were scared of the opinions of men and it backed them into a corner and they didn't want to believe in Jesus anymore and it goes on to say why that was the case because they would be put out of the !

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    and for they loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God that's what made them not confess they were worried about the opinions of men more than the opinions of God and no one was now saying that he was the Christ and then Jesus turns the question the same question to the disciples and he says well who do you say I am and he knew didn't he that just a few months earlier that we already looked at that passage that Peter had said he'd been convinced that Jesus was the Christ and Jesus wanted to test these men to see whether the popular opinion around them that the voices of the authorities and the voices of the masses had started to make an impression upon their faith would they be swayed would their opinion be changed by that of popular opinion it's easy isn't it to be swayed by popular opinion we don't even realise we're doing it sometimes I always think about dress like you know jeans that we're wearing like one minute I'm wearing skinny jeans next minute you know I'm wearing fat jeans baggy jeans who told me to do that I just got taken along by the thrust of public opinion and it's easy to be swayed by public opinion and public thought and you know that's a big challenge for us today because the world that we live in in Australia anyway the public opinion is rapidly changing and it's moving away from the principles of God which it did have as some kind of establishment even 50 years ago and it's moving rapidly away

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    from those opinions to its own opinions look at this graph here this is the major religious affiliations described in the Australian census and the last one here is 2016 we just did another one this year the results haven't come out there's a pretty clear trend isn't it this one here is the amount of atheists who don't believe in God and this blue one here are the people who profess an understanding of God you know it's got down nearly to 50% and I guarantee next time when the census comes out and the results come that it's going to be less than 50% and that's a massive change and you know what's getting quicker and quicker and quicker have you noticed that over the last five years have you noticed how much outdated the opinions of God feel and the stances that God makes and the recommendations and the principles that he makes we're starting to feel like we're aliens in this world and it's easy to be swayed by those opinions isn't it just like it was easy for these men to be swayed by the opinions of their day and Jesus asks these men who do you say I am now do you still believe on the Christ and who is it that stands up who is it the voices of opinion clear and easy and beautiful as ever and swerving in his belief with Simon Peter and he says to Peter and he says to Jesus verse 16 and Simon Peter call that in answered and said thou art Christ the son of the living God and he knew that those words if he

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    said them out in public would get him thrown out of the synagogue but he didn't care he believed it with all the fiber of his being he was confident he was sure that he was the Christ the son of the living God that must have made the Lord happy that man had built that faith and held on to that faith despite that opposition that came against him and he says that to Peter verse 17 and Jesus answered and said unto him blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah that word means happy happy are you Simon Bar-Jonah you have found the key to happiness in life and that is the understanding of my message of who I am and my God as the one and only living God and your faith has been able to exist even when others have said that it's not true you've managed to hold on to that faith and he was so pleased with that how was that the case what had Peter done that had been able to make him be able to hang on against that public opinion that's important to know isn't it because we're living as we said in that kind of environment and we've got those kind of pressures of those kind of opinions that come upon us every day they come upon us everywhere don't they how do we hold on to our faith like Peter did well Jesus says to him how we got it and how we held on to it look what he says verse 17 for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you but my father which is in heaven he says

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    you want to know Peter where you got that faith from you didn't get it from listening to flesh and blood man's opinions and you managed to push those out and how you did that was you listen to my father and by listening to my father and continually listening and to listening to Jesus' words as he preached it kept confirming to Peter his faith that he held so true kept confirming his belief and his understanding he hadn't let human opinion dominate the way he thought and that's what we need to do as well and we've got to be careful of this we've got to beware of unlimited because we do these days we have unlimited access to human opinion like never in the history of the world have you been able to just at like the touch of a button go onto your phone and just connect to like any human opinion on any subject you ever can in like you know two or three seconds and that's what you can do can't you and you control YouTube and these sites for hours listening to these unbelievable philosophies from these people like over and over again and some of them are awesome and they're unbelievable and they change your world and they change your life but God says or Jesus said here they won't lead you to truth and there's only one thing that will lead you to truth and that's by listening to my father listening to my father and you notice that it has to be not just listening once but it has to be a continual listening and that's what Peter had done

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    he hadn't just been convicted in his faith and said I'm done now and I'll just go and live my life as I please he'd continued in his faith to listen to his master continually and there's the secret to holding on to faith it's regular listening to God regular building about faith and isn't that what Paul said in Romans 10 verse 17 he said that's how faith is cultivated he says then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and that hearing needs to be a continuous hearing in our life we can't let that hearing stop because otherwise we'll be influenced by these other opinions I used to think that surely if a young person grows up into the meeting and they come to understand God and the gospel and they see the prophecies of God and they understand everything surely if they do that at a young age they'll never forget it and they'll never lose their faith for the rest of their life regardless of what they do you know that's not true a very very close friend of mine left the truth about 20 years ago and he knew the truth he used to give talks about the truth he understood the prophecies of God he knew everything about God and he had a faith but just this last couple of years he contacted me he doesn't live in Australia anymore he contacted me right about what was going on in the world and he said what does all this mean and it was like surely you remember like you used to give talks on this stuff like you used

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    to know all the ins and outs of what was going to happen and who God was and how the kingdom was going to come and it was gone and he doesn't know any of it and I pray God that he learn it again ! and build up his faith again but at the moment it's gone because he stopped listening he stopped hearing what God was trying to tell him we need to continually listen continually listen to God because that's how we can retain our faith now because Peter was able to do that Jesus was so pleased with him and he had a very special task that he wanted to give this man Peter to do as a result of his conviction and he says that in verse 18 he says and I say unto you that thou art Peter he plays on his name here Peter which means rock you are Peter you are a rock you are developing into that rock Peter you are becoming stable firm foundation and he says because of that what I'm going to do is upon this rock and the rock that he's talking about is your understanding that you've got now of God as the one living God and Jesus his son and he's planted the gospel from that that's the rock that you've come to understand and upon that Peter I'm going to build my ecclesia you are going to play an integral role Peter in building the ecclesia of God from this point forward and you know what he says the gates of hell will not prevail against it which basically means death will not even

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    prevail against it the program that you're going to be involved in Peter the building of the ecclesia that you're going to be involved in is going to grow and grow and it's going to last forever now it might not have seemed that way sometimes for Peter he might have thought even six months later that this work that he was involved in with Jesus Christ was history and it was never going to happen ever again but sure enough the ecclesia built and Jesus said there's nothing that will prevail against it and that's true today and we might look sometimes at the communities that we live in and think is God still here do people still want to hear God well Jesus said nothing ultimately is going to prevail against it eventually like that little

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    that's what the ecclesia is going to be like it will prevail and Peter was going to be the start of it and he said how are you going to be the start of it verse 18 he says I say unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven I am going to give you the keys and what do keys unlock things and what's he going to unlock well he's going to unlock for all these other people the mystery of the gospel to understand who Jesus Christ was God says Jesus says I'm going to give you that job Peter what an important job that was you know the Jews had had that job John 12 says wo

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    you have taken away the keys of knowledge they had the keys the Jewish elders and they had not given them to other people it says you've entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in you have hindered so Jesus was going to take the keys away from the Jews and he was going to give the keys to this man Peter and Peter was going to take that !

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    message and we're going to see that in our last study and he opens up the understanding to the Jews of who Jesus was and then he's going to be the key man to open up that same message of hope to the Gentiles when he goes to the house of Cornelius that's the special role that Peter was given but it wasn't going to happen yet there was still more that Peter needed to know and it says that in verse 20 then changed charged to his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Christ I mean Peter just said you're the Christ and he says don't say anything yet and why did Jesus say don't say anything yet because he knew it was too dangerous to say that now and he also knew !

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    that they didn't quite yet have the full picture of who Christ was and he needed to illuminate to them the last piece of who Jesus really was and it was an important part of the puzzle that they did not understand and that was that Jesus who was the Messiah would be someone that would come and would suffer and so Jesus starts to outline this to them in verse 21 and from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day so he outlines to them that they need to be what was going to happen and this is the first time they heard of this the first time they found out about !

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    what was going to happen that he would have to suffer and Jesus would go on to tell them in detail at least four other times of what would have to happen to him and he got down to such minute detail he described exactly what was going to happen to him on that night that he would suffer that he would kill that he be spat on that he be mocked !

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    he would be hit and when it came to the time they didn't understand they still didn't understand and we might look sometimes at the disciples and think you guys are so thick you don't you're not getting it Jesus is laying it out pretty clearly why do you still not understand what's going to happen to him but we're the same in many ways and we've been told haven't we in our era that what's going to happen to us is when the Lord comes he's going to come as a thief in the night and he's going to come at a time when we think not and we've read those words so many times but are we going to be caught out in the same way the disciples were I remember a year and a half when this world suddenly changed right and it changed for all of us in that moment of panic like Easter 2020 right with all that we knew about you know thieves in the night and stuff how many of us just panicked about what was going on with the world we were stocked so much toilet paper so much stuff it was unbelievable so we can't be too critical of the disciples they would have would come to this illumination and they would come to this illumination afterwards but at the moment it was a great shock to them and so much of a shock was it that Peter actually takes Jesus aside look what he does in verse 22 then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying be it far from thee Lord this shall not be so unto

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    you so he took Jesus and he took him aside away from the rest of the disciples and he says to him Jesus what are you saying don't say this be it far from you Lord this is not going to happen to you there's no way that this will happen to you I know things are a bit rough at the moment and your popularity is not that great but it's going to be okay and what you're doing by saying these words this is what I can imagine Peter perhaps was thinking but what you're doing by saying these words is you're discouraging the rest of the disciples don't say this Peter and Jesus comes out very strongly to Peter and he says to him verse 23 but he turned and said unto Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things of God but those that be of men get thee behind me Satan that's the same thing he said to the tempter you might remember when the tempter said to him Jesus all you've got to do is bow down to me and I will give you all of the world and the kingdoms of it and all the glory that will be in present world and what he was saying really was you don't need to go through the suffering that you're going

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    the same thing and he says get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me and that word offence means a stumbling stone you're standing in my way this is not an option for me Peter he'd said in those words this must be I must do this I must go and suffer and you're standing in my way and then he says why he had come to this conclusion

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    of God but the things of men you are thinking in the ways of men Peter and not in the ways of God that word savorous means to set your mind on to set your affections on and essentially Jesus was saying to Peter you've got the wrong focus here Peter you're focusing on the here and now but your affections need to be on the future aspirations that will come in the kingdom of God that's what all the servants of God need to have let's just quickly come to Colossians chapter three

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    Colossians chapter three and verse one to two Peter talks about these two affections and he uses the same word in verse two affection as what that word savourist was that he spoke to Peter and he says this if then you are risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sits on his right hand the right hand of God set your affection on things above and not on things of earth for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory so Jesus says as a disciple we need to have a new perspective in our life and our perspective needs to be on the future and not on the here and now it's like someone like Abraham who was a man who we know looked to a future city and when it came to decide between when when he said to Lot look out amongst all those things Abraham didn't care what part of the land he had because his mind was set on the future and poor Lot for a period of time lowered his eyes and got fixated on the temporal and Jesus said as a disciple we need to make sure that our affections are always on the future and Peter needed to be aware of this because what Jesus was trying to teach Peter at this point was that as trial and suffering would be part of the life of the Lord and the very near future would be part of his life as a fellow disciple and follower

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    of Jesus Peter also would need to suffer ! And that was not far away from him either and Jesus needed to tell him that this was the case and he needed to prepare his disciples and be ready for the fact that suffering would be a part of their discipleship and Jesus also needed to tell us that as well and he does that if we go back to Matthew chapter 16 in these final verses sorry I just looked at the time it's 8.32 I've probably got maybe 10 minutes left so just it's an important little section so just regroup yourself and just prepare that 10 minutes will be done I'm not going to plow you until you know 9.30 or not even 9 right so Jesus turns to his disciples and look what he says in verse 24 then said Jesus unto his disciples if any man will come after me so he now turns from talking to Peter and now he puts his focus and says look not only is this an important message for you Peter it's actually an important message for all of us to understand all of this point if any man wants to come after me there is going to be a level of suffering and persecution which is associated with the following of me and he describes that in verse 24 by saying this that if any man will come after me he needs to deny himself that's going to be a key part of your discipleship and the denial of our self is something pretty radical isn't it it's something completely against who we all are naturally we all

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    want to look after our self and the world is all about you and what you can do and where you can go and who you can be and Jesus says if you want to be my disciple it's a radical departure from that and it's going to be about denial of yourself and actually following after what I'm like and what was Jesus like well he was a man that was all about others 100% and Jesus says that's what I want you to be like as a disciple I want you to deny yourself and he says that's going to involve some sacrifice and he says take up your cross and that meant sacrifice and that was a symbol of sacrifice and Jesus sacrificed every single day of his life in giving himself to every person that he come across and he did that his whole life right to the point where his ultimate sacrifice was he gave his life away Jesus says I want you to emulate me in that way you might not go to your death because you notice there what he says take up his own cross everyone's trial in life and suffering that they might endure in life will be different but Jesus wanted to be honest with us and say that that's part of being my disciple there will be trouble there will be trial but I want you to follow me because I'm not telling you something to do that I'm not going to do myself fully and we have that beautiful picture in the New Testament of that beautiful picture of discipleship don't we when Jesus was walking to the

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    cross as he made his way up that hill a man beaten and destroyed and he walks up to Calvary and they grab a man and his name was Simon it's interesting isn't it and he took his cross with him and there's the picture of Jesus walking up the cross to Calvary and Simon his follower walking behind that's discipleship and we can't do of course everything that the Lord did the Lord did amazing unbelievable things for us but Jesus says I just want you to follow me to pursue me to try and be like me and where do we follow him well Revelation 14 says these are they this is talking about the people ultimately who end up being in the kingdom he says these are they which followed me they !

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    followed ! Lamb wherever he went wherever that trail might have led these followers followed me you know Jesus walking along one day and a man came up to him and he said this I'll follow wherever you go I'll be your disciple can I follow you Lord and Jesus says to him he turns around to him and says to him this foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head and what was Jesus telling that man I'd love you to follow me I want you to follow me I love you but I want to be up front with you and let you know that it's not always five star accommodation where we're going sometimes the road will be tough and I want you to be aware of that in your pursuit of me you see following Christ brothers and sisters and young people will not always be easy at times in fact Jesus says it will be very tough at times it will be lonely at times you may face rejection or disapproval sometimes even from your own friends or sometimes even ostracization from your own family and some people have done that to hold to Christ haven't they some people to go to Christ have left everything behind sometimes you'll be in opposition to what the world says and sometimes standing up for Christ in those situations might mean harassment and sometimes in those situations to stand up for Christ you know what that's meant for people it's meant physical persecution and our brothers and sisters right now in this world some in

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    Turkey and some in Iran that face that every day just to hold on to Christ and Christ said I know and I want you to be aware of that that following me might not always be easy I need you to be prepared I need you to be ready for wherever the road might lead wow imagine Peter and the disciples listening to this this is different now isn't it this is different from my calling when it was miracles and Jesus was doing these amazing things and then we were preaching and we were going out and everyone was accepting and it was all these great times and now Jesus is saying that there's going to be hard times and there's going to be suffering but Jesus is very quick to move to show the disciples what they needed to do what their mindset needed to be what his mindset was that helped him to move forward regardless of what they did to him and he gives them three little clues clues of how to develop eternal perspective and that's what he wanted them to develop an eternal perspective and if they could develop this eternal perspective as he had done it would mean that they could resist all types of suffering and all types of pain and so he gives them three little clues he says in verse 25 for whosoever will save his life will lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake will save it the first one he describes for us he says it's worth following me because life is fleeting and life is fleeting isn't it you might not think

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    it right these guys down here but life goes like that honestly it seems like like just yesterday that I was sitting down here in fact I wasn't sitting down there ! I was sitting up there and I had black hair that was thick as anything and I was just moving my hands through that beautiful big thick hair that was 25 years ago and now look at it it's not even grey anymore my daughter my six year old daughter said dad your hair is white and that 25 years went like that and Jesus says that if you want to hold on to life now it'll be gone in a second and once it's gone it's gone but he says whosoever will save his life sorry whosoever will lose his life will find it and I love the way he writes this actually he says whosoever would save his life will lose !

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    But whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it he doesn't say save he says you'll find it so if you throw your lot in with me and you give me your life you'll find life and Jesus wasn't just saying that you're going to find eternal life he was saying that as well we will get eternal life in the kingdom but he says you'll find the real purpose and meaning of what life is about and that's what the truth is about and that's why it's so awesome and that's why it answers so many questions because it's not just about the kingdom as awesome as that is it shows us how God wanted us to live from the very beginning his beautiful character and who he is and if you throw your lot in with Christ he says you'll find life that'll be the greatest thing you've ever done that word find is the same word find as when that man went and found the pearl of great price and when he found it he was filled with joy

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    to it the next thing he says is there's no lasting profit in the here and now for what is a man profited if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul even if life goes absolutely brilliantly and you're the greatest person that's ever lived and you're the richest person that's ever lived someone like Elon Musk who's worth 285 billion dollars and I can't keep up with the stuff he's got rockets he's flying he's going under the ground he's got cars he's got tech he's got absolutely everything Jesus says even if you have the whole world would he give it all up at the end just to keep going just for one more day I noticed that Jeff Bezos the second richest guy he just brought this company to try and look at look into how to live forever because he's a little bit older he's about 65 because they would give it up wouldn't they because life is so precious and Jesus was right there's no lasting profit in here and now and so finally Jesus says focus on the kingdom verse 27 for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels and they shall reward every man according to his work Jesus paints a picture there of his own vision of the kingdom and we haven't got time but it's beautiful if you go back to Daniel chapter 7 that's where he's getting his vision from it was a vision of him meeting with his father and ultimately what the kingdom of God was

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    going to be like and that's the vision that he had in his mind and Jesus says I want you to build that into your mind because if you can build an eternal perspective and a vision of the kingdom then you'll be able to endure anything that comes upon you you know Jesus quoted those very words in the last second when the Jews condemned him to death you remember he said and you'll see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and he knew that any moment what was going to happen to him he was going to beat him and kill him and he was going to suffer more than any man had suffered before but he knew !

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    what was ahead because he had a vision and Jesus says that's what you need to do as disciples is cultivate your vision and this is not from Psalm 49 but this will be our last passage it's actually from Hebrews 12 let us run with endurance that race that is set before us look to Jesus the founder the perfecter of our faith and how did he endure all of those things that would come upon him the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and he's now ready at the right hand of God ready to return three steps for holding fast you need to stand against popular opinion and to do that you need to keep listening to God's word every day you need to expect that suffering and persecution will come because life won't always be easy and finally you need to develop an eternal perspective to to leave to to go to to to to to !

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    to to