Jesus is Worth it

Jesus is Worth it

well, good morning, so a church. Good morning. So our church family tuning in on the livestream. So good to be with you guys this morning. So good to continue our series in the gospel of luke. Um if you’re new to soar church, my name is dan, I’m one of the pastors here and um I’m looking forward to preaching God’s word to you this morning. Um as I said, we’re going to continue in the gospel according to luke, we’re gonna pick up in chapter nine verses 18 through 27 so go ahead and grab a bible. Um there’s a bible on a chair near you. If you didn’t bring one or if you don’t have one, download it to your smartphone or anything like that, you can use that bible, you can actually even take it if you need it. Um but we’re gonna be looking at luke, chapter nine verses 18 through 27. And while you turn there, let me set the table for this teaching by saying this. Uh recently I was listening to a podcast is the most popular podcast in christendom today and one of the subjects that was covered in this podcast was the topic of celebrity and in covering this topic of celebrity. Uh the the announcers were talking about how in this post modern age, it is possible, it is now possible for a person to become famous, successful and rich without ever having to display any of the great virtues virtues like love and courage and sacrifice that. It is possible for a person to become famous in this post modern day and age without ever having to display any of those great virtues and that’s significant to us today because we have the same temptation in the church. This kind of thinking has already permeated the Lord’s church. We want to be a disciple of the Lord jesus christ, without ever having to deal with the great virtues or the fruit of the spirit or the very character, an example of our Lord and savior, jesus christ as he sacrificed as he did things in a very courageous manner as he stood for something that was indeed of God and we want to be a disciple of jesus without ever having to do any of those things. We wanted to be a smooth path to success, to celebrity to a place of being an influencer, without showing any of the great virtues let flow from God’s spirit. So that has permeated the Lord’s church and that is in direct contrast to what Jesus is going to say to his disciples in Chapter nine of Luke’s Gospel. The last thing I want to say before we read the passage is this, if you take nothing else away from this sermon, I want you to take away these things, these four things First is this life is challenging secondly, the world is fickle. Thirdly discipleship is costly, but jesus is worth it, Jesus is worth it, he is worthy life is challenging the world is fickle discipleship is costly, but Jesus is a worthy savior? He is worthy for you to give all of your life to follow him to be his disciple, following in his example and living for his glory, he is worth it. And it is the most important thing you could ever do with your life is to be all in for the Lord Jesus christ following him and living as he prescribed for us. Hey man, hey man, you guys are awake this morning. All right, let’s read the pastors this morning again uh luke chapter nine, beginning in verse 18, it says now it happened that as he was praying alone. Speaking of jesus, the disciples were with him and he asked them who do the crowds say that I am and they answered john the baptist’s but others say elijah and others that one of the prophets of old has risen. Then he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered the christ of God In verse 21 and he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one saying, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised and he said to you all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, will save it for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him, will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the Holy Angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. Let us pray Father. We thank you. We thank you for sending your christ, your messiah. The Lord jesus christ to pay the price for our salvation. And Lord jesus, we thank you for sacrificing your life that we might be redeemed that we might be the recipients of God’s great love and blessing. We thank you for that. And we thank you for this time as your church gathered in your name and we pray that you would speak to us that we might be built up as your disciples. And we ask all of this in your glorious name. Amen. So the passage begins with jesus in prayer. It says that it happened as he was praying alone in verse 18. So he was praying because prayer was important to the Lord jesus christ. The Lord jesus christ, having to nature’s being fully God and fully man was a person committed to prayer. Being fully God and being fully man, living his life on this planet, doing the things that he did in ministry preaching the things that he preached, he demonstrates time and time again, as we find in the gospel accounts that he is a man of prayer. Prayer was important to the Lord, jesus christ, he prays, he praised so much and with so much passion and so much love for the father, that his disciples once asked him Lord teach us to pray as you pray. They wanted that kind of relationship with the father that Jesus had, Jesus loved to pray to the father for him, it meant intimacy with the father, it meant reliance upon the spirit to work in his earthly ministry. He prayed often and his disciples, after they have returned from being sent out like pastor mike covered last week, doing signs and wonders and proclaiming the gospel, we see that Jesus is in prayer and we know from the context here that they, his disciples were part of the focus of his prayer, he had been praying for them, Mhm. He was praying for them and we’re going to see that there is an answer to his prayer for them in the same passage and so they come upon him and he’s in prayer and he interrupts his prayer to ask his disciples a question, he says, he says to his disciples In verse 18 says who do the crowds say that I am, who do the crowds say that I am the world has an opinion about Jesus, the world has an opinion on who they think Jesus should be and how we should view Jesus, the world has an opinion on how you should follow, jesus, what has an opinion on what things you ought to emphasize about Jesus, and Jesus knows that. And so Jesus asked his disciples, who do the crowds, the crowds equal in the world, Who do they say that I am Another way of thinking about this question from the Lord jesus christ is to ask yourself, how do you discern spiritual truth again? Because the world has an opinion about jesus, the world has an opinion about how you ought to follow jesus and what things about the life of jesus, you should emphasize. So how do you discern spiritual truth in the eyes of the world we see? and verse 19 that they say that he is like John the Baptist’s or possibly john the baptist resurrected from the dead. In other words, he’s some kind of a preacher and then others taking note of the miracles that he had accomplished, like, you know, feeding the multitude that we talked about last week, At least 5000 men, possibly twice that amount and they looked at him and said he’s like Elijah, the great miracle working profit of the old testament. He’s him, that’s, that’s who he is, he’s come back, Elijah has come back because the jews understood their bible, They knew that Elijah was taken up into heaven. He didn’t die like humans die. But a chariot from heaven escorted him off the planet and another said, no, he’s just one of the throwback prophets of old again. How do you discern spiritual truth? Because the world has an opinion about jesus. The world has an opinion about how you ought to follow Jesus. The world has an opinion about which things you ought to emphasize from the life of jesus. But even looking at the world’s response to who they thought Jesus was. We can’t ignore the historical context of every single one of those figures. While the world would acknowledge that john the baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets of old were sent from God. The world also didn’t like their messages. Do you understand that? Mhm. In fact, Second Chronicles, 36 15 through 16 and says that the Lord, the God of their father sent persistently to them by his messengers because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his profits until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people until there was no remedy. And then even Jesus is aware of this fact. In Matthew 23 37 The fickleness of the world. In terms of how they view the prophets of God, Jesus says this in Matthew 23 37 he says o Jerusalem, Jerusalem. the city that kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it? How often would I have gathered your Children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing again? How do you discern spiritual truth? Because the world has an opinion about Jesus has an opinion about how you ought to follow, Jesus has an opinion about which things from the life and ministry of Jesus, you ought to emphasize and the world saying that Jesus is one of the prophets isn’t saying much because we know how the world treated the profits, Jesus is aware of how the world treated God’s prophets. On the one hand, the world is acknowledging that he is a man come from God, but we also have to see from history that every man that came from God to deliver a word to the people of God, that those same people, as soon as the words seemed unfavorable to them, despise those profits, killed those profits, rejected those profits and Jesus knows that that’s going to happen to him. And so he’s asking his disciples, he’s trying to prepare his disciples. How do you discern spiritual truth? If you’re going to be a disciple of mind, following in my ways, you need to know how to discern spiritual truth. What is the true north for you? As my disciple will you go as the world goes, or will you allow my words and my spirit to lead you the world can acknowledge, he’s a prophet, he’s a man sent from God, but the fickleness of the world, because this world is fickle means, as soon as they don’t like something, he has to say, they’re done with it and fickleness is the fruit of a worldly or natural thinking First, Corinthians two says, just the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned the crowds, the world, they got a few things right about him, he was indeed a preacher, he did work miracles and he was definitely sent from God, but they don’t fully understand who he is again. How do you discern spiritual truth and we know this is what Jesus is putting his finger on, because what is the next question that he poses to his disciples in verse 20 he says, who do you say that I am, every person that claims to be a follower of christ, who doesn’t know the answer to that question isn’t really a follower of christ, can’t be, can’t be a follower of christ, if you don’t know who he is, you don’t fully understand who he is, you need to know who he is and every disciple needs to understand who he is, because who he is shaped, how we follow him and the example, he is going to us. So how do you discern spiritual truth, Jesus is praying for his disciples, he’s praying that they are able to discern spiritual truth. He’s praying for the spirit of God to help them. He’s praying these things and we see that his prayers were answered and that same verse, Peter responded to the Lord, He says that you are the christ of God and the greek, it literally reads that you are God’s christ, you are God’s messiah, You are God’s anointed one. That is an astonishing declaration from Peter at this particular point, because Jesus has yet to fully say who he is, but he’s been with them. He has preached the word, his worked miracles. They’ve seen his life, they’ve seen how he fellowships with the father and the Spirit of God has helped them to understand the word of God made flesh that is near them. That this is God’s christ spiritual discernment does not come from this world, but is a fruit of the indwelling spirit of God, applying the truth of God to the mind, John 14, 16 through 17, Jesus again, he tells his disciples, he says, and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you And then John 15, he says. But when the helper speaking of the same spirit, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning, jesus prayed that the spirit of God would help his disciples to comprehend who he is. And the spirit has answered that prayer and peter declares that you are God’s christ. Because the Spirit of God has applied the truth of God to the heart and mind of his disciples, friends. That’s how you discern truth, the word of God, trusting in the spirit of God to bring it to bear upon your minds. You do not discern truth any other way outside of that. You do not discern truth based on trying to decipher your circumstances. You do not discern truth as if it was up to a popularity contest. Whatever the majority vote says, whatever the most people agree to that, then that must be truth. No, that’s not how the disciples of the Lord, jesus christ discern truth. We understand that God is true. Truth comes from God and we depend upon the spirit of God to bring that truth to bear upon our hearts and minds. That’s how we discern truth. That’s why we lovingly try to warn you against being guided entirely by your emotions. Do you know what happens when you do that? When you say that your emotions are the seat of authority in your life and you hear God’s truth and that truth offends your soul and your emotions say I don’t like this truth. And if your emotions are the seat of authority in your life, then that means that your life no longer is submitted to the Lord jesus christ, but that you’re bound your knee to your own emotions and that they run your life rather than being guided by God. It’s true than God’s spirit. Now, God has given us emotions and emotions are to help us, they are to serve the purpose of helping us to understand God’s truth. Sometimes God’s truth is offensive to the soul. That just simply means that there’s something in our soul that needs to be changed, that needs to be transformed. That’s all that means. There’s nothing wrong with the truth of God, his light, his love is perfect in his being. He cannot lie. There is no discrepancy in his character. His holy and just and so when he reveals truth, it comes out of who he is. He cannot lie is not a part of who he is. And so if that truth is offensive, the problem isn’t the truth. The problem is me and the fact that I’m offended by, it means that I need to go beforehand and say God change me, I submit to you, deliver me from this. I don’t want to be in bondage to my emotions. I want to be a follower of the Lord jesus christ, I want to be his disciple. There are others who have looked to various wonky things, trying to the certain truth, I mean just incredibly wonky ideas out there. I had a guy to try to convince me one time that he knew the spirit of God was speaking whenever he felt goose bumps and I would lovingly say to him or not, oh I know it was of the Lord, the spirit was moving. I had these goose bumps or not, brother or not. I mean, could you imagine the day that jesus announced to the multitude unless you eat my flesh and drinks my blood, you have no part of me and Peter standing up to Lord, I got goose bumps when you said that goose bumps, that was from heaven. No, what did Peter say, Lord, that’s difficult, that’s hard. Who can, who can deal with that Lord? That’s hard. After what he said. So every disciple has to answer this question because we know that the world has an opinion about jesus, The world has an opinion about how you ought to follow jesus and the world has an opinion about what things you ought to emphasize about the Lord jesus christ. So you need to know how to discern truth if you’re going to follow jesus because he is the truth and Peter demonstrates that the Lord’s prayers have been answered when he declared that you are God’s christ. What an amazing display of the spirit of God working and answering the prayers of the Lord. Jesus christ. It’s an impressive spiritual moment for Peter. But then Jesus, in response to Peters Declaration Says in verses 21 through 22, he says he first strictly charged them and commanded them to tell this to no one again because he hadn’t publicly stated yet who he was. But then in verse 22, he says that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised, you know, in the greek term, therefore rejected is the term AARP odo Kamaz, Oh, that’s a big word, a poto Kamaz, oh, and it’s a technical term, it’s a judicial and legal term. When an argument has been rejected, it’s been considered, it’s been weighed and it’s been rejected as you know, there’s no precedent for it. And jesus is saying that he will be weighed in the, on the scales by the religious leaders and the political leaders of the day and be rejected and suffer and be killed as a result of it. And Peter who’s now at the front of the class. Here’s this, right, he’s at the front of the class. He stood up, he raised his hand, answer is correct. Peter, you get a gold star, not, not exactly, but right. Peters at the front of the class, He decides to respond to jesus and Matthew gives us a little bit more detail on this whole situation here, this whole context. And Matthew 16 23 says that Peter in response to Jesus saying that he will be rejected, he will suffer and he’ll be killed by the governing elites of the day. Peter respond by saying this, uh he tells Jesus never, he says, it will never happen, it won’t happen, that’s not the case. He thinks that Jesus is having a bit of an identity crisis here in this moment, Jesus isn’t quite sure of himself, maybe he’s having a down moment or something, but jesus, if you are God’s messiah, if you are God’s christ, this can’t be the case, man, You’ve got to lead us in triumph overwhelm and you’ve got to establish Israel as the greatest kingdom on the earth, and you’ve got to succeed in this because I left the fishing business to follow you to do this, Is everybody wrong with me here? Right, All right, Peter is saying, jesus, what’s going on? What are you talking about? If you’re God’s messiah? If you’re God’s christ, you can’t suffer and be killed, you’ve got to kill them. Matthew 1633, Jesus responds to Peter, he says, get behind me, satan you are a hindrance to me for you or not, setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Did you catch that Jesus called his disciples the devil. Did you catch that? He called Peter the devil. He just get behind me Now, Peter not Simon bar, Jonah, son of Jonah, son of john, I mean users get behind me, satan, the world’s got an opinion about jesus but it’s not the jesus that will speak hard truth when we need to hear them. It’s not that jesus, julie says to Peter who’s at the front of the class, got the first question right, keep behind me, satan. So essentially Peter goes from the front of the class in school suspension, right? It’s like two, you were on the mountain top and now dude, we don’t even know if you need to be in the group anymore. Like he just called you satan and what’s happening here, Why did he say that to Peter? Why did you call Peter that? Well, first we gotta look at Peter’s response and his response to the first question, who do you say that I am? It’s clear that the spirit of God is bringing to bear the truth of God on his mind and that is how he has discerned this truth about jesus, but in his brash response to jesus declaring that he will be rejected, suffered and be killed. He’s not relying on the spirit of God. What’s he relying on that? He’s relying on his cultural understanding of the messiah, a worldly understanding of the messiah, which is odd because the profits wrote about this suffering messiah. The profits declared that there would be a suffering messiah. And yet culturally they ignored that because nobody wants to talk about suffering. Because what is suffering do it exposes? What’s in the heart, man? It reveals what’s in the heart? It shows you what the heart really loves, that’s what suffering does. That’s what hardship does. That’s what adversity doesn’t. It exposes in a way in which no other circumstance can the very secrets of the heart. And culturally, people who have been oppressed, born into oppression. You guys know Rome wasn’t like a nice government, right? You guys understand you understand that, right? So don’t be interpreting what I’m saying through modern cultural lenses. You do understand that was an oppressive regime, roman empire was not a paradise for june. And to culturally this idea of the messiah is that he would deliver them from this report, this oppressive regime and established the people of God as the true dynasty on earth. And so when Peter hears these words, he didn’t like him, they don’t add up to the way in which we’ve been raised the expectations we have of you, the opinions that we have of the messiah, they do not line up. And Peter’s thinking reflects worldly thinking and the forgetting of who jesus is, He just said that he is God’s messiah. And now I’m going to tell the messiah, what’s going to happen. Get behind me, satan who jesus said worldly thinking considers the cross of christ and suffering for the Gospel as foolishness. You can’t comprehend that First Corinthians 1 23 Paul says, but we preach christ crucified a stumbling block to jews and folly to gentiles. Doesn’t understand that worldly thinking, doesn’t understand why Jesus has to be the only way to God. Worldly thinking doesn’t understand why no good deed can we ever do will be enough to save us or to atone for our sins. That doesn’t get that. It doesn’t understand as romans five says that just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. And so death spread to all men and then, oh, now have sin, it doesn’t, underworld is thinking, doesn’t get that. And yet the evidence of that is everywhere, all die everyone. And so when the Gospel says that for as by one man’s disobedience, many were made centers, the one man’s obedience will lead to many being made righteous the world doesn’t get it, it’s foolishness, it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense that the messiah would suffer be killed and in three days be raised later doesn’t make sense to worldly thinking and yet the cross of christ is so foundational to being a disciple of christ, he says In verse 23 that if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me by the way, when he says, if anyone would come after me, he’s not saying like, okay, it’s optional to be a disciple, He’s not saying that you have an option there, you really are commanded to be a disciple of jesus, what he wants you to know, that if you really are going to be a true disciple of jesus, you’re going to have to pick up your cross because the Cross is foundational to Christianity. The Cross points us to salvation in christ alone. The Cross is the means by which God does the work of sanctification in us, making us more like jesus. The Cross reminds us that if we suffer for christ, we will be glorified with christ. So he says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself. So to be a disciple of Jesus means loving christ more than we love ourselves. That’s a hard one every day of your life from your first breath, you only love yourself even when you do things to harm yourself. It’s because you’re frustrated that the self that you love isn’t quite where you think that self ought to be, it’s about to be a disciple of the Lord, jesus christ means that we love him more than we love ourselves, it means that we love him more than we love the desire or the idea of a comfortable life, it means that we love him more than the thought of being respectable in the eyes of the world because we know the world has an opinion about jesus and an opinion about how we should follow, Jesus and an opinion about which aspects of the life of jesus we should emphasize, but we discern spiritual truth by the spirit of God and so we love following and obeying God more than we love being respectable in the eyes of the world. And sometimes suffering comes as we pick up this cross and that’s suffering exposes the heart. But if we will not grow weary in doing good, if we will press on in christ, we will see the glory of God even in our suffering. And as we carry that cross, choosing not to be ashamed of the Lord, jesus christ not being ashamed of his word, that we will see our God have the victory and I would also submit to you that that is the most loving thing you could do for your neighbors is to stand firm upon the word of God, even if they passionately disagree with you, even if they strongly hate you for it. But with humility and grace, standing on the word of God clinging to christ, that is how you love them because he’s the only one that can save him. This life is challenging this world is fickle discipleship is costly, but jesus is worth and this apostle peter, he learned this lesson. It took him some time here, he puts his foot in his mouth and jesus calls him satan later on when the words that Jesus declared were being fulfilled as he was being tried and rejected Bye. The elite Peter would deny Jesus ashamed to say that he was a follower of jesus, jesus goes after and brings him back. Later on, Jesus would preach, I mean Peter would preach jesus boldly and even passionately and not fear being persecuted for and it was amazing and the church was blast. But then even after that, he would deny jesus as he refused to eat with the Galatians, gentile believers when he had to be rebuked again. But eventually he got it and we know this and when you look at the end of his life, we know that he, he was a martyr, he died for the faith and Fox’s book of martyrs. It lays out what happened to the disciples, many of the people um that are recorded in the gospel accounts how their lives ended. And it said that a peter’s life that as he was about to be crucified, he told the roman authorities, I’m unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as my Lord and he requested to be crucified upside down, he got him, jesus is worth it, he got it, he understood it now and there was a courage and grace for him to get it to the point where death is staring him down and he’s not afraid, he is not ashamed of his Lord, he loves him so much. He says, I’m not even worthy to die in the same manner as here Church, you may have stumbled. You may have made decisions that don’t quite honor the Lord. You may have given end to the fickleness of this world. You may have shrunk back when the hardships and the suffering of this world and life came upon you. I want you to know that God doesn’t give up on his cheap. He does not give up on his people. He’s faithful to finish the work that he begins in you. So don’t throw away your faith. Don’t throw away your confidence in him. Know that being a disciple of the Lord, jesus christ is a journey. It’s a path it’s following, christ through the lows to the highs of life, it’s following him. It’s embracing him. It’s allowing him to lead you through those. It’s knowing that you need him. That’s why prayer is so important in the life of every leader, in the life of every person that would call themselves a christian prayer so important. But have you been in that place where you haven’t quite followed him perfectly. This isn’t the time to feel condemned. This isn’t the time to give up, this is the time to cling to him. Don’t throw away your confidence in him. Go to him. If he kept peter on track, he can keep you on track. If he got the glory from his life, he can get his glory out of your life as well. But he wants you to remember that this life is indeed challenging because of sin, that this world is fickle. It doesn’t understand the things of God and the discipleship is costly. He is going to lead you and he’s going to lead you in places and circumstances that you may not have chosen for yourself. But in the end you will learn, you will know that he is worth it. Amen. Hey man, let us pray. Lord, thank you for being our rock. There’s so much about this life that’s that we can’t predict. But Lord, you aren’t surprised and you are our rock. So we rest and you we stand upon you. The Lord, we know that the strength of stand is contingent upon your grace. It is your grace and your strength that allows our hands to cling to you even more strongly and firmly. And so Lord, we ask you in this hour that you would strengthen us as your people to be more faithful followers of your word. And discerning truth from error through your word and through the leading of your spirit. God, I pray that if there are any today who realized that they’ve been ashamed of you at various points of your word at various points in their life. God that they would hear your fatherly voice saying return, repent and return to me and trust me God that they would know that you are worth it. I pray this in jesus name. Amen.