Matthew 16, God willing, we'll return to Philippians next Sunday evening, but tonight our focus will be on the description of discipleship that we find at the end of the chapter, specifically verses 24 to 27, but I'll begin reading in Matthew 16 at verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am?
Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord. This shall not happen to you.
But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me,
Self-Denial and Cross-Bearing
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works.
Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Amen.
Opening Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this wonderful confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living and true God.
We bless you, Lord Jesus, for coming into this world to save us from our sins. And we know it's by what you say in verse 21, that arrest, that betrayal, that sentence to death, and that resurrection again the third day. We thank you for the person and the work of our Lord Jesus God, and we praise you for giving us faith in him. We ask now that you would guide us by your Holy Spirit, cause us to reflect upon passages like these, and cause us, by grace, to conform our lives to those patterns that you've established in the New Testament.
We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction
Well, we try to emphasize and we preach a lot on justification by faith alone. If you look at the history of the church, whenever that doctrine is emphasized, there's oftentimes misunderstanding with reference to it. The idea being that I can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, be saved, and then it really doesn't matter how I ought to live. In fact, that has been a perennial problem in the church today.
And oftentimes, one of the ways to address it is to go the other way and to get into legalism. But the gospel is sufficient. It can defend itself. It can stand on its own.
The same God who justifies us freely by His grace, sanctifies us by His Holy Spirit. And so discipleship is crucial with reference to those who profess faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, our own confession deals with it, I think, very efficiently in chapter 11 at paragraph 2. After paragraph 1 where it describes justification by faith alone, it says, faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness is the alone instrument of justification, yet is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces and is no dead faith but works by love.
In other words, those justified by God's grace will follow the Lamb wherever He goes. There is that desire to follow Jesus. There is that desire to deny oneself for Jesus. Jesus is the priority for the people of God.
Now, in this particular instance, in Matthew chapter 16, from this point on in the gospel, the movement is toward the cross, both geographically, Jerusalem, and theologically. The cross casts its shadow over everything from this point on, and we see specifically in this section or in this context, we get the identity of our Lord Jesus when He asks, who do you say that I am? And Peter confesses in verse 16, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the messianic son promised in the Davidic covenant that would build a house for God.
And then he indicates his work in verse 21. From that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. We've got his person, we've got work, and then we've got what it looks like when we follow him by God's grace through faith in him. As well, we see that the Messiah does not achieve power through worldly means.
He doesn't come in bravado, He doesn't come with weaponry, He doesn't come with all kinds of tanks and military, but rather He achieves power through suffering, death, and resurrection. This also serves to highlight the nature of the life of the disciples. It's not through worldly means that we will have life. It is rather through the means of the cross, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Description of Discipleship
So I want to look first at the description of discipleship in verse 24 and then secondly the explanation of discipleship in verses 25 to 27. Discipleship in its most fundamental definition is simply to follow. And Jesus isn't the only one that has disciples. Religious teachers, philosophers had their disciples, their followers, those who listened to their doctrine and those who attended to them and those who would do what they were told or what they were instructed by their teacher.
So
The Necessity of Following Christ
note first, with reference to the description, the necessity involved in verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now man, apart from God's grace, has no desire to follow Jesus. Man, apart from God's grace, has every desire to reject Jesus.
He finds himself, in Psalm 2, on the side of the bad guys. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot of vain things? They don't want Christ. They don't want God.
They don't want those things. that are pleasing in his sight. But man in a state of grace now has a desire to follow Jesus. And we ought to pray that that desire would grow, that it would thrive, that it would flourish, that it would be earnest. So Jesus says, if anyone desires to come after me, the object of discipleship is the me in the text.
It is the Lord Jesus, the Son of the living God, the one who will achieve victory through death and resurrection. And then notice, let him deny himself. So if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. Now, the specifics here is that it's an imperative.
It's not up for grabs. It's not optional. It's not a suggestion. If you really want to follow me, then maybe perhaps consider this self-denial thing.
That's not it at all. It is an imperative. It is a command. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to deny yourself.
Now, in this passage, he doesn't mean you have to put ashes in every bowl of soup and you have to wear hair shirts. He's not suggesting that you have to go live out in the wilderness. He is not suggesting that you have to live on top of a pole. He's not suggesting that you have to withdraw yourself wholly and completely in some sort of an ascetic monastery system.
No, but this idea of self-denial. Self-denial is seen in renouncing all that we crave for ourselves. All that we crave for ourselves, those things that are the chief occupants of our attention, the chief pursuits of our hearts. Jesus says, if you want to follow me, you need to deny yourself.
But I would suggest as well, self-denial is seen in renouncing all dependence upon self for acceptance with God. So it is a following Jesus understanding that it's only Jesus alone who can save us. It's not our good works, it's not our efforts, it's not our merits, it's not what we bring to the table, but rather it is what God has done by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But this idea of self-denial.
Notice he then goes on to describe what self-denial looks like, specifically in verse 24. He says, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up His cross and follow Me." Now the Lord here is referring to what He's already said in verse 21, that He must go to Jerusalem, He must die, He must be raised again. As I said, the cross casts its shadow over the entirety of Matthew's gospel from this point on. The Lord's reference here indicates crucifixion.
Now, crucifixion is a ghastly form of execution. It is a horrific form of execution. In the States, they engage in lethal injection nowadays, and they think that's pretty barbaric, and they think that's brutal. Well, crucifixion was horrific.
We've been considering it in our studies in John's gospel. It was a vicious form of execution. And so that's what he is referring here to. So when he says, let him deny himself and take up his cross, I think at times we get a little bit free with this passage, and we consider the crosses or the afflictions of our lives as what is in view in this particular instance.
Well, I've got a difficult son, or I've got a difficult parent, or I've got a difficult situation at school, or I've got a difficult situation at work. That's not what he's talking about. And the disciples would not have thought that for a moment. When he says, take up the cross, they knew altogether what that meant.
That meant a willingness to be nailed to a Roman cross or tied to it and hung there to die in a miserable and horrible fashion. And so for our Lord, when He's emphasizing this reality of following Him, it means taking up the cross and following Him. This is public, cruel, painful, and degrading execution. That's what the cross meant.
France says to follow Jesus is to embrace martyrdom. That is the prospect Jesus holds out before any worthy disciple, a savage death and public disgrace. Calvin says, Luke adds in Luke 9.23, the word daily. Let him take up his cross daily, which is very emphatic, for Christ's meaning is that there will be no end to our warfare till we leave the world.
Now notice he says, take up his cross and follow me. This is Christian discipleship. There are persons adherents to false religions who bow to false gods that are willing to die. Think of Islam.
If you're going to strap C4 on your body and go in and, you know, give it the old, I'll see you on the other side thing, that's not what's in view here. It's a willingness to die for Jesus. It's the Acts 5. After the disciples are beaten, they are rejoicing.
Why? Because they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So for our Lord, it's not simply a suggestion as I mentioned. You need to deny yourself.
You need to take up the cross and you need to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. So the willingness to die is good. But again, even heretics do this. It's a willingness to die for Jesus.
But I want to encourage us to think about something here.
Following the Lamb Wherever He Goes
The pursuit of Christ is absolutely crucial and necessary. Revelation 14, the lamb is standing on Mount Zion with his fair army, and there's many descriptors given of his fair army, those 144,000, which I believe represents the entirety of the church. And one of the descriptors is these are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
So we look at the Ten Commandments. The Lamb calls us to fidelity with reference to worship. We need to exercise fidelity with reference to worship. The Lamb calls us to conduct that is not blasphemous in nature.
We are to follow the Lamb. The Lamb calls us to rest on the Lord's day. The Lamb calls us to be subordinate to our superiors. We need to imbibe that.
The Lamb calls us not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to lie, not to covet. We follow the Lamb wherever He goes. And I want to suggest as well, the willingness to die for Jesus is wonderful. I hope all of us are.
All of us who have confessed saving faith in Jesus Christ. All of us justified freely by God's grace. I think it's good at times to think through this. I don't want to get too morbid. too weird and too gross, but what if somebody took a gun and put it to your head and said, are you willing to confess and own that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior?
I hope you think through that in peacetime so you're prepared for, you know, the time of crux or the time of challenge. So it's good that we are willing to undergo martyrdom for the Lamb, to follow Him wherever He goes. I think I've told you many, many years ago I heard a sermon by Pastor Rick Anderson, an early friend of this local body. Haven't heard much from Rick lately, he's still pastoring in Oxnard.
But I remember at a wedding ceremony, he was talking to the husband, he was exhorting the husband, and from Ephesians chapter 5 he says, husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. He says, husbands, are you willing to give yourself for your wife? Are you willing to take a bullet for your wife? Are you willing to withstand intruders for your wife?
Are you willing to do those big things for your wife? Well, all of us husbands sitting there are like, yeah, absolutely. Nobody's getting through my threshold. I'm going to let them have it.
Then he says, are you willing to take out the garbage for your wife? Are you willing to unload the dishwasher for your wife? Are you willing to cut the grass for your wife without being harangued to death? What's the point?
Willing to Die vs. Willing to Live
There's a lot of machismo on the part of the professing people of God that are willing to die for Jesus that aren't necessarily living for Jesus. We are to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. That means 24-7 we are on the clock. That means 365 days a year.
That means all the rest of the years that we have on this earth. We are to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. So those who are saying, yeah, I'm willing to go to Martyrdom, I'm really willing to go to the Colosseum if they reinstitute, you know, sacrificing Christians to lions and that stuff, I'm willing to do that. But are you willing to read your Bible?
Are you willing to pray for five minutes? Are you willing to attend church twice on Sunday? Are you willing to abide by the fourth commandment? Are you willing to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her?
Ladies, you're willing to die for the master, but are you willing to be subordinate to your husbands? Children, you're willing to die for the master, but are you willing to obey and honor your parents and the Lord? You see, this is following the lamb wherever he goes. Any fool with a bit of machismo and bravado can say, oh, I'm willing to die for Jesus.
Yeah, but are we willing to live for Jesus? What are we going to do tomorrow morning? We just fall out of bed and run off to work? Or do we spend some time in prayer?
Spend some time in scripture? And I always run the risk in sermons like this. If you're like me, you don't want to be scolded. And I don't really like to scold, so I'm going to try not to do that.
But you really don't want to have some legalistic list of what you have to do in order to be a follower of the lamp. So I'm not prescribing six minutes of scripture reading and eight minutes of, I'm not saying any of that. But if your life is a pattern of prayerlessness and scripturelessness, then it's hard to kind of get one's mind wrapped around what he describes here in terms of Christian discipleship. Now, if you're in a slump or there's been things going on, I'm not here to lambast you and I'm not here definitely as the guru who's mastered all this.
That's not it at all. But this text means something. We're willing to deny ourselves, we're willing to take up the cross, and we're willing to follow the Lord. So yes, if it means death by crucifixion, the professing disciple of Jesus Christ is willing to embrace that.
But it must also mean, it must also include a daily life lived in light of the gospel of our salvation.
Sanctification and the Apostolic Pattern
Let's look at some other emphases that go this direction. Again, justification by grace through faith does not result in indolence or laziness. Look at Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13.
The great apostle of the doctrine of justification by faith alone had no problem pressing sanctification upon his readers and his hearers. Notice in Romans 13, specifically at verse 14, See, for Paul, justification by faith alone doesn't mean just go lay on the couch and enjoy your many blessings and do whatever you want. Everything's okay. No.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Live in a manner that is consistent with your calling in the gospel of your salvation. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7, specifically at verse 1.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Notice in Ephesians 4. We were in Ephesians prior to our time in Philippians.
And in Ephesians 4 and 5, we see this recurring emphasis on walk. And walk there doesn't simply mean what some of us do in the morning. We get outside, we get some fresh air and some sunshine, and we walk for the physical well-being of our bodies. No, walk here means conversation.
Walk here means conduct. Walk here means your life. Remember that life lived for our Lord Jesus Christ in terms of discipleship. Notice in 4.1, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.
Verse 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. So in 4.1, walk in a manner that's consistent with your calling in the gospel. 4.17, don't walk like you used to walk, as a Gentile, in the futility of your mind. Notice in 5.2, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, and offering a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Notice in 5.8, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light. And then notice in verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Philippians chapter 1, we have seen this same theme in this particular book. Notice in 127, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you may stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
So when we go back to Matthew chapter 26, what he describes here in terms of discipleship is everywhere picked up on by the apostles in the New Testament. In other words, we confess saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It ought to trickle down to the way that we live for our Lord Jesus Christ. We follow Him.
We deny ourselves. We take up the cross. We make much of Jesus. We're willing to die for Him.
But as importantly, we're willing to live for Him.
Explanation of Discipleship
Back to Matthew 16, notice in verses 25 to 27, He gives an explanation. He draws out some more teaching on what He said generally in verse 24. So notice in verses 25 to 27, you've got a declaration in verse 25, you've got questions in verse 26, and then you've got the necessity in verse 27. He uses the coming judgment of Christ against ungodly and the coming blessing for the righteous, as an impetus or motivation for us to consider the demand of discipleship.
The Loss of Eternal Life
But note first, with reference to the Declaration, the loss of eternal life in verse 25. Verse 25a, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. This has to do with temporal life.
This has to do with the earthly. This has to do with the now. The contrast is obvious, this temporal age and the age to come. This physical life where we've got clothing and we've got shelter and we've got jobs and we've got, you know, families and we've got responsibilities and we've got cares and all those things.
Jesus is making a contrast between this age and the age to come, but here specifically the desire to save their temporal life, the life now lived on earth. Brethren, we need to qualify this because the Bible envisages a proper self-love. Leviticus 19, we're to love our neighbor as who? Love our neighbor as ourself.
There's a legitimacy about self-preservation. God made us in His image. And part of that image is we don't destroy ourselves. I know there's exceptions to the rule.
I know that sometimes people do walk in front of trains purposefully. I know that sometimes people do ingest poison and sometimes people jump off tall buildings. I get that, general exceptions to the rule. But in God's order, there is a self-preservation, there is a legitimate self-love.
That's not what Jesus is addressing. If you turn back to Matthew chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus cautions His disciples against carnal anxiety. He says in verse 25, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Verse 31, do not, I'm sorry, verse 31, do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink? Verse 34, therefore do not worry about tomorrow. He's not suggesting, again, indolence. He's not suggesting quit your job.
He's not saying, in contrast to Paul's admonition in 1 Timothy 5, whoever does not provide for his own is worse than an infidel. Jesus is not saying that some degree of concern about what you're going to eat and about what you're going to wear, and I don't mean, you know, tonight for dinner, but how do we put food on the table for these children that are somehow dependent upon food. He's not suggesting that we throw all thoughts of that out the window. He is suggesting a priority structure.
Therefore, verse 33, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then these things will be added to you. It's a matter of priority. It's not that you're not supposed to get a job. It's not that you're not supposed to work hard.
It's not that you're not supposed to figure out how to put food and clothes on your children. That's not the point. The point is, is don't be so consumed with those things. That you sacrifice the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
The same sort of thing is here in verse 25. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. The desire to save their temporal life as a priority. That person who looks no further beyond this present evil age.
This person who doesn't think about eternity. This person who doesn't think about the age to come. This person that has no concern for God and for judgment. This person that lives as if this is all there is.
That's the one he's condemning here. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. The losing of it means in the age to come. There's no eternal life for that one.
There was no priority structure. There was no seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. There was no taking up the cross and following Jesus. There was none of that.
It's a pretty obvious statement. It's a pretty relevant statement to our own generation. There are multitudes that give no thought whatsoever to the age to come. No thought whatsoever to the demands of God upon their lives in terms of law and the grace of God in terms of gospel.
I mean, talk to 10 sinners in a day. You'll find 10 different people that say, I just don't think about that. I just don't care. That's who Jesus is identifying here.
Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But then notice at the end of verse 25, he says, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Again, there's a legitimate concern for oneself in terms of preservation. We don't jump off tall buildings.
We don't stand in front of trains. We don't ingest poisons. We don't put guns up to our heads. There's just certain basic things that evidence a legitimate self-love, preservation.
The overarching concern, however, with this person is that of Christ. Notice again, but whoever loses his life for my sake, it's priority, it's emphasis, it's what matters most, it's who matters most. Is it me and my daily needs or is it Jesus Christ and His glorious kingdom? It's always the issue for the disciple.
Is it Jesus first or is it me first? The emphasis on Christ in the text. This isn't losing one's life for Allah. This isn't losing one's life for Beelzebub.
This isn't losing one's life for some other dunghill deity. This is losing one's life for Jesus Christ. That's what Christian discipleship is all about. We're willing to die for him.
We're willing to live for him. France says, loss of life as such is no gain. It is the life lost out of loyalty to Jesus which ensures that true life is gained. It's a blessed reality.
The Question of Profit and Priority
So then Jesus moves to questions in verse 26, a question concerning profit. Verse 26, for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? There's an assumption built into the text. Man, again, imaging God, wants to go out and work.
Man, imaging God, wants to go out and be successful. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, Solomon commends that man in the Proverbs. Do you see a man who excels in his work?
He will stand before kings. Hard work is commended in the Scripture. So Jesus assumes the reality that men are going to be spent with pursuing profit. But note the futility.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Again, the contrast is the temporal life, the age that we're in, in contrast with the age to come. What good is it if you amass everything and you lose your soul? Remember that bumper sticker many years ago?
He who dies with the most toys wins. What a horrible philosophy of life. He who dies with the most toys wins. Really?
If that's winning, that's bad. That's pathetic. That's what Jesus, I mean, that bumper sticker is exactly contrary to what Jesus says here in verse 26. It was the anti-Matthew 16, 26.
He who dies with the most toys wins. Jesus says, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world? He's got everything at his beck and call. He's got all the money, got all the resources, and yet he loses his soul.
This is a futile position for one to be in. The importance is obvious. Not, again, don't work hard, The emphasis is not, don't go out and find a better job. The emphasis is, whatever you're doing, do it in the light of the coming age.
Do it in the light of Christ and discipleship. Do it in the light of the reality that even if you gain the world, that does not secure your place in heaven. It is all about Christ. And, of course, this problem is replete throughout the earth.
What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? The next has to do with priority. Look at what he says in verse 26b, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Again, the comparison.
I think it's obvious. He's comparing. He's comparisoning. He is comparing.
This age stuff and the age to come stuff. What will a man give in exchange for his soul? What is there that's more important than where you spend eternity? Moses in Psalm 90 says, if by reason of strength we live 80 or 90 years, we ultimately still fly away, where are you going to fly away to?
You're not going to fly away to that big garage in the sky where you stored all your toys. It's heaven or hell. And that's what Jesus is pressing upon these men. You need to deny yourself, you need to take up your cross, and you need to follow me.
You need to keep that in perspective because this life, this age is passing away. And if by reason of strength you live to the ripe old age of 90, it's a drop in the bucket to what you're entering into in terms of eternity. There's no end there. There's no cessation.
There's no stopping. We sing the hymn when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Can we even conceive of 10,000 years in the presence of God?
Well, it's gonna be far longer than that. It's gonna be forever. So the question is appropriate. What will a man give in exchange for his soul?
The futility of earthly profits, they do not obtain heavenly riches. Proverbs 11, 4, riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The futility of false gods, the futility of our own works, the futility of anything that is not Christ, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Jesus commends those who lose their lives for His sake.
He affirms His identity as the Messianic Son of David in verse 16. He affirms the way of the cross and resurrection in verse 21 and He calls upon His disciples, yes, to believe on Him for justification and then to follow Him wherever He bids them to go. And then
The Second Coming as Motivation
notice in verse 27, He underscores the necessity of all of this. by highlighting the second coming. It's masterful, isn't it? What's a good way to sort of level out the playing field? You know, a man is fixated upon this present evil age.
A man is fixated on profit. A man is fixated on, you know, that above Christ. Again, I think as businessmen and as workers and as those who seek to honor God faithfully in the workplace, yeah, show up on time, work hard, work better, be faithful. You will probably get the raises.
You will probably stand before kings. That is not denied or condemned by our Lord. It's a matter of priority. If that becomes the consuming passion to the neglect of Jesus, that's the problem.
C.S. Lewis had a good statement about this. He says, oftentimes a young man will say, I'm making my way in the world. What they don't realize at times is that the world is making its way into the hearts of the young man.
That's the issue. We've got to guard against that. Hard work, industry, diligence, earnestness, all that is commended, but not to be sidetracked from the master. not to be sidetracked from following the Lamb wherever he bids us to go. So he points them to this reality.
Notice in verse 27, for the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. Calvin says that the doctrine which had just been laid down may more deeply affect our minds. Christ places before our eyes the future judgment. masterful impetus, masterful way for us to consider this age and the age to come, a great sort of motivator for us to consider the things that are most important. It's not riches, it's not profit, it's not any of that, it's Christ.
Seeking to honor Christ in our pursuit of those things can be a great blessing and can bring glory to Him. But being consumed with stuff and not Christ is a bad thing. So the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels and then He will reward each according to His works. As Spurgeon says, the righteous shall through divine grace have their works taken as evidence of their love to God, and the wicked shall with justice have their doom appointed according to their works, because these works will be evidence that they had not the faith which produces good works.
Gill makes a similar observation, as proofs and evidences of true faith in the person, blood, and righteousness of Christ. Our confession states the same thing. Good works are evidences. They are demonstrable proofs.
They show the legitimacy of one's confession of saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Application
Well, in conclusion, I think that we ought to learn three things here. First, the priority of Christ. It's obvious, right? It's not profit, it's not stuff, it's not toys in your garage, it's not toys in your basement, it's not that, it's Jesus.
We see the priority of Christ before family, notice in 1037. I'm not suggesting that you go home and kick your parents or spit on your children, but Jesus does, again, by way of contrast and comparison, show the necessity that Christ has priority. Notice in 1037, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Similar concepts to what we're seeing in Matthew chapter 16. So Christ before family. Again, the blessed thing is when a family's converted, right?
That blessed, beautiful harmony that we have with one another. Again, he's not saying to hate your, I know Luke says hate. Again, I think that's comparison or contrast. I don't think he actually means go home and tell your mother you hate her.
It's about degree. Who's the priority? It's Christ. Christ before the world, Matthew 16, 26.
What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Christ has priority over the world. And Christ has priority even before our own lives. Before our own lives.
Take up the cross and follow Him. And all the attendant horrors associated with the cross, it could mean death, it could mean martyrdom, it could mean being lion food. If you lived in the first century, in Rome. Secondly, the biblical demand of discipleship.
Yes, to die for Jesus, but I think they've tried to encourage us to live for Jesus. In the language of Revelation 14, follow the Lamb wherever He goes. And then I want to end on this perhaps negative note, a bit of an examination of our own hearts. Again, I don't want to scold anybody.
I'm not up here as a guru who's mastered discipleship by any stretch of the imagination, but it is good for us to reflect once in a while in light of passages like these and ask some basic fundamental questions. Is it Christ first, or is it me? Is it Christ first, or is it stuff? Is it Christ first or is it this world?
Is it Christ first or is it, you know, fill in the blank? I believe that we will see in light of the rest of the New Testament what a life lived for Jesus looks like. Again, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Jesus in his high priestly prayer says, sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth.
We all confess belief in the authority, the infallibility, the inerrancy of Holy Scripture. If it is indeed the book of God, it will hopefully have a place in our hearts, it will hopefully have a place not just on our shelves, but in our minds, that there will be some sort of an approach to intake that word, to get it in us at some point, If we're husbands, we ought to read Ephesians 5 on how to love our wives. If we're wives, we ought to read Ephesians 5 on how to be submissive to our own husbands. If we have children and we have parents, which is pretty much everybody, we're going to read Ephesians chapter 6 on how to deal with one another.
In other words, the Word of God is absolutely crucial for the disciple of Jesus Christ. I would suggest prayer is another way to, you know, again, it's not 18 minutes a day for, you know, 25 years indicates that, yeah, you have a lively and true faith. That's not what I'm talking about. But if our lives are marked by prayerlessness, it's hard to convince the jury that Jesus does mean everything.
You know the bride describes the bridegroom as chief among 10,000 and altogether lovely. What does that mean for the bride? She wants to be with him. In fact she describes him such that the daughters of Jerusalem says, where is your beloved that we might find him too?
In other words, familiarity with the Word of God, familiarity with the God of the Word in prayer. These are indicators. These are evidences of a lively faith in our hearts. As well, and again, this may sound, you know, a bit sort of a backhanded approach, but church, church life.
Church is central in God's redemptive plan. in terms of the means of grace, in terms of the sacraments, in terms of the proclamation of the truth, in terms of fellowship and edification. If we play loose and free with the church of the living and true God, at some point we have to conclude we don't regard the head of the church as we ought. Christ is the head of the church, not the Pope of Rome. Not even a little bit, the Pope of Rome.
It's Christ. So if the head of the church says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the custom of Psalm, and even so, so much more as you see the day approaching. And I take that day approaching in Hebrews 10 as the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The apostle doesn't say, okay, I know there's this calamity coming, so prep.
Get your canned goods, get your canned bacon, get all your items, get your beans, get your rice, and flee out of Jerusalem and hole up there, you know, wherever. No. Calamity's coming. What's the tendency or the temptation?
Well, God won't miss us at church on that day because we got to get ready for this coming. No, no, no, no, no, no. even more as you see the day approaching. What does that mean? It means that there's something about the church.
It may not appear that way all the time. It appears pretty regular and it appears pretty ordinary and at times it appears pretty mundane, pretty common. But according to scripture, church is where God comes to dwell with his people in this new covenant community. Christ is in the midst of the lampstands according to Revelation chapter one.
Christ is present among his people when they gather for worship. Again, if the altogether lovely and the chief among 10,000 was gonna be at the Chilliwack Mall, I'd like to think we'd get in our cars and drive over there to see him. Well, the chief among 10,000 and the altogether lovely has covenanted to be here every Lord's Day, without fail, every single time. The people of God meet together.
Where is Christ? He's found in the midst of the lampstand. Well, I think it's incumbent upon us as lovers of this Christ, as followers of this Christ, to be where this Christ is. And I would suggest then finally, under the third head in terms of examination, a demonstration in all of life.
What do our families look like? Do we look just like the heathen and the pagans? I'm sure we do at times. I know we do at times.
I know we do a lot of times. Brethren, scripture is not silent on how we raise children. Scripture is not silent on how we love one another in marriage. Scripture is not silent on how men give service to their masters and on how masters govern the men that work for them.
The Scripture gives us all that, and if it's to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, then all of life is a life of discipleship, following the Master, taking up the cross, being willing to die, denying ourselves and pursuing Him wherever He bids us to go. So there's the negative Nelly aspect. Let me just end it by saying, praise God Almighty that we're ultimately saved, not by how good we are at discipleship. And I'm not trying to undo everything I've just said for the last 40 minutes, probably a little more than 40 minutes, sorry.
Grace through faith in Jesus. Justification by faith alone is the means by which sinners are forgiven of their sins and receive the righteousness of Jesus imputed to us and received by faith alone. Consequent to that justification, we have the life of sanctification, which involves this kind of discipleship, where we follow the master, denying ourselves, taking up the cross, and doing what he calls us to do in this present evil age.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the teaching of our blessed Savior. We pray that you would give us ears to hear and hearts to respond to the scripture and help us to follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
Go with us, bless us in this coming week, be glorified in our lives, and we pray this through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.
Scripture References
- Leviticus 19:18
- Psalm 2; 90:10
- Proverbs 11:4
- Matthew 6:25; 6:31; 6:33; 6:34; 10:37; 16:13; 16:16; 16:21; 16:24; 16:25; 16:26; 16:27
- Luke 9:23
- Acts 5
- Romans 13:14
- 2 Corinthians 7:1
- Ephesians 4:1; 4:17; 5:2; 5:8; 5:15; 6
- Philippians 1:27
- 1 Timothy 5:8
- Hebrews 10:25
- Revelation 1; 14:1; 14:4