The Cross-Shaped Life and Wealth (Matthew 19:13-30)

Money. Everyone needs it, and everyone wants more! I mean, who would turn money? Money is useful and fun and reassuring, isn’t it? It can buy us pleasure and status and comfort and convenience.

I used to hate shopping. When I was a kid, I remember my mom dragging me to the store for like back-to-school shopping or something, and I just hated it. As I got older, I prided myself in being non-materialistic because I hated shopping. But then Amazon came along. Ever heard of it? Thanks to Amazon, I discovered that I didn’t hate shopping; I just hated walking! Amazon allows me to indulge my extreme materialism and unchecked consumerism in the comfort and convenience of my own home. I can remember at least four purchases that I made in the past six months that I have used either once or zero times!!! Maybe some of you have a streak of shopaholic in you too.

I am pretty embarrassed by my impulse buys, but I am proud that I’m becoming a saver. Saving up for emergencies, for retirement, for the kids’ college expenses. Not gonna lie. I confess there are times where my soul is comforted and satisfied by cash in the accounts and a high ROI–return on investment. Maybe you’re a super-saver too.

Even if you don’t have much money at all, you might default to one of those to a shopaholic or a super-saver when you do have some. But what if wealth is dangerous? What if wealth could actually keep you away from Jesus? It would be worth losing money then if it meant gaining Jesus. It is, in fact, worth losing EVERYTHING in order to gain Jesus. That’s what we’ll learn from Jesus today. First, let’s review…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

God doesn’t always make things easy for His people, but He always makes it worth it. The living, breathing proof of this is Jesus. Everything about Jesus is humble self-sacrifice from birth to death, but God brought Him back to life and crowned Him King of kings. That’s cruciformity, and we’re learning His cross-shaped story as we preach through the Gospel according to Matthew.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’ll be memorizing all eight beatitudes this year, but here’s the sixth one:

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8 NIV)

Last week, in the first half of Matthew 19, Jesus called for purity of heart in regards to singleness, marriage, and divorce in the cross-shaped kingdom of God. Today, in the second half of Matthew, Jesus will call for purity of heart regarding wealth in order to “see God.”

#1 A Vital Reminder: The world’s lowly are God’s greatest–the lowly-greats. (19:13-15)

13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. 14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

In Jesus’ day, children had low status in their culture. Therefore, they were the perfect object lessons for citizens of the kingdom of heaven! In Matthew 18:4, Jesus taught that all of His followers must take the humble status of children in order to be His followers and that if they did God would consider them the greatest in His kingdom. No expectation for power or honor or wealth! And so if Jesus’ disciples voluntarily lowered themselves to a similar position, God would take care of them because He considered them the greatest.

Note the next would-be kingdom citizen responds to Jesus’ teaching…

#2 The Rich Man’s Question: How can I live forever? (19:16-17)

16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

The man wants eternal life. Who wouldn’t? The Bible teaches that every human being has a beginning–conception, but it also teaches that every human being has no end. Even when the body dies, the soul lives on, and the body will be resurrected, and every human being will continue to exist either in eternal life or eternal death. Forever. And ever and ever and ever and ever. If that’s true, nothing could be more important than figuring out how to live forever and not die forever! The man comes up to Jesus and asks what good thing he can do so that God will allow him to live forever. Wouldn’t you want to know that???

18 “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” 20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus lists five of the Ten Commandments (#6 murder, #7 adultery, #8 stealing, #9 false testimony, #5 father and mother) and adds what He will later call the Second Most Important Commandment. Each of these has to do with our relationships with one another. But Jesus leaves out the first four commandments and the tenth one? Those deal with the worship of God (idolatry and Sabbath) and the affections of the heart (coveting).

Jesus doesn’t rebuke the man for lying about his obedience. Apparently, he has kept all of those ethical commands. This guy hasn’t stolen any of his wealth, and perhaps he’s even been generous to a degree. But he still has an awareness that he’s missing something, falling short somehow of what God really deserves. Jesus knows it too, so He will press into the one thing this man lacks…

#3 Jesus’ Answer: Leave everything and follow Me. (18:21-22)

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

When He called His twelve disciples, they left their things behind. Jesus’ call here echoes that. Jesus is calling for this man to give up everything keeping him from becoming a full-time learner in the school of King Jesus. Jesus is calling for wholehearted obedience to those first four commandments beginning with number one: You shall serve no other gods before Me. The rich young man is worshiping another god, and its name is Wealth. It’s not just about religious duties and good morals; it’s about humble worship! Because he is unwilling to humbly attach himself to Jesus in faith, he walks away without knowing the love and hope and joy of the kingdom of heaven.

By the way, if you want to know how to live forever, here’s the answer! It’s not about hosting an estate sale to literally sell everything you own; it’s about humbly, wholeheartedly committing yourself to Jesus to learn from Him.

#4 Jesus’ Teaching: The Danger of Wealth and the Power of God (19:23-26)

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

In that day, the camel was the largest everyday animal, and the eye of the needle was the smallest opening. Jesus is saying that it’s impossible for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom of heaven. That is what makes wealth so dangerous! It keeps people out of the kingdom of heaven! How so? Let me point out a couple reasons from the Scriptures.

A) Wealth creates a false sense of security. (Proverbs 18:10-11)

The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale. (Proverbs 18:10-11)

Notice the contrast between these two proverbs. The righteous are truly safe when they trust in the LORD, but the wealthy are only protected from every harm by their wealth in their imagination. No amount of income, savings, or assets is large enough to save you from death and God’s judgment. Only the forgiveness and righteousness of Jesus provides that kind of safety.

B) Wealth creates sinful pride. (Proverbs 30:8-9)

“Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Nobody wants to be poor, but what is our reasoning? Poverty can be difficult, stressful, and embarrassing. Those are probably the reasons we typically want to avoid it. But notice the proverbs’ rationale. Poverty is bad not simply because it’s hard but because it creates a temptation to covet someone else’s wealth and steal and dishonor the God we love.

And everyone wants to be rich, but have we considered its dangers? We may forget where it came from and grow proud and self-satisfied. With accounts compounding with interest and Amazon boxes showing up to the door every day, we can totally forget about how desperately we need God for life and redemption and hope!

In fact, wealth can have such a strong grip on our souls, that God has to intervene with a miracle to save the wealthy…

25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The disciples recognize that, if it’s that hard for a wealthy person to be saved, what hope does anyone have? The Jews in Jesus’ day (and even people today) saw wealth as a sign of God’s approval. “If you’re rich, you must be righteous.” (Which is a lie, by the way!) Therefore, they were shocked that, if it’s impossible for even those blessed of God to be saved, who has any hope.

Now, Jesus has been teaching against the false view that worldly success and victory are always signs of God’s blessing, yet the disciples are still stuck in that mindset. However, Jesus doesn’t rebuke them now. Instead, He simply explains that salvation is always only possible through God anyways. Apart from Him, we have no hope.

With this glimmer of hope then, the disciples ask another question…if the wealthy can be saved by the miraculous grace of God, what’s the point of giving up everything and following Him?

#5 A Familiar Conclusion: Following Jesus is cross-shaped. (19:27-30)

27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

This is yet another example of cruciformity! Jesus promises his disciples that they will definitely be rewarded. Peter, James, John, and the others really did leave everything–families, jobs, homes, etc–behind in order to follow Jesus. They gave up far more than any of us have. You see, they risked so much for Jesus when they followed Him, while most of Israel rejected Jesus as the Messiah. So Jesus promises that a day will come when they too would receive authority from Him to rule over their nation!

29 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

Again, cruciformity! Jesus calls His followers to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and leave everything to follow Him, but He promises that all will be repaid…not even just in eternity…but with glimpses in the here and now.

The specific example Jesus uses is family relationships with its economic benefits. In the ancient world, family was everything.

It was your tie to the past. Everyone knew their family history and it gave them a special sense of significance, like you were carrying on the story of your ancestors.
It was your anchor in the present. People relied on their family for everything…food, housing, social status.
It was your hope for the future. Every young man would one day take over dad’s business and be able to make a living. Every young woman would be married to a family with similar social standing for lifelong support.

So while we today might romanticize about “being out on your own,” leaving family in the ancient world was a very scary thought.

How can they possibly get these things back IN THIS LIFE? Well, there is a sense in which following Jesus means you have a new family. Even if you have to leave your family behind, you have a new family in Christ–the Church–who will walk with you. That new family will even help to care for your needs. In the early church, for example, there came this moment in the book of Acts where no one in the church needed anything because they each sacrificially shared what they had with each other. What a beautiful picture. This is what we mean by “act like family.”

The Lesson: Jesus makes it worth losing everything for Him.

What kinds of things can we lose for Jesus and it will still be worth it?

Treasure

We can give our money and possessions. There are some false teachings out there that if you give money, God will make you rich. That’s a lie. That’s not what Jesus teaches here. But He does teach that God will take care of you. Jesus knows that His people, the ones who truly follow Him, will take care of each other if they voluntarily or involuntarily give up what they have in order to follow Him.

And imagine what possessions look like in the new heavens and new earth. The biblical imagery is amazing. Gold will be a building material. They’ll make structures and roadways out of the stuff. Poverty will only be a memory.

But maybe you’re not hanging on to treasure in this life. What else can we lose for Christ?

Time

Another thing we can sacrifice to Jesus is time. Time learning from Him, serving others, reaching out to the hurting, etc. But we’re so busy, and we always feel like we’re running out of time…

Only so much time as a young person.
Only so much with your kids or grandkids.
Only so much time left with a spouse.
Only so much time with mom and dad.
Only so much time left after retirement.

Are the people of God really running out of time? No! That’s a lie. Those who in Christ literally have forever to enjoy God, one another, and His renewed creation. Giving your time now for the sake of eternity is nothing. Do you really believe that?

Talent

When I’m good at something, I want it to benefit me and I want to be compensated and recognized for it. But what if I gave it up for God’s glory and others’ good? Jesus taught that good things done in secret will be recognized by God. That’s the shout-out I want someday. “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Testimony

Sharing your testimony about what God has done for you in Christ can be costly. Talking about your sin can be humbling, even humiliating. And praising God in front of someone else, even by praying or singing, can be scary. Baptism is an amazing moment that every disciple of Jesus gets to publicly testify to God’s grace. But it’s all worth it when we publicly give glory to God because He says that He will recognize us if we recognize Him.

Relationships

Following Jesus can cost you relationships. It may mean leaving other relationships behind if they are a source of temptation. It may mean being rejected by hostile family members. But, just as Jesus taught in verse 29, those who leave friends and family to follow Jesus will be surrounded with a new family now and FOREVER.

Ego

This may be a bit abstract, but we can leave our ego to follow Jesus. Maybe God has called you to work a certain not-your-dream-job right now or to be a stay-at-home mom or something else. And you feel this pressure to do something “better,” something that will impress…the world. Don’t worry about impressing anyone other than God!

Or maybe you do take a lot of pride in some aspect of your life? In Philippians 3, Paul explained that he had taken a lot of pride in his Jewish heritage, training, and lifestyle. Yet, when he met Jesus, the crucified and risen King, he counted it all as loss, as garbage compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. And it was only sharing in the sufferings of Christ through repentance and obedience that He was able to share in Christ’s life forever. It is worth every sacrifice to know Jesus and belong to His kingdom forever.

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

What’s the difference in status between the little children and the rich young man? What’s the difference in how they respond to Jesus? What does that teach you about following Him?
How has wealth and/or the lack thereof harmed your soul? What’s better: losing everything and gaining Jesus or keep what you have and leaving Jesus? What would it look like practically in your life if you really believed it?
What kinds of self-sacrifices do you make for Jesus’ sake? What kinds of self-sacrifices should you start making for Jesus’ sake?

Cross-Shaped Singleness, Marriage, and Divorce (Matthew 19:1-12)

What do all of these stories have in common?

All her friends and family look down on her because she’s 40 and still single, assuming there must be something wrong with her.
A young dating couple is having a hard time making ends meet, so they just decide to move in together.
A same-sex attracted man finally finds and marries the love of his life–another man.
A man and woman’s marriage hasn’t been happy in years, so they decide to file for divorce.

What do all of these stories have in common? At least four things…

They are the cultural air we breathe. If we’re engaging with our neighbors, we’ll hear similar stories everyday.
They totally miss God’s vision and design for sex and marriage.
Jesus offers each of these people both forgiveness and a place in His kingdom, if they repent.
Jesus’ cross-shaped teaching in Matthew 19, which we’ll look at today, applies to each of these areas. What does “cross-shaped” mean?

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’ll be memorizing all eight beatitudes this year, but here’s the sixth one:

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8 NIV)

The area of sexual and marital ethics is an important area for us to apply beatitudes, especially this one. If doing the hard thing, the humble thing, the self-denying and self-sacrificial thing is essential to the way of Christ, there might be no place right now in our culture where we resist cruciformity more readily in our world than in the areas of sexuality, marriage, and divorce. Just think about how commonplace those earlier stories are. Trumped only perhaps by our love of money, sexual ethics are a major area of compromise in our world. Ridding ourselves of this pollution and being purified by God. IT IS NOT EASY BUT IT’S WORTH IT!

We’re going to look at some of Jesus’ teaching on singleness, marriage, and divorce. You might be tempted to tune out when we get to parts that don’t apply to you, but I’d encourage you, brothers and sisters, to take each part to heart. Every Christian should know how to think biblically about these areas, even if they don’t apply to you personally because they apply to us communally. Single and married people need to think biblically about these things in order to prepare themselves for each possibility and to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ in each place.

#1 A Controversial Question about Divorce (19:1-3)

1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

There were all sorts of views on this very question. The disagreements arose from different interpretations of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 24 permits a man to divorce his wife if he is displeased by something “indecent” in her. different groups interpreted the word “indecent” differently. Some believed that indecency referred to very serious sin such as adultery, but others believed the indecency referred to something as trivial as spoiling a meal…hence the Pharisees’ use of “any and every reason.” The Pharisees who have been out to get Jesus since Matthew 12, where they began to plot His death, have set a trap for him. However Jesus answers, He’s going to make enemies here, but all Jesus is concerned about is pointing the people back to God’s Word.

#2 Jesus’ Teaching on Marriage (19:4-6)

Rather than answering the question directly, Jesus points them back to Scripture. “What does the Bible say?” is always a great question. Here’s how Jesus develops this thought…

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Jesus combines two Old Testament texts, one from Genesis 1:27 and one from Genesis 2:24 to explain God’s vision for marriage “at the beginning.” Theologians call the verse Jesus quotes “creation ordinances.” Creation ordinances are God’s designs when He first created the world, before our sin corrupted and twisted everything.

First, Jesus quotes from Genesis 1:27, where God created two equal yet distinct sexes in His image. “Male” and “female” are terms related to biological sex. So what Jesus is about to teach regarding marriage has two do with one male and one female. That’s vital. Then Jesus quotes from Genesis 2:24 to complete His definition of marriage. Genesis 2:24 is a summary of what God intends for the male and female who become married. “A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” “Becoming one-flesh” is the idea that the man and the woman become a new entity for life. They become united sexually, legally, socially, economically, psychologically, even spiritually. Their identity, purpose, and lives become fully intertwined. This new relationship even produces new human beings of the same flesh.

But the original question was about divorce, so Jesus draws a conclusion. If God created a man and a woman to be united, no one should break that union. So Jesus comes out firmly against divorce, which we’ll deal with in a moment, but first let’s apply a lesson here to marriage.

Jesus defined marriage as the divinely established, lifelong union between a man and a woman, and we shouldn’t break what the Creator designed. If that’s the case, then the goal for married people is not simply to avoid divorce but this:

Lesson: Married Jesus-followers should actively grow as close together as possible.

There is no such thing as a perfect marriage. Every marriage struggles somewhere, but the healthier married couples grow to treat each other with Christlike, cross-shaped love, even in trials.

If you’re in a new marriage, surround yourself with other believers, ask for encouragement and accountability, and follow the good examples out there.
If you’re in an unhealthy marriage, ask yourself and, if you dare, your spouse how you can deny yourself and take up your cross in this difficult marriage. And surround yourself with godly mentors. Invite them out to lunch or coffee. Invite them over to your house. Don’t waste a second if your marriage is heading down the wrong path!
If you’re in a healthier marriage, invest in singles, newlyweds, struggling marriages, and widows and widowers. Share the love and wisdom you’ve received from God with others who are hungry for that same kind of marriage.
LIFEgroups are a great way to build these relationships if you don’t have them already!

#3 Jesus’ Teaching on Divorce and Remarriage (19:5-9)

7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

The Pharisees still want an answer from Jesus, so they now refer directly to that passage in the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 24) where God permits divorce for Israel. Here’s how Jesus answers…

8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Jesus laments that divorce has to even be an option. For Jesus, hard hearts–not struggling marriages–are the deeper problem. If our hearts were more in sync with God’s heart, we wouldn’t be asking how to get divorced; we’d be asking how to love our spouse better. That’s the ideal. But Jesus is not just idealistic here; He’s realistic and acknowledges that, due to the presence of sin, there will be occasions where divorce is permissible.

We’ll look at in a moment at extreme yet legitimate reasons for divorce, one of which Jesus gives here, but this teaching should shock us. A husband and a wife are so united in God’s eyes that, if they divorce and remarry, they are committing adultery in God’s eyes. Imagine that: God holds us to our wedding vows! This so smacks in the face of our individualistic, follow-your-heart, feel-good, pursuit-of-happiness culture. If you’re in an unhappy marriage, ditch it. Who cares? Isn’t the whole point to be happy? No. The point of marriage is to be committed. Did you hear that? The point of marriage is to be committed. It’s to keep promises, to deny yourself, to take up your cross, even in a less-than-ideal marriage. Think about it like this: An unhappy, difficult, unsatisfying marriage just might be a “cross” you have to bear as a Jesus-follower! And learning how to be a pleasing, easy, and satisfying partner to your spouse also might be a “cross” you have to bear. Sometimes, marriage hurts. You don’t get everything you want…all the attention, romance, money, time, sex, service, whatever. But here’s where cruciformity comes in. God deserves that kind of self-sacrificial love and will honor it! He might even totally transform your marriage in this life!

While divorce is not God’s original design for marriage, there are biblical grounds for divorce. Sexual immorality–breaking the one-flesh union through sexual sin–is a reason Jesus gives here. But there are other more. That’s important. Jesus is not giving us everything we need to know about marriage and divorce in this Matthew text alone. We use Scripture to understand Scripture. In Exodus 21:10-11, Moses gives serious abuse and neglect, and, in 1 Corinthians 7:15, Paul gives abandonment as legitimate reasons for divorce. This means that, even though divorce is not God’s ideal, there can be a guilty party and an innocent party in a divorce.

Here’s a lesson we can apply from Jesus’ teaching.

Lesson: Divorced Jesus-followers should trust Jesus for forgiveness and healing.

Even though being the reason for a divorce (whether one initiated for illegitimate reasons or caused the other to seek divorce due to sin) is sin, God graciously waits for the repentant to come home and be forgiven. Divorce is not some unforgivable sin. If one humbly confesses and turns back to God, He will forgive! This is why Jesus died! If you’ve been divorced for the wrong reasons, you’re not a lost cause because God goes after every lost cause like a good shepherd goes after lost sheep. Guess what? God can even restore your marriage. God has restored broken marriages that had been finished by His overwhelming grace. Perhaps God, in His great mercy, would do that. Maybe you’ve already remarried. Should you end that marriage as part of your repentance? No, that would be going against God’s plan yet again. Instead, walk in humility before Christ and grow in that marriage.

If you’ve been the innocent party in a divorce, you can also seek healing from Christ. You may even need to ask for forgiveness first. While a divorce can have an innocent party, nobody is totally innocent of sin in a broken marriage. There will always likely be some sin–maybe some harsh words or misspent money–even if it wasn’t the grounds for the divorce. Praise God the innocent party can receive Christ’s forgiveness for even that sin so that you might live without guilt before God and others. Then healing and new life can come from walking with Christ and seeing yourself in light of who He is and not the divorce. This also creates an opportunity for the church to absolutely surround this brother or sister with the love of Christ, so that they might know and grow in Him.

#4 Jesus’ Teaching on Singleness (19:10-12)

10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

The disciples understand just how costly the marriage commitment is. If marriage is for life and the commitment must be that radical, maybe it’s better not to marry! This sounds kinda shallow, doesn’t it? But it also sounds like how we as a society and even we as a church think about marriage. Do you think this way about marriage? Either it should be easy to get divorced if you want or no marriage at all?

Jesus doesn’t rebuke the disciples for their negative view of marriage; instead He leans into a discussion of singleness—is it better not to marry? For some, yes, but not for the reason the disciples are thinking about. The disciples appreciate singleness for convenience, to avoid cruciformity. But Jesus’ appreciation for singleness is different…

11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

A eunuch is a human without sexuality, and Jesus describes three types. First, some eunuchs are born that way. Through some sort of birth defect, they are unable to have sexual relations. Second, some eunuchs are made that way by others. This is a brutal historical fact, but royal servants in the ancient world were often castrated in order to prevent sexual assault against the royal family. Third, some eunuchs voluntary give up sexual relations for the kingdom of heaven! What Jesus is talking about here is celibacy. Celibacy is intentionally abstaining from marriage and sex temporarily or even permanently. Why? For the sake of God’s kingdom! And Jesus says those who can accept it should! Here’s the lesson:

Lesson: Single Jesus-followers should put God’s kingdom before romance.

For thousands of years, people have worshiped romance and sexuality. Our culture places sexuality and romantic relationships at the core of identity, who we define ourselves to be. So we’re obsessed with having a boyfriend/girlfriend or finding a husband/wife or having the perfect, all-fulfilling spouse or the perfect sex life. So celibacy is about as countercultural as you can get. But celibacy is totally possible. What??? No way. It’s true. Someone can walk so closely with God and God’s people that the Spirit will sustain their soul without romantic relationships and sexual expression. That’s right. It is possible to be all that God calls you to be while still giving up sex and even romance temporarily or permanently.

Celibacy is not only possible—it’s totally worth it for the kingdom of heaven. God deserves and honors such a sacrifice. That’s cruciformity. Let’s think through how this applies…

If you’re dating, you have NOT made any covenantal marriage promises yet. Prayerfully enjoy that freedom and take your time. Don’t make promises you can’t/won’t keep to a boyfriend or girlfriend until your wedding day and focus instead on preparing your character and maturity to keep that promise. Don’t be so desperate to be with someone that you enter a marriage covenant with someone you’ll later regret. But don’t put off marriage and live in sexual sin either (1 Corinthians 7). Be wise and seek counsel and pray.
If you’re single but cannot find a partner, we love you. That’s incredibly difficult. Come and be a part of the church family. I don’t know if God has a spouse planned for you, but I do know He is working all things together for your good so that you might become more and more like Jesus in your love for God, your love for people, and your love for His church.
If you’re same-sex attracted, we love you too. This is even harder. Your two options, if you love Jesus, are heterosexual marriage for the glory of God or singleness for the glory of God. These may sound like impossibly difficult crosses to bear, but there are believers who do. Wesley Hill is a same-sex attracted Christian who has chosen a life of celibacy. Here’s a link to his memoir Washed and Waiting. Rosaria Butterfield is a same-sex attracted Christian who has chosen to marry a man. Here’s a link her memoir The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. I hope that one or both of those give you help and hope. And again allow yourself to be surrounded by God’s family. If your brothers and sisters in Christ knew your struggle, the cross you have to bear, in order to be true to your faith in King Jesus, they would love you and learn to care well for you.
If you are single and sexually and romantically content, stay single!!! The church needs tons of single people to give their minds and lives undividedly to serving Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul explained that he chose this option because he could, just as Jesus said. Those who can accept it should! Serving and making disciples of a spouse and children is right and good if you’re married, but singles aren’t concerned about blood family but about making disciples in their spiritual family. Jesus’ church needs these people. Single missionaries, single pastors, single servant leaders, single elders, single deacons, single deaconesses, single disciples and single disciple-makers. Don’t ever judge someone simply because they are single. John the Baptist was celibate. Paul was celibate. Jesus was celibate. These people are heroes, and One we even worship! Our celibate, crucified, and risen King Jesus!

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

Why is verse 4a so foundational not only to a discussion of marriage but to any issue of Christian faith and living?
How does Jesus build a biblical definition of marriage? How should Jesus’ teaching on marriage impact married couples who truly want to follow Him together?
Why is divorce wrong in God’s eyes? Why do you think our culture treats it so lightly? What are the biblically permissible reasons for divorce? How can you better love a fellow church member who is the innocent party in a divorce? How can you love a fellow church member who is the guilty party in a divorce?
What does Jesus’ teaching in verse 12 mean for singles? How can you better love church members who have intentionally remained single for the sake of the kingdom of heaven?

Chase the One Who Wandered (Matthew 18:15-35)

How hard do you search for lost things? My family got to go camping this past week, and we lost a purse. We had to look all over for it. We looked everywhere. We were sure it was there somewhere, but we couldn’t find it. In our search, we even found really important things like the car keys that we didn’t even know had gone missing yet. After many minutes of looking, I suggested we look in trash cans. In my experience, if you’re sure something is there but you just haven’t found it yet, it usually falls into a trash can. Sure enough, the lost purse was found in the trash. However hard we search for even the most valuable of lost things, God searches for His lost people infinitely more. Last week, we studied the parable of the relentless shepherd and the wandering sheep…

12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:12-14 NIV)

The Good Shepherd has no ego. He doesn’t care how far He has to go, how dirty He has to get, He’ll chase the ones who wander because they are important to Him. He doesn’t want to lose a single one of His little ones. I called them “lowly-greats”–those people who are the greatest in His kingdom because they have humbled themselves before God and others. And that’s the big idea from this parable…

God chases the lowly-greats who wander.

But how does God do that mainly? Writing messages in the clouds? Secret messages? Dreams and visions? He could I guess, but one way for sure that He does is through other people. God pursues His wandering people through other people–specifically, His kind of people. In our Old Testament reading plan this week, God warned those who use and abuse His sheep: “‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the LORD. Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says…‘I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,’ declares the LORD.” (‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23‬:‭1‬-‭4‬) This is a huge part of what it means to be cross-shaped disciple-makers, and we’ll look at more in Matthew 18. But first, quick review, this year at Calvary, we’re learning to…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’ll be memorizing all eight beatitudes this year, but here’s the sixth one:

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8 NIV)

Do you ever sense that there is something between you and God or something between you and another person? That something is the stain of sin, and we need to be purified of it. Sin earns us the wrath of God! Oh how we need to be saved from it, more than anything else! Sin also destroys our ability to bring others to God, thus leaving God’s wrath on them too! Purity is, then, a high value in the kingdom of heaven, and our good God gives us grace to remove the stain of sin from our relationship with Him, and He gives us His power and process to remove the stain of sin in our relationships. Do you want a pure heart in your relationship with others? Of course you do!

Sadly, we live in a world of non-reconciliation. Our culture tends to be more interested in canceling people than in reconciling people. Confrontation is done poorly, and, even when done well, only leads to defensiveness. Nobody gets second chances, and the sins of the past can come back to haunt anyone. When someone gets on our nerves, the easiest thing to do is to “unfriend” or block them on social media. Staying enemies is the norm. Restored friendships are the exception. Christians ought to be experts in reconciliation, but we often just follow the world and fail just as miserably. Sadly, we are often the ones instigating and perpetuating the non-reconciliation!

We often say that we, as Calvary Church, want to ACT LIKE FAMILY. This sounds warm and fuzzy, but we all know there is a dark side to family: families fight. But all healthy families–especially including the family of God–are passionate about biblical reconciliation: Confront → Repent → Forgive → Restore. And when this process fails, as it often does, love your enemies. I preached on today’s passage, Matthew 18:15-35, during a series we did on biblical reconciliation back in May 2019. That series was loosely based on Unpacking Forgiveness, by Chris Brauns. I’d highly recommend that book as well as that old sermon series, if you’re interested in doing a deeper dive into this very important topic.

HOW TO CHASE WANDERING LOWLY-GREATS

Jesus gives us a whole process for how to chase the wandering sheep. Two caveats to this process:

First, note that this process will only work for churches where people are deeply committed to Jesus and to one another. If we’re not deeply committed to gentle and lowly Jesus, we’ll use this process like a sledgehammer to shame and exclude people we don’t actually love. And if we’re not deeply committed to one another, we’ll just leave the church rather than give and receive accountability. This is one reason CHURCH MEMBERSHIP is important. Church membership is
Second, the process Jesus describes does not include every aspect of what dealing with sin might look like. This process talks about how sin should be dealt with in a church family but it does not elaborate on how to deal with a sin that is also a crime in a church family, which would be reported to the authorities, nor does it elaborate on how to deal with sin committed against us by unbelievers.

All that to say, this passage is vital for understanding how to seek purity from sin in our church by chasing one another who wander from God. There’s five steps.

1) Confront with God’s heart and hope. (18:15)

15 If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

In the series from a few years ago, I did a whole sermon on “Confrontation.” How should you decide when to confront someone or address a conflict or sin? I don’t have time to go into details, but the bottom line is that the sin should be clear and serious. So, if a Christian friend is being dishonest, if a Christian brother is being harsh with his wife and children, if a church member is being lazy, or if Christian sister is being hateful with her words, how should you address it? Jesus tells us how. Go. Privately. First, go. Don’t wait too long on this. You might need time to cool down, pray, and think about, but don’t drag it out. Just go and get it over with. God is interested in reconciliation–not relationships that go silent–because God is passionately pursuing all of His lowly-greats

Second, do it privately. Go straight to the person you need to confront. Don’t go telling other people about it. That will just make the problem a hundred times worse. Don’t first go asking people for “advice.” Don’t first go asking people to “pray.” Try to address it on your own first. If they listen, you can skip the rest of the process! You’ve been reconciled and purified! But if not…

2) Confront with some help. (18:16)

16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

If the one-on-one does not go well, you’ll have to get someone else involved. It would be very, very wise to pick one or two people that would be viewed by the person you’re confronting as wise and “neutral.” Be careful about picking people that are on “your side.” And don’t bring someone along who won’t be able to think and speak with wisdom to the situation. Consider asking a pastor, elder, deacon or deaconess, or LIFEgroup leader to help. We would love to pursue reconciliation.

3) Confront with the whole church. (18:17a)

17a If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church…

For Christians, the church is the final court of appeals on earth. This is a weighty, God-given responsibility. I’ve heard stories about people who got a really bad taste in their mouth for a particular church or for church in general because they were being held accountable to their church for their sin. It’s vital that churches get this moment right and that they do it with grace. The glory of Jesus is very much at stake here.

4) Treat the unrepentant like they are not Christians. (18:17b-20)

17b …and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

What does it mean to treat someone who is so obviously unrepentant as a pagan or a tax collector? It means you know longer treat them like a church member and instead treat them as an unbeliever. You continue to love them, but the relationship is not reconciled. It means that things have changed and much of the joy is lost, but that you constantly pray for and plead with them to repent.

Now, you may be thinking, what gives a church the right to judge one of its members like that? Well, that’s where Jesus goes where he goes next. What gives the church the right? He does! Jesus says that His church has heaven’s authority on earth, and that He is with His people, even if it’s a very small church…like two or three. Why does Jesus say these things at the tail end of his instructions on confrontation in a church context? Jesus wants His disciples to know that, despite how weak and ineffectual you may feel, Christ’s authority stands behind a church’s decisions!

If we are the body of Christ, then when we gather under His cross-shaped name in His cross-shaped way, He presides as Judge.
If we the church seek wisdom to confront someone, Christ will make us wise.
If we the church confront someone, Christ confronts them.
If we the church call someone to repent, Christ calls them to repent.
If we the church remove someone from church membership, Christ removes them from church membership.
If we the church welcome a repentant sinner back into the church family, Christ welcomes them back into the church family.

What power, what a responsibility! Now obviously, that great power can be and has been abused. But that doesn’t mean the authority doesn’t exist; it just means that God’s judgment will be hotter against the church’s that abuse it! In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confirms what Jesus says here in Matthew 18 and says that it is the responsibility of the church to hold its members accountable. Churches need to be willing to confront their members who persist in obvious, unrepentant sin for the sake of (1) the purity of the church’s testimony to the community and (2) the unrepentant person’s soul. The end goal is not shame and exclusion but forgiveness and reconciliation…

5) Forgive the repentant like God forgives the repentant! (18:21-35)

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Immediately before this passage, Jesus had explained that, if someone sins against you, and if you confront them and they repent, you are to welcome them back as a brother or sister. So Peter’s question is about how often do they need to do it. How many second chances do I give someone? Does forgiveness have an expiration date? Is it a limited resource? Does it ever run out? That’s a very natural question. Jesus’ answer is challenging: forgive as often as needed.

Then Jesus illustrates with a story…

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.”

Though this is a parable about forgiveness, Jesus still touched on confrontation here. Confrontation clarifies the stakes. The master confronts the servant about his debt. This is exactly what Jesus had described in verse 15-17. Confront the offender privately. If that doesn’t bring about repentance, confront the offender with some help. If that doesn’t, confront the offender with the whole church.

One commentator said that the entire story is realistic, except for this part. The “bags of gold” here was the largest unit of currency in the ancient world and represented the average worker’s lifetime earnings. The number “10,000” (lit. myriad) is the highest number according to ancient Greek accounting.

The largest number we can portray today is…well…infinity…and the largest dollar bill denomination out there today is the $100,000 with Woodrow Wilson on it. So, if Jesus were telling the parable today, He might say that the servant owed the king infinity Woodrow Wilsons! There wasn’t even that much currency in circulation at this time! The servant owed more money than even existed! In other words, Jesus means this to sound like an infinite amount of debt! Imagine the weight and burden of that debt. The servant couldn’t even begin to pay it off. The king demands the debt to be repaid and he’s willing to seek that by liquidating the indebted servant’s earthly possessions…and family…which would hardly make a dent in what was owed, yet the king would have had every right to do it.

God likewise confronts us, through the Scriptures, through the Holy Spirit, and through one another, with the fact that our sin and rebellion against Him creates an unpayable debt. Our very souls are on the line due to our debt. God has to punish us in order to settle our debt, so to speak, with His holy character. But confrontation is just the start. Next comes repentance…

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.”

The servant doesn’t even ask for forgiveness. Instead, he asks for time to pay everything back, but he knows he can’t. Biblical repentance includes this admission of our sin and wishing we could make it right, but it also confesses that our sin is so awful that only God’s mercy can save me!

The king’s forgiveness is stunning, isn’t it? The king absorbed the infinite debt of the servant! He took the hit himself and let the servant go free! This is what God does through the death of Jesus for us who repent and ask for mercy. He pays our debt in full. The righteous life and sacrificial death of Jesus are more than enough to cover the sin of God’s lowly-greats.

Can you imagine the relief this servant felt when the king canceled his infinite debt? Jesus’ parable doesn’t tell us exactly how the forgiven servant responded. I’d be doing cartwheels in the street, if I could do cartwheels. But Jesus does tell us how that forgiven servant responded to debts owed to him.

28 ‘But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.”

One hundred silver coins were about 100 days worth of earnings. That’s a lot, but obviously not even comparable to what the first servant had been forgiven. As readers, we might expect that this man would be so inspired by the infinite debt he had been forgiven that he would forgive this puny debt. Wouldn’t it be totally logical and good to see this cascade of forgiveness from the king to his servant??? But that’s not what happens…

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.”

The fellow servant was just as repentant as the first, though he owed far less.

31 “When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

What Jesus is teaching in this parable is that a key proof of our true repentance before God is our willingness to forgive. Biblical forgiveness is continually absorbing the debt of a repentant offender in recognition of God’s infinitely greater forgiveness and in hope of restoring the relationship. Some may say “I forgive them,” but I don’t want them in my life. While there is a sense that healthy boundaries need to be set, the whole point of forgiveness isn’t so YOU can move on–it’s so the RELATIONSHIP can move on. God doesn’t “forgive” us and then cut us out of His life. Far from it, God’s forgiveness is merely the START of the relationship. There are extreme situations of course where it is entirely appropriate for a victim to cut ties with an offender, even if the offender is repentant and forgiven. Cases of sexual abuse, for example. We wouldn’t expect a rape victim to “get in touch” with their offender, even if repentant. At least not anytime soon. But there are beautiful stories where, after years of counseling and healing, a rape victim might have a gracious conversation with an offender who has genuinely repented and been forgiven. It can happen, and it is God’s marvelous grace at work when it does. But it would take time and intentional healing…and that’s what Christians should be encouraging Christians to do as they forgive…at least hope, even dream, of reconciliation.

Do you live in the wonder of being forgiven by God? Isn’t it crazy to take a spouse for granted when the breathtaking reality is that they chose and choose to live with us despite the fact we rarely if ever deserve it? The fact that they have chosen to live with us should inspire us to love them so much! How much more so with God? He chose to forgive those of us who repent though we don’t deserve it! This is absolutely life-changing. So much love for Him and so much for the rest of the people He loves…my neighbors! Do you still live in that place? Have you even ever lived there to begin with? The only way to have this debt paid is through the cross of Christ. Do you believe in Him so that He has paid your debt? If so, what are you now doing to spread that good news through word and deed?

The church has a real need to live out biblical reconciliation. We want to see people reconciled to God, first and foremost, and reconciled to each other–husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, employers and workers, Christians, even whole groups of people reconciled to each other. Imagine people from different sexes, political perspectives, ethnicities, and income levels being reconciled to one another. We’re not just interested in solving conflicts; we’re interested in healing relationships. And God in Christ is the only One who can do this well. For His glory. Our world needs us to be reconcilers, so we must look to the God Who Reconciles. We learn from God Himself, that it’s on the offended to pursue. That’s how cross-shaped He is! It’s on those sinned-against to forgive. Such is the nature of God’s great, humble love! He pursues the ones who have offended Him! He forgives the ones who admit their sin! And so should we. Who is that one sheep wandering? Who do you need to chase because God chased you? Or is He chasing you right now?

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

According to Matthew 18:15-20, how should a Christian go about pursuing other believers who sin and wander from God? If the person doesn’t repent, where does the process go? If the person does repent, what would the next step be? Have you failed to listen to anyone’s rebuke? Have you failed to pursue and rebuke any brothers or sisters in Christ? What can you do this week to apply what Jesus teaches here?
Why is Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant the perfect follow-up to the teachings on pursuing wandering believers? How does this parable answer Peter’s original question (i.e. how often and to what extent should we forgive others)?
What is most challenging for you when it comes to truly forgiving others? How can meditating on how much God has forgiven you help you forgive? How can thinking about our ability to forgive as a necessary fruit of being forgiven by God help you to forgive?

God’s Lowly-Greats (Matthew 18:1-14)

Who’s the GOAT, the “greatest of all time?” Sports fans, political buffs, music enthusiasts love to debate the greats in their respective fields. Michael Jordan or Lebron James. Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama. Joe Montana or Tom Brady. Taylor Swift or Beyonce.

But there is another GOAT debate always going on in the back of our minds. Am I the greatest? I am at the center of everything I experience. I am, after all, the only one around for everything that happens in my life. To make matters worse, I give in to my sinful pride and sense of competition, my sinful love for recognition and the pride of winning/success. And so, in the back of my mind, I’m always wondering, “Am I the greatest?” and often I just assume that I am!

Jesus’ disciples wondered who the greatest would be too, that is, the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, so they asked Jesus. Today, we’ll get into Jesus’ answer to that question. But first a quick refresher: This year at Calvary, we’re learning to…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’ll be memorizing all eight beatitudes this year, but here’s the first six:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God. (Matthew 5:3-8 NIV)

We’ll talk more about what it means to be pure in heart and see God in the coming weeks, but notice for now how cross-shaped these are. Humble self-giving and self-sacrifice and, as a result, a glorious blessing from God.

Here’s today’s big idea:

God’s greats are those who go the lowest. (Matthew 18:1-4)

Let’s set the context for this scene in Matthew’s account thus far. Jesus’ identity has been revealed by God to the disciples. They know He’s the Messiah, the Son of God, and yet they are struggling to come to grips with the fact that Jesus as Messiah, Son of the living God must suffer. They want Jesus to win right away and restore God’s kingdom to earth. Continuing to resist cruciformity, the disciples posed a question to Jesus.

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

The disciples want to know who the GOAT or GOATs of the kingdom of heaven would be? Jesus had already hinted that He has great things in store for His disciples, albeit at great cost to themselves. But they were fixated on that greatness. Like us, the disciples were obsessed with being first, being the best. Jesus totally upended the discussion with the teaching that followed.

2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Brilliant teacher that He is, Jesus invited a child into their discussion. This child, whoever it was, was the perfect object lesson to illustrate true greatness in God’s kingdom.

In what way does Jesus say His followers must become like little children?

Is it their innocence? No, that’s not what Jesus says, and if we’ve ever been a kid or been around kids, we know they’re sinners just like us.
Is it their cuteness? No, kids can be adorable, but that’s not the quality Jesus points out.
Is it because they are so valuable? No! In fact, it’s the opposite. It is the lowly position of the child that makes them a perfect illustration for the greats of God’s kingdom.

You might say, “But children aren’t lowly! That’s an awful thing to say about kids.” Correct. Note that Jesus is saying those who are lowly like children are the greatest in His kingdom. That’s because, in the ancient world (and even today), children had low status. In the ancient world, children could be neglected, abused, and enslaved with little consequence from the governments of this world. In fact, until very recently, children had low status. It wasn’t until about 150 years ago that the “adults in charge” began passing laws to protect children. Have you ever seen the musical The Newsies? That movie illustrates the early child labor reforms in the United States. The weakest children in our society–the unborn–still have a very low legal status, and their abortion is legal in many states, including Michigan. All that to say, Jesus’ point is that unless His followers become like lowly children, the weakest and lowest of society.

How could Jesus expect such a sacrifice from us? Jesus never calls us to something He didn’t do Himself. Jesus is God of all and yet took the lowly status of a human being. He called Himself “gentle and lowly” in Matthew 11:29. Be lowly like a child and be the greatest, be like Jesus!

Now I know what you might be thinking, “If I take a low and humble status, other people are going to walk all over me!” It’s true. Others might. But you know who won’t and who shouldn’t? Other lowly-greats! And you know who looks out for all the Lowly-Greats? The God to whom they belong! Let’s see what Jesus says about…

How God’s lowly-greats treat each other…

Jesus has already taught that we should all become God’s lowly-greats. That’s what the beatitudes are. They teach us the kinds of mindsets and attitudes and lifestyles we should embrace in order to follow the cross-shaped way of Jesus. So because He’s already spent a lot of time on becoming a lowly-great, He now teaches lowly-greats how to treat each other…

1) Serve God’s lowly-greats like you’d serve Jesus. (18:5)

5 “And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

In Jesus’ day, welcoming someone meant inviting a traveler to stay in your home or a hungry person to share a meal. It meant caring about someone else in need just like you’d care for yourself if you had the same need. And here’s Jesus’ promise: welcoming a person who has taken the lowly position of a child is just like welcoming Jesus. Jesus identifies Himself with the humble and lowly. Whatever you’d do for Him, do for them. Whatever you do for them, you do for Him!

Greeting and getting to know those who are new to our church family.
Encouraging and praying with those who are hurting in our church family.
Giving through the benevolent fund to meet the financial needs of church members.
Offering help and prayer through our church’s Facebook group.
Being eager to use your time and talents to help a brother or sister out. We regularly have church members in need. In the past month alone, church members have helped one another with transportation, family emergencies, food, and home repairs. And those are just things I’ve happened to hear about. No doubt, God is working in ways unseen by me. May God keep all of eyes open to the needs around us so that we might joyfully help in whatever way God enables. Because that’s what Jesus deserves and honors.

Jesus’ next teaching touches on behavior totally opposed to what He deserves and honors.

2) Do not harm God’s lowly-greats or suffer His wrath. (18:6-9)

6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!”

Causing a lowly-great to stumble is a grave offense. What does it mean to cause someone to stumble? It basically means to harm someone through mistreatment like abuse, neglect, or temptation. Now the Bible calls God a stumbling block to those who ignore or defy Him. They trip over His holiness and glory and will suffer harm because they deserve it. But even though God is a stumbling block to the proud, God’s people should never be a stumbling block to each other.

In fact, it’s better to die a horrific death (forced drowning) before committing that sin than to commit that sin and face God’s righteous and wrathful judgment for it. That’s how much God cares about His lowly-greats. Jesus doesn’t want His disciples to be surprised by worldly harm. Suffering will come, as Jesus promised! But Jesus also promises that God will hold those accountable who harm His lowly-greats. You can trust your God, lowly brothers and sisters!

8 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”

This is intense, which means it’s important! Jesus uses here the same language He used to describe how His disciples should deal with sexual lust (Matt 5). This time, He’s not talking about lust; He’s talking about the deadly sin of pride, which leads us to harm His lowly-greats.

Do you ever find yourself trying to take advantage of someone else? Mistreating them for your benefit? Putting them down for your ego? Ignoring them for your own convenience? Repent, and repent now, whatever the cost. It’s worth any price to get into the kingdom of heaven, so kill your pride. It will never be worth clinging to some sin, even a seemingly small one, because it means exclusion from God’s kingdom.

3) Value God’s lowly-greats like God does. (18:10-14)

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Some think the reference to angels here are guardian angels, but fixation on your own personal guardian angel misses the point. God’s angels are His servants. Though they are powerful and terrifying to humanity when they reveal themselves, they still serve only God. Jesus’ point here is that, if God sends His very own angelic forces to look after His people, how much more important are His people to Him! Others think Jesus may be referring to the spirits of God’s lowly-greats that have entered God’s presence and become “like angels,” thus showing they are highly valued members of the kingdom of heaven. Whether you believe that Jesus is talking about angelic beings or the souls of God’s people, it doesn’t change the main point that God places an extremely high value on His lowly-greats, though the world undervalues and uses and abuses.

Think of those who belong to God but are undervalued by the world:

Who are struggling with dementia/Alzheimers
Who battle addiction or mental illness
Who are tempted to or trapped in sin and need to be rescued
Who are simple and naive and in need of wisdom
Who are grieving and on the brink of despair
Who are very ill and facing the very real threat of death
Who struggle to fit into the community because they are single, same-sex attracted, etc.
Who have suffered trauma and are constantly stuck in the mindset of a victim

God cares about each of these so much! Jesus drove this point home with a parable:

12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.”

If God were a shepherd with 100 sheep, He would not be content if He lost even one. That’s how much He cares about His lowly-greats. In Luke 15, Jesus told a similar parable to illustrate how much God loves unbelievers and wants them to return home to Him. Here, the story illustrates how much God wants to find and restore believers who have wandered. God never writes off any lowly-great, and neither should we! Everyone is worth pursuing! In fact, even if one of God’s people sins against you personally, you should still love them like God does and go after them. We’ll see that next week in the rest of Matthew 18.

Who is the greatest in God’s kingdom, the greatest of the lowly-greats? Well, based on Jesus’ definition, it has to be Jesus. Jesus is the GOAT because He went the lowest. Jesus is first our Savior and then our Example. Jesus was God, and then also became a human, to serve us, to live the perfect life we could never live and die a sacrificial death we should have died. Because of what Jesus did for us, we the church get to act like family. We get to stick with each other through highs and lows–especially lows–loving one another, pursuing one another, forgiving one another, encouraging one another.

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important do you think you are? Why did you choose that number? How would your number change if you adopted the lowly position of a child before God? If you adopted that lowly position, what number would God give you?
According to verse 5, what is the reward of serving those who take the lowly position of a child? What can you do to chase this wonderful reward?
According to verses 6-9, what is the danger of causing any problems for those who take the lowly position of a child? What can you do to avoid this terrible danger?
According to verses 10-14, how dearly does God love those who take the lowly position of a child? What attitudes and practices need to change in your life to better align with God’s heart for His people?

What God’s Cross-shaped Son Does (Matthew 17:14-27)

This year at Calvary, we’re learning to…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’ll be memorizing all eight beatitudes this year, but here’s the first five:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:3-7 NIV)

Jesus and the disciples returning from the northernmost point in the records. Jesus revealed His identity as Messiah, God’s chosen King to His disciples and then, for the first time, predicted His death and resurrection. The disciple’s struggled to accept this. Jesus says they’ll have to follow a similar path. Jesus followed those hard teachings with a glimpse of His glory, mentioned to give hope to His disciples before trials came. And so what we see in the following accounts are perfect examples of how Jesus, God’s cross-shaped Son, operates in this world.

Jesus and the Demon-Possessed Boy (17:14-21)

1) The Faithful Father

14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

While Peter, James, and John were on the mountain witnessing Jesus’s transfiguration, down below, a desperate father was pleading with the rest of Jesus’ disciples to heal the boy, but they were unable. The Renaissance artist Raphael captured these two scenes together in one of his final paintings: “The Transfiguration” (c. 1520). In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the transfiguration is always followed by the account of the boy the disciples couldn’t heal. Raphael noticed that the transfiguration painted this to show the contrast. On the one hand, Raphael depicts Jesus as high and shining with glory, large and in charge, but below, he depicts the chaotic scene of the disciples struggling to help the boy. Above, King Jesus is glorified; below, His kingdom subjects are in trouble, helpless without Him. But Jesus came down, which Raphael does not show.

The disciples had been authorized by Jesus to preach the Gospel and heal the sick, yet they fail here. This is a pattern throughout their lives, and it’s especially noticeable in the Gospels. The disciples grow and advance and then fail and fall. Maybe you can relate somewhat? You have days where you are submitted to and focused on Jesus and days where the trials or temptations abound. What’s going on? Before addressing His disciples, he first addressed..

2) The Faith-less Crowd

17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Jesus called out the crowd for unfaithfulness toward Him and their moral perversion. He had been ministering to them for a while now, and still no one is able to help this boy. Jesus expressed his growing frustration with the spiritual blindness and corruption of the crowd, including His own disciples…but He still healed the boy!

As it turns out, the boy was not only sick but demon-possessed. Cultural depictions of demon-possession are neither biblical nor helpful. They can cloud our understanding of these biblical accounts. In the Bible, demons don’t try to creep people out or cause jump scares. That’s Hollywood. Demon-possession here manifests as seizures and self-harm.

ASIDE: Let me offer a serious caution against labeling people with physical or mental illness as demon-possessed. There are plenty of examples of people with symptoms of physical or mental illness that are not in need of an exorcism but only a healing. I won’t take time to talk through this here, but, if you do have questions on how the Bible talks about these things, feel free to reach out and ask! I’d love to share what God’s Word teaches about any of these things.

3) The Faith-less Disciples

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Even “faith as small a mustard seed” can do the impossible, but the disciples’ faith had so little faith that they might as well have had none at all! In Matthew 13, Jesus had already used a mustard seed to describe the humble beginnings of God’s kingdom, which, by God’s power, will grow up into a tree. The power of faith is not in the strength of the faith but in the object of the faith. It’s not how much you trust, but Who you trust. If the disciples were really, humbly, desperately trusting Jesus with even just a bit of that mustard-seed faith, they could have helped the boy. But because they had become like the crowd, which was unbelieving and perverse, they failed.

What exactly is Jesus’s promise here? Can true believers really move mountains? Is that like Jesus wants us to do? Should we be moving mountains? No, of course not. “Moving mountains” is an idiom, a saying for doing the impossible. It’s used all the time in the Old Testament to describe the miracle of God’s salvation for His people. Jesus’s expression of “moving mountains” does not illustrate faith’s task but its power, when He is truly the object of faith.

A Lesson: Jesus empowers His disciples for His impossible mission.

Jesus has all power and authority and can do anything He wants. If Jesus wanted to move mountains, He would empower His people to do it. But that’s not what Jesus wants. So that’s the question. What DOES Jesus want to do through His people? The Great Commission. The IMPOSSIBLE Great Commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Jesus wants to make impossible people His disciples by bringing them to repentance and baptism. We all had impossibly hard hearts until Jesus called us, saved us, and started changing us! You know what’s harder to do than move mountains? Transform a sinner’s heart! And Jesus does it all the time. He transforms impossible kids and teens, reconciles impossible enemies, heals impossible husbands and wives, restores impossible moms and dads to their impossible children.

You know what else is impossible about the Great Commission? Jesus wants to use those disciples to make even more impossible people His disciples. Imagine using impossible people to reach more impossible people. A miracle! Yet God continually overcomes the impossible fear, apathy, and worldliness in the hearts of His people to make them care about others just as much as themselves.

You know what’s even more impossible about the Great Commission? Jesus wants to do it all over the world. Think about the seeming impossibility of the Great Commission when Jesus gave it. He’s one man speaking to at most a few dozen people, telling them to help the whole world follow Him. Now, they saw the risen Jesus, so they had that to go on. We have the hindsight not only of His resurrection but also of the glorious triumph of Jesus through His Gospel and the church throughout the ages.

Has Jesus changed your impossible heart to care about the Great Commission? How often do you hear about global tragedies on the news? 3,000 dead in the Moroccan earthquakes last months. Up to 15,000 dead in the Libyan floods. Hundreds dying in Israel and Palestine right now. Maybe it breaks your heart for a moment but then you move on. But for thousands of years, millions have lived and died without knowing Christ, the ultimate humanitarian crisis, and God has mobilized billions of His followers and churches to send missionaries out to those who have never even heard of Christ.

Jesus’s Second Death and Resurrection Prediction (17:22-23)

22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

This is the second of three predictions. Why do the Gospels include multiple predictions of His death and resurrection? God wants us to remember that Jesus remembers this ultimate ending. Jesus’ whole mindset is clearly cross-shaped, cruciform.

In response to this prediction, the disciples show growth, but they still have a way to go. This time nobody rebukes Jesus, but they are heartbroken. Understandable but still immature. They should have looked Jesus in the eye, put their hand on His shoulder, and said, “We hurt for you, Jesus, but God’s will be done. Help us to stay faithful to you when the trial comes, and we’ll see You on the other side of Your well-deserved resurrection.” Christians grieve the hard and painful parts of life, but they also learn to trust God and stay faithful and joyful because of our ultimate hope in Him.

Jesus and the Temple Tax (17:24-27)

1) The Tax Collector’s Question

24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” 25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.

According to the Old Testament, all Israelite males over age 20 paid an annual tax to support the temple (Ex 30:11-16). In first century Judea, that tax was two drachmas, about two days’ work (a drachma was equivalent to about one day’s work).

So, it’s tax time, and they come and ask Peter whether Jesus would pay His temple tax. Even though they worked for the wicked Sadducees, who ruled the temple system, it doesn’t seem like they are acting in bad faith, like the Pharisees and Sadducees often did. They’re just doing their job.

Without checking with Jesus, Peter assumed Jesus would pay the tax and answered in the affirmative, so, when Jesus got a private moment with Peter, Jesus offered him a correction as well as a little help…

2) The Rightful Answer

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?” 26 “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.

Jesus’ analogy is that, if a king’s children are exempt from paying the king’s taxes, then God’s children are exempt from paying the God’s “tax”–the temple tax. The clear implication here is stunning! Jesus is implying that He is the Son of God, which God the Father had just declared to Peter, James, and John at the transfiguration. Jesus also implies that the disciples are exempt too and therefore count as God’s children as well through their gracious relationship with Jesus.

Wow, what a privilege! Because Jesus is the divine Son of God, free from temple tax obligations, we might predict that Jesus is about to refuse to pay it! But we’d be wrong…

3) The Humble Response

27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

I wish I could pay my taxes like that; I’m a terrible fisherman but I know many of you are experts! Let’s talk 🙂 Peter here doesn’t use a net, which was the norm, but only a line and a hook. That means only one fish was needed to find enough money to pay the temple tax for both Jesus and Peter.

If Jesus didn’t have to pay the temple tax, why pay it? Jesus says that it might cause offense. What does Jesus mean by offense? When we use the term “offense,” we use it in two ways. First, we use it to describe breaking an actual law like stealing. For example, “it was the thief’s third offense; therefore, the minimum sentence is higher.” But we also use “offense” to describe hurting someone’s feelings, whether or not it’s justified. For example, they said something I didn’t like, and now I’m offended. When Jesus uses the word, He means it in the first way: breaking God’s law, not hurting feelings.

The actual word used here is “stumbling block” and we’ll see it used several times in Matthew 18, which we’ll look at next week. It basically means, “creating the conditions where someone else is led into sin.” Jesus is saying that, if He refused to pay the temple tax in front of people who do not yet know who He is, they might reject Him prematurely, without giving Him a chance to show them who He really is. In other words, they don’t know about Jesus what the disciples know about Jesus yet. Therefore, Jesus’ outright refusal to pay the tax might create an unnecessary scandal.

It’s not that Jesus is afraid to confront and speak truth. In fact, Jesus was not concerned about “offending” the Pharisees over ritual hand-washing back in Matthew 15 (15:12). Why now be concerned about offense over the temple tax? Ritual hand-washing was not commanded by God and only human tradition, and the offense was toward those who had seen who Jesus was but already rejected Him (15:6-9, 13-14). Jesus didn’t cause the Pharisees to sin; they were already sinning! But in the case of the temple tax, it was commanded by God (Ex 30:11-16), and the tax collectors haven’t had a chance to know any better yet. Jesus is being exceedingly gracious with them, giving up what He deserved to give them what they did not deserve!!!

A Lesson: God’s Son and adopted children have privileged rights and humble responsibilities.

God’s ways are offensive to those that aren’t submitting to Him. His hatred for sexual sin is offensive. His hatred of greed is offensive. His hatred of pride is offensive. Even the glorious Gospel of God’s grace is offensive to some because in order to receive it, you have to fully agree with the fact that you’re a sinner in need of grace. But just because God’s truth and grace can be offensive doesn’t mean we should try to offend people or even wear it as a badge of honor when we do. God is offensive enough to sinners; I must not add my pride or selfishness to it. An arrogant, unloving attitude is offensive to God too!

Because, look, here’s the bottom line: Though Jesus is highly exalted, He came down to save the demon-possessed boy. Though Jesus is the very Son of God, He paid His temple tax and Peter’s too so as not to cause unnecessary offense! And despite His great privilege as King of kings and Lord of lords, being in very nature God Himself, Jesus humbled Himself and became nothing, a servant, going all the way to the cross to die for our sin and glorify God through His obedience. Out of the riches of His grace, He paid for you and me. Be grateful. Become like Him.

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

Instead of trusting Jesus, the disciples tried to drive out the demon in their own strength. Why do you think they might have done that? What impossible things are you trying to do in your own strength? What impossible things has Jesus empower His people to do and how will you trust Him in that mission going forward?
How are Jesus’ repeated death/resurrection predictions impactful and meaningful to you?
What rights do you have by the grace of God in Christ? Even though you have those privileges, why should we still put other people ahead of ourselves? Think of some examples of how you can live out humility like Christ in different areas of life.

Cross-shaped King, Cross-shaped Kingdom, Part Two (Matthew 16:21-17:13)

On May 6, 2023, the world watched as Prince Charles III was crowned King of England. Why was he crowned? Did he receive a master’s degree in royal leadership from Oxford or Cambridge? No. Did he pass some sort of king test like our teens have to pass a driving test? No. Did his moral and intellectual capacities so impress the nation or the previous monarch that they chose him to be king? No. Then why was he crowned king? Charles III became king because…drumroll please…he was born. That’s it. Well, he was born and outlived his mom and kept the scandals at a minimum.

Christ was not crowned King of kings simply because He was God’s Son, but because, in His human nature, His character matched exactly what God was looking for. This year at Calvary, we’re learning to…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’re memorizing all eight beatitudes this year. Here’s the fifth one:

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7 NIV)

Do you want mercy, especially from God? Do you show mercy, especially to people who don’t deserve it? The greatest mercy and kindness ever shown was Jesus at the cross. And Christ’s mercy is available to all of the kind of people who show that kind of mercy. That’s cruciformity.

Today, Jesus will teach pivotal, cross-shaped lessons about Himself and His kingdom of followers, and then deliver an enacted lesson to drive it all home.

Jesus’s Lesson about Himself: He is the cross-shaped King. (16:21-23)

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

“From that time one”…from what time on? Of course, we need to look at the context. In the previous account (Matthew 16:13-20), Peter confessed that Jesus was God’s Son, the Messiah, and Jesus affirmed it. It was from that moment on that Jesus taught His disciples that being the Messiah would ultimately lead to His suffering, death, and resurrection. This is the first of three predictions like this in Matthew.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Upon hearing that Jesus as the Messiah had to suffer, Peter was concerned enough to rebuke Jesus. Rebuke Jesus?!?! Giving and receiving rebukes are good, when the rebuke is righteous and the recipient needs to hear it. “Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness; let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it, for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.” (Psalms 141:5 NIV) But no one, and I mean no one, gets to rebuke King Jesus. Jesus doesn’t need to get in line with Peter; Peter needs to get in line with Jesus.

In response to Peter’s rebuke, Jesus rebukes Him and calls Him Satan. Peter went from being the building block upon which Jesus would build His church to a stumbling block trying to trip Jesus up. Peter gladly proclaimed Jesus as Messiah but satanically rebelled against the divine plan for Messiah Jesus to suffer. This may seem harsh, but realize that Satan and the evil powers do not think like God thinks. Jesus said Peter was more concerned about worldly things than about God’s things. God’s agenda is cross-shaped. Satan’s agenda is ego-shaped, pleasure-shaped, power-shaped. So Jesus calls out satanic thinking and rebukes Peter for resisting cruciformity.

Peter saw who Jesus was but only partly. He knew that Jesus would restore God’s kingdom, but would not or could not embrace yet fathom that God’s kingdom would come through the death of Jesus on the cross. You know, I think we all have Peter’s satanic tendency to resist cruciformity, which is the exact button Jesus pushed next.

Jesus’s Lesson about His Followers: They are cross-shaped too. (16:24-28)

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

This is Jesus’ central call to cruciformity in Matthew. If He’s a cross-shaped King, His followers are cross-shaped too. Out of great gratitude to God for His sacrifice for us in Christ, we sacrifice ourselves for Him. Notice the two ongoing movements to cruciformity:

First, Jesus calls us to self-denial. Denying ourselves is saying no to yourself, disowning yourself…not merely denying yourself pleasure, praise, comfort, etc. but literally rejecting yourself. It’s more than just saying, “no more ice cream, social media, etc. because those things are bad for me.” It’s no more ME. My ego, my entitlement, my identity, my agenda, my opinions, my desires, my priorities. No more Keith!

Second, Jesus calls us to cross-bearing. Taking up our cross is saying yes to all of Jesus. Like Jesus obeyed God’s will and took up a literal cross, we must obey His will. In any and every area of life, Jesus calls those who believe in Him to obey…even when it hurts, even when it’s costly, even when it’s embarrassing. It feels a bit like a humiliating and devastating crucifixion. Whatever the cost, we say yes to loving God with all of heart, soul, mind, and strength. We say yes to loving our neighbors as ourselves. We say yes to loving one another as Christ has loved us. We say yes making disciples of all nations! Whatever the cost, we say yes to Your will, King Jesus!

Cruciformity is a painful calling, so is it worth it? Jesus assures us that it is. Those who try to save their life lose it, but those who lose their life for Jesus will find it. Jesus is saying that those who do not deny themselves in this life will ultimately lose their life in God’s judgment. But those who surrender themselves to Jesus now will certainly be saved by God in the end. God makes this happen.

Then Jesus, “You do the math.” Even if you gained the whole world, which no one can, would it be worth it if you lost your soul? The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes illustrates this truth well. Ecclesiastes was written by one of the wealthiest, mightiest, and smartest people ever. He experienced all the world had to offer. He never denied himself. And yet before he even died and faced judgment by God, he came to the conclusion that everything in this world is ultimately meaningless and therefore we should focus as soon as possible on what God wants. Can anything really be worth losing your soul?

This is what the Christian life is. There is no Christianity-lite, where you can opt out of the call to cruciformity. If this is not how you think of following Jesus, you’re not following Jesus. Turn to Him today and tell Him you’re sorry. Ask Him to forgive your pride and grow you in humble worship of Him. Ask Him to forgive your selfishness and grow you in self-sacrificial love for others. I know what some of you might be thinking, “This is sooo much, Keith. Can Jesus be trusted? Will He really come through for us? He is calling us to give up and even suffer so much? How can I know that He will make it worth it as He has promised?” In the rest of this account, Jesus reassured His disciples that He can be trusted.

27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. 28 Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Jesus grounds the call to self-denial and cross-bearing with the promise that He will make all the sacrifice worth it. Jesus promised to come back in glory with justice. His promise here refers to a future event, the Second Coming of Christ, which is described all over Scripture where God’s Messiah returns once and for all to save His people and punish His enemies. Jesus had already started painting a picture of that day with His teaching, especially with His parables in Matthew 13, such as the parables about the wheat and the weeds and the good fish and bad fish.

Second, Jesus promised that at least some of the disciples would see Him crowned King. Now verse 28 is confusing because, following verse 27, it sounds like Jesus is promising to return in His disciples’ lifetime. But Jesus has not returned yet, but all of His disciples are dead. So, either Jesus is wrong, or the “coming Son of Man” in verse 28 is not with the Second Coming described in verse 27. Most theologians think Jesus is not describing the same event. Here’s why: In verse 27, Jesus promised to not only come but also reward His people. In verse 28, he only promises that they will see Him coming in His kingdom or “with authority.” He says nothing about the reward as in verse 27. Most theologians think then that Jesus is promising a special revelation of His glory to the disciples who He has just called to cruciformity. They will get a taste, a glimpse of His glory so that they will be able to live self-sacrificial lives to the glory of God. That glimpse begins here…

Jesus’s Transfiguration: A Glimpse of God in Christ (17:1-13)

1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.

The “six days” of verse 1 connects this event and the previous conversations together into one long story. In other words, this is truly a pivotal week in Matthew’s story of Jesus and the disciples. Jesus is the Messiah, He will suffer, and so will those who want to be His followers. But it will be worth it. Less than a week later, Jesus was transfigured before them!!! What does that mean? Transfigured translates the Greek word metamorphoo, from which we get our English word metamorphosis.

As much as God’s glory is revealed through His invisible attributes like holiness and justice and love, God wanted the human eye to witness an visible expression of His glory on the light spectrum. In the Old Testament, Moses visibly reflected the visible glory of God to Israel, whenever he emerged from the tent of meeting with God. Jesus visibly radiated a visible glory from within Himself. God was the light, and Moses was the mirror. Jesus Himself was the light and needed no mirror.

This will be the reassurance the disciples need for the great time of suffering ahead. This was perhaps the kind of sign the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted. Yet Jesus would perform signs only to confirm humble faith, not to convince proud skeptics.

3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Moses and Elijah were two of the key figures from the Old Testament, representing the Law and the Prophets. This is a bit like Old Testament Avengers assemble. Peter suggests enshrining Jesus, Moses, and Elijah right then and there. But his suggestion again pushes against Jesus’ agenda, so, this time, God the Father Himself interrupts Peter!

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

The transfiguration account alludes to many Old Testament encounters with God. Moses and Elijah both encountered God on a mountaintop, like no human being has ever encountered God. So Matthew’s description–the mountaintop experience, a bright and shining radiance, and the appearance of Moses and Elijah–all set the stage for a Sinai-like encounter with God, which is precisely what happened. God spoke!

However, when God speaks, it’s not like when He spoke to Moses and He gave Him the law. It’s not like when He spoke to Elijah and gave him instructions on how to call Israel to repentance. When God speaks at the transfiguration of Jesus, He echoes the endorsement He gave of Jesus at His baptism. This time adds “listen to Him.” God doesn’t need to give new revelation because He’s already given His Son! Peter and James and John and us have all we need if we would just learn from Jesus.

Jesus’ transfiguration answers a question any reasonable reader would pose after the call to discipleship: Who is this man that he should call us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him? He is the beloved Son of God who has pleased the Father in every way!!! He is the Messiah! He is the King! Not the one we expect, not the one we want, but definitely the One we need.

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

They’re afraid! I would be too! But Jesus reassures them. The fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord should always be close together in your walk with God. We should be constantly overwhelmed with fear by His holiness and glory and also constantly overwhelmed with His great mercy and love, which drives us fear.

Earlier in the chapter Jesus told them to keep His identity as Messiah secret and now He tells them to wait to talk about His transfiguration. Why? People aren’t ready for it. When they hear about Christ, they must also hear about His suffering. Otherwise they will become like Peter who rebuked Jesus.

Now, the departure of Elijah made the disciples wonder about an Old Testament prophecy. In Malachi 4, the prophet said “I will send the prophet Elijah to [Israel} before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.” Many Jews expected Elijah to be literally resurrected and resume his ministry before the Messiah came, so the disciples are curious about this after Elijah left.

10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” 11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Jesus explained that John the Baptist came as Elijah, not in person but in principle. The angel Gabriel who announced the birth of John the Baptist said that he would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). The disciples begin to understand, and, in so doing, they begin to submit more and more to their cross-shaped master and His cross-shaped call.

The Lessons

Jesus suffered for us.

The story of Jesus is incomplete without the story of the cross…without the holiness of God, the horror of sin, and the self-sacrifice of Christ. We cannot really know Jesus without his cross. We cannot fully worship Jesus without keeping the cross in mind. We cannot fully share the good news about Jesus without keeping the cross central.

And let me just state the obvious: Jesus is amazing!!! He knew He would suffer. And He knew we didn’t deserve it! But in order to glorify His Father and save us sinners, He would submit Himself to suffer and die! While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus won for us.

The transfiguration was just a glimpse. His promise of resurrection would come true! Following His resurrection, Jesus radiates the visible glory of the God He is and receives all authority on heaven and earth…authority over Satan, authority over sin, authority over death, authority over all. He has been crowned king and one day will fully establish His holy and eternal kingdom.

Jesus set an example for us.

We cannot really follow Jesus unless it feels a bit like getting crucified. What does this look like in our own lives? What is a cross-shaped man like? What is a cross-shaped woman like? What does it look like to be a cross-shaped friend or neighbor? What does it look like to be a cross-shaped student or employee? How will self-denial and cross-bearing play itself out in relationships and marriage and parenting? How does it play itself out in how you engage politics or shop? How does it affect your commitment to your church family?

For many Christians throughout history and around the world today, following Jesus costs them much much more than it will ever likely cost us. Following Jesus means discrimination, fines, imprisonment, torture, and even death. How will your commitment to Jesus cost you today? Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Him. But remember, it’ll never cost us more than it cost Jesus. And remember, because of Jesus, we too have the hope of resurrection.

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

In what ways did Jesus deny Himself? Why did Jesus literally take up His cross? What does it mean to you that Jesus knew full well He would be crucified and still pressed on with His mission?
What does self-denial look like for you? What part of you do you need to say “no” to?
What does cross-bearing look like for you? What word from Jesus do you need to say “yes” to?
What role did Jesus’ transfiguration play in the discipleship of Peter, James, and John? What role does it play in your discipleship?

Cross-shaped King, Cross-shaped Kingdom, Part One (Matthew 16:13-20)

I was sitting in the community building at college, minding my own business, trying to get some homework done between classes, when three people came up to me and asked, “Hi, can we ask you a question? Who do you think Jesus is?” I wonder what kind of answers they got that day. Kinda wish I had taken the time to ask and talk more! How would you answer that question? Jesus once asked that question to His disciples. That’s what we’re learning from today, but first review. This year at Calvary, we’re learning to…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’re memorizing all eight beatitudes this year. Here’s the fifth one:

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7 NIV)

Some of Calvary’s students are involved in a Bible study at Mona Shores Middle School. They took questions this past week that they plan to answer from the Scriptures in the coming weeks. Lots of good questions, but the one that stuck out to me was the question: “How can Jesus love us so much when we do so much wrong?” Wow! What an insightful and humble question from a middle school student!

When helping the group think of an answer, my mind first went to Exodus 34. God has just redeemed Israel from service to Egypt to serve Himself. While God met with Moses on Mount Sinai to give him the covenant law, which set the terms of the special relationship God would have with His people, the rest of the nation started to worship a false god. So the holy, glorious God confronted them, punished the unrepentant, and ultimately decided to forgive those who repented. Why? Because they deserved it? No. Because they somehow made it up to Him? No. Then why? Because it is in God’s nature! God revealed to Moses His very glory…

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate [merciful] and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

At the very core of who God is, He is merciful and gracious. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. Merciful. He is merciful to us sinners not because we are oh-so-worthy, not because we deserve it, not because we earn it. He is merciful to sinners because it is in His nature, that’s just the way He is. And so, as His people, we are becoming more like Him…merciful.

Now picking up where we left off in the story of Jesus according to His disciple Matthew. Earlier in chapter 16, Jesus had been opposed by enemies, so Jesus warned His disciples about following their teaching.

THE Question: Who is Jesus? (16:13-14)

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

The Son of Man is how Jesus often refers to Himself in the Gospels. It’s a phrase that probably comes from Daniel 7, where the prophet saw a vision of “one like a son of man,” who was worthy to receive God’s authority over all things.

The disciples answered Jesus with all the popular opinions regarding His identity. As His disciples, they had undoubtedly been a part of many conversations with people who wondered about Jesus’ identity and agenda.

Some said Jesus was John the Baptist, raised from the dead. If you recall from Matthew 14, Herod Antipas feared Jesus was John, whom he had murdered John.
Others said Jesus was the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Elijah was probably the most famous prophet from Israel’s past, being used mightily of God to confront sin and bring God’s people to repentance. In fact, another Old Testament prophet Malachi envisioned that God would send Elijah back to Israel before the day of the Lord.
Others said Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. The idea here is that the Jews expected a flurry of divine and prophetic activity right before the arrival of God’s kingdom.

Here’s the thing: The popular views about Jesus were all positive. Some Jewish leaders accused Jesus of being demon-possessed, but the crowds all thought highly of Jesus! But they were also dead wrong. They fell far short of identifying Jesus as God’s Messiah. Why? They expected something “flashier.” Jews largely expected the Messiah to restore the political, cultural, and religious kingdom of Israel. Even imprisoned John the Baptist once asked Jesus if He was the Messiah or if they should expect someone else. Jesus said that He was the Messiah and he said blessed is the one who believes and does not fall away on account of Him. The people expected a mighty warrior who would make life easy and comfortable by them by defeating foreign invaders and establishing peace and prosperity. Instead they had Jesus, who did indeed relieve suffering of those who believed and preached repentance from sin and submission to God.

How do people answer this question today?

“Jesus doesn’t exist. You can’t prove that He existed or that, if He did, that He rose from the dead.”
“Jesus is bad for the world. He tells us what’s right and wrong, but that just holds you down and keeps you from becoming who you want to be. Plus, His followers are crazy and hateful and harmful.”
“Jesus is my buddy. He’s always there for me when I need Him, which isn’t very often. But I’m sure glad when I do.”
“Jesus is my pep-talker and ego-booster. Jesus loves me so much that I must be awesome. I must be worth it.”

What’s the true answer?

THE Answer: Jesus is God’s Son, the King of all. (16:15-16)

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Having watched and learned from Jesus, Jesus asked the disciples about their conclusion concerning His identity. He asked the disciples (“y’all”) as a whole and Peter spoke up first, either because of his assertiveness or because the others deferred to him as a sort of leader or both.

Peter gave two answers. The Hebrew word Messiah (which is Christ in Greek) means “anointed one” or “chosen one.” The Messiah is a term for the human, descended from King David, who would be faithful to God and therefore enthroned by God to rule God’s people in perfect righteousness and justice forever. This is why I often say King instead of Christ.

The Son of the living God takes “Messiah” to a whole other level. The kings of Israel were sometimes referred to as the son of God (Psalm 2), not in a literal sense, but in a figurative sense. Like son to father, Israelite kings were to be faithful to an imitate God. Like father to son, God would protect and empower the king. But we who have read Matthew know that Jesus is literally the Son of God, who coexisted with the Father in eternity past and took on human nature in the virgin conception and birth.

Peter is really starting to get it! Do you? Do you believe this? If not, believe in Jesus for the first time. If you do, keep learning! If you do, keep testifying!

Jesus’s Response (16:17-19)

Note that Jesus doesn’t simply say, “Bingo! Ding ding ding! You’re right, Peter!” His answer is humble, God-glorifying, and instructive. But Jesus doesn’t deny it either! He fully owns that He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

1) It is a gift from God to see Jesus as King. (16:17)

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”

Our hearts are too hardened by sinful pride and selfishness to see lordship in humble Jesus. God must reveal it. And Jesus states it. Peter has only understood Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, because God has revealed Himself in Jesus to Peter. Has God opened your eyes?

2) King Jesus promised to use Peter to start His church. (16:18)

18 “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

Jesus used a pun. Peter is Gr Petros; rock is Gr petra. Jesus is saying, “You are Petros, and on this petra I will build my church.” I want to discuss two things here. What exactly is Jesus’ church? And what does Jesus mean by building His church on Peter?

The Greek word for church here is ekklesia (“ek-klay-see’-ah”). Paul uses the word a ton, but it only shows up twice in the Gospels: here and then again in Matthew 18. In the Greco-Roman world, the “ekklesia” was a local political assembly, where leaders and/or citizens would be called out of their homes into a single meeting place to conduct official business. (For example, there is an ekklesia in Ephesus in Acts 19:39, 41). In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the assembled community of Israel was called the ekklesia. The church then is the community of God’s people, called-out from the world to conduct kingdom business. Jesus uses the term here to anticipate the church that He will build but does not technically exist yet.

What does Jesus mean by building the church on Peter? The Roman Catholic Church looks to this verse as the establishment of the office of the pope. The pope is seen to have the final say on matters of biblical interpretation, making him the highest authority on Scripture. But Protestants like us respectfully reject this view, which is nowhere else even hinted at in Scripture.

A better explanation and fulfillment is that Peter, in his role as confessing Jesus as Messiah, the Son of the living God. As the biblical story continued, Peter played a foundational role in proclaiming the good news of Jesus to Jews (Acts 2), then Samaritans (Acts 8), and then Gentiles (Acts 10). Peter’s unique role fades from view in the rest of the New Testament. Peter along with all the prophets and apostles are the foundation built on the cornerstone of Christ, which builds up the church (Ephesian 2:11-20). So, going forward it’s up to Jesus’s entire church–not Peter, not the pope–to be the church person-by-person, stone by stone (1 Peter 2).

The gates of Hades is not Satan, who is alive and well in the world. Hades is the realm of death. The idea is that even the most powerful of evil forces–death itself, the last enemy–cannot destroy the church that Jesus is building.

3) King Jesus promised to deputize Peter for kingdom work. (16:19)

19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

This is where we get the humorous notion of Peter meeting people at the gate of heaven, where he decided whether or not to let people in. That is not at all what Jesus is talking about here. The keys of the kingdom of heaven is the gospel of the crucified and risen King Jesus. gotta use the keys! If you don’t use the keys, you’re not letting anyone in!

Binding and loosing means that the church (Matthew 18), beginning with Peter and the disciples (Matthew 16), has the privilege and responsibility to represent God’s kingdom on earth, specifically when it comes to letting people into the kingdom! What an incredible amount of power! How do you feel about that, the power Jesus gives to His church?

How do you feel about authority in general? Some crave authority for proud and selfish reasons. Some defer to authority blindly. Some fear any kind of authority at all, and in so doing just want to be their own authority. Authority is not good or bad in and of itself. Good authority is good, bad authority is bad. We can probably all think of examples of bad authority, but I want to share with you an example of good authority. At the end of his life, King David reflected on what God had taught him about authority…

“The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me;

his word was on my tongue.

The God of Israel spoke,

the Rock of Israel said to me:

‘When one rules over people in righteousness,

when he rules in the fear of God,

he is like the light of morning at sunrise

on a cloudless morning,

like the brightness after rain

that brings grass from the earth.” (2 Samuel 23:2-4)

When a ruler pursues righteousness and fears God, they are a blessing to all around. This is true for kings and elected officials, moms and dads, law enforcement and military, landlords and bosses, teachers and coaches, churches and pastors, etc. God-fearing authority in any sphere of life is like a beautiful sunrise or a sunny day on a grassy lawn. All’s right with the world. That’s the kind of King Jesus is, who has all authority. And that’s the kind of people He’s making us to be, who have limited authority under Him!

In Matthew, Jesus gives the church authority–His authority as the Messiah and the Son of the living God–authority not to be abused but to be used to let people into His kingdom! This high calling is not new for Jesus’ disciples. He’s been prepping them for this all along: fishers of men (4:19), salt (5:13), light (5:14), preach the gospel (10:6-42), Great Commission (28:18-20), and the entire book of Acts! We’ll see that Jesus extends the authority of the keys to the entire church in Matthew 18, but for now, it’s just Peter as a representative of the disciples.

We see a great example of this Gospel authority in play in Acts 18. Paul was ministering in the bustling metropolis of Corinth. He had already faced some resistance, which is the point at which God might sometimes lead him to another city. But this time, King Jesus commanded Paul to stay in Corinth and continue sharing the Gospel. Here’s what Jesus said to Paul: One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. (Acts 18:9-11)

4) King Jesus wants people to know His full identity. (16:20)

20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

What is up with this? Why would Jesus hold them back from testifying that He is the Messiah? This is the opposite of how we encourage each other to testify about who Jesus is and what He has done in our lives. Why hold them back? People weren’t ready for it yet. Frankly, as we’ll see in the very next passage, Jesus’ disciples won’t be ready for it either. Jesus being the Messiah means that must also suffer. He’s not just King Jesus. He’s the crucified and risen King Jesus. We’ll see that next week in Jesus’s follow-up teaching on His cross-shaped identity and His cross-shaped kingdom.

The Lessons

1) King Jesus’ church is His kingdom embassy on earth.

It is impossible to overestimate the significance of the church for this age. The church is God’s plan to save sinners and change hearts and lives. And there is no plan B. It may sometimes seem boring, dysfunctional, uncomfortable, ineffective, or powerless. The church is not perfect, but it’s His plan. The kingdom of God is coming to earth, and the church that follows and preaches Jesus is its beachhead.

2) King Jesus is building His church.

It’s not Peter’s church. It’s not “my” church. It’s not “your” church. It’s Jesus’ church. Paul puts it like this…

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (2 Corinthians 3:5-9)

This is important and humbling. We build each other up, but it is Jesus building the church as a whole up.

3) Nothing can stop Him, but we get to join Him by proclaiming His Gospel.

When going through a locked door, you gotta use the key. You can’t just pull harder. You can’t climb through a window or crowbar your way in. If Jesus finds someone in His kingdom who’s not supposed to be there, they can either believe or they can leave. They don’t get to stay. You gotta use the key, which is the gospel of Jesus.

And you have to use the right keys–not the wrong key! You can’t talk about a different gospel or a different Jesus, misrepresenting Him and what He’s all about. In our church-wide New Testament plan, we just read Galatians 1-2, in which Paul confronted a church for listening to “other gospels”–other ways of being made right with God apart from the crucified and risen King Jesus. We’re authorized and commanded to share the Jesus of the Bible, nothing more, nothing less! So share it! Tell it to your family and friends and acquaintances and strangers. Pray for and support missional partners who share it with people all over the world. And know that God will do something with it.

People have always underestimated Jesus as well as His kingdom. From a worldly perspective, it’s easy to see why. He’s humble and so are His true people. But that humility is where the power of God works to accomplish His eternal plan to save people from their sin and for Himself. Gospel-telling seems weak. Some easily mock it. Others easily ignore it. It seems powerless, but it’s the keys of the kingdom, and it’s how Jesus is building His church, God’s kingdom on earth.

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

If you were to ask 100 random people who Jesus is, what kinds of answers do you think you would get? Who is Jesus to you?
Do you place the same importance on the church that Jesus does? What needs to change in your life to give the church its proper place in your life?
How is your idea of church affected by the truth that it belongs to Jesus and no one else?
What role do you get to play as He builds His church?

The Making of Cross-Shaped Disciples (Matthew 15:29-16:12)

Let me ask you a question. If you’ve ever had kids, do you or did you find yourself repeating yourself a lot? Ok, you too. Just making sure. Remember this, remember that, do this, do that. I’m not complaining. My kids are awesome. I guess repeating things is just a fact of life.

Here’s the thing: I wonder if God ever looks at me struggling to be a parent, growing impatient with my wonderful kids, and chuckles at me. If I really stop to think about it, God is an infinitely more patient teacher with me than I’ll ever be or have to be with my kids.

You see, it takes me forever to grow in Christlikeness. Even yesterday, the pride and selfishness that’s been in my heart as long as I can remember reared its ugly head. I don’t really want to get into it because it’s super embarrassing, but let’s just say it involved a flag football game with 6 and 7 year olds. What is wrong with me?!?! It takes me forever to grow in Christlikeness. Praise God for His patience and love and faithfulness endure forever.

If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see pride and selfishness in your own heart too. Like me, it’s probably taking you a long time to grow up and out of that as well. If that’s you, the three accounts we read today, will help us see how Jesus makes cross-shaped disciples. We get to put ourselves in the disciples’ shoes (or sandals) and learn from Jesus how to live cross-shaped lives. At the same time, we learn from Jesus how to help others follow Jesus’ cross-shaped life as well.

What do we mean by the cross-shaped life?

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

God doesn’t always make things easy for His people, but He always makes it worth it. The living, breathing proof of this is Jesus. Everything about Jesus is humble self-sacrifice–from birth to death, but God brought Him back to life and crowned Him King of kings. That’s cruciformity, and we’re learning His story as we preach through the Gospel according to Matthew.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’re memorizing all eight beatitudes this year. Here’s the fifth one:

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7 NIV)

Pride and selfishness are the great enemies of cruciformity. But nothing destroys pride and selfishness like receiving and showing mercy. What is mercy? It’s undeserved love. Mercy could also be translated compassion, which figures prominently throughout Jesus’ ministry and this first account about how He made cross-shaped disciples…

ACCOUNT #1: Jesus miraculously fed another crowd! (15:29-39)

29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

Jesus is so merciful! If you recall from last week in the previous story, Jesus had just healed the daughter of a Gentile woman who had great faith. At first, it looked like Jesus might not help her because she was a Gentile. Jesus said that His mission was to the Jews, to the children of God not to Gentile dogs, but the woman humbly begged that even dogs receive table scraps from the children’s bread.

This crowd is probably Gentile, not Jewish too. There’s a couple clues here and one later too. Jesus was still likely on the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee. Plus, these people do praise “the God of Israel,” not “their God,” as a Jew would say. We’ll see another clue that these are Gentiles in this story, so keep that in mind. If these were Gentiles, Jesus showed that He is not giving the Gentiles mere kingdom scraps but that they too are invited, along with Jews, to His kingdom feast.

32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

In the previous feeding miracle, the crowd had only been out for a day and night was approaching. This time, the crowd has been with Jesus for three days without provision!!! He had finished teaching and healing but He was concerned they wouldn’t make it home because they were so hungry. Jesus has compassion on these hungry, hurting people. His heart not only breaks for them, but He wants to do something for them, something seemingly impossible…

33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” 34 “How many loaves do you have?”Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

“Where could we get enough bread?” Are you serious, Peter, James, John, and company??? What had just happened like 2 chapters ago? Jesus fed more than 5,000 with five loaves and two fish! And you are wondering where you can get enough bread? As before, Jesus told His disciples to start with their own provisions–not nearly enough to feed everyone, or so they thought…

35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

Here’s another clue in this story that these are Gentiles. In the first feeding miracle for Jews, the disciples collected the leftovers in twelve baskets (the twelve tribes of Israel), but here they collect seven, which is a more universal number. God created the whole world in 7 days. What’s the point? Gentiles now too have been given “the children’s bread,” sharing in God’s blessing through the ministry of Israel’s King, the Son of David, the Son of God. “They all ate and were satisfied.”

LESSON: King Jesus can do plenty with even sacrifices that seem small.

The lesson of both miracle feedings is cruciformity. God honors our self-sacrifice, when we give our heart, time, talent, treasure, and testimony to Him and trust Him with the rest. No matter how afraid you are of losing it. No matter how small you think it is. God does miracles with it.

If you’ve been following Jesus for a while, how has He patiently taught you this truth over time? What are some tough lessons you’ve learned? What are some repeated lessons you’ve learned? If you’re new to following Jesus, what do you think you’ll have to learn about this? Did you know that Jesus is patient enough to teach you? As long as you’re willing to learn, He is happy to teach.

ACCOUNT #2: Jesus refused special treatment to the Jewish leaders. (16:1-4)

1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

The Pharisees were a group of Bible experts and teachers, who had created and been compromised by mere human tradition, as we saw last week. The Sadducees controlled Temple worship in Jerusalem and had become wealthy and compromised by their political allegiances to the Roman Empire. The Pharisees and Sadducees hated each other–worse than Republicans and Democrats–yet they found a common enemy in Jesus, which brought them together!

Neither tradition or politics are bad, but they can steal our attention and affection from our Creator and Savior. This is what was happening to the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were blinded by their pride and selfishness to all the amazing signs Jesus had already been performing. He’s miraculously healed so many in need and fed multitudes from meager supplies, and yet they still demand a sign!

2 He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

Jesus has been showing all these signs! It’s not that they couldn’t believe, it’s that they wouldn’t! Jesus rebuked them for being smart enough to know how to predict the weather, yet they are too “wicked and adulterous” to believe the signs that Jesus had already given. “Adulterous” means that they have cheated on their God. They love their traditions, influence, and wealth more than God so that they were blind to Him when He walked among them! The only sign they’ll get at this point is the “sign of Jonah,” which Jesus defined as His resurrection, earlier in Matthew 12:39-40.

LESSON: You already have all the evidence you need to fully follow Jesus.

Perhaps you’re not yet a disciple, committed to learning from our patient King Jesus. Perhaps, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, your pride and selfishness has blinded you to the self-evident reality of God’s existence and authority and to the historical reality of who Jesus is and what He’s done.

If this is you, you need to stop and for the first time of many, acknowledge your sin before God and others you’ve offended. Then you need to ask for forgiveness. I know God will absolutely forgive those who truly repent though the people we’ve offended may struggle with it for a while. They are not God after all. If you are not sure about these things but want to talk more, please let me know. I’d be honored.

ACCOUNT #3: Jesus warned His disciples against anti-Kingdom thinking. (16:5-12)

5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”

The disciples failed to bring along supplies, so this became a concern for them. Does that raise any red flags for you? It should. Jesus has been training the disciples to think in kingdom, cruciform ways. They shouldn’t be focused on bread but the teaching and opposition of the Jewish leaders. Jesus took the opportunity to remind the disciples to not be like the Pharisees and Sadducees. What does He mean by that? Well, the disciples are confused too, so Jesus sets them straight…

8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Jesus is patient but He’s also a straight shooter! That’s the way to make cross-shaped disciples! Lots of love AND lots of truth. Lots of truth AND lots of love. The Pharisees and Sadducees were concerned about worldly matters–not kingdom matters. They wanted attention and praise from other people, and they wanted it NOW. They wanted wealth and comfort, and they wanted it NOW. They wanted a sign from Jesus, and they wanted it NOW. In being overly concerned about the lack of bread and blind to Jesus’ true meaning, Jesus’ disciples were starting to look more like followers of the Pharisees than of Jesus. With Jesus, a lack of bread isn’t a problem, but listening to the Pharisees is! That’s the lesson for us…

LESSON: A lack of resources is not a problem, but a lack of faith in Jesus is.

Where’s your focus?

On your money or lack thereof?
On your loneliness or on finding a significant other?
On your own ability to change your spouse or your kids?
On the opinions of family, friends, culture
On social media and entertainment?

O you of little faith. Trust and follow the crucified and risen King Jesus. And help others to follow Him as well!

I need this lesson too! O me of little faith!!! As one of the servant leaders among Calvary Church, it’s tempting to stress over our finances. We’re about 1% behind budgeted giving for the year, which is actually great. Praise God! And yet, we hope to hire a full-time student and young adult pastor, which would, on its own, require a giving increase of about 3%. But our focus must remain on learning from Jesus. It’s that I think a symptom of a distracted and possibly dying church is an overemphasis on money. When you have to do a fundraiser for this and a fundraiser for that, we let our Gospel guard down.

We don’t just need to sacrifice our money for Jesus, we need to sacrifice our whole selves.

Our affections and priorities and relationships must center around our Creator and Savior and King.

Our time needs to go to God’s word every day and to serve and be served by our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so many of you do! Volunteers who give of their time! LIFEgroups who faithfully meet together to encourage one another to follow Jesus. Those who regularly listen to and/or read Scripture.

Our lives need to be open to a lost world headed for God’s judgment, the world which He in His grace rescued us out of, that we might find and make and baptize and teach disciples. Cross-shaped disciples. Just like Jesus is patiently and powerfully making us to be.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

If you’ve been following Jesus for a while, in what ways has He patiently grown you over time? What are some tough lessons you’ve learned? What are some repeated lessons you’ve learned?
If you’re new to following Jesus, what lessons do you think you might have a hard time learning from Jesus? Do you know that Jesus is patient enough to teach you? As long as you’re willing to learn, He is happy to teach.
In what ways does pride in self and mistrust in Christ leak out in your life? Where can you turn to guard against this “yeast” (i.e. unlearn these ideas)?

Where’s your heart? (Matthew 15:1-28)

Johnny thinks the key to life is authenticity–being true to himself. From his career to his politics to sexuality and relationships, he’s going to get what’s his and be who he wants to be.

Connie thinks religiosity is the key. She makes sure she does all the Christian things, says all the Christian things, and goes by all the Christian labels.

Jesus calls us to something else entirely…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

God doesn’t always make things easy in this life for His people, but He always makes it worth it. The living, breathing proof of this is Jesus. Everything about Jesus is humble self-sacrifice–from birth to death, but God brought Him back to life and crowned Him King of kings. That’s cruciformity, and we’re learning His story as we preach through the Gospel according to Matthew.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’re memorizing all eight beatitudes this year. Here’s the fifth one:

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7 NIV)

Today, we’ll see a contrast between the merciless Jewish leaders and the merciful Jesus. Keep your eyes out for that.

The Story

1) A Public Confrontation: Tradition vs. God’s Word

1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

The conflict itself seems to be over something trivial: ceremonial hand-washing. No, the Pharisees aren’t germaphobes. It had to do with their tradition. Israel’s priests were to perform ceremonial washings while overseeing worship in the temple, according to the law of Moses. In fact, there was a special hand-washing sink for the priests (Exodus 30:17-21). But the Pharisees, because of their traditions, expected all Israelites to perform ceremonial washing. Their thinking went like this: if God wanted Israel’s priests to ceremonially wash their hands while overseeing temple worship, then God would like it even more if all Israelites ceremonially washed their hands. But they were wrong. God wasn’t interested in the hand-washing. He wanted their worship.

The Pharisees misapplied God’s Word in a way that unduly burdens people and misrepresents God. Their man-made traditions misled the people into thinking that failing to wash your hands is a sin! But the problem is even bigger than that. They are more concerned with the elders’ traditions than with God’s Word! This is exactly what Jesus confronts…

3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”

Jesus called out the Pharisees for using their tradition to break God’s clear commands by pointing out one of their horrific practices. Instead of caring for their aging parents (which is the privilege and responsibility of everyone whose parents are still alive), they would take the money they would have spent on their parents and “devote it to God” so that it could only be spent in the Temple and not on their parents. That way, they wouldn’t have to help their parents at all! How sick and twisted!

It’s because of practices like these, Jesus says, that the Pharisees nullify the word of God. The Pharisees prevent the kingdom seed from taking root. No fruit can be grown for glory to God and the good of others because their traditions keep the seed from ever being planted in the first place.

7 “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8 ‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

9 They worship me in vain;

their teachings are merely human rules.’”

This prophecy is from Isaiah 29:13, which called out Israel, about 700 years prior, for their terrible idolatry and injustice. They continued offering sacrifices and prayers to the one true God but at the same time worshiped other false gods AND took advantage of the poor and the weak. For example, we’re reading Isaiah right now in our churchwide Old Testament plan, and we came across this divine rebuke yesterday: “The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: ‘It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’ declares the LORD, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 3:14-15) Israel’s leaders were using and abusing the poor, and God hated this, which is why He had to judge them!

Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah to remind the Pharisees (and us) that what God ultimately desires isn’t the rituals of worship but hearts that worship by means of submission to His commands. I’ll tell you what: the words of Jesus here hit me between the eyes. How often do I sing in church or read my Bible or pray or even talk about God with others in ways that are worship-less? With no real understanding of the gravity of God’s holiness and the joy of His love? More than that, how often do I pay Him lip service but neglect service to Him in all the other areas of my life? I serve him with my religiosity, but do I truly sacrifice my time and money for Him? Do I truly treat others–my wife, children, neighbors, church family–like He wants me to?

Having rebuked the Pharisees, Jesus answers Pharisees’ original question: Why don’t Jesus’s disciples practice the hand-washing tradition?

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

Jesus flips the whole idea of external religious practice on its head. Holiness does not work from the outside-in; it must work from the inside-out. But Jesus stops short of a full explanation until He’s alone with His disciples…

2) A Private Explanation: True Defilement

Following the public confrontation with the Pharisees, Matthew then records a private, follow-up conversation about this controversy over Jewish tradition and God’s Word…

12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

The disciples are super concerned that Jesus offended the Pharisees, but Jesus doesn’t seem worried at all. Why? Is He a sociopath who doesn’t care what others think about Him? No. He just cares much more what God thinks about Him. Jesus is fully confident that God will give the Pharisees what they deserve, and He warns His disciples to care more about God’s opinion than the Pharisees’ so that they don’t fall under God’s judgment too. What an important warning for us! Stop caring more about human opinion than God’s because God’s opinion is the only one that matters in the end!

15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 “Are you still so dull?”Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

Jesus further explained to the disciples His answer to the Pharisee…with some bathroom humor! Jesus explains the obvious: food enters the mouth, goes into the stomach, and, literally in the Greek, it ends up in the toilet! That has nothing to do with right and wrong, good and evil! That’s just how the digestive system works. All those Old Testament commands about food and ceremonial washings were symbols of holiness, but in and of themselves, they do not ultimately make a person holy. Holiness and unholiness works from the inside out.

Jesus has just flipped the script for His people: it’s not outward appearances that matters but inside-out transformation. Now, Matthew records a story that illustrates that very truth…

3) A Perfect Example: A Woman Who’s All Heart

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

Mark calls her a Syro-Phoenician, but Matthew uses an old school label…a term outdated so outdated only Jews would recall it: Canaanite. The Syro-Phoencians were descended from Canaanites. The Canaanites were the evil people God drove from the Promised Land when He gave it to Israel. Canaanites worshiped false gods, relished sexual sin, oppressed the poor, and even sacrificed children to appease their gods. They were horrifyingly wicked. The word “Canaanite” would have left a dirty taste in Jewish mouths.

And this woman was one of them! There is nothing ceremonially clean or “holy” about her! She is the literal polar opposite of a Pharisee, a “good” Jew. But when we see her show up, she is a delightful surprise! Look at her call Jesus “Lord” and “Son of David” and begs for His merciful healing of her poor daughter. Wow! What unexpected faith and humility before Jesus! It gets even better as Jesus and the woman converse…

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Strangely, Jesus almost seems to ignore her at first. His disciples counseled Jesus to send her away. And Jesus seems to agree with them, saying that His mission was only to the Jews…not the Gentiles…certainly not the Canaanites! But watch this woman…

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

The word for “knelt before” usually means to worship! The woman is not only begging Jesus, she’s worshiping Him!

So Jesus’ response again seems very strange, very out-of-character. Did Jesus just call this Canaanite woman a dog??? At first glance, this comment appears to be, at best, ethnocentric, and, at worst, downright racist. What in the world is Jesus doing? You see, we have mostly been trained to think in racial/ethnic terms, but Jesus thought in theological terms, kingdom terms.

Up to this point in all of Scripture, God’s focus has been mainly on the Jewish nation, not on all nations. So Jesus is just being honest about God’s Big Story. God had promised to bless the children of Abraham and then bless the whole world through them. God’s plan from the very beginning (Genesis 12) was to first bless Abraham’s children and then the whole world through them. Many Jews took a sinful pride in being Abraham’s children and forgot God’s plan to bless the whole world. Does Jesus share this sinful pride? No! His words are not meant as a racial slur but rather as a spiritual truth about how God was going to save the whole world. Wait til the end! The story continues…

27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

If Jesus called you a “dog,” would you be offended? Or would you embrace it? This woman embraces it! She extends Jesus’ metaphor with both great humility and great confidence in truth. She owns it, “Yes, I’m a dog, and yes, it is right for the dogs to get some crumbs!” Apparently, this dear sister fully and humbly trusted God’s plan to first bless Israel and then the world. She had all the eager expectation any of us would have in a loving Savior but none of the entitlement that sin tends to bring to the front. But how will Jesus respond??? He has not given any indication up to this point that He would serve her…what will He do?

28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

According to Jesus Himself, her heart was in the right place. She was desperate for Jesus to work in her life! This woman is WORSHIPING JESUS just like you and I should. I want to be her! I want to have her desperate, humbled faith in King Jesus.

So Jesus flips things inside out! The Jews were concerned with status and tradition and appearance and association and heritage, etc. But Jesus is concerned with the heart: Jesus is struck by her reply. Her faith is irresistible to Jesus. This is exactly the kind of poor-in-spirit attitude that belongs in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus honors this woman because of her surrendered heart, not because of her status. He healed her daughter!

The Lesson

1) Our inner selves are evil and produce evil acts.

Notice how the list Jesus gives in verse 19–“…out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander…” (Matthew 15:19)–is straight from the 10 Commandments.

The 10 Commandments & Jesus’ List in Matthew 15
#1 Idolatry	#6 Murder
#2 Imagery	#7 Adultery & Sexual Immorality
#3 Profanity	#8 Theft
#4 Sabbath	#9 False Testimony & Slander
#5 Father & Mother	#10 Coveting

Jesus had already quoted the 5th commandment (honor your father and mother)in verse 4. Then in verse 19, he refers to the 6th commandment (murder), 7th (adultery and sexual immorality), 8th (theft), 9th (false testimony and slander). So, interestingly, He leaves out the 1st (idolatry), 2nd (imagery), 3rd (profanity), 4th (Sabbath), and 10th (coveting)…which all have to do with inner worship from the heart! Broken worship leads to broken living.

So the answer to this problem isn’t authenticity, as our culture may suggest. “Being our true selves” isn’t helpful when our inner selves are evil! Jesus teaches that our true selves are broken and evil and that that is what defiles us. What’s needed is honest humility before Christ.

But religiosity isn’t the answer either. Calling yourself a Christian, following traditions, and even going to church do not necessarily, in and of themselves take care of our wicked hearts. Religious activity provides neither forgiveness for our sin nor transformation of our hearts.

What hope do I have???

2) Jesus accepts inner surrender–not outer performance.

If you think that Christianity teaches that you must become perfect in order to be accepted by God and His people, you have misunderstood, and perhaps you have been misled! Christianity teaches something else altogether. Only Jesus was good enough for God but, in His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, He forgives and accepts those who are not perfect but humble! That is THE good news.

Today, we might not obsess over ceremonial hand-washing, but we might obsess over other externals. Baptism is a beautiful symbol that is always at risk of becoming a meaningless practice. Baptism is an external symbol that is meant to display the inner reality of forgiveness and new life in Christ. If that’s who you are–surrendered to the crucified and risen King Jesus–be baptized. We actually have one coming up soon, and, if you’d like to learn more about it, connect with us in person or at calvarymuskegon.com.

Without forgiveness from Christ and ongoing transformation into Christlikeness, the externals honor God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him. Do you approach Jesus like a smug Pharisee, thinking you know better, or like the surrendered Canaanite, trusting Jesus knows better?

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

What merely human traditions do we place a high moral value on yet without a biblical basis? What actual commands of God might we neglect if we follow those human traditions?
According to Jesus in Matthew 15:19, how deep does our moral corruption really go? How have you witnessed this in your own heart and life? What has Jesus done to make you new from within?
Why is the Canaanite woman a great example for disciples? Which of the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10) does she demonstrate? In what ways do you want to be more like the Canaanite woman?

Jesus the Miracle Worker (Matthew 14:13-36)

Matthew 14 recounts two of Jesus’ most famous miracles. If they are new to you, don’t be surprised. This is just what Jesus does. If you know these stories well, enjoy them through the lens of cruciformity…Jesus the Almighty and gentle and lowly. So first, let’s review that this year, we are seeking to…

“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.

We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’re memorizing all eight beatitudes this year. Here’s the first FIVE:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:3-7 NIV)

Now we’re going to look at some super familiar stories that actually happened. Think on just how difficult these things are to do! Multiplying food! Walking on water! But Jesus did not work these miracles simply to impress! Consider how Jesus displays God’s power throughout Matthew! It’s never to indulge Himself or even to impress others but to honor God and be a blessing to people!

TWO MIRACLE STORIES

#1 Jesus miraculously fed a hungry and hurting crowd! (14:13-21)

This story picks up after King Herod heard about Jesus and feared He might be John the Baptist, raised from the dead. He had unjustly executed John, who had publicly confronted King Herod’s sin. So Jesus has now heard about John’s execution and that He too was now in Herod’s sights…

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Jesus tried to get alone with His disciples, but we’ve seen this before in Matthew’s accounts. Jesus cannot escape! The crowds are desperate for Jesus and the kingdom of heaven He has brought into their midst. They follow Jesus and find Him, and His heart breaks for all their needs. The ill, the blind, the lame, the mute, the deaf. He spent the whole day healing this hurting crowd, but that only led to another need: this massive crowd was getting hungry…

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

While Jesus is busy healing, the disciples notice this new need. They’re getting hungry, but they are a long way from town and it’s getting late. If they don’t leave now, these men, women, and children won’t be able to travel safely and easily to find food. Even though Jesus was meeting the needs of the sick, the disciples assumed the crowd must meet their own need of hunger. The disciples concluded that they would not feed the hungry, hurting crowd.

Honestly, I kind of have this same reaction to this story. My hard heart assumes that this is a need these people must figure out on their own. They’re the ones that traveled all this way, bothering Jesus with their needs and coming unprepared in the first place! But that would be an incredibly self-centered conclusion. The disciples planned ahead…as we’ll see they had five loaves and two fish. But desperate people don’t always plan ahead! They were worried about being able to see, to walk, to live! They weren’t worried about dinner! Healthy people should plan ahead, but hurting people don’t always! If the disciples had Jesus’ compassion, they would have known this. So, Jesus urges them to participate in His ministry by meeting the need of hunger…

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

Ah, ok. The disciples had planned ahead but only for thirteen (Jesus + the Twelve). Not for thousands. Part of the reason the disciples would not feed the crowd was because the disciples believed they could not feed the crowd. Fair enough. Their math is correct. Five loaves and two fish is just enough to feed thirteen but not the masses. But it’s more than enough for Jesus…

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Can you imagine what the disciples were thinking when Jesus told them to start passing out their lunch to the crowd? But all their concern must have left in a hurry as they realized the miracle Jesus was performing. Jesus created food where there was none before. Some scholars attempt to explain away the miracle here by suggesting that, in encouraging the disciples to share their own food, everyone else in the crowd shared their own food, and thus everyone was able to eat. But that’s not what Matthew’s account says! This is a miracle of God! It’s reminiscent of how God fed Israel in the wilderness after He delivered them from Egypt (Exodus 16).

The punchline of the account is this: “They all ate and were satisfied.” Some 15,000-20,000 people ate from the disciples’ lunch. That’s more than the population of Fruitport Township! King Jesus rules a kingdom of abundance. See what God can do with a little bit? Though the sacrifice seemed small, God used it for a giant kingdom victory…the hungry were satisfied! Of all the things Jesus could do with God’s power, He fed the hungry and hurting crowds who had nothing to offer Him.

#2 Jesus walked on water to rescue His disciples! (14:22-36)

The meal bought Jesus more time with the crowd, so He was able to finish ministering to them. Once done, He and the disciples plan to leave.

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.

Several of the disciples were experienced fishermen, so they could traverse the Sea of Galilee (which is about ten times the size of Muskegon Lake). But the weather was a struggle, even for them. It should only take a few hours to sail across the lake, but in the early morning hours, the disciples are still stuck in the middle of the lake. Jesus had been praying on a nearby hill overlooking the lake. Jesus must have seen them, because He heads straight toward them in the middle of the lake without a boat. He’s walking on water!

26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Jesus tried to reassure with a special word. He says, “It is I!,” which is literally “I exist” or “I AM” in Greek (“egó eimi” (eg-o’ i-mee’)). “I AM” is the special name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush! In Hebrew, “I AM” is pronounced something like “Yahweh.” In the Old Testament, He’s the God who parted the seas (Exodus 14). And Jesus appears to be identifying with that God. “Take courage! I AM! Don’t be afraid!” Of course He can walk on water!

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

Why does Peter say this? I’m not sure my first reaction would be, “Call me to walk on the water, Jesus!” But Jesus has been teaching and commissioning His disciples to participate in His healing and teaching ministry. So, it makes sense that Peter would ask Jesus to invite him to participate in this newly revealed power. And Jesus does invite Peter, and he does walk on water for a moment…

30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

For a moment, Peter trusted Jesus, but the wind and waves eroded his faith in Jesus. Peter’s a failure here, but I’m thankful for him. First of all, I’m thankful for Peter because of his transparency. Most leaders don’t want other people to know their failures and weaknesses. But not Peter. He was one of the first leaders of Jesus’ church and yet he made sure these stories of his own failure were told over and over and over again. He wanted people to know how much Jesus loves and transforms failures.

I’m also thankful for Peter because he is all of us. We struggle. We doubt. We take our eyes off Jesus and look at our problems. We’re too broke, too busy, too lonely, too depressed, too anxious, too whatever. But Jesus gives us what we need to worship and learn from Him and to serve Him as His body in this world. If He’s allowing us to struggle, it’s to learn dependance on Him which brings Him glory. If He’s allowing us to walk on water so to speak, it’s to bring Him glory by being a blessing to others. In short, I’m thankful for Peter because his testimony points me to Jesus. Does yours? Does mine?

34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Of course, He did. Jesus cannot help but drive back the darkness and brokenness in this world. He will continue to pour Himself out for others, for the crowds, for His disciples, and for you and I as we continue in the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

THREE LESSONS

#1 No one’s as powerful as the Son of God.

Both of these miracle accounts connect the Jesus of the New Testament to the God of the Old Testament. Yahweh parted the seas to save His people, and Jesus walked on and stilled the seas to save them. Yahweh fed His people in the wilderness with manna from heaven, and Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed. In Matthew, Jesus retraces the steps of God as He saves His people from their greatest enemies: Satan, sin, and death. And once we’re safe in Christ, we’re safe from everything.

#2 No one’s as humble as the Son of God.

It’s not just that Jesus is powerful; it’s how He chooses to wield it! What would you do with the power of God at your fingertips? Would you feed the needy masses? Would you rescue the doubting disciples? Seriously, if you had a genie in a lamp, would your wishes be about you or the glory of God and the needs of others? Jesus is just different. That’s cruciformity.

#3 You can trust the Son of God with your service and your trials.

Cruciformity–the cross-shaped life–is an invitation to serve people sacrificially and endure trials faithfully while trusting Jesus to take care of the rest.

We can trust Him in our service. We want to be “a church for our community,” where God causes spiritual and cultural renewal for His glory and others’ good! Our time, talent, treasure, and testimony are five loaves and two fish. To us, they don’t look like they can impact our community or change the world. There are so many problems in our homes and neighborhoods, let alone this world. We feel super inadequate because we are. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. But to Jesus, anything is possible. In the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, a king and his army were devastated and surrounded by countless evil orcs. He says, “So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?” His brave companion thinks for a moment and answers, “Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.” Their little force charges out bravely but seems overwhelmed…until *spoiler alert* a wizard–their friend and ally–crests a nearby hill bringing a ton of reinforcements! The brave companion remembered that help was coming and that they only needed to hold on a little longer. And help did come. We might have all the grit, resources, and wisdom in the world, but without the crucified and risen King Jesus and the cross-shaped life He calls us to, we are nothing. With Him, anything is possible.

We can trust him in our trials. What are your storms?

Are you lonely, longing for friendship? You may think, “I may never have friends unless I compromise my faith and obedience to Jesus.” Or you may grow envious and even destructive towards those that don’t seem lonely. That’s your trial. Trust Jesus and do what is right and good.
Are you single and desperate for a partner? You may think, “I may never find a husband or wife unless I give in to sexual temptation.” That’s your trial, but trust Jesus and self-control in your sexuality.
Are you concerned about your financial situation? That’s your trial. You may be tempted to take your eyes off Jesus, to lie, steal, take advantage of other people or their generosity. But trust Jesus, being content and working hard even in less-than-ideal situations.
Are you freaking out over the government and upcoming elections? That’s your trial. Trust Jesus and be a good citizen, praying for your leaders and using your rights and privileges for good.

Jesus works miracles. He’s done it before. He’ll do it again. May the Miracle Worker meet your need and be glorified in you.

Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion

Do your attitudes and choices demonstrate a greater lack of trust in either Jesus’ divine power or Jesus’ humble compassion? What would it look like for you to fully trust the meek and mighty Jesus?
Have you ever struggled with a sense of inadequacy in your service to God and others? How has Jesus provided? If you’re still struggling with that, how can He provide?
Describe a time you could relate to Peter walking on the water and taking his eyes off Jesus. Are your eyes on Christ now? If not, what will it take to focus on Him and His way?