The Pinnacle of Christ's Life Matthew 20:17-19

In the world we live in, a grand story is taking place that has been going on for thousands of years.

God created the world. Humanity fell into sin. A Savior was promised.

The Savior came. And it is the responsibility of humans to put their trust in the world's only

Savior, Jesus Christ, who paid the full penalty for sinners.

The world that we live in will come to an end when Jesus returns to this earth to establish his forever kingdom.

This is the grand story of life. But within the grand story are billions of small stories.

Every human life has a story, from the child who dies young to the man or woman who lives to be 100 years old.

When you look at people's lives, there's usually one event in that person's life that stands out above the rest.

Benedict Arnold was a military officer who fought for the colonies against the British during the

Revolutionary War. For a short time, he was a hero until he switched to the

British side and became one of the most well -known traitors in world history. When people betray someone, it is common for one to say that this person is a

Benedict Arnold. There are millions of facts in this man's life, but the fact that everyone knows above all others is that he was a traitor.

There was another famous figure in American history who is largely known for one moment, and that is a general during the

Civil War by the name of George Custer. Custer did many notable things in his life, but Custer's name is synonymous with the phrase

Custer's Last Stand. He was a Union officer from 1861 to 1865 during the

Civil War, but he is most remembered for what happened on June 25, 1876.

The land that belonged to the Native Americans was discovered to have gold, and the Americans planned to place the natives in a smaller territory so that they could have the gold for themselves.

He led his men to the plains of Montana with the plan of containing the natives until reinforcements arrived.

But Custer was an ambitious man. He was a very ambitious man, and he thought he and his men could relocate the natives on their own.

But this was a grave miscalculation. In the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer with his 200 men took on the tribes of the

Sioux and the Cheyenne. They were led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and they had 3 ,000 people to Custer's only 200.

It was a resounding defeat for Custer and his men. All of them died at the

Battle of Little Bighorn, and this was known as Custer's Last Stand.

This is what George Custer is known for. From church history, when people think of the life of Martin Luther, they remember the moment when he took a stand against the corrupt

Roman Catholic Church that had polluted the gospel for centuries. On October 31, 1517, an unknown priest from Wittenberg, Germany nailed the 95

Theses on All Saints Church, attacking the corrupted church that would eventually bring a split that brought about reformation to the wider church.

Of all the moments of Luther's life, that moment stands out above the rest. When you think of Benedict Arnold, you think traitor.

When you think of George Custer, you think of the last stand that he made in Montana. When you think of Martin Luther, you think of what he did at All Saints Church in 1517 when he took a stand.

But all these lives are small compared to the most important life in the grand story.

And that is the life of the God -man, Jesus Christ. Jesus' life had the most incredible moments of anyone in church history.

He healed the sick. Demons trembled as he cast them out. A raging storm stopped at the sound of his voice.

He walked on water. And many more miraculous and remarkable events happened in his life.

But when you think of Jesus, these are not the first moments that come to mind. What comes to mind when you think of Jesus is the cross.

The cross. This ancient Roman form of execution is synonymous with the man,

Jesus. What happened at the cross on that hill in Jerusalem is the central message of the

Bible and the central message of history. This morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, Jesus is going to talk about this enormous event that is on the horizon of his life.

The event that his whole life and ministry is moving toward.

So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew 20. We'll be looking at verses 17 through 19.

And if you're using one of those red Bibles, it's on page 981. The sermon is titled,

The Pinnacle of Christ's Life. What I will do as we begin here is

I'm going to begin by reading the text. Matthew 20 verses 17 through 19.

It is Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. He took the 12 disciples aside and on the way he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem.

And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. And they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the

Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. And he will be raised on the third day.

Here's our big idea. What this sermon is calling each of you to do.

Understand that the cross was always the focus of Jesus' life. Understand that the cross was always the focus of Jesus' life.

And we're going to see one reason why as we go through this text. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one

Sunday ago. We looked at the parable of the laborers and the vineyard. In this parable, Jesus started with the clause, the last will be first and the first will be last.

He said this in the last verse of chapter 19. And then at the end of the parable, he closed with the same statement.

The last will be first and the first last. In the parable, Jesus told the story of a master of a house who went to the marketplace to find workers for his vineyard.

He found workers at the start of the day, the middle of the day, and the very end of the day.

The workers who started at the beginning of the day agreed to receive a denarius, which was a typical wage for a worker in the first century.

And we learned at the end of the story what the others would receive. To the surprise of everyone, every worker, from those who started at the beginning of the day to those who started at the end, received the same payment, a denarius, which was a typical day's wage.

Now, every parable has a literal spiritual meaning that it is getting after. And we learn the meaning from the previous passage where Jesus says that everyone who leaves their old life to follow him will receive eternal life.

While it is true there are different levels of rewards in heaven, there are no second class citizens in heaven.

Everyone who follows Jesus will experience heaven, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

The reward for believing in Jesus, no matter when one does during the journey through life, is to receive eternal life.

Now, this leads us back to our text that we've already read, but now we will zero in on. And I'm going to begin by focusing on verse 17 and the beginning of verse 18.

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside, and on the way, he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem.

To this point, Jesus' ministry had predominantly been in the Galilean region, where he spent much time with the crowds.

But from this point, his eyes were fixed on Jerusalem. What we see in verse 17 is that Jesus and his disciples are traveling there.

As I mentioned, most of Jesus' ministry was spent in the Galilean region, the northern part of Israel.

But the end of his life would be spent in the most significant city in Israel, the city of Jerusalem.

This is the city that started with King David, the city where the kings lived and reigned, and the city where God's holy temple resided.

This is the city where Christ would atone for the sins of his people. What we read in verse 17 is that as they are going toward Jerusalem, Jesus takes the disciples aside and says to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem.

Now you will notice that Jesus says that they are going up to Jerusalem. Why would he say this when

Galilee is in the north and Jerusalem is in the south? Jerusalem is located 76 miles south of Galilee.

But Jesus says they are going up to Jerusalem. The reason this is so is because Jerusalem is located on a small mountain.

So when people traveled there, they would be traveling up in elevation. David strategically chose this location for Jerusalem because it was a strong military fortress.

You want your city to be high up to defend against invaders. And so this is the city that King David chose, the city that was once belonging to the

Jebusites. And this would be the central place for ruling and the public place for worship in Israel.

But as they take this trek from Galilee to Israel, Jesus takes the time to prepare his disciples for what is to come.

We already saw in Matthew 16 .21, Jesus tells disciples that he would die and rise again. Jesus knows that after he is raised from the dead, they will come to understand this conversation.

And he tells them here so that they will better understand. He did not want to die without first telling them that he was going to die.

When Jesus died, the disciples were perplexed. And when he rose from the dead, they could hardly believe it.

But at that time in the future, they would be able to look back at this conversation and many others and say,

Jesus was preparing us for what was to come. In the Gospel of John in chapters 13 through 16,

Jesus gives the disciples instructions about what it looks like to live a faithful life for him.

He also had other conversations after his resurrection and before his ascension to heaven. But the most extensive conversation he had with his disciples was before his crucifixion.

He was preparing his disciples for the end of his life on this earth. And after his resurrection, he prepared his disciples by telling them that the reason he needed to die was to save sinners.

And it was their responsibility to proclaim the good news, to proclaim that message.

Now in the remaining verses of this text, Jesus explains how he is going to die. Let me read that again.

As Jesus says, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. And they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the

Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. And he will be raised on the third day.

What we have seen thus far in Matthew is that Jesus has been on a mission. This text is the third of four times that Jesus predicts that he would die and rise again.

We have already seen this in Matthew 16 .21. We saw this in Matthew 17 .22

through 23. And he does it one more time before his death in Matthew 26 .2.

But here in our text, we see him predict his death for the third time. Jesus knew from the earliest days of his life who he was.

He was the long awaited Messiah predicted in the Old Testament. He knew what the

Old Testament said concerning him. The Old Testament said that he would reign in power.

But before he would reign in power, he needed to suffer. During Jesus' first coming to earth, he was on a mission.

He tells his disciples specifically what that mission is in the second half of verse 18 and 19.

His mission is to die on the cross and then rise from the dead on the third day.

It is remarkable how specific Jesus is here. He doesn't vaguely tell them that he is going to die.

He tells them exactly how he's going to die. This is how biblical prophecy works.

When the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles made predictions, the predictions are specific and the prophecy is fulfilled exactly how the speaker says it will be fulfilled.

We saw this two Sundays ago where Jesus said that in the future he will reign from Jerusalem. Not only over the whole earth, but also over the 12 tribes of Israel.

It is during the future millennium, the future 1 ,000 year reign, where Jesus the

Messiah will reign over the world. How the prophecy is spoken is how it will be fulfilled.

Now in our text, Jesus describes vividly how he's going to die. He first tells his disciples the ones who are going to bring about this whole thing.

These are his greatest earthly enemies, the chief priests and scribes. These are the ones, the

Jewish leadership, who would be the most responsible for his death. I remember

I was watching a show a number of years ago and in the show, there was a husband who hired hit men to kill his wife.

And it ended up happening and it was found out that this husband planned this.

And the judge gave the hit men who carried out this man's dirty work 25 years in prison.

But the judge gave the husband who plotted his wife's death the death penalty.

He planned the death. He was the mastermind and the mastermind is the one who gets the worst punishment.

What is interesting is that when Jesus stands before Pontius Pilate, Jesus tells him in John 19 11, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

In other words, the sin is greater for the Jews who deliver Jesus over to the

Gentiles to do their dirty work for them. Because the Romans are the ones who crucified him. But the

Jews planned, plotted and delivered Jesus over to them.

And sometimes you hear people ask the question, who killed Jesus? Answer, his own people.

The Jews killed their own Messiah. As I already mentioned, scripture describes this grand future for Israel.

The Jews killed their Messiah at his first coming and at his second coming, they will receive him.

As Zechariah 12 10 says, they will look on him whom they have pierced. At his first coming, they rejected him largely.

They pierced him by delivering him over to be crucified. But at his second coming, they will receive him.

They will look on him whom they have pierced and they will believe in him. But Jesus describes these people who will send him off to the slaughter.

As Jesus describes his future death to his disciples, he describes three different groups of Jewish leaders.

Back in Matthew 16 21, the first time Jesus mentioned his future death, he mentions a group not mentioned here.

And that is the elders. The elders were the leaders of each of the 12 tribes in Israel.

They go back to the Old Testament and they are still here in the first century. They are still in leadership in Jerusalem.

The second group that Jesus mentions and they are mentioned in our text are the chief priests. The chief priests were mostly

Sadducees. And if you remember, the Sadducees, they're Jews in ethnicity, but not in practice.

These are seculars. They don't believe in the afterlife. They don't believe in the resurrection of the dead.

The second group, I shouldn't say the second group, the second group is the Sadducees. The third group is the

Pharisees. And what he mentions here is that they are the scribes. Most of the scribes were

Pharisees. And the Pharisees are just as bad, if not worse than the

Sadducees. These are the ones who made their own man -made traditions. These are ones who believed in their works, righteousness system of salvation.

These are the ultra conservatives. These are the ones that Jesus is the hardest on during his ministry.

Now, if you look back at Matthew 16, 21, the first time Jesus predicted his death, that text says from that time,

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. That was the first of four times in Matthew that Jesus predicted his death and resurrection.

And our text is the third. In 16, 21, the Greek verb to show communicates that Jesus continually told them,

I'm going to the cross. So Matthew records him saying this four times, but it's likely that he said this far more than that.

Over and over again, he's telling his disciples, I'm going to the cross, I'm going to the cross, and I'm gonna rise again.

His eyes were fixed on Jerusalem. He knew his purpose in life. And nothing was going to keep him from that purpose.

This was the most significant moment of his life. The day when he would die for sinners.

His eyes were fixed on what he would be most known for and what the world most needs to know.

The New Testament makes it clear that this was always his mission. In Matthew 1 .21, the angel of the

Lord told Mary, You will bear a son, and you shall call his name

Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

The Apostle Paul said the same thing in 1 Timothy 1 .15 when he wrote, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Every moment of Jesus' life was preparing for the penultimate moment of his life.

The day when he would become his people's sin -bearer. Sometimes you hear people say that everything they have done to this point has prepared them for some moment later in life.

In other words, you are only prepared to do your task in the present because of the many things you did to get to that point.

This is so with Jesus. He had to be perfect in order to be our sin -bearer. When Jesus saves us, he not only erases our sins, but his righteousness is counted as our righteousness.

What this means is that through his journey on earth, he accumulated a righteousness through his perfect life that would be counted to everyone who believes in him.

That perfection had to be there in order to make us right before God. So every moment mattered.

And it would conclude with the penultimate event, the cross. Jesus knew what he needed to do.

He knew what he would endure. And he knew what he needed to accomplish.

As Jesus is telling this to his disciples, he describes the physical suffering of the cross.

He says that the Jewish leaders will deliver him over to the Roman soldiers. And what the

Roman soldiers will do to Jesus is mock, flog, and crucify him.

The flogging that Jesus endured from Pontius Pilate's command almost killed him. There were people in the first century who would die from the flogging act alone.

While Jesus was tortured through flogging, he did not die. But he was close to death when he went to the cross.

He was so weak that he could not carry the cross beam to Golgotha. He needed someone else to carry it.

And so the soldiers gave that task to Simon of Cyrene, a man who traveled to Jerusalem for the

Passover from northern Africa. Once Jesus was hung on the cross, he died sooner than most normally would.

Usually it would take a day or two for one to die on the cross. But it took Jesus only six hours.

And I have explained crucifixion before, but I'll explain it again. The Roman soldiers designed crucifixion to be a slow death of torture.

It was a form of execution that was meant to humiliate the person who was crucified. The person being crucified would hang on the cross with the nails in his hands.

And the only way he'd be able to breathe was through one pushing himself up. But pushing oneself up was painful and exhausting.

It was painful because one would feel the nails as he pushed up. And it was exhausting because it took everything one had to get to the point where one could breathe.

Eventually the man who hung on the cross would have no strength left and the person would die of asphyxiation.

Another way to say asphyxiation is suffocation. It was a cruel and ruthless way to die.

And this is precisely how Jesus died. As Jesus told his disciples about his future death, he knew that it was

God's plan that he would hang on that cross because it was on the cross that Jesus would experience spiritual suffering.

Not just physical suffering, spiritual suffering. In verse 19,

Jesus describes his physical suffering. But in other places, he describes the spiritual suffering.

The suffering that he needed to endure to make sinners right with God. In our text next week, in fact, in two

Sundays from now, in verse 22, Jesus said to his disciples, are you going to drink the cup that I am to drink?

In Matthew 26, 39, Jesus also prayed to his Father, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. When Jesus describes the cup, what is he talking about?

He is talking about the cup of God's wrath that will be poured out on him. And this cup will be emptied.

It will be poured out in full. In this moment, as Jesus is talking to his disciples, he describes the physical suffering that he is going to endure.

But this is not the suffering that he dreads the most, as horrible as that will be.

Sometimes people are asked, what do you fear the most? What do you fear the most?

And people will give you all different kinds of answers. Do you know what Jesus fears the most?

What he feared the most during his ministry? He feared being separated from his Father.

He had never been separated from his Father before. And this would be the only time he ever was as he hung on that cross and God's favor upon him that had always been there throughout his life and had been there in eternity past, changed to disfavor.

God the Father poured out his holy wrath upon Jesus as he hung on that cross.

When Jesus endured the cross, he went through what everyone in hell goes through.

Hell is a place where God's wrath is poured out on the ungodly. It is a place where God's anger is directed toward everyone who is there.

But Jesus knew he needed to endure this to accomplish salvation. This is why his eyes are fixed on the cross, to accomplish salvation.

Jesus does not run from it. He's not hiding away somewhere in Galilee to avoid going to the cross.

No, he goes to Jerusalem and he knows what's gonna happen there.

He's on a mission. He is going to give up his life so that he can pay the price, so that he can die for sinners.

When Jesus goes to the cross, he would face hell so that anyone who believes in him never has to go there.

Isaiah 53 .10 says that it was the will of the Lord to crush him. 2

Corinthians 5 .21 says, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So Jesus describes the physical suffering here, but that's not the worst suffering he's going to face at the cross.

He is going to face the full fury of his Father's holy wrath.

In order to correctly understand the Gospel, we must understand God's wrath. It is so common for people to only talk about God's love when we talk about the cross.

If we only talk about God's love at the cross, the Gospel does not make sense.

It is true that the cross is about God's love, but it's also about God's justice.

When you come into this world, you are guilty before God. If you die in your sins, you will face hell, the eternal prison where God's justice is shown.

But the cross is also a place of justice. Jesus endured

God's wrath, so that there is no wrath awaiting the one who believes in him.

He stood in your place. It is as if an 18 -wheeler is coming toward you, and someone pushes you out of the way, and the person who pushes you out of the way dies to save your life.

Stories like this happen in life where someone makes the greatest sacrifice by putting one's life on the line for the sake of another.

And it's interesting, it's Memorial Day weekend. And that's what American history is about.

People who gave up their life for our freedoms. And there's stories like this.

Thirteen years ago in the summer of 2009, there was a youth event taking place on a lake in northern

Minnesota. It was a day where the conditions turned bad. There were high winds and giant waves formed and everything was choppy on the waters.

And one teen got stuck on the water and his life was at risk. As the teen struggled in the water, there were two youth leaders who knew they needed to do something.

This teen who was out in the water did not have a life vest. One of the men was a youth pastor named

Nathan Yunker who put himself on the line to save this youth. Another was a youth helper by the name of Al Hermiston who put himself on the line.

They both jumped into the water and the youth helper threw his vest to the boy.

The boy made his way back safely to the boat. But sadly, the two men perished.

They gave up their lives so that this boy could live. What happened on that summer day in northern

Minnesota is a good illustration of what Jesus did for sinners. He gave up his life.

He died in the place of sinners so that anyone who believes in Him may be rescued and live forever.

As Jesus is standing before His disciples, this was His focus. His eyes were focused on the pinnacle of His extraordinary life.

He did so many things. Remarkable things. He did things that no one in history has done.

He's the most remarkable man in history. And yet, there's one moment that stands out above all others, and that is the cross.

He knew that the only hope for humanity was for Him to give up His life. And He went to Jerusalem to accomplish this very mission.

As we recap what we've heard this morning, this is what you need to know. Understand that the cross was always the focus of Jesus' life.

And in this text, we've seen one reason why. Here's that reason in your bulletin. The reason that He knew that He needed to go to the cross, and that you are to understand that the cross was always the focus of His life, is this,

He knew the suffering He needed to endure in Jerusalem to atone for sinners.

He knew the suffering He needed to endure in Jerusalem to atone for sinners.

Every believer in this room must each day be enormously grateful that Jesus accomplished

His mission. His eyes were on the prize, and He accomplished salvation.

Eternal life is yours now and forever because you have believed.

You have believed this message. You have believed what Jesus accomplished at the cross.

And what He did on the third day when He rose gloriously from the dead, this is yours.

Be enormously grateful. But to everyone who is not a Christian, the alarm sounds for you to believe.

Today is the day of salvation. This is the call of the Word of God. Acts 16 .31

Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. He throws the life vest out to every lost person.

The only way they will be safe and get back to the boat and be secure forever is by taking the life vest that Jesus throws.

He endured physical and spiritual suffering at the cross. And on the third day, showing that God approved of His sacrifice,

Jesus rose from the dead. And this day and every day is the hope for every believer who looks forward to that bright future.

It is also the hope for every lost sinner, whether unbelievers know it or not. And you know what's sad?

Unbelievers don't know the danger they're in. They go through their life. They think they're okay.

They think they're pretty good. They think that if there is a heaven, they're going to go there. But the

Bible says the path is narrow. And the path is wide that leads to destruction.

People need to understand what the cross is all about. You need to be saved.

You need Jesus. This is the main message of Jesus' life.

The cross. And everybody needs to know it. Now next Sunday, we're going to do a sermon on baptism as we have baptisms coming up this summer and I want to talk about that again.

But two Sundays from now, we're going to continue with our sermon series through Matthew. And in that passage, the mother of two of Jesus' disciples wants to see her sons in a lofty position in the future kingdom.

And Jesus responds to this desire from the mother and from these two disciples. But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father in Heaven, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the cross.

This most important event in the most extraordinary life that has ever been lived.

May believers be grateful. May we always be grateful for the cross and live our lives for You.

And may anyone who hears my voice who's never believed in the Lord Jesus, grab the life vest that Jesus throws.

It is the only way of salvation. The only way to be safe and secure forever.

The only way to enter paradise once this life is over. And I pray that anyone who hears this would believe in that message.