WWUTT 2038 Deny Yourself (Matthew 16:21-28)

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Just when Peter had aced the theology test, Jesus said, Who do you say that I am?

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Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. But then Peter turns around and says something that causes

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Jesus to have to rebuke him when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary that we may be equipped for every good work in Jesus Christ our

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Lord. Please tell others about our ministry at www .utt .com.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we've got a little bit of chapter 16 to finish up here.

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So I'm going to begin reading in verse 21 and go through verse 28 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

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Hear the word of the Lord. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

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And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

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But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.

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Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

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For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

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For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

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Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his

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Father with his angels and will then repay each one according to his deeds.

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Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the

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Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So a reminder of where we've come from here in chapter 16,

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Jesus and his disciples are venturing south. And what we read yesterday with the scene of Jesus telling his disciples,

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I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. This happened at Caesarea Philippi, which was a very pagan city, in fact, so pagan that it was as if it were outside of Israel.

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Jesus had said to the Canaanite woman in chapter 15 that he came only to the house of Israel.

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So to go to Caesarea Philippi would be off mission. They did not go into the city because of how wicked it was, but there in that region was where Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am?

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Peter answered, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to Peter, blessed are you,

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Simon bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

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So we have Peter gets this great congratulations from his master.

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And then just a few verses later, as we just read, Peter makes a statement that causes

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Jesus to have to rebuke him. Now of course, in the progression of this, it happens immediately after the exchange that Jesus had with Peter and with his disciples, where he asked them, who do you say that I am?

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But there was probably some amount of time that transpired here. It was not like the very immediate conversation.

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And we'll consider that as we look at this. So the two parts that we see from this passage today are

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Jesus showing his disciples what it is that must happen. He tells them exactly what's going to happen and what's going to take place.

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And then he tells them, if you want to come after me, then you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow after me.

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And that's in verses 24 to 28. So let's come back to verse 21 again, where it says here, from that time,

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Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. So remember, they're venturing to Judah, they're going back south to Judah.

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And Jesus has come to Caesarea Philippi, the district of Caesarea Philippi, because again, they don't go straight into the city, but they're in that region.

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And it's in the context of that place where you have this city that pays homage to a pagan king.

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It's the king of Judah, Philip, who has named this city after Caesar, Caesarea.

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And even later, the next Herod that will come along, Agrippa, he changes the name of the city to Neropolis, giving homage to Nero.

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So you see this succession in the kings of Judah who are paying tribute to their pagan masters.

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And yet it's there that Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? While you've got the kings of Judah who are bowing down before Caesar and saying

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Caesar is Lord, it's Jesus' disciples who say, you are

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Lord. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus points out that this theology does not come from man, but it is revealed to you by my father who is in heaven.

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And he also says to his disciples, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

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The kingdom of God is going to advance. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will build my church,

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Jesus says, and this mission has spiritual, eternal, heavenly ramifications to it.

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And so then Jesus goes on to explain further the mission. He says, I will build my church, but for the immediate present, what's going to happen in the days to come is that Jesus is going to go into Jerusalem, he's going to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and then he's going to be killed and he's going to be raised up on the third day.

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Now I mentioned to you yesterday that when Jesus is talking about, I will build my church, that's ecclesia or ecclesia in the

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Greek, in the Greek Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

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That same word is used to describe Israel, the Israelites, and even

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Jesus disciples here, they are expecting a king on earth who is going to build this empire and he's going to make it great.

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That's the Messiah that they're looking for. The next David, who's going to come along, overthrow these

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Roman oppressors and will be the pinnacle of human civilization.

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People will be looking at Israel, desiring to be like Israel, and then the Abrahamic covenant will be fulfilled.

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I will bless those who bless you and those who curse you, I will curse. That's what they're expecting from their king, the

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Messiah, who's going to come along, who's going to restore Israel back to power. And yet Jesus is talking about building a kingdom that is not of this world.

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And here he tells his disciples that he's going to go to Jerusalem. And they might be thinking, as Jesus is starting in on this,

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I'm going to go to Jerusalem and they're going, yeah, yeah. What's going to happen next? And they're expecting, we're going to take this thing over.

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I'm going to be enthroned. You are going to be my most trusted wise men in this kingdom.

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Maybe that's what they're thinking Jesus is about to say. And yet he tells them, I'm going to go and suffer.

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The elders and the chief priests and the scribes, they're even going to kill me. And then it's as if the disciples don't hear anything after that.

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They don't hear him then say, and I'm going to be raised up on the third day. I'm going to die, but don't fear,

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I'm coming back again. Because after Jesus says these things to his disciples,

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Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Now once again, this is not immediately following that conversation that they just had.

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They probably went on further, it may be days later as they're continuing on their journey

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Jesus has this conversation and he's been telling them many things over several days even because it says from that time,

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Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and then be raised up on the third day.

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So this is teaching that has probably been going on for a little while until finally

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Peter takes him aside and rebukes him and says, God forbid it,

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Lord, this shall never happen to you. And Jesus turns and says to Peter, get behind me,

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Satan. Boy, that is a totally different address than what we saw in just the previous passage, right?

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With Jesus congratulating Peter and saying that you did not come into this doctrine.

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You do not understand that I am the Christ, the son of the living God by any doctrine of man, but it has been shown to you by my father who is in heaven.

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Peter must have been feeling pretty proud of himself at that point. And then he goes too far here rebuking

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Jesus and trying to prevent him from going to the cross. Now, Peter just loved his

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Lord. He did not want to see this bad thing happen to him.

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We could say that of Peter, that his intentions were good. But you know what they say about good intentions?

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The road of good intentions leads to hell, right? If Peter had had his way in that moment, you and I would not be saved.

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Jesus would not have gone to the cross. He would not have been the atoning sacrifice for sins. Peter was not thinking with the mind of God here.

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He was thinking with the mind of a man. He had his own intentions in mind.

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And again, you might say they were good intentions. They were selfless intentions, but it was not with the mind of God.

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It was self -righteous. For this was what needed to happen.

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And they did not believe Jesus. They did not believe his word when he talks about going and being killed and how contrary this was to the doctrine that they had, which was a worldly doctrine, thinking that Jesus was going to ascend to the throne in Jerusalem and take this thing over.

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You're saying you're going to go and be killed? No, that's contrary to the mission here. That wasn't what we signed on for.

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And so Peter rebukes Jesus. This will never happen to you. And Peter probably thinking pretty high and mighty of himself as well, thinking,

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I'm going to, I'll stop it. I'll defend you. I'll stand right there by your side. And I will not let these men take you captive and put you to death because we see

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Peter try to take a stand like that when Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. But Peter is rebuked when

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Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. We go from this revelation from the father in heaven to no, you're thinking of Satan now.

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Jesus addresses him with the title of the tempter who had tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

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And so he says that he gives that very title to Peter here, get behind me,

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Satan. You are a stumbling block to me for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but on man's.

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And again, it doesn't matter how great your intentions are. If it is not what

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God has intended, if it is not according to God's word, his will, his plan, then you're not thinking with the mind of God.

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You are thinking worldly. You are thinking with the flesh. You are even in the snare of Satan.

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And so may we look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others as said in Philippians chapter two, it must be even beyond that though, because you could have said

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Peter did have Jesus interest in mind. It must be to the interests of others.

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According to what God has said, we still have to follow his word. Even when it comes to loving others, it's not loving others on their terms.

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We still must love according to what God defines love as being. And if Peter was truly seeking the will of God here, then he would have understood what

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Jesus said, not trying to prevent Jesus from going to where he was going.

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And so we must love as God has said, love is to be not from our flesh, not from the flesh of the other person who says, well, here's what loving me is supposed to look like.

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What does love look like? According to what the Bible says, what does scripture say about it? That we may do the will of God and not our own will.

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And Jesus goes on to address this by saying that you must deny yourself and take up your cross.

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So verse 24, Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me now again, as the disciples have this idea of a kingdom that is being built, well,

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I want to follow you and I want to be part of that kingdom. But here Jesus is saying, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, take up his cross and follow me an instrument of death.

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You must be willing to crucify your own interests, your own fleshly worldly desires and have the mind of Christ and pursue those things that are

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Christ like be willing to suffer for the kingdom of God. If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

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Boy, is that counter -cultural where you have this culture in virtually every Disney movie that's out there telling you that you need to believe in yourself or you need to follow your heart.

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I know that Braveheart is a popular movie, even among evangelicals. Well, that moral is given at the beginning of that film where William Wallace's father dies, and then

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Wallace has a dream of his father saying your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.

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Even in our adult movies, you have these statements of believe in yourself and follow your heart.

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And that's that is contrary to what Jesus says here. He says, you must deny yourself.

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You must take up a cross and you must follow after me, putting your own desires to death and looking to God's will.

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As we read in Proverbs chapter three, lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

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Jesus goes on here in verse 25 to say, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.

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But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

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Whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ, and that could mean giving up the things that you want for the cause of Christ, worldly things, fame, acknowledgement, advancement, whatever that might happen to be.

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It could also mean losing your actual life, like you're willing to lay down your life and die for the sake of the gospel.

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Either way, we're talking about selfless devotion here that a person would give up themselves and their own interests and desire

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Christ and what advances his name. Verse 26, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

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Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? There was a speech that was done by Jim Carrey.

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Okay, not a great theologian. He is a theologian, but not a great one.

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Anyway, Jim Carrey, the actor, that is who I'm talking about. Jim Carrey once said, and this was in a speech that he gave.

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I believe it was a graduation speech, as a matter of fact. But Carrey said, I wish that everyone could become rich and famous.

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Everyone could become millionaires for just a little while so that everyone will see that's not the answer.

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That does not bring true happiness. And you're hearing that from a man who, at one point, was the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

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And yet he's saying that this fame and fortune does not bring happiness.

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There was another actor. I can't remember who it was. It might have been Bill Murray, but he said it's better to be rich than to be rich and famous because you can be rich and still live in anonymity, but rich and famous.

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That's a 24 hour job. You're constantly recognized by people. You constantly think that you have some sort of obligation to fans or they think you have an obligation to them.

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Something to that degree. And it really ends up being a very miserable life. As much as you might think, boy,

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I wish I could be rich and famous, the rich and famous can tell you that it doesn't bring any happiness. But, of course,

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Solomon said that very thing thousands of years ago before there were these rich movie stars that could have told us their revelations.

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Solomon figured this out. He said all is vanity, everything under the sun.

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It's all meaningless. And he had property, cattle, women, riches as far as the eye could see, and yet none of it brought him any gladness.

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At the end of Ecclesiastes, he says this is the whole duty of man. Fear God and keep his commandments.

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There is joy that we can experience in the world. It's when we give glory to God. It's when we understand that the things that we enjoy in this life are but a taste of the eternal joys that we will have with the

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Father in heaven. We should experience joy in this life, but joy is not dependent upon our circumstances.

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Even when you're sad, you can still experience joy because you know Christ has died for your sins and by faith in Jesus, you have an inheritance in his eternal kingdom.

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That can be enough to give you joy and you even look forward to dying because dying means

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I'm out of this world and on into the next where all the suffering and dying and even sin and struggles that I experience here will be no more.

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Jesus drying every tear from our eyes as said in Revelation chapter 21 and in that place, death will be no more.

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Suffering will be no more. But here on this side of heaven, we're going to suffer.

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Life will be hard and my friends, it doesn't get better. As much as there are certain persons with certain eschatologies that want to say that this world will get progressively better and even the majority of the world will become

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Christian, that promise is not given by Christ anywhere. He continually reminds his disciples that we must suffer.

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What does it profit a man to gain the whole world? Why are we out there trying to gain the world?

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When Jesus says you could gain the world and forfeit your soul, what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

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Jesus says in verse 27, for the son of man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels and will then repay each one according to his deed.

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So this is really Jesus telling his disciples here. The glorious kingdom is not yet.

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The glorious kingdom is not until I come back with the angels to bring judgment upon the earth.

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But that's not this chapter. That's not what's going on right now. I am going to Jerusalem to become a sacrifice so that all who will believe in me will be saved and have eternal life in that kingdom that is not of this world.

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And then verse 28, Jesus says, truly, I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.

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Now that is a puzzling statement, but we will consider it with what we're going to read about next.

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In chapter 17, verses 1 through 13 will be the transfiguration, and we'll get to that section of the gospel of Matthew next week.

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My friends do not be looking for the things of this world to satisfy you and fill you up.

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Christ is everything. Trust in Christ, believe in Christ, worship

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Christ, and great will be your reward in heaven. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here, and I pray that these reminders would be upon us, that we would understand what it means to deny ourselves, take up a cross, and follow after Jesus.

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Let us not be after our own interests, or if we are after our own interests, may our interests be the will of God.

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We want to see God's will done. As Jesus had taught his disciples to pray back in Matthew 6, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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What does it profit us if we were to gain the whole world but lose our soul? That would be a fate worse than death.

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But teach us that we are mortal to number our days, to not put our trust in riches or circumstances or comforts in this world, but our comfort is in Christ, and the promise is of his glorious kingdom.

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Build your kingdom through the preaching of the gospel that we're to do in the present age, for as Jesus says,

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I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an

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Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an