Who is the Christ of God Luke 9:18-27

We're here to worship the Lord, but together, right? it's good to see each one of you and it's good to know of your faithfulness to the house of the

Lord and to our Lord and we're glad to see you and We hope that today is a blessed day for you as we worship together our

Lord Have a couple of announcements and many of them. We repeat each Sunday, but tonight we have a prayer meeting at 6 o 'clock and Join us there.

We had a good group out even last Sunday evening It's always a good time of fellowship and also those of you who are involved but everyone is welcome to the summer

Bible study going through the book of Hebrews and They have that in the fellowship hall each

Friday evening at 530 so remember that time and everyone is welcome to that Bible study and And then we have the

Bible counseling courses continuing on and they meet the next one is the

August the 26th and they have been meeting on the 2nd and the 4th Saturday of each month.

So remember that the 2nd and 4th Saturday and the next one will be the 26th at 11 a .m

I also just wanted to mention the missionary of the month is Darcy Berglin and I just say a little bit about her her parents were missionaries in Indonesia And if you know anything about Indonesia, it is

About I think they say about 2 ,000 islands Darcy was raised there

Darcy was involved with new tribes mission and They have they had spent their all the missionaries you were going into tribes that had usually an unwritten language and there's

I there's a book about this thick that they've been trying to get put together not just missionaries, but anthropologists of every language that's in the world and so they go to an area and And Translate the language but then after they translate the language then with new tribes

They got involved with now you have to teach the people how to read the language that they have just written down And so that's what all is involved with this.

It's getting more and more with the computers and all this it's getting a lot better But I just read one note to you

Darcy is living right now. She was born and raised and spent most of her adult life in Indonesia, but she's now living in Sheridan, Wyoming taking care of her adult parent who spent their life in Indonesia But she's also every day working on translation with the team back in Indonesia and so her one girl that she taught and trained back in Indonesia is okey

And she's writing down in our newsletter that she sent this month. I have been working on getting as Much scripture ready to check as possible before my trip to Asia in the

Pacific in August So she's going to go over there in August and check with the teams that she's been working with Oki, the one who's working in Indonesia has been drafting the book of Joshua and has gotten nine or more chapters

Roughly drafted. I have been checking her Exegesis, which means is is the interpretation correct, you know?

Okie says well, this is how I think it goes then Darcy then she sends it to Darcy Darcy goes through it and checks and makes sure it's accurate with the scriptures and Then she sends it back and she'll make different changes and they've been going through these drafts and making comprehension

Checking questions. So you see kind of what they're up to. We were got to be close friends with her.

I Failed to say new tribes mission changed their name to ethnos 360 and we said what in the world?

What's that mean? You know, I mean well all of us are familiar with it well ethnos means people groups and I've even heard that term now and on secular you'll hear ethnos on secular and it's people groups and then 360 that's 360 around the world people groups around the world.

I Don't know that I had chosen that name, but Anyway, that's what so when you see ethnos 360, there's the old new tribes mission anyway

Thank the Lord for the individuals that we have a part with supporting and we as you think about Darcy remember her in prayer

So let's go to prayer Heavenly Father we come to you this morning. We thank you for your many blessings that you give to us

We thank you that you give us the strength to come out to worship you to sing praises to you

We would pray Heavenly Father when we leave we will say it's been good to be here today And we would thank you for it

Lord be with pastors. He brings your word. We pray that you would Give him the liberty to speak and say the things you've laid on his heart.

May you apply it to our lives. May we Be willing to accept the things that we hear from your scripture as they apply to us

Lord help us to live godly Lord We thank you again for the fact that we live in a country where we have liberty to worship you

We do pray for our leaders and uphold them before you We would pray Heavenly Father that you would be merciful and even give us

Godly leaders or people who respect you Lord, and we would thank you for that Now go before us as we continue on in the service be with those who are participating in the music

Bless each one of our hearts May we be a blessing to you as we lift up our voices to you and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus name

Amen. Good morning Hallelujah, Jesus loves me. He is King and God to me.

He is working salvation in the midst of the earth It is with him. We shall spend eternity In his

Beautiful are your works O Lord and you care for all of them and let's stand and sing to our

Creator our Heavenly Father Please turn with me to Luke chapter 9

Verses 18 through 27 Luke chapter 9 verses 18 through 27

And it happened as he was alone praying that his disciples joined him and he asked them saying

Who do the crowd say that I am? So they answered and said John the Baptist, but some say

Elijah And others say that one of the Old Prophets has risen again He said to them

But who do you say I am Peter answered and said the Christ of God and He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one saying the

Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and Scribes and be killed and be raised the third day

Then he said to them all if anyone desires to come after me Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it

But what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost?

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words of of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own

Glory and his in his father's and of the Holy Angels But I tell you truly there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God This is the word of the

Lord Let us pray Father we're thankful that to us we have been

You have revealed to us Who your son is?

Thank you that it's not a question of Anymore, but that you have shown it to us through Jesus who died on the cross for our sin

So that the wrath that's for us has been poured upon him

In order that we may live we may be forgiven and we may be yours

We pray that you would help us to live according to the Messiah that we follow in Jesus name

And we've followed the trajectory of what's been happening up to this point which is that Jesus has been showing his authority and power over all sorts of created things and Now the question is right in front of us.

Who is Jesus Right. We have seen Jesus authority over the storm diseases

Thousands of demons and even death and we've also seen

Jesus authority to provide for thousands in the wilderness

Now Jesus asks his disciples Who do you think

I am and of course the Peter's confession

Answers the question of who is Jesus Jesus is the Christ of God He is the

Messiah of God. He is the chosen one of God in In Greek the word for Messiah, which is

Hebrew is Christ so we often take it for granted

Christ Being just closely tied to Jesus But when we say Jesus Christ Christ is not his last name.

That's his title. It's Jesus the Messiah The Messiah in the

Old Testament meant the anointed one the chosen one and This anointed one this language has been used for various kings of Israel right the chosen one because God chose

Kings of Israel to rule over his own people But of course in this context the

Messiah is actually the greatest King the greater Davidic King like to come to restore

Israel for once and for all not only Restore Israel in the Old Testament when you do get to Isaiah's text

You see that his restoration of Israel is more than just one nation It's global it's universal so this is

What the title Messiah or Christ? signifies and I Mentioned this mainly because we often take it for granted

What Christ is we many people think that it's just the last name, but that's not true to proclaim of Jesus to be

Christ is a huge Significance, it's it's not something we can take for granted now

Peter actually says What many of us and even the readers may have been thinking right?

He is Christ of God He's the Christ of God now, although Peter is technically correct

Jesus here unpacks the implications of what kind of Messiah he is and This is important because one can proclaim

Jesus to be Christ and still worship the wrong

Messiah I Give you a few examples

Mormons have no problem calling Jesus Christ, right? They they believe they will say that they believe in Jesus as the

Messiah yet They worship a false God because the implication of who their view of Messiah is

Extremely insufficient, right? They believe that both God the Father and God the Son Jesus all were created beings

Right they D God God Now liberal denominations claim

Jesus to be Christ as well But they have perverted the gospel and who

Jesus is so much That it is no longer the same

Messiah who saves according to the Bible Right, the the

Jesus that they worship the Jesus the Messiah that they proclaim to worship Does not even reflect

The same Jesus the Messiah that we worship according to Scripture now

For this reason Jesus Tells the disciples to Stay silent and he explains what he must go through and this is because your view of Jesus Affects how you follow

Jesus, right your view of Jesus affects how you follow Jesus I'll give you an example

Carl F Henry Most of us may not know who that is

But he was one of the leading evangelical leaders of the 20th century

He he was highly influential I'll show you some of his um,

I'll tell you of his some of his accomplishments and what he was known for He was a classmate of Billy Graham We all know

Billy Graham He was also the first editor -in -chief of Christianity Today when it was

Solid right when it was actually producing material against Liberal ideologies, but now it just echoes it

He taught at numerous Christian universities and seminaries And in fact many institutions are named after him

Carl F H Henry He was a huge he had a huge influence over the culture

If you know of DA Carson DA Carson looked up to Carl F H Henry and DA's Carson is

The most well -renowned New Testament theologian of our days

And that leads to this interview DA Carson in his younger days

Interviews Carl F H Henry as he is much much older, right?

And he asked this question. How have you remained humble for decades of such six of Doing decades of such successful ministry.

He's traveled all over the world He's held teaching positions and leading positions in different seminaries

He's written many books He's someone who's influenced the White House And the question is how how do you stay so humble?

Right, because of course the temptation temptation is when you become somebody especially in ministry, it's easy to just Let the power go to your head

It's easy to stumble. It's easy to rebel against God so the

Don Carson asked that question to Carl F H Henry and And he answers this in his old age decades of following Christ How can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross

How can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross? And that's because Carl F H Henry Whether you agree with his methods of ministry or not, right and his theology

He had the right view of who the Messiah is His view of Jesus was closely tied to the crucifixion and the resurrection

The humiliating death That he went through to deliver the world

And to him it just could not make sense How one could be even prideful

When you stand next to the cross It's Really shows that correctly following Christ depends on the correct understanding of Christ So the main point of today's text is when we follow the suffering

Messiah We must completely commit to Christ despite the worldly rejections

When we follow the suffering Messiah, we must completely commit to Christ despite the worldly rejections

First Jesus is the suffering Messiah who delivers his people through his death and resurrection

Jesus is the suffering Messiah who delivers his people through his death and resurrection Finally Jesus and his disciples find themselves away from the crowd.

Remember they were looking to be alone, but they were interrupted by the crowd Verse 18 and it happened as he was alone praying that his disciples joined him

Prayer in the gospel according to Luke always precedes important events that are about to unfold

So for example, Luke 3 verse 21, Jesus was praying right before his baptism

In which the Father and the Holy Spirit confirmed who he is to the whole world publicly right, that's an important event and that was preceded by him praying and In Luke 6 12 right before choosing the 12 apostles

Jesus also prayed right right before commissioning the Apostles who will relay the message of the gospel to the world

Right and in one sense. We're all here because of the Apostles Right.

The message was transferred from them first Jesus prayed and Really shows how

Jesus prior Prioritized and focused on God before each major event in his earthly ministry

Right. This was not just a willy -nilly Following the impulse

Now Jesus poses a question to his disciples that we have been asking for weeks, right

Who do the crowds say that I am And this question has been the ongoing question

Really all throughout chapter 9 if not also chapter 8 and remember in verses 7 through 9

King Herod questioned the same thing who is Jesus even the palace of Herod has to confront

That is confronted with the question. Who is Jesus right knowing what he's doing and what he's doing

What he's preaching It's inevitable to question who is

Jesus Now the disciples do report what they have been hearing from the crowds, right

John the Baptist But some say Elijah and others say one of the old prophets who's risen again

Now this is actually the same response that Herod was pondering upon right even in the same order

John the Baptist some say Elijah Maybe one of the old prophets, of course Herod according to the other synoptic

Gospels went with John the Baptist Now John the

Baptist was the prophet who came right before Jesus to announce the coming of Jesus and Unfortunately, he was executed by Herod And Elijah was the

Old Testament prophet who performed great miracles and in Malachi 3 and 4

God Promised the return of Elijah on in the last days. So Elijah was a figure that they were waiting for and Also during the intertestamental period that's between the end of the

Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament There was a view that one of the great prophets from the

Old Testament would come back and the list of Goes on with the

Jeremiah, it could be Isaiah or even Moses, right? It's their view was that before the

Messiah comes something great must happen that cannot be Just explained away

Now any of these prophets returning would have been wonderful and important to Israel Yet None of them reaches the same magnitude as the coming of Jesus The crowds in their limited knowledge regards

Jesus Respectfully, however, all of their options are far inadequate so Now Jesus asked the disciples the same question but Who do you say that I am?

Peter answered and said the Christ of God Christ here means the

Messiah as I've mentioned and he's the chosen one of God and While we live in a society that that automatically ties

Jesus title to Christ His title ought to his name

Even in our postmodern culture. The Christ title is assumed only to Jesus, right as We've probably have never heard anyone else called

Christ Now Peter's answer would have been surprising actually to the first century

Jews All those prophets that I mentioned John the Baptist Elijah and one of the old prophets

They're revered and highly regarded but The Messiah is on a different playing field or that's a different league

What Peter is proclaiming here is that Jesus is greater than the prophets?

All of them mentioned just now That he is superior He is none other than the

Messiah Christ of God The promised eschatological figure to restore all things

The one whom God is using he is God's king Right, the king that God has enthroned

That is something The Messiah is the promised

Davidic King who restores the broken nation of Israel He was the

Christ was the regal figure Prophesied in the Old Testament who will rule with authority and power that has never been seen before Right Christ rule would make

Solomon's reign Which probably was the greatest reign in Israel's history as a nation like a drop in a bucket

His reign would be geographically and temp temporary Temporally limitless.

There's just no end in sight right, that's the Messiah and Peter tells

Jesus You're the Christ of God Now what

Peter knows is that Jesus is not just Another messenger that points to the

Messiah But he is the Christ himself Right. Jesus is just Jesus is not just another signpost pointing to the

Messiah, but he is the real deal Now when any ancient

Israelites consider the regal position of the Messiah The most obvious view would be that the

Messiah would come and conquer all things and win Right consider some of the

Messianic Psalms Psalm 2 7 through 8 I will tell of the decree the

Lord said to me you are my son today I begotten you ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possessions

Right, the Messiah will have all God will make sure of it

And Also Psalm 110 1 the Lord says to my Lord the Lord Yahweh says to the

Lord Messiah Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool right the

Messiah will reign with the divine authority by sitting on the right hand of God the right hand the seat of authority and There will be no enemy going against this

Messiah So that's that those kind of Psalms are in the ancient Jews minds and especially

Peter's mind because he knows and You may think Peter's right answer would initiate a public proclamation of Jesus true identity now

We don't have to hide it anymore. Okay, go out again you 12. He's the Messiah. He has come

However, Jesus charges them to do the opposite and he strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one

Right now, why does Jesus command silence? Really?

the following verse tells us the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and Be raised the third day

The reason for the silence is because Jesus will not rule the world as how most

Would have expected in the first century Judaism He is not overthrowing

Rome. He is not kicking out the Sanhedrin the religious leaders

His most crucial act as king is in fact not to conquer but to be conquered

His most crucial act as the regal king of God is

To suffer and to die for the very people he came to save and in fact, that is how these people will be delivered and In his first coming the conquest and victory will not be through powerful armies and advanced weaponry.

That's what they're expecting But through his suffering and death He will be rejected and killed by the very people he came to save But he actually says he will not stay dead

That would be just losing Because he will be resurrected on the third day

Jesus suffering and death are Prerequisites to his global reign

Hence the early proclamation of Jesus identity would actually have led many to Misunderstand who he is.

That's why Jesus charges them. Do not tell anyone After all even the disciples despite Hearing from Jesus that he needs to die and rise on the third day and this will not be the first time

They'll hear it multiple times yet When it comes to Jesus crucifixion they would all misunderstand and Run away and hide in fear now

While the Old Testament hints at the suffering and death of the Messiah Such as Psalm 22, which was read today by Jim The New Testament authors make it clear that it is precisely through Jesus suffering that he rules

The New Testament makes it clear it reveals further on that Jesus rule

Has to be tied with Jesus Passion his suffering his death and resurrection

What this means is the path to Jesus victory is through the cross there is no other way

For example in Revelation 5 6 in the heavenly vision of the

Apostle John One of the elders proclaims the one who is worthy to open the scroll is the

Lion of Judah Right as the Apostle John is crying and weeping because They don't think there's anyone who is worthy to open the scroll the scroll of salvation and judgment the scroll that will resolve the history

God's history and one of the elders says do not weep the

Lion of Judah is worthy and when He John the the

Apostle John looks to the throne to look at the lion. What does he see?

He sees a slain lamb He hears about the

Lion of Judah who has conquered so that he's worthy to open the seal So that the world's history may come to a resolution according to God's intended end in salvation and also judgment

When the Apostle John looks at the throne There's a slain lamb.

How can this be? Jesus conquers as the Lion of Judah precisely because he died as the sacrificial lamb

Jesus overcomes his enemies precisely by dying at their hands Jesus wins precisely by hanging on the cross in all humility

By taking on the sins of the world upon himself Jesus freely redeemed purchased and delivered sinners from their death and Sin and their death

By experiencing God's wrath on our behalf He made it possible for God to freely and justly justify sinners

It is impossible to justly justify sinners without Christ It's impossible for sinners to be righteously forgiven

Without Christ taking on the punishment on our behalf and only through the death of this

Messiah God delivered his people from their sin once and for all there was no other way.

That was the prerequisite Through his wounds. We are

Restored through his rejection. We are received by God and any other view of this

Messiah any view of this Messiah with separated from his suffering is the wrong

Messiah if Your Jesus at the core of his ministry is not the crucified

Messiah Then it's an inadequate view of the

Messiah and as Jesus has charged

That type of Messiah is not worth proclaiming It's better to be silent but as Christians we worship the crucified

Messiah The conquering lion because he's also the slain lamb the victor

Who has died for his people That he redeemed Jesus shows us tells us

What kind of Messiah he is and until that full picture is there any other

Glimpse of that any other picture of the Messiah without the cross is not the true

Messiah Now what is the appropriate response of This suffering

Messiah's disciples, so what's the appropriate response by the followers of this suffering

Messiah? The disciples of the suffering Messiah must deny themselves and completely commit to him despite whatever hardship in it entails

The disciples of the suffering Messiah must deny themselves and completely commit to him despite whatever hardship it entails

Now after describing the nature of his Messiah ship Jesus explains the nature of his disciples

If anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me verse 23 gives us a concise summary of what

Christian discipleship Looks like what it looks like to be a Christian follower, right?

First he must deny himself Self -denial is not just the recognition

But a deep conviction that you are not enough

Now all over. I mean all over our culture. We hear you're enough You're enough.

You're sufficient. You're adequate Trust your heart follow your heart

That couldn't be further from the truth, right The first step to following Jesus is self -denial

It's that no, it's knowing that you cannot save yourself you're not enough Right self -denial means that you're utterly inadequate

You're extremely incapable of delivering yourself. And this also applies to Your plan as well, even after you believe right?

I can't save myself Only Jesus can save me your whole life has to be about you know, what my plan is not adequate

My will is not good enough right your plan your plan of salvation and Sanctification they fail you can't do it on your own

You must depend on God's plan of salvation and even sanctification through Jesus That's the point.

That's self -denial Set the second requirement is to take his cross daily

Taking up one's cross happened right before any Crucifixion in fact

Rome delighted in humiliating their criminals to the utmost extent right, they publicly made their criminals carry their own cross and This would display

What will happen to anyone who defy the Roman Authority? Right anyone who sees the person walk of carrying his cross that would be a huge reminder

This will happen to you, too Don't even think about it. It was a picture of the ultimate submission and humility

And what Jesus is saying here is that those who follow? This humble suffering

Messiah must expect to live the same way as their Messiah This is the fruit of the self -denial life

The true disciple must give up her independence her self -reliance her self -sufficiency and Submit humbly to God and his plan the third requirement is to follow him

This is a call to completely commit to Jesus after Complete completely denying oneself now you commit

There is a direction to all the suffering, right? It is not just suffering for its own sake as some

Catholic monks have chosen to do in history and even now Right. I'll just isolate yourself and then live eating really really really boring bland food for the rest of your life

Secluded in the wilderness somewhere in the forest up in the mountains

Now the suffering here actually has a purpose the suffering is in order to follow

Jesus It is to walk with him By suffering you commune with him you are with him

Because you're reflecting What kind of Messiah you serve? Right despite all the rejections you may incur by following Jesus That suffering has an intended purpose now verses 24 to 27 explain the implications of verse 23

These verses actually all revolve around Christ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it These are the consequences of obeying or ignoring the command to deny oneself to follow

Christ the irony is that if you desire to control your own life because you did not deny yourself if You grip tightly to your own life because you do not trust

Christ You will lose Your life

That one life that you tried your hardest to keep you'll lose that That's the irony here

Christ will not save you because you rejected him to save Right you rejected him so that you could save yourself

And what Christ is saying that's not sufficient. That's not adequate However, if you deny yourself for Christ's sake

Right again, it's for Christ's sake If you drop everything only to hold on to Christ Your life will be saved

It is all about one's relation to Christ how he responds faithfully to Christ And verse 25 asks a rhetorical question illustrating the implication of responding through Christ's invitation

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost?

Right. This is a rhetorical question because obviously Jesus is not asking for the answer

What profit is there right? This is not a question asking for answer It's to show that there is no profit in gaining the whole world

Everything everything in the created realm if you gain the whole thing There's no profit if you lose your life you've lost your life if you

Did not trust Christ you've lost your life if you hold on to it. I'll try to control it

It completely ends one's ability to enjoy the world That's the irony

You tried your best to get out all the things that are enjoyable But you lose the most important thing in your life and what this shows is that there's a risk to not responding to Jesus Jesus invitation is not an optional question on the test where you don't lose points if you leave it blank

Right. It's the whole test It's your whole class

Everything depends on how you respond to Christ Your whole life depends on how you respond to Christ That's it.

And if you respond wrongly if you respond without faith, then you lose it all

You gave up the eternal life to of joy and peace for a temporary taste of comfort

Nothing and no one in the whole world can offer you The eternal life of joy and peace that Christ freely offers you

At the cost of his life Now verses 26 to 27 show the eschatological results of how one responds to Christ now

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory

And in his father's in the Holy Angels Verse 26 actually shows us the judgment day right before the judgment throne of Jesus Those who have rejected

Jesus and his words will also be rejected by Jesus in front of the whole heavenly realm

It tells us a lot about what kind of Messiah this is this Messiah will also be the judge

Right, that is a powerful position He's more than just an agent who's being used by God For deliverance.

He's also the one that every one of us will have to come face to face Now verse 27 shows us the opposite but I tell you truly there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God and this is for those who deny themselves and follow

Christ The kingdom of God here does not mean the full Consummation of the kingdom as in when

Jesus comes back and restores all things new heaven and new earth but rather The the kingdom of God is the inauguration of his kingdom when

Christ died and rose from the dead It's the it's post death and resurrection kingdom

So after Jesus crucifixion and resurrection we have to actually consider the reality of the world actually shifted dramatically

Sin and death could no longer hold a human being down all throughout history

There have been a few Resurrections in the Old Testament right through Elijah through Elisha But all throughout history those people they arose to die again

It's that death just temporarily let it go through the power of God but the death

Grabbed them back Then comes Jesus and he proclaims

He's here to be killed but rise on the third day But notice that he's not dying again

Jesus is resurrected to live forever and That really is the sample taste of the kingdom of God For once in history post -genesis 3

There is a human being Who's also God Whom death has no control over whom the touch of death is just insignificant

That's the coming of the kingdom of God So what it's saying also, is that?

There's this glimmer of hope shining through the dark clouds Right for the first time in human history man can experience

God's salvation and his power in their lives

Right so in Christ By believing in the crucified and resurrected

Christ people can start to resist sin Instead of becoming more and irritable as people get older People of Christ can become more and more like Christ They're actually going against the decay of Moral decay they can be kinder they can be more patient more compassionate

That's what it means to bear fruit And you'll notice that when you do

Talk to people who have Been a believer

For over 50 years there are a lot of them here actually a faith Bible Church go talk to them after They're not crotchety right they're not irritable they're not complaining they're not murmuring

Right they're different They're different from just any old people that's because they've experienced the kingdom of God God has given them the power to resist sin

Right when I visit hospitals because of surgeries right and medical emergency

The nurses and doctors are amazed By You know

Richard Victor How friendly they are how kind they are how not entitled they are

Right they even tell me Right because they find out.

Oh, you're the pastor. That's the taste of the kingdom of God and they came after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and What Jesus is saying is that those who respond to him now?

Are not just blindly following him until the Judgment Day Rather they will taste the glimpse of heaven on earth

When they feel the shackles of sin crack open They will experience the power of salvation

There's evidence for that now how we respond to Christ now determines the destination of our lives

Ultimately people who choose the world the comfort the pleasures of the world by rejecting

Christ Will one day have to face the one whom they rejected and they will have to answer for all that they have done

Manipulations violence and even cruel acts in order to gain the world in order to take the world conquer the world and the sheer pride to reject

Christ His free offer of salvation It takes a lot of pride

To tell the only one who can save oh, I don't need him do it myself

You don't have to be a ruler to be prideful like that Someone who owns nothing can say the same thing to Christ.

I don't need you I'm just good enough, and that's a scary thing and the list will be colorful from Roman emperors to US presidents and unknown people unknown peasants from the

Middle Ages to unknown citizens of the United States and Christ warrants his disciples that gaining the world at the cost of losing

Christ is the most foolish trade one can make and For those who forfeit

Christ for the sake of the world will have a smoky exit interview and for Christians however when we experience

Rejection and suffering for choosing Christ We must remember this is the par for the course

It's actually almost a reminder of what kind of Messiah we are serving in fact

It is extraordinary that we live in a nation that does not physically persecute us for following Christ.

We're not there yet but When we do face rejections and mockery for our faith

We must ask ourselves How can we as followers of Christ expect a better treatment?

From the world that crucified my Messiah How can we as followers of Christ the suffering

Messiah expect to avoid his path? One theologian

Said this God has one son who hasn't sinned

God has no son who hasn't suffered. It's just a par for the course

That's what it means to follow the suffering Messiah And what this means is we need to be cautious of pastors who guarantee better lives now

Bigger bank account now better cars now more worldly influences now and it also means we need to be careful of how we encourage people who are suffering if Someone is mourning the loss of their job

That they might have loved and had for decades We have no right to promise them there's a better job coming

It doesn't help. It's a lie. You can't guarantee that there might be I don't know, but we can't promise that They're suffering and the best thing that you can do is to point them to Christ You have a

Messiah who also suffered too And he also grieves with you He grieves the injustice in the world that you've suffered

He grieves the loss And that's for any loss Christ tells us

That his disciples may lose everything They might lose everything becoming a

Christian doesn't mean your life gets better in a worldly sense but they will gain him and That is infinitely better Than gaining the world

Let us pray Father we're thankful that you have revealed to us.

What kind of Messiah your son is that we don't believe in a false Messiah, we don't believe in an

Antichrist, but we believe in the true Christ Who's precisely wins and conquers delivers his people through his suffering and death and resurrection and?

We pray that we would Live our lives make choices in our lives

That reflect what kind of Messiah we worship Help us to know that help us

To delight in that in Jesus name Amen, you know life is better when we trust and obey

God Jesus Christ is