Kingdom Paradox | Part 3 | The Paradox of Citizenship

You think about Jesus and in His day, and the crowds loved being around Jesus. They loved going wherever Jesus was going. They loved to see all of what Jesus was doing, but the crowds didn't really love becoming like Jesus. And I think of that, and I wonder if not much has changed. I think that even in our culture, and just in human life in general, that many want Jesus to save them, but not so many want Jesus to shape them. And that's the paradox today that we're going to dig into a little bit, the paradox of starting our faith strong, but not necessarily finishing it that way. Today, I want to continue to kind of dig up some of the soil in our lives a little bit, and I want to talk to you from this title, The Paradox of Citizenship. And here's what I believe Jesus is doing for us today. I believe that He is handing us a mirror, and He's handing us this mirror not to condemn us this morning, but to help us answer what could arguably be the most important question that you and I ask in our spiritual lives. And that question is, how do I know that I'm saved? How do I know that I'm saved? So, if you've got your Bibles today, turn with me to Matthew chapter 16, and we're going to hang out there today. Matthew chapter 16, Jesus is at a turning point in His ministry, His public ministry. Up to this moment, the disciples have seen a lot, they've experienced a lot, they've seen miracles, they've seen all the crowds gather, they've seen all of this momentum take place around Jesus and His message, they've watched Jesus calm storms, they've watched Jesus cast out demons, they've watched Jesus multiply food and feed thousands. And so, for the disciples in this moment that we're going to read in Matthew 16, they really are kind of on this mountaintop experience spiritually. But Jesus is going to say something in this passage today, and it's something that is unexpected, it's something that they didn't think was coming, and I want us to dig into that for a few minutes. In Matthew 16, starting in verse 21, it says Jesus began to tell His disciples plainly

that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, that He would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders and the leading priests and the teachers of religious law, that He would be killed, but on the third day that He would be raised from the dead. You know, this is the first time that Jesus so plainly is communicating to the disciples what was ahead, what was coming up for Him, and it created this awkward moment for them because they saw Him as the Messiah, the Savior, they were looking at Jesus coming in and just completely obliterating Rome and all that culture, and Jesus had a different picture in mind. And the next verse, this next verse is, it's kind of hilarious and shocking at the same time. In verse 21, this is right after Jesus says that, it says, Peter took Jesus aside and he began to reprimand Jesus. Can you imagine? Like, to reprimand, He said, heaven forbid, Lord, like, He said, this will never happen to you. I mean, I just, can you imagine pulling Jesus aside and just correcting Him, right, calling Him out? Like, Peter in this moment, he's like, yo, I love you, big J, like, I love what you're doing around here, I love the miracles, and I love the multiplication of food and all that kind of stuff, love the brand awareness, by the way, of Christianity and God, and love all that stuff. But J, this dying talk, right, all this talk about you dying, like, it's not so great for the movement, right? And Jesus, in the next verse, He turns to Peter, which to me, that's… That's interesting because he must have like, he must have not been looking at Peter when Peter was reprimanding him because he was just like, it says he turns to Peter, right? And he says, get away from me, Satan. That you're a dangerous trap.

Now, here's what's crazy funny about this is six verses before this, Jesus is having this in exchange with Peter and he's telling Peter that he's gonna play this vital role in spreading the gospel. Like just six verses ago, Peter's like walking around with his shoulders back. He's already updated his LinkedIn account, right? Key leader of emerging global faith movement. Like he's already like, he's already there. And then all of a sudden he steps into this moment and assumes now that he's got the clout or the privilege or opportunity, whatever, to call out Jesus. And I think it's important for us to recognize that when Jesus looks at Peter in this moment and says, get away from me, Satan, he's not calling Peter Satan. What's happening here in this moment is Jesus is recognizing something. He's putting two and two together. He's recognizing back in Matthew four when Jesus went away and was fasting and was getting ready to step into his public ministry and Satan came to him with this temptation, this temptation to take a shortcut when it comes to God's purposes for Jesus's life. And Jesus is in this moment, he's seeing that, okay, I got Satan that has done that to me

and now I've got Peter that is trying to do the same thing. Like Peter is hearing about what I just said about having to go to the cross and lay down my life that, and he's calling that out and he's calling it out because it's this mindset of a cross-less Christianity. It's this idea that we can skip the suffering of the cross, that we can take the easy road or the easy way out and Jesus is like pumping the brakes on that and he's like, no, that's not what the Christian faith is all about. And then he says in the next verse, he says, or the next part of the verse, he says, listen, Peter, you're seeing things the wrong way. Like you're seeing them from a human point of view, not from God's point of view. We want Jesus to adapt to our timing, we want him to adapt to our preferences, we want him to adapt to our beliefs, we want him to adapt to our desired outcome for our life, we have this tendency in our life to want the promises that God has for us, but we don't want the pain that comes with it. And Jesus is stepping into this moment and he's like, that's not kingdom. You know, it's not kingdom to say I love Jesus, but to then on the other side, I do not want Jesus to disrupt our life. And Jesus steps into this moment and he's setting the straight,

he's trying to help them see the kingdom paradox, helping them see the difference between the human point of view and God's point of view. And he says this in verse 24, Jesus said to his disciples that if any of you wants to be my follower, he says, you must. Like, it's not a word that gives us an out that like if we feel like it, or if we believe in it, or it doesn't, it's you must, and there's three things that he lists here. You must give up your own way, you must take up your cross, and you must follow me. He says, if you try to hang on to your life, boy, we do that, don't we? He says, you're gonna lose it. But if you let go, if you'll give it up, but not just give it up, you'll give it up for my sake, that you'll save it. And then, I think verse 26, it's like true dad form, right? He says, what do you benefit? What do you benefit if you gain the whole world? What do you benefit if you have all the money, if you have all the stuff, you have all the relationships or the influence or whatever, like what do you benefit if you have all of that stuff, but you lose your own soul? He says, is there anything worth more than your soul? And then he says, for the son of man is going to come with angels in the glory of his father.

He's going to judge all people, not just some, but he's going to judge all people and not, he doesn't say according to a prayer that they prayed. It doesn't say according to whether or not they were baptized or not. It doesn't say according to their good intentions or what they feel like it, it doesn't, it, I mean, he's like straight to the point here. He's like, it's according to their deeds. It's according to the life that, that they're living. And so I want to, I want to come back to that question that, that today's really built around that question of how do I know that, that I'm saved? And I want us to take a look at this mirror that, that I believe Jesus has, has given to us because he's given us three, I think, big questions that you and I have to, to focus on in the mirror and to wrestle with a little bit in, in our lives in order for us to be able to, to authentically answer that question, not based upon a human point of view, but based upon God's point of view. And the first question is this, if you're taking notes, the first question is, is who is leading my life? That's that first phrase that Jesus uses of giving up your own way. Who's leading my life? We like to lead, don't we? Like, we love to lead. We love to call the shots. We need to, we love to control what's, what's next and what's going to happen in our life. But Jesus is clear in Scripture, in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, that no one can serve two masters, for you will, you will hate one of them and you're going to love the other. And, and it's because of that love-hate relationship that you will be devoted to, to the one that you love and you're going to despise the one that you hate. See, here's, here's the reality of this question of the who's leading my life question is, it's a question that we can, we can wrestle with this morning and we can say, okay, who's leading my life? And it's one that, that we can do between us and God and nobody, nobody knows that we're

asking that question or evaluating ourself in that way this morning. It's something that is private between us and God. But the evidence, okay, the question is private, but the evidence of who is leading our life is public. It's public because it shows up in every area of our life. It shows up in how we respond to conflict. It shows up in how we love difficult people or how we don't. It shows up in how we handle and process temptation. It shows up in how we manage money. It shows up in, in how we make decisions in our life. And that's why Jesus said in John 15, five, he said, I am the vine and you are the branches. I am the vine. Like he's, we get this backwards sometimes. We're like, I'm the vine, God, you're the branches. No, he's like, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Those who remain in me, okay, it's a key word there because that to me implies that there can be a conscious decision that we have in our life where we choose not to remain in Him, okay? So remain in me, and I in them, and when we do that, when there's that connection between us, the unity in our lives, that we're going to produce much fruit. And Jesus says this, for apart from me, you can do nothing. See, the proof of whether God is leading our life is the type of fruit that you and I are producing in our life. I mean, Jesus couldn't be any clearer with this, that if He's the root in our life, then we're going to produce His fruit in our life. But if we're the root of our life, if we're the one that's calling the shots in our life, then we're going to produce something else. The Apostle Paul talked about what that something else in Galatians chapter 5. He talked about the fruit of the flesh, and he talked about that fruit of when we are connected to ourselves, when we are the leaders of our own life, then the fruit that we then

begin to produce in our life is, and he starts listing, and it's not an exhaustive list. Like Paul's not like, okay, I'm going to list the nine things or whatever, everything else is golden. He's trying to create a framework so that we can understand what this looks like. He's like sexual immorality, hatred, fighting, jealousy, division, selfish ambitions, critical spirit, drunkenness. Like he just, he kind of begins to frame what that kind of fruit looks like in our life, and then he doesn't sugarcoat it. He then, in the very next verse of Galatians 5 verse 21, he points out where that lifestyle leads to. He says, let me tell you again, as I have before. So he's like, listen, we've been there, done that, we've had this conversation, let me lay this out for you again, that anyone that's living that sort of life, that they're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. Now, I know for some of us, that feels harsh. For some of us, we're thinking, okay, like that's pretty harsh that Paul would say that. But I think about life, and I think about parenting, and I think about my kids, and I think they would rather have the hard truth, even though it might not be exactly what they want to sugarcoat something, somebody to just give them what they want to hear that is not truth. And I think that's what we're seeing here. It's that idea of clear is kind. The more clear we are about the reality of the kingdom of God and God's perspective over our perspective, the more kind we become, and essentially all Paul's doing here is he's echoing what Jesus said. In John 15, 6, that anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away. Look at this language, thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile and they're burned. See, the fruit of our lives indicates who's leading our life. It's a mirror that helps us to begin to identify that, okay, maybe I prayed a prayer, maybe

I like God, maybe I believe, you know, intellectually in God, but at the end of the day, it's the fruit that is indicating who's leading our life because, hear my heart, hear my heart with this for a second. Scripture is clear, that there is no category in all of Scripture for someone who is saved by Jesus but not surrendered to Jesus. Like, there's no category in Scripture for those that claim the grace of God on their life while rejecting the guidance of God in their life. You see, human point of view would say we can have salvation without surrender, right? It's Christianity without the cross. Human point of view would say we can take the grace, which is almost like the do-over button in life, but we never have to change anything we do in our life. We just keep hitting that, that was easy button. Anybody remember the that was easy button? Like we just, we just keep, we just got the grace button and we just keep hitting it all of our life and we never change anything and that's, listen, that is not what God had in mind when he sent his son to die an agonizing death on the cross to save us. It was not, it was not to give us a free ticket into eternity, into heaven while never changing anything in our life, never having a heart that then begins to turn to the Father. Like that's, that's not anywhere in Scripture. And so Jesus is trying to help these disciples understand it and he leads with this one of who's leading the life because he recognizes that the other ones, they're not even going to make sense if this part of who's leading my life isn't in place. And so the second one that he, that he throws out there is the, is the taking up of the cross. And I think that's the question of what am I holding on to in life? What I keep grasping and holding on to that, that I won't let go of. You know, we hear this, this idea of the cross and, and for us it's, it's more of a fashion statement. It's something we wear around our neck or it's something that's on our shirt or it's a tattoo somewhere on our body.

But, but for them in those days when Jesus made that statement for them, the cross was an instrument of torture and death. And that's why Jesus went, when he says, take up your cross, he wasn't, he wasn't talking about a job that we don't like. He wasn't talking about our crazy schedule in life. He wasn't talking about, you know, just frustrating people that are just constantly like it just rub us the wrong way. Wasn't talking about our past. He wasn't talking about an illness in our life. Ladies, he wasn't talking about your husband, I promise. Those are, those can all be real challenges in our life, but they're not our cross. You see, our cross is where his will and our desires start moving in different directions. It's that thing that we keep holding on to even when he keeps telling us to let go of it. The cross is that idea of, of the kind of obedience that actually cost us something. It costs us our comfort. It costs us our reputation. It costs us our wants and our desires in life. See, our cross could be forgiveness instead of revenge. Our cross could be grace over grudges. It could be holiness over popularity. It could be serving over being served. It could be purity over pleasure, generosity over greed or truth over, over all of these trends now. And the reality of this is it creates tension in us. It creates tension because, because trying to, trying to think about faith and eternity through the lens of, okay, it requires me to change something about me creates some tension. But even Jesus, Jesus didn't even tell us that this is the way of living as a follower of Christ, but he even modeled it.

In Matthew 26, 39, it's right before he goes to the cross and he's like, he's like, Father, he's like, I mean, think of these words, like if it's, if it's possible to let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. And I've said in the past, I have no idea how much time passed between the first sentence in the second sentence. But it's. At some point after he had that moment of God, is there any other way than the cross? He resolves within his heart of I don't want the suffering, I don't like the suffering, yet I want your will to be done, not mine. And that's what taking up our cross looks like. It's living our life in such a way, it's not perfection, but it's living our life in such a way to where when his will begins to shift away from my desires that I'm willing to endure the suffering that it takes to be obedient and to follow his way. Because the reality is this folks, we can't step into the life God has for us while we are holding on to the things that he keeps asking us to let go of. It won't happen. And then the third thing that Jesus gives us here is to follow him. It's that question I think of, do others see Jesus in me? Do people see the Jesus that I claim to believe in? Do they see that in the way that I live my life? This Greek word for follow, it doesn't mean to admire, it doesn't mean to agree or even to intellectually believe. It is this idea culturally

in the New Testament of apprenticeship. It is this idea of learning a way of life from the person you are following and then imitating that in your own life. It's not going through the motions. It's not church attendance. It's not living life with our own agenda. It is being close enough to God that we can sense his character. We can sense his desire for our life and we're willing to make the difficult decision of obedience to follow it. From Jesus' perspective, it's that picture of where I go, you go. And what I do, you do. And so what does that look like? What does following look like? I think it's kind of wrapped around three things. It's being with him, right? We can't follow him if we're never with him, if we're never in his presence. But it's not just being with him, but then it's this journey of becoming like him. That the way that I respond to things in life, the choices that I make, they stop looking more like what I would naturally do and they start looking more like what he would do. My reactions, my attitudes, my choices. And then the third one is representing him. It's this idea of carrying his heart with us

every day of our life, his heart of reaching people, his heart of restoring the broken, his heart where we are essentially re-presenting Jesus to our coworkers and our family and our classmates and our teammates and our community. I think the hardest thing about this text is that this idea of a mirror, like mirrors are uncomfortable, right? They're uncomfortable and the reason why is because they don't lie. They don't show what we hope they'll show. They show what's actually there.