Jesus Tells of His Death and Resurrection

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Friday August 02, 2024}

Matthew 16:21-28, Mark 8:31-9:1, Luke 9:21-27

Father, help me to surrender my life to You. Help me to not pursue fame, wealth, power, influence, and pleasure. Transform my heart so that my goals and dreams are exclusively about the building of Your Kingdom. Give me the courage to hold onto my faith even when I suffer for it. Father, please give me a sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, peace, and joy from surrendering my life to You that is far better than living for my own glory. Amen.
Father, I imagine that the disciples were feeling rather excited about the conversation they just had with Jesus:

• They are in personal relationship with the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
• They have been chosen by Jesus for salvation.
• They will become better men, transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Their lives now have meaning and purpose.
• They will save people by sharing the gospel with them and teaching them how to live.
• They will be instrumental in the founding of the church. Their work will touch millions of people over thousands of years.
• Satan will never destroy their work.

I can imagine the disciples were smiling and laughing, perhaps joking with one another. Good times are coming. Power. Influence. Success. Achievement. Fame. Prestige. Jesus needed to put a stop to it by throwing the ice water of reality onto them.
“Guys, I’m going to Jerusalem. I will be severely persecuted and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law. In fact, I will be put to death by them on a cross. However, I will have the ultimate victory because I will be raised from the dead on third day.”
Father, I’m sure Jesus’ statement must have been followed by silence. Each disciple is shocked. I can imagine the whispers that ensued.
“What did He say? That makes no sense! Is He ok? Why is He so pessimistic? He should be excited like us. This isn’t good leadership, you know. It isn’t inspiring. Somebody needs to say something to Him. He needs an intervention. Peter?”
Peter agreed. He went up to Jesus and asked to speak to Jesus privately. I can imagine Peter said something like this:
“Jesus, that is not going to happen. There’s no way that’s how this is going to end. We won’t let it. We’ve got Your back. There are thousands of people who love You. They won’t let it happen either. Relax. No more talk about You dying on a cross. It isn’t good for our morale. Alright?”
It is clear from the text that Jesus understood Peter’s words to be another act of temptation from Satan. Satan is tempting Jesus, through the counsel of Peter, to:

• Become proud of who He is and to fight for His survival.
• Become the political messiah the people want Him to be.
• Embrace the very same lusts for power and influence that His disciples were just rejoicing over.

Satan imagined the future history books that would describe a first century revolutionary named Jesus of Nazareth who led a rebellion against Rome and died with His disciples by his side.
Jesus responded.
“Get out of my way, Satan! You are constantly trying to derail my mission. It won’t work. You don’t get it. I’m doing what the Father has called me to do. He is on my side. You are against Him. You are destined to defeat. I’m not interested in human aspirations for fame, power, and influence. I’m only interested in doing the will of my Father. I know that is something you don’t understand at all.”
Father, I assume that Satan departed from the scene having been humiliated by Jesus once more. I’m sure that Peter may have juggled quite a few emotions at that moment. He may have felt ashamed he was used by Satan. He may have felt hurt that Jesus had embarrassed him. He may have felt distance from Jesus and that broke his heart. He almost certainly felt confused, as did all the other disciples.
Jesus needed to clear up the confusion by explaining to his disciples, and to the crowd that was listening, what a follower of Jesus Christ is really like. A true follower of Jesus:

• Stops living for himself. He no longer pursues fame, wealth, power, influence, and pleasure. He no longer pursues his own goals and dreams. He gets up in the morning not asking what he can do for himself but what he can do for Jesus.
• Lives for the building of the Kingdom of God. He now pursues sharing the gospel with others. He now longs to minister, in Jesus’ name, to people in need. He lives to love and serve others to the glory of Jesus.
• Willingly suffers persecution because of his love for Jesus Christ. If people hate him for his love for Jesus, he willingly accepts the abuse. He will never disown Jesus for the sake of saving himself from suffering. In fact, he is willing to die for Jesus if that is what is required of his faith.
• Enjoys the blessings of surrendering his life to Jesus. Such a man will have a sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, peace, and joy that can never be achieved by the pursuit of fame, wealth, power, influence, and pleasure. Such a man will be eternally rewarded by Jesus when the man sees Jesus glorified with You and the angels of heaven.

What about the man who, fearing persecution, is ashamed to be a follower of Jesus? What about the man who chooses fame, wealth, power, influence, and pleasure over Jesus?

• That man will be spiritually dead. Though he might gain all kinds of fame, wealth, power, influence, and pleasure, none of that will save him or bring life to his dead soul.
• When Jesus is in His glory, with You and the angels, He will be ashamed of the man who is ashamed of Him. Such a man will not be welcomed into Jesus’ Kingdom.
• There is not enough money in the universe to buy back a man’s soul after Jesus, at the judgement, has declared it is lost.

Jesus concludes His talk by saying something mysterious.

• Matthew 16:28 - “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. (NIV)”
• Mark 9:1 - And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power. (NIV)”

The first passage refers to an event where Jesus comes. This appears on the surface to be a description of the Second Coming of Christ. Since Jesus has yet to return, how could there be people who lived 2,000 years ago who have not yet tasted death? The answer must be that this is not a reference to Jesus’ Second Coming.
The second passage refers to the powerful impact of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a reference to the power of the Kingdom of God to transform lives. The disciples would experience, as shared in the book of Acts, thousands of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is encouraging His disciples by telling them they will begin to experience the blessings of following Jesus before they pass away. It would seem this second passage is closer to the meaning of Jesus statement.
How do we make sense of the Matthew passage? The coming of the Son of Man that is referred to in the Matthew passage is the work of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the book of Acts. Jesus did come in the Spirit in the first century, after His resurrection and ascension, to begin the work of building His church. Many of His disciples had not yet tasted death when that took place. Amen.