Matthew 16:24-17:9: “Jesus Teaches That A Follower Must Take Up
His Cross And Be Willing To Lose His Life / Jesus Is Transfigured”
by
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
Here in these next few verses we see that Jesus is repeating
some of His previous teachings and doing so perhaps with a little bit of a
different purpose
1.1.1.
A person must take up his cross in order to follow
Jesus
1.1.2.
Whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it and visa
versa
1.2.
Jesus teaches there will be no profit to gain the
whole world and lose your own soul
1.3.
Jesus teaches about His Second Coming saying that He
is going to return to earth one day in the glory of His Father and with His
angels and recompense every man according to his deeds
2.
VS 16:24-25 - “24 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. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life shall
lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” – Jesus
again reiterates the cost of following Him and how that it involves death to
self and sacrifice
2.1.
In Matt. 10:38-39, we read Jesus preaching very similar words, for in those verses He said
that whoever did not take up his cross and follow Him, he was not worthy of
Him. So, here He is mostly repeating
that sermon, as He probably repeated all or parts of many of His sermons from
the past
2.2.
Here in these verses, Jesus seems more to be giving requirements for
following Him. He says that in anyone
wants to ‘come after me’, which means ‘to be His follower’, he must
2.2.1.
deny himself
2.2.1.1.The disciple of Christ must
come to the place in his life that just as Jesus grappled in the
2.2.1.2.The real center of the life
of sin in a person’s life is ‘self’, and ‘self-centeredness’, it is the doing
whatever you want in order to please yourself
2.2.2.
take up his cross
2.2.2.1.Jesus says that His follower
must not just be willing to carry his cross, but because of his love for Jesus,
have the inward initiative and desire to take it up
2.2.2.2.The cross was the most cruel
and painful of ways to die in
2.2.2.3.An elderly pastor once gave
my pastor some sound advice. He told him
to never take the cross away from people, for we must all die to self and we
must all labor diligently for the Lord
2.2.3.
follow me
2.2.3.1.A disciple of Jesus is
called to be a seeker of the Lord, and to spend time with the Lord. For as I have said before, to ‘follow’ Jesus
means:
2.2.3.1.1.to seek to emulate His
conduct and example in all things
2.2.3.1.2.to learn and study His
teachings
2.2.3.1.3.to be ‘with’ Him
2.2.3.1.4.to seek His leading in all
things
2.3.
Jesus tells His disciples the paradox concerning losing and saving ones
life:
2.3.1.
the one who saves his life shall lose it
2.3.1.1.If a person tries to hold on
to his self-life and live according to how he wants to do things in his life,
he will end up spending eternity in hell, and thus he shall ‘lose’ his life
2.3.2.
the one who loses his life for Jesus shall find it
2.3.2.1.If a person surrenders his life
to Jesus and His will and plans for him, then he will find out what true life
really is, for he shall inherit ‘eternal life’, that quality of life that is
full to the utmost, and that quantity of life that shall last for all eternity
in heaven
3.
VS 16:26 - “26
“For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits
his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”” - Jesus tells His disciples that even if a man
should gain all of the riches and power that this earth could ever offer, yet
as a result of doing so he loses his soul for eternity, he will not profit from
it
3.1.
When you think about it, there would be an aweful lot of riches upon this
earth if they were to all be placed in one spot, and yet obtaining all of these
riches would not be worth the price of spending an eternity in hell
3.2.
Likewise, a person who was setup to rule over the whole earth would wield
an aweful lot of power and prestige, and
he could have whatever he wanted on this earth, yet if to gain the full power
over all of the earth would not be worth the price of spending an eternity in
hell
3.3.
Jesus asks the rhetorical question, ‘What will a man give in exchange for
his soul?’ For there is nothing that we
can give to the Lord that would allow us to have salvation, except for our very
own lives…
4.
VS 16:27 - “27
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His
angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds”” - Jesus assures His followers that He would
come again one day with His angels, and at that time He would recompense every
man according to his deeds
4.1.
This is not a reference to the ‘Rapture’ of the church to which Jesus is
referring, rather it is what we call, ‘The Second Coming’, when Jesus shall
come to earth at the end of the 7 year Tribulation of the book of Revelation,
and usher in His Millenial Kingdom
4.1.1.
The actual ‘Great White Throne’ of Judgment for non-believers to which
Jesus is referring here will then occur at the end of the Millenial Reign
4.1.1.1.John, writing in Rev.
19:11-16,
wrote about this Second Coming of the Lord, “11 And I saw heaven opened; and
behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and
in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 And His eyes are a flame of fire, and
upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one
knows except Himself. 13 And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His
name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 And from
His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He
will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce
wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name
written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS””
4.1.1.2.Jesus often spoke of this
event, as we see from some of the examples in the rest of the book of Matthew
4.1.1.2.1.Matt. 24:30, “30 and
then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes
of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds
of the sky with power and great glory”
4.1.1.2.2.Matt.
25:31-33, “31 “But
when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He
will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “And all the nations will be gathered
before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right,
and the goats on the left”
4.1.1.2.3.Matt. 26:64,
“64 Jesus *said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you,
hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and
coming on the clouds of heaven.””
4.2.
The judgment of God will be simply to get what you deserve based upon
your deeds, or in other words ‘the full arm of justice’ for the good and bad
that you have done
4.2.1.
Since man is sinful and has often broken God’s laws and thus sinned, the
penalty that will be required of non-believers will be an eternity in hell
4.2.2.
If you think about it if a person tried as hard as he could to keep God’s
Law and by doing so he broke it just twice a day in thought or deed, if that
same man lived 70 years he would have broken God’s Law 51,000 times. What judge would not throw the book at
someone who came before his bench having 51,000 offenses against him?
4.2.3.
I am so thankful that we as Christians will not meet the Lord’s ‘justice’
when He returns, since Jesus took our punishments upon Himself on the cross,
but rather since we have received not His judgment but His mercy, He is coming
to reward us, glorify us, and take us to be with Him for all eternity
5.
VS 16:28 - “28
“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall
not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom””
- Jesus tells His disciples that there
are some that were there with Him who would see His coming in His kingdom
before they died
5.1.
Since all of the disciples who were present at this moment with Jesus
have now gone to sleep in the Lord, and yet we see that He has not yet come in
His kingdom to the earth, we must ask what Jesus meant by this statement to His
disciples?
5.2.
This verse has seen three major interpretations by the church concerning what
He meant by seeing ‘the Son of Man coming in His kingdom’
5.2.1.
The destruction of
5.2.1.1.Some have said that this
judgment which came about by the Lord because the Jews rejected their Messiah
was a situation where Jesus came in His kingdom
5.2.1.1.1.This interpretation is a bit
of a stretch because Jesus wasn’t really coming in His kingdom when this
occurred, He was simply judging that nation
5.2.2.
His resurrection from the dead
5.2.2.1.Some have said that Jesus
coming in His kingdom was witnessed by those who saw Him after He was raised
from the dead
5.2.2.1.1.This interpretation is a bit
of a stretch also because Jesus was raised from the dead, however His kingdom
was quite a ways off
5.2.3.
His transfiguration was a glimpse of His coming in His kingdom
5.2.3.1.Some have said that when
Peter, James, and John saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, seeing a
glimpse of the glory which He shall have when He returns at His second coming,
that this was the fulfillment of this
5.2.3.1.1.To me this is the best of
the three interpretations
6.
INTRO:
6.1.
In this next section of the gospel of Matthew, we see
that Jesus reveals His glory to His disciples
6.1.1.
In order for them to understand His resurrection and
that He is to be raised from the dead and one day glorified and reign with the
Father for eternity, Jesus gives them a prelude to that day He will be
glorified
6.1.2.
Peter, James, and John alone get to see this event,
and then afterwards they are told by Jesus to tell the vision to no one, but
one day when they are the key leaders amongst the church they are to relay this
event and its importance to the rest of the disciples
6.1.3.
Jesus seeks to build the faith of these disciples
through His transfiguration before them
6.1.4.
Notice that Jesus’ transfiguration followed and
thereby confirmed Peter’s Great Confession of Christ
7.
VS 17:1-3 -
“17:1 And six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John his
brother, and *brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. 2 And He was
transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments
became as white as light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,
talking with Him”” - Jesus takes His
disciples up to a high mountain and is transfigured into His glory before them
7.1.
Here again we see that it is Peter, James, and John who are allowed into
that unique subset of the 12 that has special privileges in seeing Jesus doing
things that the others do not get to see
7.2.
The purpose for the Lord becoming glorified in the disciples midst is so
that they will one day be prepared to understand the purpose for His
resurrection as well as the subsequent glory which He shall have for all
eternity
7.2.1.
As future leaders of the apostolic band and the church itself, these men
were given this vision so that they might be able to strengthen the faith of the
others after Jesus had risen from the dead
7.3.
This transformation by the Lord before His disciples resembles the two
other visions which men had of the glorified Lord
7.3.1.
In Daniel 7:9 Daniel had a vision of the Ancient of Days sitting upon His throne, “9 “I kept
looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow, And the hair of His head like pure
wool. His throne was ablaze with
flames, Its wheels were a burning fire””
7.3.2.
In Rev. 1:12-15 the apostle John saw the glorified Lord on the
7.4.
In Philippians chapter 2 we see that Jesus humbled Himself and took on
human flesh, even the form of a bondslave to God, and for the purpose of
relating to mankind and becoming the means for all men to be able to be drawn
to God for salvation Jesus always appeared in the humblest of circumstances as
a man, yet His glory could not forever be veiled from human site, for He was
destined one day to appear again raised up in glory, and thus the Lord allowed
these disciples to get just a glimpse of what that glory would appear as
7.5.
It is interesting that two of the greatest men under the first covenant
appear unto Jesus in this incident, and in Luke 9:31-32 we learn a couple of other
details concerning what occurred, “31 who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His
departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his
companions had been overcome with sleep; but when they were fully awake, they
saw His glory and the two men standing with Him”
7.5.1.
We learn that Peter, James, and John had been sleeping instead of
spending time in prayer to the Father as Jesus had been doing, and that they
were awakened after this began occurring and Moses and Elijah appeared and were
talking with Jesus
7.5.1.1.Here we see again another
apostolic blunder for when they should have been praying they were sleeping
(see also the similar incident in the
7.5.2.
The topic of the discussion between Moses and Elijah and Jesus was Jesus’
soon departure from the earth at His crucifixion and resurrection from the dead
8.
VS 17:4-6 - “4 And
Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You
wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and
one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My
beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” 6 And when the
disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were much afraid” - Peter suggests to Jesus that they make three
tabernacles, one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah so that they might stay
around or prolong their meeting
8.1.
This must have been quite a conversation that was going on between Jesus,
Moses and Elijah, and the disciples must have really been intrigued by all
aspects of what they were seeing and hearing
8.2.
Before we fault Peter for once again speaking out of turn and not being
in-line with the Lord’s purposes in this incident, we first ought to realize
that Peter was truly seeking what he thought was of the utmost importance for
he and the other disciples as well as God’s program, and I’m afraid that many
times we Christians don’t place the priority that we should on seeking the Lord
and His voice and leading in our lives and thus many times we cut short or miss
entirely those precious times with the Lord we ought to be having
8.3.
What Peter failed to understand is essentially that a disciple cannot
always stay in those mountain top experiences with God, as blessed and joyous
as they may be. There is a time for
everything to occur
8.3.1.
A song that was popular in the 60’s came from Ecclessiastes 3:1-8 which tells us how there is
a time for everything to occur in our lives on earth, “3:1
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event
under heaven— 2 A time to give birth,
and a time to die; A time to plant, and
a time to uproot what is planted. 3 A
time to kill, and a time to heal; A time
to tear down, and a time to build up. 4
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A
time to mourn, and a time to dance. 5 A
time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to shun
embracing. 6 A time to search, and a
time to give up as lost; A time to keep,
and a time to throw away. 7 A time to
tear apart, and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent, and a time to speak. 8 A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace””
8.4.
While Peter was uttering his request of Jesus the Father spoke from
heaven that phrase of admiration for His Son which was also uttered at Jesus’
baptism and at Gethsemane (John 12:28), ‘This is My beloved Son’
8.4.1.
In 2 Peter 1:17-19 Peter writes in his epistle giving testimony to his having been there on
the Mount of Transfiguration when this utterance was made, “17 For
when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this
was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am
well-pleased”— 18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when
we were with Him on the holy mountain. 19 And so we have the prophetic word
made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a
dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts”
8.5.
Seeing the shekinah glory of the cloud and hearing the audible voice of
Almighty God testifying about His own Son was enough to scare the disciples out
of their wits so in fear they fell straight to the ground
8.5.1.
The Old Testament scriptures tell us that if anyone saw the Lord that he
would die, so these disciples had reason to be afraid at this moment
8.6.
As I have mentioned earlier in this study, when Moses prophesied of the
prophet that was to come after him, he said that the people were to listen to everything
that He said, and thus the Father tells the disciples that they were now to
listen to Jesus
9.
VS 17:7-8 - “7 And
Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” 8
And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus Himself alone”
- Jesus comes to them and tells them not
to be afraid
9.1.
This cloud and voice from heaven disappear almost as fast as they appear,
and when it is gone Jesus is there alone with His disciples
9.2.
The Lord did not want the disciples to be afraid, for though He is holy,
awesome, and mighty He does not want His people to be scared to death of Him,
but merely to give Him proper reverance.
10.
VS 17:9 - “9 And
as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell
the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”” - Jesus commands Peter, James, and John to not
tell anyone about the vision until He has risen from the dead
10.1.
By giving this warning in this way to these disciples we can easily see that
the purpose that the Lord had for this vision was to give enlightenment to His
disciples of His future glory and the fact of His resurrection
10.2.
If Jesus hadn’t taken these disciples to the mountain top and revealed
His glory in this way the apostles might never have come to understand what
happened when He was resurrected
10.2.1.1.1.In our lives as Christians
occasionally there are times when the Lord does something in our lives which He
intends to be personal just between us and Him, and He does not intend us to go
around telling everyone what has happened