Matthew 16

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang onto your life you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. - Matthew 16:24-25

As I wrote in my last blog these two verses have been on my mind quite frequently. God is continuing to teach me more through them. I think that they are very intriguing verses. There's a lot to think about. I was realizing when preparing a campaigner lesson (YoungLife bible study) that these disciples of Jesus had already chosen to follow him once. Many of them had left their careers, family, belongings, etc to follow this man Jesus. Jesus promised Peter he would be a fisher of men! First they leave their things behind and now Jesus tells them to turn from their selfish ways or deny themselves and follow him(NIV). We today as followers of Jesus have the same type of commitment to Christ...he calls the action for us. When we choose to believe in Jesus (John 3:16) we are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). But I believe that Jesus then tells us this...deny your selfish desires and follow me with everything you have!! We are such selfish and sinful people...so for us to deny ourselves we have to have Christ's power!
I was listening to a sermon by Matt Santen (pastor at River Ridge Church in Charleston, WV) and he was talking about these verses! He made the point that two very critical things had just happened to the disciples. First, in the beginning of Matthew 16 Peter acknowedges Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Soon after Jesus reveals to his disciples for the first time that he is going to die. Think about the impact that those two revelations would mean to your life if you were a steady follower of Jesus, his friend! You just realized that He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the one you have been waiting for to bring harmony back to Jerusalem and the world and THEN he goes on to tell you he will die and then be raised from the dead. I can't imagine that this is what they were expecting!! They were expecting an earthly king to rule...not one who would die?!
Living in our time we have the amazing priveledge to know that Jesus dying and rising from the dead has offered to us amazing freedom and salvation. His death on the cross offered us eternal life! The disciples did not understand the implications of what his death would mean, but we do! And because of that, we are called to get rid of the selfishness and to live a life like Jesus.

He tells them... you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. He tells them not to hang onto their lives...but to give up your life for Jesus' sake...why? Because "what benefit is it if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Matthew 16:26)"

How do we give up our lives? I personally think it is a heart issue, that will then reflect to our actions. Acknowledging that we are all God's children and that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love others. Loving others is extremely sacrificial. People are hard to love, but Jesus looks past all the faults and loves us! So we too, as his children and servants are to love others. If we truly love others...the 10 commandments will be followed. We won't envy if we are truly loving and joyful for our friend who has something great!

Anyways...there are a lot of words and I hope I didn't lose you. I am still learning much about what these mean in the everyday life, and I am still so sinful and selfish it is ridiculous...but as Romans 8:23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. That's gonna be sweeet!

Check out this song on youtube that is written from Matthew 16:26.

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