Putting Jesus’ Agenda First (Part 1)
Matthew 16:21-28
March 4, 2007
How many of you here had parents at one time or another?
Was there ever a time when you felt that you knew better than your parents – about any given topic?
If you’ve never felt that way, then something’s wrong, and we’ll have a healing service after church, okay?
And how many of you, after you’d grown up a bit, found out that maybe Mom and Dad were actually right about some of that stuff?
It’s never happened to me, but I’ve heard of it happening to others…
The really hard part isn’t realizing they were right – it was admitting it to them, right?
One of the struggles of the Christian faith is admitting to God that He’s right about stuff.
That’s never fun, because we first have to admit that we were wrong in the first place. And who wants to do that?
The great thing about that, though, is that when we finally get the picture and get out of the way with our foolish ideas, God can really do His thing – in us and through us.
But it has to start with us understanding a very basic fact - Jesus knows better than we do.
And we need to trust Him in all things, especially in regard to His words about the Kingdom and His purposes.
We’re not alone in thinking we know better than someone else, even God. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples thought He knew better than Jesus.
He thought he had a better idea of what the Messiah was supposed to do than the Messiah Himself.
And we’re going to find some of the harshest words of Jesus in Scripture as Jesus talks with Peter about His error.
Matthew 16:21-28 (p. 694) –
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. 28 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
Next week we’re going to look at verses 24-28 and look at how this affects us on a very personal level. Today I want to focus on verses 21-23.
In these three verses are found a very powerful lesson that, if we let it, can affect us on both an individual level and on the level of our church.
Remember that Jesus had just asked Peter and the others what others were thinking He was as well as why THEY thought Jesus was.
Peter spoke up with a revelation from the Father that Jesus was the Christ – the Son of the Living God. The Messiah.
And it’s from this point that Jesus begins to let the disciples in on the fact that the Messiah had to die at the hands of the religious leaders and rise again.
Now I understand that Peter didn’t totally get the picture and that we have the benefit of having a Bible, but doesn’t it just seem a little absurd to try and set Jesus straight about ANYTHING?
“Yo, Jesus! I know more about God’s will than You do!”
Peter was way out of his league here.
Peter’s words here make about as much sense as Osama bin Ladin giving advice about non-violence to Ghandi.
Peter and the others were still living under the idea that the Messiah would be a Warrior-Savior who would come and save Israel from oppression.
So when Jesus, whom Peter had just identified as the Son of God – the Messiah, says He’s going to die, this kinda shakes up the scene.
A dying Savior doesn’t fit in with the idea that He would save Israel and sit on the throne as king.
But it goes a whole deeper than just a misunderstanding of the message.
Jesus’ words to Peter are a sharp rebuke that cannot be ignored in our time.
There are plenty of people who think that Jesus was addressing not Peter, but Satan. But friends, the fact is that Jesus WAS addressing Peter.
And the point of His words here are that Peter had moved from being a person in touch with divine revelation to being someone who aligns himself with men’s expectations, and therefore the agenda of Satan himself.
Jesus calls Peter a “stumbling block.” The word in the original language of the New Testament is “skandalon.” This is where the Latin “scandalum” comes from, and of course, our English word, “scandal” and “scandalous.”
It would have been scandalous for Jesus to follow Peter’s design rather than His own. It would have derailed His entire mission.
Satan had been trying to derail it from the beginning. Just looking in the New Testament, we see him convincing Herod to slaughter a bunch of innocent babies in order to kill Jesus.
And later, as Jesus was beginning His public ministry, Satan tried to get Jesus to accept a kingship without suffering for it when he offered everything to Jesus in return for worshiping Satan.
In this situation, Satan doesn’t use the direct approach he used earlier. This time he uses a more subtle, and possibly more dangerous approach by going through one of Jesus’ most trusted friends.
But that wouldn’t work, either. Jesus refused because He had a task from the Father. And He would allow absolutely nothing to get in the way. Not even the concern of one of His closest friends.
So here’s what I think is the main point of these few verses, and I hope you’ll write it down and look at it through the week.
Following any agenda other than Jesus’ agenda allows Satan’s agenda to proceed.
Is it really as serious as all that? Yes, it is!
Time and time again in Scripture we’re told that there is only one Master – God Himself.
When we serve anything or anyone other than the Master, we are serving the agenda of Satan. We’re more concerned with the things of men, as Jesus terms it here.
You see, we don’t have to be card-carrying Satan-worshipers in order to serve him and his purposes.
We serve Satan whenever we allow our personal agendas to get ahead of God’s.
You’re being awfully melodramatic, aren’t you, PB?
I don’t think so!
Think with me for a minute:
Peter loved Jesus. He didn’t fully understand everything, not even the words he spoke just a couple minutes earlier. And he was concerned for his friend.
But did Jesus say, “That’s okay, Pete. I understand that you’re not just getting this right now, so we’ll talk about later, okay?”
No! Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan! I’m not going to let you get in the way of my mission!
Jesus wanted Peter and the rest of the gang, and now us, to get the picture here.
It’s either His agenda or the devil’s. It’s really that simple.
Is Jesus’ agenda your priority or is something else your priority?
When we’re in church it’s easy to say that we’re following Jesus’ agenda and that it’s your priority.
But what about tomorrow morning? When the alarm goes off tomorrow, and you get to work with people who don’t love Jesus or you don’t get along with, or it’s just simply a job you absolutely hate (and I’ve been there so I know how that feels), will you be concerned with Jesus’ agenda above your own?
I’m re-reading a great book entitle, A Man Called Peter, about Peter Marshall, who served as the Chaplain of the US Senate in the 1940’s.
He was a Scottish immigrant who came to America convinced that he was to train for the ministry here.
He came without much money, and for the next few years worked like a dog for just enough money to get by.
Yet he was convinced that Jesus’ agenda was for him to become a minister. And so, even though it took years, he submitted himself to going about it the only way he could – working and waiting patiently until something came his way that would allow him to go to school.
I wonder how many times he prayed, “Lord, can’t we hurry this up a bit? I’m not getting any younger!”
At last his church came through and paid his way, and he went on to influence countless people, both as a pastor and as the Chaplain of the Senate.
But it never would have happened if he had tried to move on his own, putting his own agenda before Jesus’.
If you get your income tax refund, are your plans to use it in ways that promote Jesus’ agenda?
Chances are that if you’re like most people, you won’t. And the reason is because you haven’t trained yourself to think that way.
We all have bills to pay, and many will use that refund to pay some of those bills. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But what about asking God to show you how you could use at least a portion of it (dare I say a tithe?) for kingdom purposes?
This goes back to something I’ve said over and over and over and over and over: following Jesus isn’t something that happens by default.
It only happens when we intentionally decide to follow Jesus in the everyday run of life and not just on Sundays.
As you spend time in the Word of God and in prayer, you find out what God wants, and His Holy Spirit works within us to become people who are focused on the agenda of God and not ourselves.
And the community of believers that comes together on Sundays and meets outside of the service in small groups serves to help us and encourage us to be people who live for Jesus above ourselves.
There’s a word we have for that. Maybe you’ve heard it: discipleship.
It’s at the heart of what Jesus wants for us as individuals and as a church.
It’s what He charged the Church with making just before He left to be with the Father.
Disciples are sold out to Jesus and His agenda.
So one of the tests you can take to see if you are really a disciple is to ask yourself if Jesus’ agenda is more important than your own, and answer it honestly.
Then examine yourself throughout the week, as you evaluate your thought patterns, your activities, your attitudes, your habits, or what have you to see if they are in line with Jesus’ agenda.
You know, this is a constant battle for all of us. None of us are exempt.
I’d love to tell you that I’ve got it all together. But I’d be lying.
The truth of the matter is that I’m still a major work in progress. I still have areas of my life that I’m learning to surrender to Christ and His agenda.
Even pastors have to be intentional about getting with God and asking Him to help us become better disciples who are more concerned with the agenda of Jesus than our own.
With pastors, the danger is to see their agenda as making the church in their image, even if they don’t realize it.
I mentioned a few months back that the Lord spoke to me about that, and I had to sacrifice my agenda for the church so that I could be more attuned to the agenda of Jesus.
We’re part of a group of about 8 or 9 churches in the Dakota District that is part of a three-year Refocusing process.
The purpose of that process is to help us see where we need to get in line with Jesus’ agenda for the church, and this church in particular.
We’re about half-way through the process, and I’m convinced that this will be a turning point for the church.
Why? Because for maybe the first time since the early days of the church, we’re being intentional about finding and following Jesus’ agenda for AWC.
I would appreciate your prayers over the next couple of weeks in particular as we meet with the consultant to look at just what we need to do to become the church Jesus intends for us to be.
We’ve got a meeting this week with the leadership of the church, then another in a couple of weeks.
We need your prayers because you know what? The enemy, Satan, would rather we never do this. He’s thrilled when churches live on with the idea that they’re just peachy and have everything figured out.
And so he’s going to do anything he can to keep our leaders from attending. He’s going to do his utmost to come up with things that will keep us from being at the meetings.
So please pray that we would all see through these things and commit to being there – for the sake of the Kingdom of God and His Church.
Please pray that God would work in our hearts in a way that we finish this process committed to Jesus’ agenda like never before.
Let it be seen that this church is made up of people who are committed to Jesus’ agenda above all others.
When we’re committed to Jesus’ agenda above all, then they’ll see two things in particular:
First, they’ll see that our goal as a church isn’t to merely survive or to say that have a Wesleyan church in the area – they’ll see that we exist for something greater than ourselves – the Kingdom of God.
Second, they’ll see that our commitment to Jesus’ agenda is lived out in the individual lives of our people, as they interact with those who need the life-changing message of Jesus.
And folks, that’s what it’s all about. Lives being saved and changed by Jesus so His kingdom can advance in our area.
Let’s pray.
