Matthew 16:24-28 ~ whoever loses his life for my sake will find it

Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[soul] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”



Having sat and considered Take up your cross I think I'm beginning to like the phrase.

The disciples surely did not. Except maybe for Simon, the Zealot. Death. Not with hints of glory, instead the Whole Holy Contingency. Death takes a back seat to Jesus coming into His Kingdom. That would be an unusual day for anyone hearing this severe statement.

To the disciples, the cross was indeed an effective way for the Romans to keep the peace. Typically taking three to five days to slowly "have the government upon your shoulders." Which literally means suffocation.

Jesus' opinion,  as God Himself ,understood time is merely a cage for us in this life. Jesus was in the first sentence and the last sentence was declaring this ~

1 Corinthians 15:55
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 

 The Cross to Jesus is the symbol not of death, but HIS Victory over death. 

To us this is saying, we take all the events of our life and we apply the Victory over death. We remind ourselves to carry His blessing and our gratitude as Paul did. Plunging into life. Allowing life to be shaped by HIM. Leaning in His understanding. Claiming in our actions and actually, more difficult, words that HE matters to us that much. 

I love the analogy of life pushing us with tremendous force to being one of riding the Mississippi River. The water pushing is to the Ocean that is God. 

The Cross is us holding on to this in the swift currents of life and directions to be taken in decisions. 

 We still cannot contain that River. We can think we have that under control and actually we exist only in the quiet eddies of our lives. The MS is rolling on down the line.

Anyone with basic understanding of the Bible, knows we are told Jesus spoke of millenniums of knowledge when He said he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Amos could picture this, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amos 6
“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
and stretch themselves out on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the midst of the stall,
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
6 who drink wine in bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
7 Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,
and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

8 The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts

Joel 3:14
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision

Back of the bus time. I just picture very win-at-all-costs people being told  ~

So the last will be first, and the first last.

Who said that? Jesus.

Bad news for the-elbows-out-me-first-generation.

Hebrews 12:17-19
For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

 
What is in store for the people who put away what was comfortable. The people we read about in the true events of the lives in  "Same Different as Me." A Homeless man, Denver, who would put away the opportunity to walk away from a racist and teach a horrible, horrid, abandoned old man - a black homeless man would bring him to see Jesus Christ as Lord and not christian comfortable mealy mouth. That is astonishing. The horrid man was an eighty year old racist hater. A profoundly successful business man his family threw into the homeless shelter because of his vindictive hate. And Jesus renewed that dire soul.

The opportunity of Homelessness is not one I'd like to experience. What is perhaps more important here, and workable, is the bloom where you are planted theology. These are people HE places with in our lives, not going away. The homeless formerly hateful old man had constant contact in the life of Denver.

I understand, far better, the lessons learned in Bill Hybel's "Walk Across the Room." Rick Warren and Tom Holladay, his brother-in-law and co-pastor, wrote and taught "40 Days of Love." On practical values of forgiveness, the need to use our lives as examples of teachable moment to witness to God's love on a permanent basis.

Bill Hybel's explanation that his own Church helped him reach seekers, but where were the others - those not looking for the Lord. Bill struggled to find how to reach the ones sitting outside the Churches and because of this thought, he loved his friend, a non-seeker,  for two or three years until one day - he looked at his beloved friend and said, by the refrigerator, at a party , "I'm not going to Heaven without you. You need to please accept Jesus Christ as your Lord." And a loving heart opened to Jesus Christ.

What do we receive in this life? For taking up our cross?

People less centered on themselves are happier. Paul said I'm going to see how it goes with me, more relaxed that God will carry them through.


2 Corinthians 4:8
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair

Romans 15:1
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Philippians 2:4
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

1 Thessalonians 5:14
And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Being in the thick of life, not as worried about the consequences.  Rather like the statue in the photo...Not to bad a place to be in August!

What is in store for the people who seek Jesus with self-denial.

Matthew 8:3
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Moses was shown a leprosy trick. And did not Evah do the leprosy trick again. Moses found that a bit too trying. But Jesus. Our Jesus. He stretched out HIS hand and touched.

Poor Peter. He lived with his mother-in-law. (Mine is just great! Thank God. But we are missing out on generations of family.)

Matthew 8:15
He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.

Blessed are the eyes that see with faith.

Matthew 9:29
Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”

Matthew 17:6-8
When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

I do believe we will all spend personal time with Jesus.

Mark 7:32-34
And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

Here in this in life, but more importantly in eternity.

Matthew 25:23
"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

1 Chronicles 12:40
And also their relatives, from as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, came bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, abundant provisions of flour, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, oxen and sheep, for there was joy in Israel.

Nehemiah 8:10
Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”


Psalms 47:1
Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!


John 16 ~ Jesus still prays for us and with us.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

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