Mateus 16
Charles Spurgeon · Citado em PreceptAustin
Mateus 16
Spurgeon - “If you know no more of Jesus than flesh and blood has revealed to you, it has brought you no more blessing than the conjectures of their age brought to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who remained an adulterous and unbelieving generation.” A T
Mateus 16
Spurgeon - You have to bear the cross, but not the curse. Your Lord endured both cross and curse, but to you there is not so much as a drop of divine anger in all that you are suffering. Your Lord sends you a cross, but not a crush. It is meant to bear you down, but not to break you and grind you in the dust. Your cross is proportioned to your strength. Your cross is not a loss James Smith - Handfuls of Purpose - TRUE SELF-DENIAL “Then Peter took Him … saying, Pity Thyself, Lord.” “Then said Jesus, … If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself” (Matthew 16:22, 24). (“Let him cross himself out,” Burroughs.) Introduction. Pity thyself—Deny thyself. DIFFERENCE. 1. What a vast difference between these two statements! 2. Yet all are either doing the one or the other—either pitying and sparing, or denying and ignoring self. MARVEL. 1. Men often wonder why there are, comparatively speaking, so few disciples of Christ. 2. We ought, instead, to marvel there are so many. 3. For look at the conditions of discipleship—they are not easy. 4. For no teacher or leader had ever proposed such conditions. 5. In profane history we read of many noble acts of self-denial, but no lives of habitual self-denial. 6. Yet that is what our Lord claims of all His followers—it has got to be done every day. St. Luke adds that to his account in Luke 9:23. 7. No holiday but our habitual habit and practice. FIRST TIME. 1. This is the first time our Lord referred to the denial of self as a condition of discipleship. 2. Cross-bearing and self-denial up to now had not been the badge of discipleship. RESULT. 1. Until our Lord made this declaration He had many followers. 2. Up to this time our Lord had proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom. 3. But He had been rejected. 4. Now He hints at a new order of things: the calling out. 5. For the first time He spoke of the Church. 6. Now it is not the Kingdom, but the Church. 7. And from that time His followers dwindled. EVIDENCE OF HUMANITY. 1. Do you not detect an evidence of His humanity—in the question He asked His disciples? (verses 13 and 15). 2. He was curious to hear from His disciples (of course what He already knew) of the world’s estimation of Him. 3. How differently they viewed Him: John, the ascetic; Elijah, the ardent, enthusiastic, and fierce; Jeremiah, the prophet of the tender heart and tears. They saw all three in Him. 4. Then He inquired: “What am I to you?” He desired to know their own views of Him. OPINIONS. 1. But there is in these questions something else besides an evidence of humanity. 2. Is there not manifested here His deep concern respecting the opinions of His disciples? 3. Say some: “It matters not what our opinions are—it’s conduct that counts.” 4. This is utterly wrong—creed influences conduct. 5. The inquisitors had hearts of flesh, but creeds of iron. WHAT IF HE HAD PITIED HIMSELF? 1. “From that time” He spoke of Cross and self-denial. 2. This was too much for loving and impulsive Peter. 3. If He had pitied Himself we would verily have been in a pitiful condition. WHAT IF YOU DO? And if we pity and spare ourselves we shall at last be found in a pitiful condition in spite of that atoning death of Christ. WHO SUGGESTS? 1. Note, the suggestion to pity self is from Satan. 2. To deny self, from God. I. The Nature of Self-Denial. GENERAL IDEA. 1. The general idea is that which is exhibited in weeks of self-denial—denying to ourselves certain things—food or pleasure—pleasant to the natural man. 2. We would that there were more of this. 3. But true self-denial is something much more. 4. Possible for self to be very prominent in self-denial. 5. And so-called self-denial to be really self-glorification. “HIMSELF.” 1. Note these words were addressed to men who had already made great sacrifices in order to follow Jesus. 2. But He asked of them an even greater sacrifice—themselves. 3. Observe, deny, not to himself, but himself. 4. To ourselves is but one aspect of self-denial. II. The Necessity of Self-Denial. “But,” you may inquire, “why should I deny myself?” 1. THERE IS NO SALVATION WITHOUT SELF-DENIAL. a. Do not imagine it is a thing of little consequence or merely the high attainment of some few of the saints. b. It is a thing all must have that will be saved. c. As Baxter, the Puritan, says: “It is a plain contradiction to be saved without self-denial. For as it is self that we must be saved from, so to stick to self is to be lost and miserable, and therefore not to be saved.” d. Self is the root, tree, and branches of all the evils of our fallen nature. e. Every son and daughter of Adam are in the service of self, and what an awful and disastrous service it is. f. What hurried Eve headlong upon the forbidden fruit, but that wretched thing herself? What drew that one to kill his brother Abel, but that untamed self? What drove the old world on to corrupt their ways? Who but themselves, their sinful selves. g. Listen to Rutherford: “Every man blameth the Devil for his sins, but the great devil, the house-devil of every man, that house-devil that eateth and lieth in every man’s bosom, is that idol that killeth all, himself. Oh! blessed are they who can deny themselves, and put Christ in the room of themselves! h. Remember this: “Till a man deny himself, he denieth God” (B.). i. “Deny self or you will deny Christ” (B.), for self is both an Atheist and an idolater, self is an Antichrist, and glories in self-exaltation.” j. The initial act of self-denial that leads to our salvation, must become the habit of our lives. 2. THERE CAN BE NO SUCCESSFUL SERVICE FOR GOD WITHOUT SELF-DENIAL. a. A man and a boy went fishing. The boy caught plenty, but the man had not a single bite. b. The man inquired; when the boy replied, “Ah! thee mun lie thee daan, mon!” c. He was tall, and stood up, and the sun cast his shadow upon the water, frightening the fish. d. It is the shadow of self that mars our work. III. The Example Our Lord Gave to Self-Denial. 1. LOOK AT THE LIFE OF OUR LORD—PONDER OVER THESE SAYINGS. a. “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30). b. “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me” (John 5:30). c. “I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things” (John 8:28). d. “The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works” (John 14:10). e. “For their sakes I sanctify Myself” (John 17:19). 2. LEARN. a. He came to this earth by the Father’s wish. b. Not a word did He speak by His own power. c. Not an act did He do of Himself. d. He was moved and controlled by God. 3. IF JESUS THOUGHT IT NECESSARY TO DENY A HOLY SELF, WHAT SHALL WE SAY ABOUT OUR SINFUL SELF? IV. The Path to a Life of Self-Denial. But how can I possibly live such a life? By walking close to Him. 1. A little boy was walking by the side of a missionary on the way to a meeting. The little fellow amused himself by the shadows they cast upon the path as they walked. After trying in vain to keep the shadow of himself from appearing outside that of his friend, he gave up the attempt, and said, “Please take my hand.” In a little while he cried, “Oh, look, you can’t find me now; you can’t find one bit of my shadow now. I’m lost in you.” 2. Exactly. 3. If you try by yourself to deny self, you will fail. 4. It is only companionship with Him that makes such possible. 5. It is only as we walk with our hands gripped in His. 6. Is not this sentence significant: “And Peter followed afar off.” If following afar off led Peter to the denial of his Master, surely following very closely will lead to a daily denial of self. CONCLUSION. 1. To pity self is to destroy yourself. 2. You cannot “come after” unless you come to Him. IMITATION (Gk. miméomai). A self-sacrificial following after Christ, to be adopted in emulation of the apostles (e.g., 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:7, 9; Heb. 13:7). While he confesses that he himself is not perfect, Paul challenges Christians in the young churches to follow his example (1 Cor. 11:1; cf. Phil. 3:12). One should imitate the model of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:32), the ideal set forth by God (5:13), and emulate good rather than evil (John 11). The concept is more fully expressed by Gk. akolouthéō, with the sense “follow (as a disciple)” or “obey,” as used primarily in the Gospels. The term implies more than merely copying Jesus’ lifestyle (Matt. 16:24; John 8:12), stressing particularly a readiness to face one’s own possible destruction (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). It occurs in those passages where Christ calls his disciples (Mark 1:18) and where the disciples respond (Matt. 4:20; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:11). Such a “coming after” suggests a relationship between master and pupil that also removes the parties from other social ties (Matt. 8:22; Luke 9:61). Even the crowds that followed Jesus demonstrated a form of imitation that showed recognition and relatedness. Such imitation is focused on Christ’s messiahship (Mark 10:21; John 8:12). At Rev. 14:4 those who have remained morally pure are the redeemed who follow the Lamb “wherever he goes.” (Eerdman's Bible Dictionary) “THE CROSS OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP” - John Lewis Mayshack “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 1. The Cross of Christian Discipleship Requires Self-denial 2. The Cross of Christian Discipleship Must Be Freely Taken Up 3. The Cross of Christian Discipleship Prepares Us for the Worst 4. The Cross of Christian Discipleship Equips Us for the Best Tom Blackaby - Deny Yourself • "The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever doesn't take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it" (Matt. 10:37-39; also Luke 14:26-27). • "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me'" (Matt. 16:24). • "Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, 'If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me'" (Mark 8:34). • "Then He said to them all, 'If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me'" (Luke 9:23). This command is more of a requirement for each and every person who wishes to follow Christ. It is a prerequisite for discipleship. Unfortunately many people choose to see this as a suggestion, a goal, or something to aspire to when they become more mature as believers in Christ. But it is not a command that follows salvation or that comes after being born again; it is a command and a requirement that accompanies salvation and a decision that precedes your commitment to Christ. In other words, a person cannot truly be a disciple of Christ until he or she is willing to "deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow" Christ. Why is this command preached so seldom? It certainly is referenced in sermons, but it is rarely spoken of as Christ intended. It is as though church leaders realize the average church member is generally incapable of following this command, so we bring it up from time to time as a reminder to what we should aspire to do. The import of this command is that those Christians sitting in the pews each week who do not daily deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Christ are self-deluded if they think they are disciples of Christ. Yet many churches seem comfortable with that. If we say, • "I am not ready yet to take up my cross daily." • "I am too weak to deny myself anything." • "The Christian life is too hard to follow exactly as Christ commands." • "He loves me just the way I am." then we have changed His command from what He intends to what we are comfortable with. In many countries today and throughout history, becoming a Christian was equivalent to a death sentence. Converting to Christianity, becoming a follower of Christ, was (and in some cases, still is) punishable by death or, at minimum, a lengthy prison sentence. To claim Christ as Lord during the days of the Roman Empire, was to deny Caesar was lord, which could literally mean facing death on a cross. To give your life to Christ was to take it away from other gods who previously held claim over you. To claim Christ as your Savior could mean to pack your bags and leave your family, friends, relatives, job, and security because you are rejecting their religious beliefs in other gods. Becoming a disciple of Christ means dying to an old way of life and living with a new Lord, in a new kingdom, with a new spiritual family, and separating from those things that are offensive to God. A father in the Middle East today, if found to be a Christian, can have his family taken from him, his job taken away, and be sent to prison until he recants his faith in Christ. Such is the cross many believers today must take up if they choose to be a disciple of Christ. The Western church knows little about such sacrifice and commitment to Christ. We think we are mistreated if we have to give up a golf game on Sunday in order to go to church. We resent that we cannot sleep in on our only day off. We complain if the preacher goes fifteen minutes overtime in the service. We know little of true denial of self or sacrifice in order to accept the lordship of Christ. Application: What did you give up when you became a disciple of Christ? What does it mean for you to deny self? Has God's Spirit pinpointed anything in your life that you know He wants you to release so that (The Commands of Christ - What it Really Means to Follow Jesus) Spiritual Self-Control (Matthew 16:24) “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself” (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23). The Christian life is not an easy life. We cannot, as Carlyle said, slackly wander into the kingdom of heaven. We carry with us a body prone to much that is evil, to sloth and pleasure, to spiritual idleness, to lust and envy. If a great apostle, like St. Paul, felt himself bound to keep his body under subjection (see 1 Cor. 9:27), how can we dispense so airily with the common forms of self-control in which Christians have always believed? It is plain that at the present day self-control is out of fashion. Children are brought up to know scarcely anything about it as a virtue. Of the many Christian virtues discounted by popular novelists and playwrights, self-control is the one least thought of as even desirable, much less as a necessary foundation of Christianity. Unlike Felix we do not tremble at the thought of it (see Acts 24:25). Oswald Chambers - Self-Realization v. Christ-Realisation Matthew 16:24 (Address given at the annual Autumnal Gathering of the League of Prayer in Caxton Hall, London, November 5, 1913.) Self-realisation is a modern phrase—“Be moral, be religious, be upright in order that you may realise yourself.” Nothing blinds the mind to the claims of Jesus Christ more effectually than a good, clean-living, upright life based on self-realisation (see 2 Corinthians 4:3-4). The issue with us to-day is not with external sins, but with the ideal of self-realisation, because Jesus Christ reveals that that ideal will divide clean asunder from Him. If we are going to be His disciples our ideal must be Christ-realisation. The Desire If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself . . There is no man awake to life but feels the attraction of Jesus Christ. There He stands, and all men are attracted to Him, whether or not they accept statements about His Deity or theories about the Atonement. What is your desire? Is it to be a fine, sterling, moral, upright character? A grand and noble desire; but watch how Jesus Christ sifts it. Two of the early disciples had the desire to follow Jesus, it was the consuming passion of their lives to come after Jesus, and when He asked them if they were able to drink of His cup and be baptised with His baptism, they said, “We are able.”† They were not conceited or proud, they were devout, humble-minded men, but they were perfectly ignorant about themselves. There are many people to-day who say, “Yes, Lord, I’ll go with Thee all the way.” But there are conditions: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.”†† What is the meaning of these words from the lips of Jesus? He is not teaching us to deny one part of ourselves in order to benefit another part of ourselves, which is what self-denial has come to mean. The full force of our Lord’s words is—“let him deny his right to himself; let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Jesus laid down that condition to a clean-living, sterling young man of His day, with what result? His countenance was sad, and he went away grieved; for he had great possessions. “If any man will come after Me,” said Jesus, “the condition is that he must leave something behind,” viz. his right to himself. Is Jesus Christ worth it, or am I one of those who accept His salvation but thoroughly object to giving up my right to myself to Him? The Devotion and take up his cross . . There is a difference between devotion to principles and devotion to a person. Hundreds of people to-day are devoting themselves to phases of truth, to causes. Jesus Christ never asks us to devote ourselves to a cause or a creed; He asks us to devote ourselves to Him, to sign away the right to ourselves and yield to Him absolutely, and take up that cross daily. The cross Jesus asks us to take up cannot be suffering for conviction’s sake, because a man will suffer for conviction’s sake whether he is a Christian or not. Neither can it be suffering for conscience’ sake, because a man will go to martyrdom for his principles without having one spark of the grace of God in his heart. Paul says, “Though I give my body to be burned, and have not [love], it profiteth me nothing.” What then is our cross? Our cross is something that comes only with the peculiar relationship of a disciple to Jesus. It is the sign that we have denied our right to ourselves and are determined to manifest that we are no longer our own, we have given away for ever our right to ourselves to Jesus Christ. The characteristic of the cross we carry daily is that we have been “crucified with Christ.” Galatians 2:20 does not refer merely to the fact that our “old man” has been crucified with Christ; it refers to the glorious liberty we have of sacrificing ourselves for Jesus Christ every day we live. What is sacrifice? Giving back to God the best I have in order that He may make it an eternal possession of His and mine for ever. But something must happen first. The meaning of salvation and sanctification is not only the removal of the wrong disposition, but the radical alteration of identity. Paul says that his destiny is no longer self-realisation, but Christ-identity: I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me. We need to remember that we cannot train ourselves to be Christians; we cannot discipline ourselves to be saints; we cannot bend ourselves to the will of God: we have to be broken to the will of God. There must be a break with the dominant ruler. We may be clean and upright and religious, we may be Christian workers and have been mightily used of God; but if the bedrock of self-realisation has not been blasted out by our own free choice at the Cross of Christ, shipwreck is the only thing in the end. We enter into the Kingdom of God through the Cross of Jesus Christ, and self-realisation cannot get through with us, it must be left outside. We must be broken from self-realisation, immediately that point is reached the reality of the supernatural identification with the death of Jesus Christ takes place, and the witness of the Spirit is unmistakable—“I have been crucified with Christ” (rv). Jesus Christ can take the man who has been broken by sin and twisted with wrong-doing and can reinstate him, not as an angel, thank God, but as a man, and present him before the throne of God without blemish, through the sheer omnipotence of His Atonement. The Direction . . . and follow Me. We must not dictate to Jesus as to where we are going to serve Him. There is a theory abroad to-day that we have to consecrate our gifts to God. We cannot, they are not ours to consecrate; every gift we have has been given to us. Jesus Christ does not take my gifts and use them; He takes me and turns me right about face, and realises Himself in me for His glory. The one dominant note in the life of a disciple is— Jesus only, Jesus ever, Jesus all in all I see. There is no devotion to principles or to a cause there; nothing but overwhelming, absorbing love to the Person of Jesus Christ. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” God grant we may answer— I have made my choice for ever, I will walk with Christ my Lord; Naught from Him my soul shall sever While I’m trusting in His word. I the lonely way have taken, Rough and toilsome though it be, And although despised, forsaken, Jesus, I’ll go through with Thee. Andrew
Mateus 16
Spurgeon - With all their riches, the whole of them put together could not rescue a comrade from the chill grasp of death. They boast of what they will do with us, let them see to themselves. Let them weigh their gold in the scales of death, and see how much they can buy therewith from the worm and the grave. The poor are their equals in this respect; let them love their friend ever so dearly, they cannot give to God a ransom for him. A king's ransom would be of no avail, a Monte Rosa of rubies, an America of silver, a world of gold, a sun of diamonds, would all be utterly contemned. O ye boasters, think not to terrify us with your worthless wealth, go ye and intimidate death before ye threaten men in whom is immortality and life. For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever. Too great is the price, the purchase is hopeless. For ever must the attempt to redeem a soul with money remain a failure. Death comes and wealth cannot bribe him; hell follows and no golden key can unlock its dungeon. Vain, then, are your threatenings, ye possessors of the yellow clay; your childish toys are despised by men who estimate the value of possessions by the shekel of the sanctuary. Or what will a man give in exchange (antallagma) for his soul? (psuche) The answer is that a sinner can give no payment for his soul,"For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever." (Ps 49:8) He is a debtor "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Ro 6:23+). There is only one acceptable payment and it is the precious blood of Jesus Christ which alone provides full, forever atonement for all of a man's sins. The price is higher than any human being can pay, but it was paid by Christ. No sinner could atone for the sins of fellow sinners, so Christ the perfect One paid the price of divine justice and bore the sins of the whole world. The death of Christ then was not only an act of grace, it was an act of justice. for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. (Mt 26:28) Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:18-19+) REDEEMED-how I love to proclaim it! REDEEMED by the blood of the Lamb; REDEEMED through His infinite mercy- His CHILD, and forever I am. -Fanny Crosby In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace (Eph 1:7+) A T