Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
Sermon Matthew 16:21-28 “Following God”
August 30, 2020
This is my last Sunday with you and your Interim Pastor. I turn this church over to Christ who will continue to lead you. Your Session will guide your reopening. Your Pastor Nominating Committee will find you a wonderful new pastor. Your Deacons will continue to care for the congregation. Your Trustees will continue to care for the buildings and grounds. I urge all of you to remain grounded in scripture and follow Christ where he may lead this church. Let’s pray.
Father in Heaven, we know that you are present with us when we need you. We thank you for your Holy Spirit which is with us and in our hearts strengthening us for the difficult tasks we find ourselves in. We know, through your son Jesus, how much you love us. We ask that you let us follow you into a glorious future. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord our rock and redeemer. Amen.
Matthew 16:21-28 21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." 23 But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
Moses grew up in two different cultures. On the one hand, he was a Hebrew and his Hebrew servants always let him know that he was mashea, the one pulled from the water. On the other hand, he knew the privilege and power as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Eventually, the stress of belonging to both the privileged class and a despised minority became too much. Moses grieved over the oppression of his people. And one day when he saw a Hebrew being beaten by an Egyptian, Moses reacted violently and killed the Egyptian taskmaster. When his crime was discovered Moses fled to the wilderness to hide, and with God’s blessing, to survive.
The wilderness is where we go to deal with the enormous problems in our lives. Jesus knew something about the wilderness. He spent forty days and nights without food and water in the wilderness. Jesus knew that an even greater wilderness was in his future, the cross. And he knew that his followers would also experience a wilderness with their own crosses on their backs. Followers of Jesus, it seems, are not immune from the wilderness.
Moses adjusted to his new life in the wilderness by getting married to the daughter of the Priest of Midian and caring for the priest’s sheep. Moses got to know the wilderness real well as he guided the sheep in search of grazing land and water.
This led Moses to the mountain of the gods, Horeb. There Moses saw a remarkable sight: a fire burned in the midst of a bush, but the bush itself was not consumed. “Was this one of the gods of Horeb?” Moses must have thought as he stared at this incredible sight. And Moses knew that this must be a very powerful god because it knew his name.
Moses had to be greatly relieved when the god of the fire in the midst of the bush identified itself as the god of his own people. The god of the fire in the midst of the bush was none other than the God we have been reading about for the last few weeks, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Isaac and Rebecca, and the God of Jacob and Rebecca and Leah. Moses had seen an awesome sight and it turned out to be none other than the Lord, God of Israel.
After meeting the god of the fire in the midst of the bush, Moses was given an important task. He was to use his skill as a shepherd for the last forty years in the wilderness, his upbringing in the Egyptian court, and his love for his own people to lead the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, to the Promised Land.
This was not going to be an easy task. Moses didn’t think he could do it. After all, the Egyptians had a death warrant out for his head, and his only experience for the last forty years had been tending sheep. How could Moses convince Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go? And where would they go once they were freed? These questions must have been racing through Moses' head as he pondered what God was asking him to do. And thankfully Moses had no idea, at this point, that the task God was giving him would take another forty years to accomplish.
But Moses followed God. He followed God back to Egypt where Pharaoh was persuaded to let the Hebrews go to worship God. He followed God, a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire at night, through the wilderness. Moses followed God all the way to the Promised Land.
When we embark on a task given to us by God we should not expect that the task will be easy to do or that it will be accomplished quickly. We have to trust that God is at work guiding us and helping us to do what God wants us to do even though we can’t see the whole picture as God does. So we have to act on faith and trust that in God the work will be finished.
This is where Pittsgrove church is right now. You have embarked on a new journey of finding a new pastor. No one knows how long this may take. But if you always keep your eyes on Jesus and follow him everything will turn out alright.
Doing the work of God is like taking up a cross. We have to deny our own wants and desires to focus on what God wants. We have to trust that God will provide for us and our needs as we do God’s work of loving others. We are called to obedience and love supported by a strong faith.
Jesus had a long and difficult road ahead of him. He was on his way to Jerusalem where he will be arrested, tried, and executed by the authorities. When the disciples heard this they became quite upset. Peter was so angry he rebuked Jesus and reminded him that as the Messiah, Jesus had the responsibility to lead a revolution and take control of the world. This must have been very tempting for Jesus. It was the same temptation that Jesus was offered by the Devil in the wilderness.
Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
At that moment Jesus realized that Peter was now following the Devil. So Jesus rebuked Peter, as he had the Devil earlier. Jesus told him to focus his mind on divine things rather than human things.
This is good advice. I get upset, sometimes, when I see violence in our streets and growing racial divisions. I get upset when our political process seems to be falling apart. When this happens I begin to realize that it is harmful to focus so much on human things. It is so much better to focus your mind on divine things.
That is why I have been trying to teach you to read scripture and pray every day. You have received from me, via email, a link for daily scripture readings. Bookmark this link and go to it every day to keep yourselves grounded in divine things.
This is what Jesus meant when he urged his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him. You are to walk away from your focus on the cares of the world. Your cross is to focus on Christ. Read scripture every day. Watch sermons on Youtube. Worship with your church every week. Pray when you get up, at meals, and when you go to bed. Focus your mind on Jesus, this is the cross you must carry.
And if you carry this cross there is an enormous promise and benefit for you. Jesus has promised to return, with the angels, to bring about justice and righteousness. What a glorious promise! But we have an important question to ask. When will this happen? How long must we wait?
There are some who say that they will happen sometime in the future. But I think it has already happened, at least in part. Jesus did say that he would return with the angels before some of his original disciples tasted death. I think that Jesus was referring to Pentecost when he did return as the Holy Spirit to empower the church. And this is really good news because it means that Christ is here, with us now.
This is the spiritual reality on which we should focus. Jesus was a historical person. Jesus is alive today. Jesus is with us, empowering us to be church. Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church, take up your crosses and follow him. Let’s pray.
God of the fire in the midst of the bush, we come to you today expecting miracles in our lives. We come expecting restored relationships. We come confident that you will be with us as our God as we travel through the wilderness with crosses on our backs. But we are also confident that in your time, your will be fully accomplished on Earth, and for that, we are most grateful. Amen.
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