Carrying our cross and follow Jesus

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. 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. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Mat 16:15-28)

0. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? (Mat 16:15)
This is a personal question we have to answer. The other question posed is ‘whom do men say I the Son of Man am?’ The correct understanding of whom Jesus is to us will determine our faith and eventually our salvation.
- Jesus came out of a situation where the people were fed
- The Pharisees and Sadducees came to ask Jesus for a sign
How do we perceive Jesus be? Is He one that we look forward to be our blessing and provider thereof.... only?
- Is Jesus one that needs to ‘proof’ His deity to us? We are not to test God (Matt 4:7) or to put proof of God’s character and power lest we fall into the same questioning as Satan himself.

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? (Mat 16:13)

- When we start questioning God, we are in the same standing of ‘men’
- Being in the state of being ‘men’, we can only view God from the humanistic view. That is to have our believe based on sight and not faith. Didn’t Scripture teach us to that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6)
- As long as we live in the condition of being ‘men’ we will never live in the place of God’s favor and pleasing. Heavens will not open and Father will not declare that we are sons in whom He is well pleased with.

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. (Mat 16:14)
- ‘Some say…’ there will be many opinions that both the world and church at large will give. But there is only one truth that He is the Son of God. If He truly is the Son of God to us what is our response? How should we live our lives? What kind of aspiration do we have? How eternal is our view of life?
- Sadly people and even the church will give honorable opinions of Jesus, but mostly on of how the human minds conceive Him to be. Either He is the LORD of all, or not at all. The human mind will compartmentalize God, accepting the characters of God that we can accept as blessor, protector, provider, healer, etc but can we accept the total nature of God even as He is our Judge, the Holy and Righteous One that no sin can stand in His sight? We only view God from what we like, what about the judgments to the 7 churches as Jesus Christ appeared as the Holy One that even the one that put his head upon the Savior’s breast has to fall down in His Holy Presence?
- If Jesus is the Son of God, doesn’t He have the full view of the plans of the Kingdom of God rather than our small empires that we are involved in building and protecting jealously? Jealousy becomes sin when it becomes self-ward that God-ward. Are we jealous for His Glory and Holy Name? Or are we moral cowards?

1. Peter’s sudden change in response
- In one moment Peter who had the revelation of the Son of God and the next rebuked by the Lord

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (Mat 16:23)
- When we savor things that are not of God, we savor the things of men
- Our thinking becomes temporal and earthly as the people of Jerusalem cried ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’
- The people who threw palm branches and gave the glorious praise to Jesus were also in the crowd that yelled ‘crucify Him’
- Why? The people wanted an earthly savior that has come to meet their ‘felt needs’. They wanted to Jesus to drive the Romans out of Israel to establish an earthly kingdom. But Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world but an eternal one. Didn’t the people learn from the failures of Israel’s monarchy?
- Men’s view of Christ is shallow and will disappoint us when we seek neither His Kingdom nor His righteousness
- Jesus rightly rebuked Peter for earthly ways are Satanic in nature


2. Taking our cross
- Jesus emptied Himself to from Son of God to Son of Man, a truth for us to grasp for ourselves
- To understand this truth, we have to learn Christ by taking His yoke and discover for ourselves His meekness and humility (Matt 11:29)
- We struggle through our Christian pilgrimage and finding no rest or peace is because we fight being yoked. But Christ yoke is easy and burden is light! We fight because by being yoked to Christ our rights have to be relinquished and our lives conquered by the living God. We fight because we lose control of our lives.
- We want to find ‘life’ as it were (Matt 10:37, 38), but the life we desire is not heavenly neither carrying the intrinsic value of the heavenly life. We are often satisfied with the mortal life rather than choosing life eternal which begins at the point of our surrender. When we surrender to Christ and yoke ourselves to Him there is the abundance of life we can experience (John 10:10b)
- The truth is we will have to take the spiritual action of taking the yoke for ourselves. No one can do nor force it upon us, even God Himself don’t have the privilege.

3. The cross that bring death

Death is a taboo for we always want life. However God’s plan of life is through resurrection and resurrection comes only if there is death. So death has to take place, for it precedes life. Not just life but resurrection life. Resurrection life is one of victory, unbounded by human frailty and limitations. We can love our enemies, bless those who curse us, being meek to inherit the earth, to be salt and light to the dying world, etc. All these are elements of the Kingdom life.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. (Joh 12:24-25)

We lack carrying our cross in following Jesus mainly because we love ourselves more. We love the life of sin and frailty we live in. We sin and give excuses for our human weakness. Where is the pursuit of holiness or the crying out unto God when our lives are soiled with sin? We cry out to God as Esau did and loudly at that for lost blessings, but we seldom cry out to God for salvation from our sin. If Jesus can to save us, He didn’t save us that we might have a ‘better’ human life. He first saved us from sin that we may have the resurrection life.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2Ti 3:1-5)

Jesus went head on with the legalistic structure of the Jewish culture, but we are warned that iniquity or lawlessness is the problem of the last days. The warning from Paul is with regard to lovers of self being found in the church. Who has the form of godliness but the church? Pagans and atheist are considered ungodly. Lovers of self only have the form but lack the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That is why we can remain where in are, lost in the sea of humanism, never having the victorious power of sin. How can we heed Jesus words to be ‘Holy for our Father in Heaven is Holy’ (Matt 5:48), unless of course we don’t have a Heavenly Father.

What message are we, the church sending to the dying world if we continue to live in this hypocrisy. If our message is of repentance and remission of sins (Luke 24:47) and we don’t live this truth in living toward holiness, then the message is nullified. May God help us, the church out of this hypocrisy and start living the truth.