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In the Footsteps of Peter - Pastor Stiemke |
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Sermon 10-1-06: "In the Pootsteps of Peter" - 2006/09/28 20:06
17th Sunday after Pentecost, ??06 (10/1)
Sir, we would see JESUS!
Emmanuel, Asheville, NC Mark 8: 27-35
In the Name of JESUS!
?¨In the Footsteps of Peter?Æ
The
holy, inspired Word of God, which forms the basis of the thoughts I
would like to share with you this morning, is found in the standard
Gospel reading for today ?± Mark 8:27-35:
?¨On the way (Jesus)
asked His disciples, ?¨Who do people say that I am??Æ And they told Him,
?¨John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the
prophets.?Æ And He said to them, ?¨But who do you say that I am??Æ Peter
answered Him, ?¨You are the Christ.?Æ And He strictly charged them to
tell no one about Him.
And He began to teach them that the Son
of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the
chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after 3 days rise
again. And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to
rebuke Him. But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and
said, ?¨Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the
things of God, but on the things of man.?Æ
And He called to Him
the crowd with His disciples and said to them, ?¨If anyone would come
after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For
whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for My sake and the Gospel??s will save it.?Æ
Beloved, please pray
with me: Gracious heavenly Father, giver of all good gifts, accept our
praise for Your unfailing faithfulness in the gift of Your dear Son,
our Savior, Jesus Christ. For Jesus?? sake in Your mercy continue to
grant us the gift of Your Holy Spirit who alone can keep us in the one
true faith, enabling us to be faithful in serving You and others;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the name of Jesus, our faithful Savior, precious people of Christ:
If
one subtitled today??s reading from Mark??s Gospel, it might well be,
?¨Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.?Æ [I
Corinthians 10:12] This is solid, wise counsel. Peter??s experience in
our Gospel today helps us to see this more clearly. Without the help of
the Holy Spirit, all persons are capable of turning away from Jesus as
the Savior and not coming back. And you know that the end for such a
person will be everlasting separation from God in hell. So, let??s look
at this event once more.
One day in the midst of His travels,
Jesus asked His disciples who the people said He was. He already knew
the answer, but our Lord asked this for the disciples?? sake. They
repeated what they were hearing, listing the false ideas people held.
Then Jesus asked them directly, ?¨But who do you say I am??Æ Then Peter
made his great confession, ?¨You are the Christ!?Æ [vs. 29b] ?± in other
words, the anointed One, the promised Savior Himself. Matthew in his
account of this bold confession, added Jesus?? words of commendation to
Peter, ?¨Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood have
not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven.?Æ [Matthew 16:17] Our
Lord even went on to tell Peter that on this rock, He would build His
Church. Jesus was referring to Peter??s faith, rather than the man,
Peter. Then, strange as it might seem, our Lord told His disciples not
to tell anyone this truth at that time. Their time would come to do
this after Jesus?? resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Mark
adds that Jesus then began to teach His friends exactly why He is the
Christ, the promised Savior. He came to suffer much, to be rejected by
many and killed, but he added plainly ?± ?¨and after three days to rise
again.?Æ [vs. 31] But Peter thought he knew better. He heard only the
bad part ?± that Jesus would suffer and die. So, he pulled Jesus aside
and told his Master in effect, ?¨Don??t let that happen!?Æ Jesus then
scathingly said to Peter, ?¨Get behind me, Satan! For you are not
setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man!?Æ [vs.
33] One minute Peter was on top of the world, but quickly he failed
miserably. Jesus at that point equated Peter with being none other but
Satan.
If with the Holy Spirit??s help we have the courage to
see in this recorded event what our Lord wants us to take from it,
there??s both great pain, but also tremendous hope. There is indeed
great pain! ?± pain in seeing ourselves with the same fallen,
rebellious, sinful ways! How often like Peter ?± perhaps in behalf of
someone else, if not ourselves ?± have we approached the Throne of Grace
ordering God just how and when to respond to human need! How often have
our minds been set on the things of this world rather than on our
Triune God and seeking His glory and His will!
Why in all the
world do we act so wrongfully when we know Jesus?? unfailing love to us?
Our problem is not just that we do sinful, hurtful, foolish things. The
problem goes much deeper than that. We all have inherited sinful,
rebellious hearts, out of which evil deeds spring and good remains
undone. Along with our saving faith, we still have the malignant cancer
of sin, for which we need daily help and forgiveness. To know the depth
of Jesus?? love for us sinful people, we need with God??s help to see and
take our depravity seriously. As Paul put it: The old man wars against
the new man in Christ.
But thank God! There??s sure and lasting
help for this! It??s our dear LORD JESUS, who in love corrected Peter.
His love for you and me not only corrects us, but was so great that He
permitted people to arrest and abuse Him grossly, finally to be nailed
to the cross to pay the full price for our sin and failure. Ultimately,
Jesus surrendered Himself into death, bowing His head to die. And, as
Scripture declares, that didn??t end Jesus life. On Easter morn He rose
again as the conqueror also of hell and death for us. Now He lovingly
shares His victory with us who trust Him as our Savior.
Our dear
Redeemer also calls us to follow Him. Our Savior said this involves
?¨denying yourselves and taking up your cross and following Me.?Æ [vs.34]
Thus, if you want an easy life now, don??t follow Jesus! Carrying the
cross is never easy. You might want to drop your cross. But we never
know when the day of reckoning will come when we must stand before
Jesus in the final judgment. Forget about Christ, and one rots in hell
for all eternity ?± without end. As Isaiah says of the damned, ?¨?ñ their
worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be
an abhorrence to all flesh.?Æ [Isaiah 66:24] Jesus also warns us, ?¨What
(indeed) does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own
soul??Æ [Mark 8:36]
What, then, does it mean to deny ourselves
to take up our cross and follow our precious Savior? Well, first of
all, for Jesus taking His own cross meant willing surrender ?± surrender
to the will and desire of His heavenly Father. Jesus 100% of the time
did what His Father??s wanted. He was perfect, even to the point of
dying and being buried in what outwardly looked like defeat and
disgrace. So, our taking up the cross means seeking to do God??s will as
He has made it know in the Bible ?± no matter what happens.
I can
already picture some of you lamenting, ?¨But, Pastor, I try to carry the
cross but keep falling flat on my face!?Æ True, we all do just that. Our
walking with Jesus must always begin with repentance prompted and
enabled by the Holy Spirit. That??s why, again and again, our worship
services here often begin with a confession of sin ?± and thank God! ?±
then through God??s love to us in Jesus comes the absolution of God??s
forgiveness.
Carrying our cross also means surrender in terms
of honestly admitting that we can??t on our own change either our
sin-sick soul or our behaviors. Carrying the cross involves crying out
in all earnestness and desperation, ?¨Help, Lord! I??m perishing!?Æ And
then with the aid of the Spirit, we can begin to serve our God and one
another more faithfully. The Lord then faithfully nourishes us through
His Word and the Lord??s Supper to enable our growth in grace.
As
Christ speaks to us today, we also see that taking up the cross to
follow Him might even mean suffering, facing persecution or death for
the sake of Christ. Christians are often the strongest at such times.
That??s because our Lord has promised to give us His grace sufficient
for our every need and His strength made perfect in weakness. [See II
Corinthians 12:9]
Taking up our cross to follow Jesus also
means sacrifice. On this LWML Sunday, I want to point us to one area
where we all need to grow ?± sacrificing in supporting missions. The
women of our parish have often been living witnesses of what it means
to support missionary efforts. Some of our ladies regularly fiscally
support the mission outreach of our Synod and District with the
offerings gathered through mite boxes, which have brought in millions
of dollars for Christ??s missions in other countries and here at home
from the small change gathered and offered to our Lord over many past
years.
However, even if you are not aware of it, you are also already supporting missionary
work.
Each time you pray, ?¨Thy kingdom come,?Æ you are asking God to bring His
rule not only to us, but throughout the world. You also are
contributing money for this effort to bring the Gospel to others as a
portion of each Sunday??s offerings at Emmanuel go for this purpose.
Yet,
unfortunately, none of us can stand before our Lord and say that we
have at all times faithfully and earnestly prayed that He would send
forth laborers in His harvest. We neglect such praying too often. The
reality is also that we cannot send forth laborers without also
providing funds to do so. If we individually or as a congregation fail
to give sacrificially to support our District and Synodical missions,
we are literally dropping the cross that Christ has called us to carry.
I humbly pray that God opens our hearts to respond more generously to
the cry, ?¨Come over and help us.?Æ
Very soon you will begin
hearing more and more about the nationwide effort of our church body to
get all of our people more involved in telling others about our dear
Savior, Jesus Christ. We will also be seeking to gather nationally
several million extra dollars to begin new missions here in the USA and
abroad through an effort called ABLAZE. It will be important that all
of us remember this effort in our congregational and personal prayers,
for only then can we count on the Lord??s blessing our efforts, and only
then will the Spirit increase the fires of love for our Lord, His
Kingdom, and those who do not yet know Jesus as their Savior from sin
and death and hell.
Lord Jesus, today You stand before us urging
us to take up our cross to follow You. You know that we cannot do this
in our own power and strength. Help us to be more faithful in following
You and in reaching out to others with Your love to Your eternal glory.
Amen.
To GOD alone be the glory!
© The Reverend Frederick A. Stiemke, DD
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 April 2007 )
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