Discipleship

Know Your Sign

We're looking at discipleship this morning through the wonderful passages in Matthew 16, and I want to share three key points with you: know your sign, know your call, and know your story.

Let me start with a story about my son William. Years ago, he was quite good at running and was selected for a Regional Championship in the 300 meters. The night before the race, I asked him about his strategy. He said it was simple: keep up with the rest of the crowd for the first 200 meters, then dig deep and sprint the last 100 meters to win.

I asked him, "What's your sign? What will you do when you win?" He didn't know, so we came up with one together. On race day, William did exactly that—he kept pace for 200 meters and then sprinted hard. He came third and won a bronze medal. We were overjoyed.

The lesson here is powerful: It's all about the finish. It's about digging deep when we need to dig deep into the resources of Heaven. It's about running our race of discipleship through life. The Lord cheers us on in our race. It's not always about getting the gold medal at the end; it's about how we run it.

There was another sportsman, C.T. Stud, a great cricketer who in 1888 left a promising career to become a missionary to China, India, and Africa. He said these famous words: "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him." He knew his sign. It wasn't about him; his sign was the cross. He understood what it meant to take up his cross and follow Jesus Christ daily. He surrendered a comfortable life to expand God's kingdom in far-flung fields.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)

It's about putting God first in your life. It's about sacrificing what we call "self" and taking up your new life in obedience to what God is calling you to—what we find in His holy Word. It's about putting to death ungodly habits and ungodly thinking.

Francis Chan put it this way: "The world says love yourself, grab all you can, follow your heart. Jesus says deny yourself, grab your cross, and follow me." Following Jesus is counter-cultural. It's about aligning your life to the truth found in Scripture, standing upon the promises of God. Though the world sings a different tune, we do not compromise the truth, and we do not proclaim a watered-down gospel comfortable with society.

This is our sign: the sign of the cross. And after the cross, there is always resurrection—new life, fullness of life found in Jesus.

At the beginning of today's Gospel reading, Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law. He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Jesus proclaimed His death and explained His story to His disciples. He explained His call and His cost because He loves the world so much. He calls us to a life of crucifixion, following Jesus no matter what the cost.

Know Your Call

Your call is the call of grace. It's so important not to fall into the trap of thinking you can earn God's favor or salvation through works. Ephesians 2 reminds us:

By grace you have been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Salvation is a free gift given to you and me by God. It cost Jesus everything, and He gives it to you freely to be received by faith. Everything that we do comes out of a response to this free gift that God gives us. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. God gives it—why? Because He knows you, He loves you, and He has such exciting plans for you and life in Him. Life in Him is fullness of life. Life in Him is what we were originally designed for.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way: "Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die."

Know your sign. Know your call.

The Battle We Face

I want to dive deeper into this passage and its context because it's really important that we understand what Jesus was saying to His disciples. This took place at Caesarea Philippi, just north of Galilee. Jesus often chose geographical locations and significant settings to explain something absolutely key about who He is.

He was with His disciples at the edges of Galilee in this pagan city called Caesarea Philippi. In this city, there were various pagan temples—a beautiful white marble temple to Caesar Augustus where people worshiped Caesar as a deity. There was also a temple to Pan, a fertility god. This temple was located in front of a cave where a spring flowed—the source of the Jordan River. People worshiped Pan so that the water would continue to flow and nourish their crops.

They worshiped Pan in the most awful and dreadful of ways, prostituting themselves and sacrificing things they should not sacrifice. In this cave—in Caesarea Philippi—with its dreadful pagan practices, Jesus began to explain who they would follow and what it means to follow Him.

Jesus said: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." That cave where people worshiped Pan was called the gates of Hades. Jesus was saying: Don't worry about the so-called power of these pagan gods. Don't worry that if you don't bow down to Caesar like everyone else, you may lose your life. My church is bigger. My power is greater. My authority is over all things. The gates of Hades will not overcome you.

What Jesus is saying is that discipleship goes deep into the way we behave and the way we think and act. Discipleship may cost you your life. Turn your back on foreign idols and pagan gods. Do not bow down and worship them. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Put to death your old ways, your old practices, your old gods, and fix your eyes on me.

There is a spiritual battle that goes on as soon as you give your life to Christ. Many people on Alpha or during the Holy Spirit's day away encounter the Holy Spirit and then suddenly realize they're in a spiritual battle. We are in a spiritual battle. We are called to fight. How do we fight? We fight our battles in prayer and in worship. We fight our battles with the authority that Jesus has given you and me.

At the end of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus reminds us: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations... and surely I am with you to the very end of the age."

How do we fight our battles? By fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ and on His cross, because there is power in His cross. On the cross, Jesus defeated all evil. He proclaimed you free as you go on your journey, as you run your race of discipleship.

C.T. Stud spoke these beautiful words about this battle:

Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven without having blown the trumpets loud and long for our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a Thanksgiving service in hell when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.

He knew there was a spiritual battle taking place while we're here on Earth. He knew that the power was in Christ and in His cross. There is a sense that the church needs to wake up and grasp this authority and power as we take ground in this nation and this world over the powers of darkness for the kingdom of light.

Ephesians 6 tells us:

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Whatever you're going through, there is a spiritual battle taking place in the heavenly realms. The way we fight is on our knees in prayer, with the authority of the cross of Christ, where Jesus defeated all evil. That is how we fight our battles.

Know Your Story

Finally, know your story. What did Peter say in response to Jesus declaring His death?

Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. "Never, Lord," he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." (Matthew 16:22-23)

Peter was in the wrong story. Are we in the right story?

The story of the Gospel starts in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve rebelled against God, ate the apple, were rejected, and thrown out of the garden because they wanted to be their own God. They were thrown out of relationship with God and into a life of brokenness, into a world of brokenness.

Jesus reverses Eden by His cross. He has reconciled the world to Himself. By His cross, He has brought people who believe and trust in Him back into a relationship with God the Father. By His cross, day by day as we fight this battle, He is restoring Eden to your life and to this world.

He calls us to be a part of that. He calls us to be agents of change, agents of light, proclaiming the gospel of love, freedom, forgiveness, and reconciliation through the cross to the world.

Scripture tells us that the god of this age—Satan—has blinded the eyes of people in this world. We are called to be on our knees fighting in prayer and in battle with the authority of Jesus, so that their eyes may be opened to see the glory of God, to know His love, to be transformed by the gospel. That is part of the call of the church.

Do you know your story? Do you know your call? Do you know your sign?

John Stott once did a funeral, and straight after, there was the reading of the will. The man who died was extremely rich, so everyone was intrigued. They asked John Stott, "How much did he leave?" John Stott replied, "Everything. He left everything." As a paradox in the Christian life: if you want total freedom, you need to surrender all. Nothing held back. No turning back. If you want to save your life, you need to lose it to Christ.

There's a beautiful hymn that says:

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

If you're serious about following Jesus, let's go back to William's race. He said, "It's easy, Dad. You just keep up with everybody for the first 200 meters, and then you dig deep and sprint because it's all about the finish."

Jesus is calling you: dig deep. Some of you have already run 200 meters. It's time to dig deep. Fix your eyes on the finish line. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Say, "I'm all in. I'm surrendering all because my sign is the sign of the cross. I know my call, and I know which story I am in."

The cross spells victory. Shall we pray?