Jersualem Was a Quadruple Must

Matthew 16:15-18, 21-25

15 He (Jesus) said to them (his disciples), “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it…. 21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from 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, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he (Jesus) turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The title of this sermon kept growing. I first titled it, “Jerusalem Was a Double Must.” I thought a bit and added a third and then a fourth reason that Jesus had to go to Jerusalem. In rapid succession, Jerusalem became a Triple Must and then a Quadruple Must. I decided to stop thinking then, because this needs to be a much shorter than usual sermon. But, if I accomplish it, I want credit from the Preaching Olympics judges for landing a Quadruple Must in approximately half the usual time.

Must Number 1: Jesus had to go to Jerusalem to validate his kingdom ministry. Jesus had been traveling through Galilee and surrounding territories demonstrating that God reigns and teaching what we must do to be citizens of the kingdom of God on earth. He had healed the sick, restored the lame, the blind, and the deaf, cleansed lepers, cast out evil spirits, and even raised the dead. He had walked on water, stilled storms, and fed the multitudes. He had brought hope to the hopeless, uplift to the downtrodden, and inclusion to the outcast. Jesus’ kingdom ministry led Peter and the other disciples to conclude that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. But the recognized religious authority for the people of God was the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. It was composed of priestly Sadducees and scribal and rabbinic Pharisees. For the most part, they saw Jesus as watering down the demands of holy living, as ripping the fabric that held society together. In fact he was raising the bar, pointing to a higher standard of righteousness, challenging his followers to be faithful to their marriage vows, truthful in their speech, generous to the poor, loving toward their enemies, and forgiving of those who had sinned against them, but the recognized authorities could not see that. When they rejected him, they did not understand that they were destroying their own authority and granting authority to Jesus and his followers. The new center of divine authority would not be fixed in Jerusalem, but would be wherever two or three gathered in his name to celebrate and proclaim his gospel. If Jesus had not gone to Jerusalem to validate his kingdom ministry, the world mission of the church and its kingdom outreach to you, to me, and to your neighbor down the street would not be. He had to go to Jerusalem to accomplish it.

Must Number 2: Jesus had to go to Jerusalem to die for our sins. Last week we sang the great modern hymn, “In Christ Alone.” Perhaps some of us paused in wonder at the unmodern phrase, “Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied”! What’s up here? We would rightly be offended if we understood the phrase as portraying God as some sort of angry pagan god who had to be placated with blood. Rather, we should understand the phrase as saying that God has a perfect plan for us, a plan that we would become who we were created to be, his loving children fit to share his reign of love over the creation. Because we are not that, God is rightly wrathful against the sin in our lives that holds us back from our created destiny. Jesus’ self-giving love on the cross displays the perfect righteousness that we should have. By God’s mercy, he allows us to be covered in Jesus’ righteousness, by his sacrificial blood, if you will, while we grow toward consistency with that love. God’s wrath is simply the flip side of the coin expressing the truth that God in his love will not settle for less than the best for us. Our sin, our departure from God’s perfect plan for us, has a cost that must be covered and ultimately corrected. Jesus’ loving and obedient death on the cross is a vital part of that covering and correction. He had to go to Jerusalem to accomplish it.

Must Number 3: Jesus had to go to Jerusalem so that he could be raised as the firstborn from the dead, the reigning heir of the new creation. As important as the cross is, it points toward a higher goal, a perfect new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, the restoration of all creation to the purpose for which God created it. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the first manifestation of that future perfection. The risen Christ is the first citizen of the new and eternal creation that will be. We do not yet see what we will become, but we know that when he appears at the end of history, we who believe in him will be made like him and will reign with him eternally. He had to go to Jerusalem to accomplish the resurection.

Must Number 4: Jesus had to go to Jerusalem to set the pattern for our lives as his disciples. The New Testament wants us to understand that, as disciples of Jesus Christ, two things are simultaneously true. (1) We are Spirit-empowered agents of the kingdom of God and of the gospel of Jesus Christ; as such we cannot ultimately lose; cannot finally be defeated; nothing can separate us from the eternal love of God in Christ Jesus; we live in the light of the resurrection. (2) We are in this world as servants who are not better than our master. As he suffered, so might we. We live in the shadow of the cross. Only his suffering pays the cost of sin, but our faithful suffering may help someone believe in Jesus, may help them see the integrity and the reality of the good news of the kingdom. In this world of sin, suffering and victory, victory and suffering, cannot be fully separated. Suffering is not defeat. For the true believer, it is an identification with Jesus, an identification that also connects us to his resurrection. In Christ we can do all things, both suffering and victory, because of what he has done for us. He had to go to Jerusalem to accomplish it.

Conclusion: Jesus had to go to Jerusalem:

1. to validate his kingdom ministry,

2. to die for our sins,

3. to reveal the resurrection life of the new creation, and

4. to define the path of our discipleship.

It is a quadruple must. At the beginning of this sermon, I joked about this sermon landing a quadruple must. But, moving from sermons to real life, the fact is that Jesus is the only one in all history who has ever perfectly landed this particular quadruple must. Our Lamb has conquered. Let us follow him...in the way of the cross and the resurrection, in the way of the kingdom of God on earth and the new heaven and new earth, in the way of suffering and victory, in the way of temporary sorrow and ultimate joy! Amen! May it be so!