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REJECTING THE CROSS

(Luke 9:43-45)

Intro Read Luke 9:43-45. A man wanted to lose some weight so he joined a
diet group. In addition to the training, each week the instructor sent a postcard
with an inspirational message based on his continued weight loss. However,
one week he gained a couple of pounds and wondered what he message would
be. It was direct and to the point: Id like to see less of you next week.
Thats Jesus message to His disciples here. Id like to see less of you. He sees
in their reaction to the healing of the demon-possessed boy a continued
commitment to their interpretation of how things ought to be as opposed to
what actually awaits. Drastic changes are coming; Hes trying to prepare
them, and they are not having it. Unbelief continues.

Back in v. 18 Peter has expressed the belief of the apostles that Jesus is the
Messiah. They have come a long way to get to that point. But they still have a
long way to go. J esus knows that. Theres a fundamental disconnect between
their concept of Messiah and reality. They expect Messiah to charge into
Jerusalem at some point, throw the Romans out and set up His kingdom. They
have no concept of the price that must be paid to make all of that possible.
They still dont get that redemption costs. So when Jesus informs them that
He must suffer and die it doesnt compute.

So, Jesus takes 3 of them Peter, Jas and John, to a mountain where He is
transfigured before them and talks with Moses and Elijah about His coming
death, resurrection and ascension. His exodus. He is showing them that the
kingdom is not incompatible with suffering; in fact, suffering is necessary to
pay the price of redemption for kingdom dwellers. But, they still dont get it.
Theyd prefer to stay on the mountain than come down and get on with the
mission of redemption. When they do come down and Jesus heals an awful
case of demon-possession, theyre back on board. Amazed at what Jesus can
do. Ready to encourage Him to get on with the kingdom by their definition.
And therein lies the problem. Too much them not enough Him!

So Jesus acts. V. 43, And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But
while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his
disciples,
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Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to
be delivered into the hands of men. Jesus is trying to bring them back to
reality, here. Yes, the kingdom is real; the healings are real; redemption is
real; but there is a price to pay. He must die. And so must they. He told them
in Lu 9:23, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
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his cross daily and follow me. These followers are still unbelieving believers.
Still focused on their view of Messiah rather than that of Jesus. Too much
them; too little Him. Rather than taking up their cross daily, they are
climbing down off their cross daily. Jesus is telling them, Guys I need to
see a little less of you and a lot more of me. Unfortunately, it will take a lot
of failure before they get the point for good.

Unbelief made their lives a mess for a time. It always does. Unbelief is
always destructive. All of us have areas where it is too much us and too little
Him and we will pay a price. When the crisis comes well fail. But we dont
have to. Lets note their failed pattern to see if we can break the mold in our
own lives.

I. Distracted by Success
V. 43, And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all
marveling at everything he was doing. After 2 years, theyre still amazed at
Jesus. And thats part of their problem. They are distracted by success. If
Jesus has all this power, surely He could defeat all His enemies. And, of
course, He could. He could have overpowered them anytime! But then there
would have been no redemption. It never occurred to the disciples that Jesus
would go willingly to death for their sake! Jesus death was in Gods plan
from before time for one reason -- it was the only way to save mankind. There
was no other way. But outward success distracted the disciples. They wanted
it to go on forever. They saw no reason for it to stop. They rejected suffering.
Left to their own devices would have deep-sixed their own redemption.

See God does not define success in the world does. Far from it. It is not the
numbers or the miracles or the financial gain that defines success. Success is
aligning with the will of God. Let me say that again. Success is aligning with
the will of God. Sometimes that leads to spectacular events. Sometimes it
leads to suffering. And if we dont get that straight in our minds we will fail
as miserably as the disciples did when the miracles ceased and suffering
entered the picture. We must not be taken hostage to the success syndrome. It
is great when God grants it. We would all prefer to be healthy, wealthy and
comfortable. But it will not always be so. Mt 10:17-18: Beware of men, for
they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues,
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and
you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness
before them and the Gentiles. Persecution is part of the deal when you
choose Christ. So we must not be distracted by success and think suffering is
an anomaly. It is not. It is God at work in some way we may not understand.
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I love the story about the elderly woman who never ceased to complain about
her aches and pains. Every conversation. But a friend one-upped her one day.
She said, You know, I woke up this morning and thought I was dead --
because nothing hurt. Beloved, pain is a fact of life for the believer. If were
feeling no pain, we might well ask if we are spiritually alive. Jesus disciples
could not reconcile suffering with the success they were seeing, so they
ignored it; and when it came they turned tail like so many cowards.
Unprepared, unwilling, unable to suffer with Him. Distracted by a success that
they thought was the norm. So when it comes to pain, first, expect it. Second,
ask what God is saying to you or to others. But dont be surprised!

II. Disobedient to His Command
Vv. 43-44: But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing,
Jesus said to his disciples,
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Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of
Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. Jesus is emphatic here.
Why? Because He had told them all of this before, and it was not sinking in.
They were rejecting the cross the only thing that would save them.

They thought they knew better than Jesus. Remember Peter in Matt
16:
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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.
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And Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never
happen to you.
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But he 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. Unbelief sinks us into the quicksand of
disobedience. We want to correct J esus! He tells Peter, Im going to die,
Peter, altho I will be raised up again. Peter is so focused on die that he
doesnt even hear resurrection. He responds, Not on my watch, Jesus. Dont
talk like that! And Jesus is quick to say, Get behind me, Satan. When we
disobey we are rejecting the cross -- doing Satans will, not Gods.

To say to God, Dont be talking like that is foolish. But it is our human
weakness, isnt it? We take the part of Gods Word that we like, ignore the
rest, and live defeated like the disciples and wonder why. The Bible says,
count others more significant than yourselves (Phil 2:3), and we say, Dont
be talking that way, Lord. You dont know how dumb these people really
are. The Bible says, Let your light shine before others, and we say, Dont
be talking like that, Lord. Youll get me ostracized. God says, forgiving one
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another, as God in Christ forgave you and we say, Dont be talking that
way, Lord. You dont know what its like to be stabbed in the back like that.
And God says, Really! May I remind you of the cross? I want you to take
up your cross daily and follow me. And we say, Dont be talking that way,
Lord. I deserve a break today.

Disobedience is a rejection of the cross and declaration that we know more
than God. Irwin Lutzer, I f God is sovereign, the only thing we need to fear
is disobedience. But we are such good rationalizers we cant recognize
disobedience when it smacks us in the face. The disciples didnt. Martin
Luther once preached the same sermon several weeks in a row until the
congregation asked him, Dont you have any other sermons? to which he
replied, Yes, I have many other sermons, but youre not going to hear them
until you do the first! Thats almost what Jesus is saying to His disciples
here. Let these words sink into your ears. And He is saying the same to us
this morning where we are taking liberties with His Word where we are
saying, Dont talk that way Lord. Thats a red flag if ever there was one.
Disobedience lies right on the other side of that phrase.

III. Denying of What They Didnt Like
V. 45, But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from
them, so that they might not perceive it. This is really a fascinating statement.
I mean, Jesus did say some things that are hard to understand. But lets face it,
this is not one of them. The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the
hands of men. Come now! How hard is that to understand! That is not rocket
science. Yet, Luke says they did not understand this saying; it was concealed
from them. How is that possible? And who concealed it from them?

Some have answered that the devil concealed it from them, but there is
nothing in the context to indicate that he could or did do so. Furthermore, he
would have liked nothing better than to see them thinking, This cant be
Messiah. This guy is going to die. Others have suggested that Jesus was
concealing the truth from them, but that makes no sense. He is the One telling
them. He would hardly be telling them and concealing from them at the same
time. He wants them to be prepared for what is coming. Still others suggest
that God the Father is concealing it from them. But that would put Jesus and
His Father at odds with each other, which is an unthinkable option.

Rather, this was concealed by their own refusal to relinquish their concept of
Messiah. Too much of them -- their preconceived notions and dreams too
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little Christ. They didnt like the message, so they refused it. Unbelief! Ever
been down that street? King Saul went there, and it cost him his kingdom.
God sent him to destroy the Amalekites after hundreds of years of exposure to
His truth. They were to kill everything, animals included. God kept His part of
the bargain, giving Saul victory. Then, I Sam 15:9: But Saul and the people
spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened
calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy
them. Saul simply could not bring himself to destroy all that prime rib and
leg of lamb. Made no sense to him. And he kept the king to gloat over.

This is so us that it is amazing. Dont you see yourself there? We obey God
in everything everything except what we dont want to do. Which, of
course, isnt obedience at all. Its rationalization! Saul said he kept it all for
sacrifice. But that did not cut it. I Sam 15:22, Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. Listen! Like Jesus told the
disciples: Let these words sink in. Quit rationalizing and listen! Were like
the bus driver giving tours of CW battle sites. He says, Here is where the
Southern troops routed a whole regiment of Yankees. Over there, the Rebs
wiped out a whole platoon of Yanks. Down about a mile, theres another
valley where we captured a thousand Union soldiers. A tourist says,
Didnt the North ever win a battle? Yup. But not while Im driving this
bus. Theres the problem! Were driving the bus. But to be blessed, we must
get out of the drivers seat and let Him in. Until then we are nothing but
unbelieving believers, and the only ones who will suffer is ourselves and
those we love. Jesus doesnt give us the option to just obey what we like!

IV. Driven by Fear
End of v. 45: And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. Why were
they afraid to ask? I can tell you exactly. They feared it might actually be true
that suffering and death really were part of the equation, and they sure
didnt want that. Rebellion in their own hearts kept the meaning hidden from
them. They feared the truth. They did not want to know what they were
afraid to know, and so they actually did not know. Remember A Few Good
Men Jack Nicholson You cant handle the truth. Thats the disciples.

In some ways I love the disciples for this. Just like us they did not start out as
spiritual giants. They were human to the core. Imagine how difficult it must
have been to believe the One who was healing the sick, giving sight to the
blind, casting out demons and raising the dead must Himself die. But, they
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were rejecting both the direct teaching of Christ as well as OT prophecy. And
in so doing they were rejecting the cross the fountain of all healing.

Coming to the cross is hard. I t was hard to believe the death of Christ could
be a good thing. Just like its hard for us to believe that laying up treasure in
heaven will really pay off one day. It seems like money, time and effort
poured down a sinkhole right now. Its hard to believe that maintaining sexual
purity, even in our thought life, is right. Sure seems like a little dalliance cant
hurt. Its hard to believe that its better to die for the name of Christ rather
than to deny Him. Is that really true? Isnt survival pretty important? Werent
those Christians extreme who gave their lives simply because they would not
say the words, Kurios Kaiser Caesar is Lord. They knew in their hearts that
Jesus was Lord. Wasnt that enough? Why give your life for a simple phrase?

Why? Because they knew what Jesus had said in Matt 10:33, but whoever
denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
They knew it and by faith they believed it and thus lived in the fear of the
Lord rather than the fear of man. The disciples had hard lessons to learn
before they, too, would take up their cross daily.

Conc At this point in their lives, the disciples were in many ways
unbelieving believers. They would fail the big test coming up at the cross
because they had not listened to God preferring their own interpretation of
things. They were distracted by success, disobedient to Gods expressed
commands, denying anything that did not conform to their liking and driven
by fear. Theyre a mess a mess.

So what changed? Over time it became less of them; more of Him. Charles
Swindoll tells of trying to put a gift together one Christmas Eve. He could see
the finished product on the box and he worked and worked to get it to that
stage without success. With dawn approaching, he went sifting through the
trash for the instructions. Written in small letters at the top he found this
message, Now that you have made a mess of things, please start over and
follow these instructions. Thats what Gods Word is to us. And Jesus is
saying this morning, Let these words sink into your ears. Whether you like
them or not, please obey. Right now, I ts too much us not enough Him!
Together, lets turn that around. Lets embrace the cross where we find
forgiveness and help and encouragement to go on. Lets pray.