Title: Lenten Words (14) Self-Cross
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His cross (Matthew 16:21-28)
It is really difficult for us as human beings to properly understand the cross that Jesus carried. Nevertheless, trying to understand the crucifixion of Christ every Sunday during Lent is to be a good Christian, and we will try to understand the crucifixion more deeply in the future.
Today, I would like to share grace by renewing the perspective of looking at the cross in order to properly believe and understand this event of the cross.
If you look at the situation in today's text, while Jesus has been training with his disciples for three years, one of them finally wakes up spiritually and immediately after confessing that the Master Jesus they believed and followed is not an ordinary teacher, but the Son of the living God. This is an event that took place in
In the very beginning of the text, Peter made a wonderful confession of faith, saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Hearing that confession, the Lord said that you now go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, priests, and scribes. He said that He must be crucified and put to death. Then Peter strongly rebukes him, saying, "This must not happen to the Lord." Then the Lord rebuked me, saying, "You are a stumbling block. You do not think about the things of God, but only the things of men. Get behind me, Satan." It shows that many believers go to church and confess that they believe in the Lord, but they do not want to bear the cross with the Lord.
I come up to church every Sunday to worship with all my heart, and sometimes I cry because I am moved by the word, and I promise to serve the Lord for the rest of my life while saying Amen Amen. This means that it may have been just a promise to settle in. Such faith becomes a false faith that cannot save oneself unless it is reproved and reestablished. How was your religious life in the past year? The text clearly tells what a person must do to follow Jesus.
First, he says you must deny yourself.
What is true self-denial? Barclay said, "To deny oneself is to affirm God." To follow God's will rather than mine, and to follow the Lord's interests rather than my own It is a life in which you abandon your self-centered life and make God's will the governing principle and ideal of your life. We are to either deny ourselves or deny the Lord. If our knowledge, judgment, or experience are alive, we cannot help but deny the word of the Lord. You cannot trust the word of the Lord and its power just because you believe in your own experience and your own knowledge. Therefore, constant self-denial is the affirmation of God.
The Lord said that self-denial is like a grain of wheat that falls to the ground and rots. "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12:24)
The Lord emptied Himself for truly worthless sinners. This is the highest sacrifice, burial, and true self-denial. Self-denial is the attitude of "I'm here to help others, I'm fine, it's okay to be ignored".
To rot is to give up even all hopes of the future. Even if there is no guarantee that if you suffer for a little while today, you will surely recover later, and there is no guarantee that you will be compensated greatly, to give up yourself for others without any conditions is to fall to the ground and rot. Unless a single grain of wheat does not fall to the ground, does not bury it, and does not rot, it cannot sprout. If we, who have become grains of wheat, only do our best to protect ourselves, how will the power of life within us be revealed? What do I have to give up in order to follow the Lord? Do you dream of becoming rich? Is it a vested interest? Is it a vain idea to get my name out there? Is it a negligent attitude? Only when you forsake what is to be rejected can you deny yourself, and only after that can you bear the fruit of life.
Second, He tells us that we must take up our cross.
At the time of <from this time> in verse 21, after Peter's confession of faith and Jesus' words that he would build a church on that rock, Jesus told his disciples that he would suffer. But the disciples did not understand. Jesus, the Son of God, must have asked if there was any other way than that. But they did not know that the kingdom of God is achieved through suffering. So Jesus said: ?쏥et behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block, for you do not think about the things of God, but the things of men.??He said, ?쏧f any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. >
Jesus placed two conditions on those who wanted to become disciples. The first is to deny oneself, and the second is to take up one's cross. To deny oneself is to destroy oneself. What does it mean to deny oneself and to annihilate oneself? I will die. My self is broken, my pride and my stubbornness, my selfishness and my desires are all to die on the cross to deny me. To take up one's cross is to share in the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. To die with Jesus.
He said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." must die to live The kingdom of God is obtained through death, suffering, and sacrifice. Jesus died on the cross to become the first fruits of the resurrection. In order for us to be resurrected with him and have eternal life, we must first die with him. Verse 25 says, ?쏻hoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.??
This statement, called Paradox, cannot be logically explained. Proof is also impossible. But there is one clear piece of evidence. It is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus showed Himself the truth that if a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it bears much fruit. As we spend the morning prayer time of Lent, we should pray like this. [Lord, who took up the cross to save us, now we want to take up your cross. Make me deny me, take up my cross, and make me a grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies. Let me thoroughly participate in the resurrection of glory through death. Amen ]
Lent Meditation
??퓘 / In the beginning, God gave me the heart.
A heart engraved with the image of God / A heart that is good in God's sight
The heart that hopes for tomorrow / The heart that lives in fellowship with God every day
A heart that is always open to the sky / A heart of love with a couple's romance
The heart of authority that names and rules over all things / A heart of no shame towards the sky
Naked but not shy heart / A heart that is not shameful to anyone looking at it
Transparent heart that can be seen clearly / Mind that preserves the world God has made
The heart of the gardener who protects Eden / The heart of the gardener who takes care of the paradise
The heart of light that creates the world / The heart of the beginning is God.
?⒴퓘 / One free day, temptation gave me a good heart.
The heart of God's man split while dating a serpent sent by Satan / The heart of man's desire to become God / The heart of challenge to a god who ate the fruit of knowledge / The heart of vanity
Adam tells Eve, Eve has a serpent's fault, but has no repentance.?⒴퓘 that values the world /The ?쯪eart that likes the world more than Jesus /The ?쯪eart of sex /
The heart of money / The heart of honor / The heart of faith / My heart in me / My heart in church and at home /
A heart that has been burned with fire / A heart that is dead / A heart that will be judged by God / The heart, the heart, the heart ...... /
There are too many good minds, and the corrupted mind is Satan.
Christ gave me a positive mind. A heart that repents / A heart that is restored by grace / A heart that seeks out the heart / A heart that embraces the heart of Christ / A heart that bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit / A heart that realizes the truth of the Word / A heart that realizes the truth of the Word The soul that obeys the call / The soul that lives as a witness with salt and light / The soul that lives as an educated Christian / The soul of a new creation / The soul that is baptized / The soul that grows in Lent / The soul is the mind. Lord, help me to live this day as the man of conscience you have planted in me. Amen.