Counting the Cost

Text: Matthew 16:21-28

Focus: Surrender

Function: To encourage people away from temporary wealth into eternal wealth.

Form: Bible Study

Intro: We live in the day and age of Mega-Churches.

And pastors like me watch in frustration as there seems to be what feels like a war of attrition when congregants slowly migrate from the small to the mega-church.

But there are reasons why some churches stay small. And for the most part, the reasons are good.

We small church pastors comfort ourselves in the knowledge that all a large crowd indicates is a large crowd.

And we are very, very grateful for the continued support of congregants in small churches.

Small churches offer a form of community in a multi-generational way that mega-churches cannot hope to match.

Small churches may oftentimes offer a much more authentic Christian Community than mega-churches.

And most of the time, that is comforting.

But I believe that this passage of scripture speaks well to an issue that may keep small churches small.

This passage of scripture is a call to self-surrender, to sacrifice for the Kingdom of God.

That kind of sacrifice has been the hallmark of our Denomination.

The earliest Brethren lost their wealth and were kicked out of their homes, even their own countries because they believed that they were members of the greater Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. And that kind of allegiance did not sit well with the rulers of their lands.

Southern Ohio Brethren and Mennonites lost their farms and some their very lives for participating in the underground railroad.

Brethren all across the nation were imprisoned and even killed because they refused to partake in human warfare.

And it isn't just Brethren and Mennonites. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for his Christian principles of non-violent resistance.

In the first 3 centuries of the Church, the gospel spread across the world. And it wasn't because of the miracles at the hands of the apostles.

It was because Christians lived with strong convictions. Oftentimes they were martyred for sport in the Roman Coliseums because they refused to acknowledge that Caesar was god.

But the biggest reason why the Church spread was because their witness, their Christian practices, were consistent with their message.

There was no state welfare system. And almost all of the care-giving for the poor and dispossessed happened at the hands of the Church.

We hear that talk today, it should be done by the Church and not the state.

But for that to happen in the first 3 centuries, individual Christians gave up their own wealth and lived simple lives in order to fulfill the commands of scripture.

To coin Jesus' phrase from this monring's scripture: “They gave up their lives here to gain eternal life.”

It was so genuine, so authentic, that people joined the Churches in droves because they saw authentic Christian faith.

According to this passage, the Christian life is a life of surrender.

Jesus is saying that, “whoever makes a priority of the comforts given by this life gives up the rewards of eternal life.”

It is a way for Jesus to restate His axiom from Matthew 6: “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

According to this passage, it is a false form of Christianity that says we get it all now and at the end, we get more in heaven.

Perhaps materialism feeds into the mega-church phenomena.

Last week I mentioned my niece and nephew, the Orthodox Priest and his wife.

She is a writer and is quite good.

It's funny that she lives in Crawfordsville, IN, and yet teaches High School in PA.

That is a wonder of the internet. I have witnessed her spend hours on video chat with an individual student. She gives her students quality individual instruction.

But I digress. She writes this blog. And one time she did a rather funny critique of the mega-church concept. She likened it to a 16 theater movie complex. And, depending on the mood of the day, one could go to whichever service made them feel good for that day. For example, if a person was feeling soulful, they could go to the mystical experience, or if they were feeling giddy, they could go the comedy format. If they were feeling energetic, they could go to the Rock and Roll format and etc..

She wrote the article to expose how at times consumerism informs the decisions of worship and church attendance. She decries the concept that going to Church “is all about us” instead of the fulfillment of the command to love God and love our neighbor.

The error of thinking is that we go to Church to get something out of it. No. We go to serve Christ.

And I read an article once tracing the Church attendance of a couple in Naples, FL. When they were first married, they choose a church that met after 10:30 so they could sleep in. Then they had kids and they choose a church with a dynamic children's program. When their kids became youth, they went to the dynamite youth program church and when they were empty-nesters, they went to a church that catered to that need.

Was this bad?

Maybe not for them, but it wrecks havoc with relationships, Church budgets and Pastor's egos. I suppose the last is good.

Let us look again at this passage of scripture.

It starts with Jesus telling them that Jesus Himself is going to suffer.

Jesus sets the stage for what it is to live the Christian life. Jesus calls us to look at His example.

Does this mean that we are all going to suffer?

I hope not! Suffering is not easy, or fun.

But at least twice, Jesus says: “Take up your cross and follow Me?”

I thank God that not all of us, or even most of us, will not suffer for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

Right now, Church of the Brethren girls in Nigeria are suffering because of Jesus. They were targeted specifically because of the positive effect that the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria is having toward peace between Islam and Christianity and Boco Harem is threatened by peace.

Not all of us suffer, or are called to suffer.

But it appears that the commitment to the Kingdom of God may include suffering for the sake of the gospel.

We don't all suffer, but Jesus is asking us to be willing to.

Commitment cannot be masked. It is exposed by deeds.

The early church spread because of the sacrificial lives lived by the early believers.

The commitment to God's kingdom is an important concept.

Peter reacts strongly to Jesus statement:

Jesus says: “I will suffer...” and implies that it is may very well be part of Christian life. As a matter of fact, He tells us this in Matthew 10: ²³When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.²⁴“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

So, this passage of scripture tells us that suffering may happen to us. We don't like to think of that, but it is true.

Now, let us move to the next verses. The concept of suffering does not sit well with anyone.

Jesus' explanation of the future gets to be to much for Simon Peter.

Peter opens his mouth and inserts his foot, again.

Lord, never! Vs, 22.

And Jesus gives the strongest rebuke to any single person that He ever gave right here. It is direct at Peter.

“Get behind me Satan!”

Is Peter demon-possessed?

I doubt it.

But we, as humans are subject to error and some times that error can come straight from the pit of hell itself.

How did Satan gain this foothold in Peter? It is right there in the passage. Jesus tells us, Vs 23b: “...you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Human concerns are not evil in themselves. They are necessary. But they can be twisted.

This is similar to the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden: “The fruit was good for food, it looked good and it would make them wise.”

How are those three things bad?

God gave us eyesight. God created beauty. To gaze on beauty and enjoy it can be an act of worship.

God gave us taste buds and an appetite. To enjoy good food is a blessing from God and can be an act of worship.

And it could make her wise like God. Well, to be proud of wisdom is not good, to compete with God for wisdom is a stumbling block as well. But God's wisdom, imparted to an human being is a good thing.

These three things are not bad. They are not bad separately or combined.

Taking care of human needs is not wrong, or a sin.

So why this stern rebuke?

The satanic inroad was that Peter was only thinking about human, temporal things, not the things of God.

He wanted man's plan, not God's.

Our commitment suffers when place our plans above Gods.

And Jesus recognized it for what it was. It was not “good advice” from Peter, but it was another temptation by Satan himself.

Satan's temptation to Jesus was this: “take care of yourself, you deserve it. Don't worry about God's plan, live your own life.”

So Jesus warns us this: “living for ourselves, taking care of ourselves without respect to others, or to the future that God has entrusted to us, is the sin of living a selfish life.

Are mega-churches evil?

No! Of course not! As long as Christ is proclaimed!

I know a lot of great Christians who serve God in them.

But a consumerist mindset about Christianity and our faith does cross the line of selfish instead of sacrifice.

Jesus statement: “whoever loses his or her life will gain it, and whoever seeks to preserve his or her life will lose it” is a statement that tells us that whoever lives for the here and now, for personal gain only, will lose out eternally.

Mega-churches are not evil. But a consumerist mindset about our faith is.

Mega-churches aren't evil, but I believe that we have something better here.

We have the strength of community that is very real and very personal.

Agape, take hope for your future. You have built a lot here.