Obey Cross (24 of 35)
Series: Obey Everything
Steve Jones
Matthew 16:24
SERMON SUMMARY: This sermon addresses Jesus' command to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. We understand this command as 1) The ULTIMATE Expectation, 2) Supported by an IRREFUTABLE rationale, 3) Following the WORTHIEST man.
INTRODUCTION: Many favor a date for Jesus' birth in or around 4 BC, and for the sake of argument let us take that as accurate. If so, the birth occurred during or near a truly dreadful time in the history of what was already a troubled and turbulent land. By 4 BC, Herod the Great was coming to the end of a long career that was bloody and paranoid even by the standards of Hellenistic monarchies. He ruled through tactics of mass terror and widespread surveillance that sometimes sound like a foretaste of the Stalin years. I counted 8 ''revolutions'' in and around Jerusalem in Jesus' birth year alone. The Roman response to these Jewish agitations included 3,000 Jews killed in Jerusalem at the Passover by King Archelaus and 2,000 Jewish revolutionaries crucified by King Varus a few months later.
Additionally, according to Josephus: ''Now at this time there were ten thousand other disorders in Judea, which were like tumults, because a great number put themselves into a warlike posture... And Judea was full of robberies; and as the several companies of the seditious lighted upon any one to lead them, he was created a king immediately, in order to do mischief to the public. They were in some small measure hurtful to the Romans; but the murders they committed upon their own people lasted a long while.''
All of that is just to say that Jesus was no stranger to political upheaval and instability. And yet, his preaching was filled with commands pertaining to gracious and loving interpersonal relationships: Pray, forgive, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, love your enemies. No matter what is happening in our country, we Christians are to c ...
Series: Obey Everything
Steve Jones
Matthew 16:24
SERMON SUMMARY: This sermon addresses Jesus' command to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. We understand this command as 1) The ULTIMATE Expectation, 2) Supported by an IRREFUTABLE rationale, 3) Following the WORTHIEST man.
INTRODUCTION: Many favor a date for Jesus' birth in or around 4 BC, and for the sake of argument let us take that as accurate. If so, the birth occurred during or near a truly dreadful time in the history of what was already a troubled and turbulent land. By 4 BC, Herod the Great was coming to the end of a long career that was bloody and paranoid even by the standards of Hellenistic monarchies. He ruled through tactics of mass terror and widespread surveillance that sometimes sound like a foretaste of the Stalin years. I counted 8 ''revolutions'' in and around Jerusalem in Jesus' birth year alone. The Roman response to these Jewish agitations included 3,000 Jews killed in Jerusalem at the Passover by King Archelaus and 2,000 Jewish revolutionaries crucified by King Varus a few months later.
Additionally, according to Josephus: ''Now at this time there were ten thousand other disorders in Judea, which were like tumults, because a great number put themselves into a warlike posture... And Judea was full of robberies; and as the several companies of the seditious lighted upon any one to lead them, he was created a king immediately, in order to do mischief to the public. They were in some small measure hurtful to the Romans; but the murders they committed upon their own people lasted a long while.''
All of that is just to say that Jesus was no stranger to political upheaval and instability. And yet, his preaching was filled with commands pertaining to gracious and loving interpersonal relationships: Pray, forgive, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, love your enemies. No matter what is happening in our country, we Christians are to c ...
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