Reward for Losing Something.

Class Outline:

Wednesday June 11, 2025

Intro: One could not be a disciple of Jesus without His presence. Though now at the right hand of God, we in the church continue to have His presence and so are called to be His disciples.

 

Review:

 

Two aorist tense imperatives call us to make a decision (final and committed) to deny ourselves and to pick up our crosses.

 

Deny yourself: forsake others, forsake selfish desires, break the hold of material blessings.

 

Pick up your cross: death to self, resulting in an acceptance of all burdens (love bears all things) as well as an active and willing obedience to God as His servant.

 

Not the same as the yoke. “My yoke is easy” (MAT 11:30) is the burden of grace rather than the law.

 

Follow Me: present tense imperative = consistent / daily walk in subjection to the Lord, with the Lord, due to the first two commitments.

 

A disciple cannot be divided: LUK 14:25-35. 

You cannot serve two masters.

 

Main idea: If anyone wants to get behind Jesus he has to lose his life for Jesus’ sake and he will receive great reward, but to save oneself will only end in loss.

 

Text: MAT 16:24-27. (MAT 16:28 for Thurs). 

 

“Will lose” and “will find” eschatology. 

 

apollumi - lose, destroy, ruin - almost always applies to unbelievers.

 

What happens to the unbeliever in finality, the believer can experience in time. 

 

God is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance, 2PE 3:9. The judgment is used by Peter to open our eyes to the real purpose of life, 2PE 3:10-13. The believer’s spiritual life can be destroyed, or lost, not eternally, but he never really lived it.

 

The consequences of the unsaved are frequently used by God to warn us, EPH 4:17; EPH 5:5-8, EPH 5:11; 1CO 6:9; COL 3:6-7. 

 

The context of Peter’s failure (MAT 16:22) - thinking victory is only in success and not in losing. 

 

MAT 16:25

 

For His sake (not asceticism, martyrdom).

 

Lose your life: lose false answers to life’s most important questions. 

 

The good news - is that to throw away life in obedience is not to lose it, but to find it. 

 

What does it mean to gain life? 

 

Live in His presence (PSA 16:11; PRO 8:35-36). 

 

Abundant life (JOH 10:10). 

 

MAT 16:26

 

(Same category: MAT 19:21 Rich young ruler. LUK 12:13-21 Parable of rich man)

 

Value of life - abundant life is worth more than the whole world. 

 

This tells us that life has nothing to do with materialism. 

 

False ideologies that have enslaved the soul: Rousseau, Marx, Darwin, Freud. 

 

PSA 49:8, 20; LUK 12:15 (Marx); 1CO 1:27 (Darwin); ECC 2:10, 11 (Freud). 

 

Following Christ, the promise is that you will leave all of these ideological traps behind and find the life that God has willed for you.

 

MAT 16:27.

 

Eschatological: Reward - Christ notices everything you do. 

 

The scene: DAN 7:9-10; MAT 25:31. 

 

The “abundant” life is rewarded (PSA 62:12; PRO 24:12; MAT 6:4, 6, 18). 

 

At some point in every life, divine purpose meets human responsibility. Men are always held responsible for their unbelief.

 

Reward and Judgment: MAT 25:31-46. 

 

“Deeds” is singular praxis - function implying sustained activity. This can be looked at as Christ judging a person’s commitment to the plan of God for his or her life, especially when it was difficult.

 

Praxis is used in this way in ROM 12:4.

 

France: “the focus is not on lifestyle in general, but on whether or not they have maintained their commitment to Jesus in the face of hostility.”

 

PSA 1:5-6; 62:10-12; PRO 24:12. 

 

Application: 

 

Prayerfully consider:

 

Have you made the decision to commit to denying yourself and picking up your cross?

 

Do you then understand that daily you must follow Christ (obedience and trust)?

 

Do you know what you will lose and are you willing to lose it? Do you know what you will gain and are you joyful in the hope of the future?

 

Are you ready to stand before the judgment of the Lord as He looks upon your life against His own plan for you?

 

Do you know that grace means patience and forgetting the past and reaching ahead without condemnation?

 

Journaling?