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Question we're going to ask ourselves, especially this today, is what do you think of Jesus? And in the world, there are all sorts of different opinions as to who this one really was, who came. Everyone admits he was a... a great person. He had tremendous impact. Every time you look at your calendar, you're reminded of the birth of Jesus. We date our time before Christ, the year of our Lord, so that who was this person who even, uh, so affected the world that we date our calendar by him? And there are all sorts of different ideas about who really Jesus is, and we're going to read in this, uh, chapter sixteen, and we'll see him, uh, dealing with that question.
Verse one: Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and tested him, asked him that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, when it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. In the morning, it'll be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening. Hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them, and he parted. The Lord Jesus in this section is being confronted by the Pharisees and Sadducees, these two, uh, parties of the Jewish faith.
The Pharisees very, uh, strict, very orthodox, very legalistic. The Sadducees, sort of the liberals, those who were the compromisers, those who said, let's get along with Rome and, uh, let's not be too extreme about our religion. Uh, they were those who were very cooperative with the Roman government. They come to him and they say, look, they're trying to test him, they're tr- they're challenging him, really, because, uh, he is a threat to them and their religion. And, uh, they would like to disprove him, and they would like to somehow discredit him.
And so they come to him, and they're trying to put him on the spot, and they say to him, you know, if you're really who you claim to be, show us a sign from heaven, uh, something miraculous from heaven, maybe like, uh, Elijah on Mount Carmel when he called down fire from heaven, and, uh, when the sacrifice on the altar was completely burned up, even though it was soaked with water. Now, the Lord Jesus has been doing miracles, he's been doing all sorts of signs, but, uh, they're saying, we don't really, that's not proof to us. Do something more, do something more.
What, show us a sign from heaven, uh, something spectacular from heaven itself. He's been healing people, he's been opening the eyes of the blind, he's been doing all of these amazing things. Now he said to them, I'm not going to show you any sign. As far as you're concerned, you don't believe what I've been doing, you're not impressed, you you're not convinced, and he says there's going to be one more sign that I will give you, and that's the sign of the prophet Jonah. And you remember in Matthew twelve, and I might just read that verse, Matthew twelve forty. Uh, here Jesus is speaking to them again, and he says, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
And he says the sign that it should be convincing above all else will be my resurrection. I'm going to die, I'm going to be buried, I'm going to be in the grave for that period of time, and I'm going to rise like Jonah was, uh, spit out upon the beach after he'd been that period of time in the belly of the great fish, he says, I'm going to rise from the dead. But, you know, as we think of this, I just want to say that if you don't want to believe, nothing will convince you. Uh, unbelief is an amazing thing. It's amazing how people, if they don't want to believe, nothing will convince them.
Because really, what they don't want is God in their life. They don't want God's authority in their life. They want to do what they want to do, they want to live their life, and they do not want God's authority. And if you acknowledge that Jesus is who he claimed to be, then you're really acknowledging God's authority. You're opening up to the authority of God. And so people who don't want to believe, their attitude is, I don't want God to tell me what to do, I don't want God's authority in my life, and as a result, you cannot convince me. You cannot convince me. I've talked to people sometimes in witnessing, you go over the, the facts concerning the Lord Jesus, you go over the, the facts of what he did, how he lived, how his life was witnessed, and uh, you tell them about his death, and you tell them about his resurrection on the third day, and you tell them about how that was witnessed for forty days by different ones.
They ate with him, they touched him, they talked to him, they spent time with him, and uh, when they're all through, you're all through with this, they say, well, I don't believe that. And I've said this to people at times. If I could bring the Lord Jesus into this very room, personally, you could see the scars in his hands and the wound in his side, would you believe? And I've had people look me right in the eye and say, no, I wouldn't believe. See? A refusal to believe. If you don't want to believe, if you don't refuse to submit to God's authority, nothing will convince you.
Absolutely. And these people, uh, were people who simply did not want to believe. So he left them, and he departed from them. Now, as they go across the, the Sea of Galilee, we're going to read, uh, beginning verse five. It says, when his disciples had come to the other side, they'd forgotten to take bread. Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven or yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They reasoned among themselves, saying, it's because we've taken no bread. But when Jesus perceived it, he said to them, oh, you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you've brought no bread?
Do you not yet remember, understand or remember that five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you took up? How is it that you do not understand that I do not speak to you concerning bread, but you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine or teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So he cautions them. He's talked to them. They've seen him confronted here by the Sadducees and by the Pharisees, and now he, he, uh, warns them about their teaching.
He, he describes it as yeast, and as you go through the scripture, yeast or leaven is a symbol of evil. And, uh, here he's saying this teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees is like yeast, in that it, it will work its way, uh, through the teaching you hear, and it will corrupt, it will spoil. It will be very destructive. So it's a symbol of evil. And as you think of their teaching, what was their teaching? As you think of religion without the Lord Jesus, one of the things that marks it is legalism.
Man's religion is marked by legalism, by rules. And the emphasis is, if you keep these rules, then you'll get right with God. Uh, then you'll be able to ultimately go to heaven or wherever God is. And so, a characteristic of man's religion is there are rules you must keep. You do these things, and then you will be right with God. If you're Muslim, you have five times a day you're supposed to pray. And so devout Muslims will do that very devoutly. They'll say the same words over. It's kind of a meaningless routine, but they will do it.
It's one of the rules. You want to get to heaven, you keep the rules, and these are some of the rules you keep. And so religions have different rules that you're going to keep. The Jews were the most, uh, legalistic of all. All the rules they had. Uh, rules concerning the Sabbath, dozens of rules, things you couldn't do, how far you could walk. All the rules to govern your behavior, and the thought was you keep the rules, and then you'll go to heaven. And the rules were externals, you know, rules can't really deal with the heart.
So you can be proud, you can be, uh, greedy, uh, you can be filled with hate, but you can still keep religious rules. People love to do that. You can give people the rules. I've had people come into a, a, a church, for example, and say, where's your book of rules? We want to know what rules you have to keep for your religion. Rules. And the focus there is, is on what you do, and your salvation is linked with what you do, your performance. So that's one of the things that marked the Pharisees. They would get on Jesus all the time. They say, you don't keep the Sabbath. You healed someone on the Sabbath, and so you're a Sabbath breaker.
You're not keeping our rules. And Jesus said, man wasn't made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. Uh, the Sabbath was for the good of man, and it's for the good of man that I heal this person. It's ridiculous to say I'm breaking the Sabbath. Now, something else that marks, uh, man's religion is ritual. Religious ceremonies. And man's religion is full of ceremonies, things you do. I can remember, uh, being in a Buddhist temple and seeing the, uh, worshippers come in. There's a ritual. As they approach the idol, you bow low.
Some would even prostrate themselves flat on their faces before the idol. You're going through this ritual. This is part of our religion. This is something now that will help get us to heaven. We go through our ceremonies. All religions are marked by ceremonies. And people like that. The flesh likes that. Uh, people like ceremonies. And so you see today people going to church. There'll be many in church today, and they're going through a particular ceremony. I did this for years before I was a Christian. We had the liturgy that we went through. We had the responses. The minister would say something, we would say something, he would say something, we would read it out of the book, and uh, we went through the routine, the ritual that was part of our religion.
When a baby was born, there was a ritual that began, and that was baptism. And so I was baptized as a baby, and all then believed now I was a Christian, and I was part of the church, and I would go to heaven because I had some water sprinkled on my forehead, and it, it, people take this very seriously. It's a solemn time, the people are there, the parents are there, and this is a very serious thing. This is part of the ceremony now that we must go through in order to ultimately go to heaven. And then later on, people would have, in various churches, you'd have confirmation, you go to confirmation, you go to instruction, and then comes a time when you take your first communion or your first mass, and you go through that ceremony, and it's a very impressive thing.
Here's a religious ceremony that you're involved in, and this is going to help get you to heaven. And so we have our ceremonies, and different religions have different ceremonies, but, uh, doing these religious things are going to make us right with God. And the Pharisees, the Sadducees, loved their religious ceremonies. That's a characteristic of man's religion. See, it's focusing on the outside. It's not focusing on the heart. That's what Jesus condemned. He said, you Pharisees, you Sadducees, you wash the outside of the platter. You're very, uh, scrupulous about outward ceremonies and outward rules and so forth, but he says inwardly, you're full of dead man's bones, you're full of corruption.
He says you're like a grave with a beautiful gravestone, and down below there's decaying flesh. He says that's what you're like. Your hearts are evil. And so the Lord isn't concerned. I- I- it isn't the external he focuses on, it's the heart. This is where the problem is. But people, instead of wanting to deal with the heart, they'll adopt the ceremonies, they'll adopt the external rules, and they'll say, I'm a Christian. You say, why are you Christian? Well, I was baptized as a baby, and I've been to confirmation, and I've taken my first mass, and uh, I give ten percent to the church. Jews were very scrupulous about that.
These- Jesus said, you tithe the mint, the anise, the cumin, you take herbs and you count out the leaves. I raise some herbs, and you, when you harvest them, you have to take the leaves off when they're dried, and this is what you use for your seasoning. And he says, as you take those leaves off, you count each ten. you take the tenth one and give it to God. You are so meticulous about this. You will count the leaves one by one by one, and if you count some of those herb leaves like, uh, thyme, they're very small leaves. You got a job. They would count them one by one. The Lord's going to get the tenth one. I'm going to keep the rules.
I'm going to be just so careful of this whole thing. That's man's religion. Always focusing on the outside. It's also marked by materialism. Man's religion emphasizes material things. That's why people love great ornate church buildings. The bigger the building, the Gothic architecture, uh, the bigger the organ. Like, uh, we had a, a wedding down in Wichita, Kansas, and it was in one of the largest churches in town. It was impressive, I tell you. Seat about nine hundred people, a huge pipe organ, and when the organist played that thing, the whole building reverberated.
It was a moving experience, this huge structure, and how could something so great and so grand not be of God? And, uh, surely this is true Christianity, we might say. And if you ever go to Rome, you must see Saint Peter's, and if you go into Saint Peter's, it is awesome. You stand there and you look up at the rotunda above you, and you look at that dome hundreds of feet above you, and you are awed. Surely then, God must be in this place. This must be of God. The Jews looked at their temple, and they said, my, look at this temple, look at these stones, look at the beauty of this place.
Surely this is of God. You know, the Lord Jesus said before he died, your house is left unto you desolate. It isn't the outward thing, it isn't the material thing. God is interested in the heart. But that's the characteristic of man's religion. And so wherever you go and you find man's religion, you see a focus on the external, on the material, you see huge, beautiful buildings, and you realize, uh, uh, that here there is this focus. The people may be living in poverty, but here's this magnificent structure. Once in Quito, Ecuador, a brother took me into a beautiful, one of the great church buildings there.
He said, I want you to see this. As we went inside, everything was covered with gold leaf. It was just all covered with gold leaf, a beautiful, beautiful building. But on the streets, there were people living in utter poverty. But the focus was, here this, now we've expended all this money and all this effort. Surely now this will please God, this beautiful, beautiful. Emphasis on externals, and it's marked then, Jesus would point it out by hypocrisy, and he s- he was so strong against these religious leaders who he says, you are hypocrites.
Because you're not dealing with the weightier matters of the law, he said, justice, honesty. You can be, uh, greedy, you can oppress the poor, and you can give to the church, and you can be so pious in your religious observance. And Jesus said, I hate that sort of thing. It's hypocrisy. And you know, today, people can, in their business practices, as was true of the Jews, he says, you oppress the widows, you- you're just dishonest in your business dealings, but here you're going to be so careful to give to the church, and you're going to keep the outward rules, and your heart is far from God.
So he hits that very strongly. He says, beware then of this leaven of the teaching. Beware of this kind of religion. Beware of this kind of thinking. Uh, watch out for it, he says. It tends to creep in. It's crept into the church. You know, for the first three centuries, the church didn't own any church buildings. Uh, it was a very simple thing. Uh, to become a Christian meant you were liable to persecution. You could end up in prison. You could be executed. Hundreds, thousands were. And yet then when, uh, Constantine declared that now it was a b- not be a r- an illegal religion, but it would be legal.
It would be permitted, and now the church buildings began to grow, and the emphasis then began to be on the external. The priesthood came in, all the ceremonies, and there was a slipping away from just the simplicity and the vitality and the reality of the early church. So easy to have happen. Now, the next section is a, is a, the center of the chapter, really. We're going to start reading with verse thirteen. Jesus goes across the lake, then he goes with his disciples up north into the region, it says, of Caesarea Philippi, and he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Then he commanded his disciples they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. 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 be raised again the third day. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You're an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Peter's confession. He's taken the disciples aside.
He, away from the crowds, we're in the north there, up near Caesarea Philippi, which is sort of in the foothills of, uh, Mount Hermon, and he's spending some time with them. He asks them, he says, now you've been seeing things I've been doing, you've been hearing my teaching, and, and, uh, people are talking some, what are they saying about me? And I think he's wanting them to do some thinking, really, too, about their own evaluation. And, uh, they said, well, uh, people are talking about John the Baptist. Some say that John's come back from the dead. Herod had heard that.
Some say you're Elijah, because Elijah was supposed to come before the Messiah comes. And you're doing such amazing, wonderful things. And, uh, others, Jeremiah, great prophet Jeremiah, uh, maybe he's been, he's come back to this world. And Jesus then turns to him and he says, but who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am? What do you think of me? You've seen me, you've watched me, you've heard me. Now, uh, what do you think of... Who am I? It's a question we all have to face when we, uh, hear about the Lord Jesus.
What do we really believe about him? Who do we think he is? And as they looked at him, and you'll hear Peter, uh, was a leader of them. He was one who was kind of impulsive and impetuous, and he'd be often a spokesman. And Peter stands up and he gives this magnificent statement. He says, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, you're the Son of the living God. Beautiful moment for Peter, wasn't it? It was a high point for him, really. He stands there, and I- he's speaking really for the others too, I believe. He says, we're all convinced.
You're the Savior. You're the Messiah who's to come. You're the one the Jews have been waiting for. We've heard about the coming Messiah. We've heard about the fact he's going to set up his kingdom. We've heard about the fact he's going to bring deliverance to Israel. We've been waiting for him and longing for him. We believe you're the one. Now, that was an act of faith. It was, and they were looking at a person who didn't look like a king. He wasn't dressed like a king. He was dressed in ordinary working men's clothing, uh, nothing striking about him, no retinue of servants or anything like this.
A man who looks ordinary, and the other said, is not this the carpenter? Nothing special, but by faith they had seen that he was more than a just a man. And I want to turn to John eight twenty four and uh, notice here the Lord is speaking and what he says. How important it is what we think of Jesus. The Jews are, uh, confronting him again, some of the Jews questioning him. And he says in verse twenty three, you are from beneath, I am from above.
You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. That's strong language, isn't it? Jesus said, in effect, what you believe concerning me will determine whether or not you go to heaven or to hell. You'll die in your sins unless you believe that I am he. He's the only savior. And so the apostles could say, neither is there salvation in any other. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
So Jesus here says, what you believe about me is altogether important. And, uh, Peter here speaks for them all, and he says, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now Jesus says to him, you know, you're blessed. Simon, you're blessed. You're among those who are blessed. You're privileged. In other words, uh, you're one of those who's going to go to heaven itself. Uh, he says, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you. It isn't simply that you, in your own reasoning, thought this through and came to this conclusion. What he says is, my Father who is in heaven has revealed this to you.
What a wonderful thing it is to have that revelation of the Lord Jesus. And I want to read John seven and verse seventeen, because here I think the Lord points out something that's important, that's vital. If we're going to have spiritual insight and spiritual illumination, this is very important. John seven seventeen, He says, if anyone wants to do his will or is willing to do his will, he shall know concerning the teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. So, part of this, uh, that is so essential to knowing spiritual truth is a willingness to obey it.
If you are not willing to obey, God will not show you spiritual truth. This is absolutely important. If you will to do, if you will to know his teaching, if you're open, if you are willing to do what God wants you to do, then he will show you truth. And Peter and, uh, these disciples were among those who were certainly open and willing to, uh, obey the Lord. Now, the Lord Jesus says of him, Peter, you're Peter, on this rock I will build my church.
Now, the two words there, petros and the word he uses for rock there, are very similar. He says, I'll build my church, the gates of, of Hades or of the dead will not prevail against it. Now, he's not saying here that Peter is the only, uh, rock on which the church is built, but I think he's saying, Peter, uh, you, along with the other apostles, are going to be the foundation of the church. And if you turn to Ephesians two and verse twenty, I want to, uh, read that, because here it speaks of how the apostles are the foundation of the church.
Ephesians two and twenty, It says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And it speaks of the building growing. So he's saying to Peter, you and these other apostles are going to be foundational in the church. Uh, the church is going to be built on you, on your teaching, on, uh, your leadership in those early days. Now, it's not exclusively Peter, that scripture points out the foundation includes the others, and Rome, the church of Rome is wrong when they say that Peter now is the true rock, and, uh, as such, uh, they try to go back to him, and they say, well, he's the original pope, and uh, we're in that apostolic line.
He's simply saying here, Peter, you're part of this foundation. I'm going to build my church on you, and uh, you're going to have, he says, the keys. Now, I want to just think about the keys there a minute. Keys represent authority. You go up to the county jail, and officers have certain keys. They have access. And in those days, a steward of a man's, uh, estate would have keys. He would have the keys to the storerooms. He had access to every part, which represented the fact that he had authority.
And what Jesus is saying here, I'm giving to, uh, you, Peter, and to, uh, the other apostles, uh, the authority in the church. You will be the ones now who will define doctrine. You're the ones who will tell these Christians, these believers, what to believe, how to live, you will define doctrine, teaching concerning the church. You'll have the keys, the authority. And, uh, this was true. In Acts two forty two it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, the doctrine.
And so the early Christians looked to the apostles. These were the men who, under the Lord Jesus now, have authority and will show them how they should live, what they should do, the apostles' doctrine. A man some time ago in the jail who had turned to the Lord said to me, I need teaching to know how to live as a Christian. And that's true, we all do. We need teaching to know how to live as a Christian, what to believe, what's our hope, what's our future. And so we go back as a New Testament church, we go back then to the apostles' teaching, and we say, uh, the apostles' teaching is authoritative.
This is our guideline. What the apostles taught, the epistles, how they function. We believe how they, uh, guided the church is an example for us today. So we lay a lot of emphasis on the example of the early church. Now, some churches, they say, oh, well, the New Testament church, that, that's outdated. This is the twentieth century. Times have changed. Things are different. No point in going back and looking at that because it simply isn't a good model. You got to have an up-to-date model, something different. But many of us say, no, the apostles are foundational, and their teaching and their example is something we can go back to in every age and follow, and it'll be for the best, for the best of the church, if we do that.
So he says, you have the keys. Now, following this, Christ predicts his death. They said, we believe you're the Messiah. Right away, he begins to say to him, look, I don't think you have the right idea about the Messiah. I'm not the kind of Messiah you are really thinking of will come. Because you don't understand that the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament wasn't only going to be a great king, he's going to be the savior. And he's going to have to suffer first, his suffering first, and then the glory that should follow.
So Jesus begins talking to them, and he says, you know, uh, it's great, it's wonderful that you realize I'm the Messiah, and that my Father in heaven has shown this to you. Uh, but now let me tell you what's involved in my being the Messiah. I'm going to be rejected. I'm going to suffer many things. I'm going to be killed. I'm going to be raised again the third day. And the disciples are listening, and they're just kind of looking. I imagine their mouths are hanging open. They're thinking, that's the Messiah? You're the Messiah, and that's going to happen to you in the first reaction, and I Pete- think Peter here expressed it, he said, no, Lord, no, no, no, no.
We don't want you to die. We want you to reign and be a great king, set up your kingdom in Jerusalem, and once again restore Israel to its glory. And you're talking about death and humiliation and, and all that, and Peter says, no, Lord, no, no. Now that's the natural reaction of the flesh. I've known of people who have said, when they heard about Jesus' life and his death, said, wasn't it a shame he died? He was such a good man, he gave such wonderful teaching, read the Sermon on the Mount and so forth. Think of all the good he could have done if he lived old age instead of dying at thirty three.
What a shame that he died. You see, it's that same way of thinking that doesn't understand. Jesus said, Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And Jesus says here, and he's teaching him, he says, listen, and he he he speaks strongly to Peter because Peter, the other disciples are around, and they've heard Peter, and the Lord says, I'm going to have to rebuke you because what you're saying is not of God, it's of the devil. The devil would love to have me bypass the cross, love to have me not go to the cross. And he says here, uh, get behind me, Satan. Strong words. Peter, you've just spoken a wonderful testimony.
You, you've said you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Father showed you that. But what you're saying now isn't of the Father, this is of the devil. Your suggestion to me that I should not die is of the devil. He says, get behind me, Satan. And, uh, so it was a, a strong word of rebuke. Then the fa- last part here, and I want to read this. Jesus now, after he's talking about his own death, says, um, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. There's a strong call here to follow him. What kind of a savior you're following? You're following a savior, he says, who, uh, has said no to himself. He says, I didn't come to do my own will, but the will of my Father. He's one who said no to himself, h- his himself naturally speaking, to his physical desires.
Uh, his was a pathway of self-denial. Now, we sometimes speak of self-denial, you know, we'll say, oh, she's gone on a diet, and so instead of eating a big bowl of ice cream, she just takes one scoop. She's really denying herself. Self-denial. This isn't what Jesus is talking about. That's self-limitation. But really what he's talking about is just saying no to yourself. Things that the old flesh just wants to do. Saying no to yourself and yes to God. God comes first, not self. As Christians, sometimes we can fall into that matter of of living for self, just living kind of selfishly, living for material things, living for the pleasures of this life.
Jesus says, you're going to follow me? You say no to yourself. He says, you're going to follow me? You take up your cross. Now, the cross symbolized reject. When Jesus went outside the city carrying his cross, the whole city knew here's one who has been rejected. He's not deemed fit to live. In fact, when he was brought there, you know, Pilate brought him out. Uh, they said, away with this man, crucify him. The cross symbolizes rejection by the world. Because you're going to follow me? The world as a whole will not accept you if you identify with me.
And today, even in this so-called Christian nation, uh, perhaps less than ten percent are those who are true believers who follow Jesus. In fact, in many of our cities today, they say in the city of Chicago, for example, at present, only two percent of the people go to church even, and many of the churches they go to don't preach the gospel. So you have to say you're following someone who still, by the majority, is rejected. He says, take up your cross, follow me. Don't expect the world's applause if you follow me. Now he says the selfish loss, life will be lost if you gain the whole world and lose your life, lose your soul, what have you profited?
Nothing, he says. You've lost everything. You've lost everything. It doesn't matter when I come to die, uh, how much money's in the bank, what kind of home I live in, all these material things that the world thinks are so vital. None of these things matter. The moment I leave this life, I leave it all behind, everything behind. Then the only thing that matters is, what have I done for God? How have I lived? Have I lived selfishly or unselfishly? So Jesus says, remember that, and remember there's reward coming when the Lord Jesus comes back, there's reward. When he comes, the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels.
Then he will reward each according to his works. So there's a time of reward coming for the believer. The Lord Jesus is coming back. We're going to see Him, and then will come the reward for the believer. Then we'll be able to say it will be worth it all when we see Jesus.