Part 31 – Power Pictures in a Cruciform Kingdom – Matthew 17
February 3, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
We are back in our series in Matthew! Peter has made the momentous declaration that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. After commending Peter, Jesus turns his attention to explaining how things will work in His kingdom. He is going to the capitol city in order to be rejected, suffer, and die. Anyone who wants to follow him must do the same. Peter has an allergic reaction to such ideas. Like any of us, Peter wants to save his life and holds to a different view of how power works.
This leads to Matthew 17 where Jesus is going to give us lessons in power in 4 vignettes, each giving us a view of how Christ’s kingdom power works from a different angle. The first is on a mountain; the second, on the way down from the mountain; third about what it looks like off the mountain; finally, we get a view about power in the face of an opposing mountain.
In truth, all of these are lessons in how we are to do our mission… fulfill our calling as disciples of Jesus. We might expect that if we set out to do what Jesus says, everything will work great. In our text, the disciples are doing exactly what Jesus told them to do and failing miserably. Ever been there? How can this be? What are we to think?
Join us as we pick back up in our series, DISCIPLE 1.0: Examining the Original Release, from Matthew 17.