A PRICE TO PAY IN FOLLOWING CHRIST

(Message delivered by Pastor at the True Life Church Good Friday Service, Mar 25, 05)
Text: Matt. 16:21-26

Today is Good Friday. This is the Day Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. Do you come tonight to remember Him and thank Him for His salvation? With so many people here I believe you do.

There is a price to pay in following Christ. Our Lord began to show His disciples how He would be killed by the elders, chief priests and scribes and be raised on the third day.

But Peter did not like what Jesus said and wanted this thing to be far from his Lord. Jesus rebuked Peter as Satan because he savoured not the things of God but the things of men. Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” To take up his cross is to die in the steps of Jesus.

The first to follow Jesus is St. Paul. Paul tells Timothy his follower after he was imprisoned in Rome he was ready to die for his faith and he looked forward to his death. By God’s grace Peter changed from his fearful self to follow his Lord. After Jesus’ resurrection when He appeared to His disciples and spoke personally to Peter, our Lord foretold Peter’s death in following Him. Peter fulfilled his Lord’s wish and died for Jesus, as it is said, Crucified upside down. By tradition it is also said every one of his disciples died for his Saviour.

There is a picture illustrating the Church of Smyrna. “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, . . . Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life (Rev. 2:9-10).” That  picture illustrating this scripture shows a lion let out of his cage in the Colosseum is about to devour the early Christians under persecution by Roman emperors.

So Jesus our Lord expects us His followers today to do the same. O Lord, because we love you with all our heart keep us faithful to the very end. Amen.

 

 

RECONCILIATION

LORD GOD ALMIGHTY,
Thou art beforehand with men
for thou hast reconciled thyself to the world through the cross,
and dost beseech men to accept reconciliation.
It is my responsibility to grasp thy overtures of grace,
for if thou, the offended party, act first with the word of appeasement,
I need not call in question thy willingness to save,
but must deplore my own foolish maliciousness;
If I do not come to thee as one who seeks thy favour,
I live in contempt, anger, malice, selfsufficiency,
and thou dost call it enmity.
Thou hast taught me the necessity of a mediator, a messiah,
to be embraced in love with all my heart,
as king to rule me,
as prophet to guide me,
as priest to take away my sin and death,
and this by faith in thy beloved Son who teaches me
not to guide myself,
not to obey myself,
not to try to rule and conquer sin,
but to cleave to the one who will do all
for me.
Thou hast made known to me
that to save me is Christ’s work,
but to cleave to him by faith is my work,
and with this faith is the necessity of my
daily repentance
as a mourning for the sin which Christ
by grace has removed.
Continue, O God, to teach me
that faith apprehends Christ’s
righteousness
not only for the satisfaction of justice,
but as unspotted evidence of thy love to me.
Help me to make use of his work of salvation
as the ground of peace,
and of thy favour to, and acceptance of
me the sinner,
so that I may live always near the cross.
– Extracted from “The Valley of Vision: A
collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions