Bulletins - First Baptist Church Litchfield

- - Revelation 21:1–4ESV
When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder
When We All Get To Heaven
Victory In Jesus
- - Ephesians 2:19–22ESV
The Family Of God
We Will Stand
Blessed Assurance
Revelation Song
Living Hope
When Our Expectations of Christ Collide with the Necessity of the Cross
We all are tempted to have a version of Christianity we prefer. One that fits neatly into our plans, protects our comfort, and avoids unnecessary pain. We want a Messiah who fixes our problems, not one who calls us to suffer. We want a kingdom that gives us glory now, not one that requires a cross first. If we are honest, we are not that different from Peter.
When Jesus begins to speak plainly about His suffering and death, Peter pulls Him aside and says, “This shall never happen to you.” In other words, “Jesus, that is not the kind of King I signed up for.”
But beneath Peter’s words is something deeper that lives in all of us. We naturally resist a suffering Savior because we resist the costly discipleship he requires. We want the benefits of His kingdom without embracing the priorities of the King. We want resurrection without crucifixion. We want glory without sacrifice. We want a crown without a cross. And when Jesus’ plan confronts our expectations, we are tempted, just like Peter, to correct Him rather than submit to Him.
Yet Jesus does not adjust His mission to fit our preferences. He does not remove the cross; He reveals how absolutely necessary it is to be His disciple. The Son of God must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer. He must be killed. And He must be raised. Why? Because our greatest problem is not discomfort or inconvenience in this world. Our greatest problem is sin and God’s condemnation of it. And only through the cross can sinners like us be forgiven, justified, sanctified, adopted, and brought into the kingdom of God.
The same Savior who embraces the cross for your salvation now calls you to embrace the cross in your discipleship. Jesus’ salvation both saves you from the wrath of God and calls you to follow Him. It is a calling that does not allow you to go around the cross. It is a calling that requires you to go through it daily.
So the question before us this morning “Will I follow Jesus on His terms? As His disciple, will I embrace His kingdom priority discipleship?”
In our passage this morning, Jesus helps us understand what His kind of kingdom priorities He requires for his disciples.
Kingdom discipleship prioritizes rejecting worldly thinking, denying self, and following Christ through suffering now in light of His coming glory and final judgment.
Kingdom Priorities Reject Worldly Thinking (Matthew 16:21–23)
In verse 21, Jesus begins to show His disciples the divine necessity of His suffering, death, and resurrection. At this point in His ministry, Jesus moves from veiled language to unmistakable clarity. He no longer speaks in shadows about His mission. He speaks plainly. He sets His face toward the cross.
Jesus declares that He must go to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, He will suffer at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, the very men who make up the ruling authority of Israel. These are not rogue enemies acting like religious Zealots. These are the Sanhedrin, the official leaders of God’s people. They will reject Him, condemn Him, and kill Him. And on the third day, He will rise again.
Jesus speaks with divine certainty because the cross stands at the center of God’s redemptive plan. He must suffer. He must die. He must rise. Your salvation depends on it.
But when Jesus speaks with clarity, oddly enough, Peter responds with confusion. In verse 22, Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him. He literally says, “Mercy to you, Lord; this shall certainly not happen to you.” Peter speaks with intensity and conviction. Maybe even misguided love, but he also speaks with profound arrogance. He’s acting as if he knows the Father’s plan for the Messiah better than Jesus knows it.
Do you see the irony? Just moments earlier, Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus commended him and called him the rock upon which he will build his church. Now Peter stands in the way of the very mission, a rock that would cause Christ to stumble over the work of building the church. The same mouth that confessed truth now resists it.
Keep in mind, Peter does not reject Jesus as his teacher, but he rejects the cross Jesus must suffer. And that is worldly thinking that lacks kingdom priority.
Jesus answers Peter with a sharp rebuke. He says, “Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Jesus exposes Peter’s heart through His rebuke. Peter steps out of place, but how? A disciple follows behind the teacher, but Peter attempts to step in front and lead, as if he knows God’s redemption plan better than Jesus. Peter, the rock, becomes a stumbling block. He tempts Jesus to avoid the cross just as Satan did in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-12). Peter adopts priorities that align more with the world than with the will of the Father.
I can appreciate Peter’s affection for Jesus. But, his arrogance misaligns his priorities. He values comfort over sacrifice. He values the preservation of life over the purpose of redemption. He loves the incarnate Christ but resists the crucified Christ.
And if I am honest, I am as arrogant as Peter. When the cross confronts me, and in my flesh I resist it, and maybe you do as well. The cross offends us. Scripture says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing and a stumbling block to those who reject it (1 Corinthians 1:18, 23). The cross looks us in the face and says, “You are a sinner,” as it declares that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). It calls every person to repent and turn from their sinful treason against God (Acts 17:30) and to confess Jesus Christ as Lord (Romans 10:9). It reminds us that each one of us will give an account of our lives before God (Romans 14:12; Hebrews 9:27). And it warns that those who refuse Christ remain under God’s wrath and will face eternal judgment (John 3:36; 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9).
And if we respond like Peter, if we resist the cross or attempt to reshape Christ according to our own preferences, we place ourselves in opposition to the very plan of God, and Jesus says to us, “Get behind me Satan.” Jesus makes this clear when He rebukes Peter and says that such thinking aligns not with God but with man; with Satan himself (Matthew 16:23).
To reject the necessity of the cross is not a minor misunderstanding or a third tier theology issue. It is to reject the only means of salvation (Galatians 2:21). It is to deny ourselves the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness that comes through Christ alone. If we refuse the cross, we remain in our sin, and we forfeit the life that only Christ can give (John 14:6).
J. C. Ryle wisely said,
“Error on many points is only a skin disease. Error about Christ’s death is a disease of the heart.” J. C. Ryle
Think of it this way. You are sitting in a doctor’s office. He tells your condition is serious and that surgery is necessary. It will be painful. It will be costly. But it will save you life. Then you respond by saying, “I do not want the surgery. Give me something easier. Give me something that does not hurt. Give me something not as invasive and surely less offensive.”
The doctor looks at you and says, “If you reject the surgery, you reject the only thing that can save you.”
Peter does the same thing with Jesus, and so do we when we do not accept the cross of Christ. Peter rejects the cross because it did not fit his expectations. You may be tempted to reject the cross because it is unpopular and offensive. You might ask yourself,
“Pastor, how do we reject the cross?”
I think the Western church has rejected the cross by refusing to bring people to the cross through a message of repentance. We are are happy to the the world God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. But we refuse to tell the world that plan involves acknowledging their sin condemns them to hell, confessing their sin, and repenting of it, trusting in the resurrected Christ for salvation.
Kingdom priorities keep the cross and resurrection at the center of everything. If Christ is not crucified, your sin remains. If Christ is not raised, you stand condemned. Your hope rests entirely on what Jesus accomplishes in Jerusalem at the cross.
You must examine your own heart. Where do your priorities resist the cross? Do you follow Jesus as long as it protects your comfort, your plans, and your reputation? Do you subtly try to reshape Christ into someone who serves your life rather than rules it?
The kingdom of God rejects such worldly thinking as a Christ without the cross. Jesus calls you to embrace the cross not only as the means of your salvation, but also as the pattern for your life.
Kingdom Priorities Require Self-Denial (Matthew 16:24–25)
Peter is not the only disciple who needs correction. Jesus turns from Peter to all His disciples and clarifies what it means to follow Him. Where worldly thinking prioritizes selfishness, the kingdom of God prioritizes selflessness.
Jesus says in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Jesus calls His disciples to also get behind Him. He says it more positively with , “follow me.” A disciple of Jesus get’s behind Jesus to follow him. To follow Jesus is to emulate His love for the Father and for the world with a life of self denial.
Everything about Christ’s life was love-infused self-denial.
Christ was and still is completely self-sufficient. He needs nothing. He depends on no one. He receives nothing from His creation that He does not already possess in Himself. As the eternal Son, He shares in the fullness of divine glory, power, and satisfaction. And yet, He chooses the path of self-denial at every turn.
He left the glory of heaven and took on flesh. Paul says in Philippians 2:6–7 that though He existed in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant. He stepped out of perfect worship into a world that rejected Him. He traded the praise of angels for the scorn of sinners. He entered into weakness, hunger, fatigue, and sorrow, not out of begrudging obligation, but because His love for His Father and the elect.
He lived in perfect submission. Jesus says in John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” He never acted independently. He never sought His own will. He always obeyed the Father. Every word He spoke, every miracle He performed, every step He took reflected a life of complete surrender.
He denied Himself legitimate comforts. He experienced hunger in the wilderness, yet refused to turn stones into bread for His own relief (Matthew 4:2–4). He grew weary and rested, yet continued to pour Himself out for others. He had no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). He lived without the comforts He rightly deserved.
He rejected worldly glory. Satan offered Him the kingdoms of the world, but Jesus refused (Matthew 4:8–10). The crowds attempted to make Him king on their terms, but He withdrew (John 6:15). He did not grasp for power, recognition, or ease. He set His face toward the cross.
He embraced suffering. Isaiah says He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). He endured betrayal from a friend, abandonment by His disciples, false accusations, mockery, and brutal violence. He did not resist. He did not call down angels. He willingly walked the path of suffering. He submitted to a criminal’s death on a cross and rose victoriously from the grave to the glory of the Father and the good of His elect. Jesus’s entire life was rich and good and purposeful because he lived a life of self-denial. If you follow Christ, He calls you to the same rich and good and purposeful life of self-denial.
J. I. Packer sums up the call to a life of Spirit-empowered Christ exalting self denial with a summons:
Self-denial is a summons to submit to the authority of God as Father and of Jesus as Lord and to declare lifelong war on one’s instinctive egoism.
J. I. Packer
Your pursuit of self-denial with a lifelong war on instinctive egoism works itself out in two ways.
First, self-denial recognizes that you do not belong to yourself.
Christ purchased you with His blood, so you now belong to Him (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Empowered by His Spirit and guided by His word, His grace trains you to reject sinful desires and to live for Him (Titus 2:12–14). You deny yourself when you lay down your desire for control, comfort, and recognition and pursue the glory of Christ instead.
Secondly, you war against egoism by taking up your cross.
When you take up your cross, you put your old self to death. Jesus walked the road to Golgotha carrying His cross. He endured shame, suffering, and rejection. The cross represents humiliation and death. Nothing about it appears attractive apart from what God accomplishes through it.
So when Jesus calls you to take up your cross, He calls you to die, to slay your instinctive ego. You die to your pride. You die to your selfish ambitions. You die to your need for approval. You die to your self-serving interests and you put other interests above yourself, serving others.
You live for Christ even when it costs you comfort, relationships, reputation, or security. You care for the weak. You speak the truth even when others reject you. You follow Christ in sacrifice knowing there may be little ease of the burden on this earth. You live everyday in costly obedience.
Jesus explains why in verse 25. He says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
To save your life in this world is to chase comfort, success, and personal fulfillment. You can build your life around what brings you joy in this world. But if you live for yourself, Jesus says, you will lose everything.
Jesus says, true life, the life he lived and offers you today, only comes when you deny yourself. When you lose your life for Christ, when you surrender your will to Him, when you allow him to lead you in the self-denial life he lived for you, you gain real life, a rich and good and purposeful life now, and an eternal life that no one can take from you.
Think of a seed. If you keep the seed in your hand, it remains alone and lifeless. But when you place it in the ground, it dies and produces life. Jesus teaches this truth in John 12:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Your life is like a seed. You must let the seed die if you want it to live and bear much fruit.
Ask yourself,
Where do I still hold onto my life?
Where do I resist surrendering to Christ?
Do you follow Jesus only when it feels comfortable?
Do you avoid obedience when it becomes costly?
Repent of partial surrender. Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily. Follow Christ wherever He leads. The life you try to protect cannot save you, but the life you surrender to Christ will lead you to eternal glory.
Kingdom Priorities Value Eternal Reward (Matthew 16:26–28)
In verse 26, Jesus brings us face to face with a sobering kingdom reality. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
This world offers you a lot of good things, but it cannot give what your soul ultimately needs (Ecclesiastes 5:10; Luke 12:15).
Jesus does not condemn the good gifts of God. The love of your family is good (Psalm 127:3–5). Meaningful work is good (Ecclesiastes 3:13). A meal with close friends is good (Acts 2:46). Celebrating life’s milestones is good (John 2:1–11). Even a Cubs win at Wrigley Field on a crisp 72 degree spring day is good. God gives these gifts for your enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17). But kingdom priorities reorder your heart so that you enjoy these gifts without worshiping them. None of them are worth your soul (Mark 8:36–37).
In a Genesis 3 world, we take good things and treat them as ultimate things (Romans 1:25). We begin to live as though this life defines everything (1 John 2:15–17). The culture disciples us to think of our lifespan in terms of seventy or eighty years (Psalm 90:10). Build your life. Secure your comfort. Maximize your retirement. But Jesus confronts that way of thinking. He calls you to measure your life by eternity, setting your mind on things of above seeking an eternal weight of glory that far exceeds our momentary suffering (Colossians 3:1–2; 2 Corinthians 4:16–18).
That is why He moves immediately to verse 27. “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:27). Jesus grounds kingdom priorities in a coming kingdom reality. He will return (Acts 1:11). He will judge (2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:11–15). He will reward (Romans 2:6–7; 1 Corinthians 3:12–15). Every life moves toward that moment (Hebrews 9:27).
Those who gain the world and reject Christ will face judgment and eternal separation from God (2 Thessalonians 1:8–9; John 3:36). But for the disciple who prioritizes God’s kingdom God promises eternal rewards. That means no act of faithfulness slips through the cracks (Hebrews 6:10). No sacrifice goes unnoticed (Matthew 10:42). No obedience fades into obscurity. He rewards you generously for your faithfulness, and His reward does not diminish with time because His kingdom is everlasting (1 Peter 1:3–5). The world will forget you and you accomplishments, but the Lord always remembers and rewards your faithfulness. Jesus goes on to anchor your hope in his reward with a glimpse of his coming kingdom in verse 28.
In verse 28, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28).
Within six days, Peter, James, and John will stand on a mountain and see Jesus transfigured before them (Matthew 17:1–2). His face will shine like the sun. His clothes will become white as light. Moses and Elijah will appear (Matthew 17:3). The Father’s voice will declare, “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 17:5). In that moment, they will see the kingdom breaking in with power. They will see the King in His glory before they ever see Him on the cross (2 Peter 1:16–18). They will see the Son of Man in His Kingdom.
Jesus anchors their hope in that coming revelation because He knows what lies ahead. The cross will look like defeat (1 Corinthians 1:18). Suffering will look like loss (2 Corinthians 4:8–9). Self-denial will feel costly (Matthew 16:24). But the transfiguration declares that an eternal wright of glory stands on the other side of suffering (Romans 8:17–18). Jesus, the King, reigns even when He suffers. The kingdom advances even when it looks like it has been defeated (John 18:36).
As I close, I want to bring us back to the gospel. If we are honest, we struggle to live with kingdom priorities. We are tempted to chase the world (James 4:4). We value temporary things more than eternal glory (Philippians 3:18–19). Too often, we treat our souls too lightly. If the standard is perfect kingdom priority, we all stand guilty (Romans 3:23).
But Jesus did not fail where you have failed. He valued God’s eternal reward perfectly (Hebrews 12:2). He denied Himself completely (Philippians 2:6–8). He took up His cross willingly (John 10:17–18). He did not live to gain the world. He gave Himself for it (Mark 10:45). He went to the cross and bore the penalty for every time you trade eternity for the temporary pleasures (1 Peter 2:24). He rose from the grave to secure eternal life for all who trust in Him (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
For every disciple of Christ, Jesus promises you John 10:28 “28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Your soul is secure in the hands of Jesus. You do not prioritize your kingdom life of self-denial to earn eternal life. You deny yourself because you already have it in Him, and His is your Life (Galatians 2:20).
So lift your eyes. Evaluate your life through the lens of eternity. Ask what in your life will outlast this world (Matthew 6:19–21). Ask what you hold onto that is not worth your soul. Ask where your treasure truly lies. Reject any worldly thinking that denies the glory of the cross and the hope of the resurrection. Embrace a Spirit empowered Christ exalting life of selflessness. Live in light of the secure promise of eternal and the eternal reward that Christ promises to give for your faithfulness.
Because in the end, you will not stand before Christ and give an account for how much of the world you gained. You will stand before Him and give an account for whether you lived for the kingdom that lasts forever (Matthew 25:31–46).
- - Matthew 16:21–23ESV
- - Matthew 16:24–25ESV
- - Matthew 16:26–28ESV
- - John 15:8ESV
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus

Revelation 21:1–4ESV

Ephesians 2:19–22ESV

When Our Expectations of Christ Collide with the Necessity of the Cross

Kingdom discipleship prioritizes rejecting worldly thinking, denying self, and following Christ through suffering now in light of His coming glory and final judgment.

Kingdom Priorities Reject Worldly Thinking (Matthew 16:21–23)

“Pastor, how do we reject the cross?”

Kingdom Priorities Require Self-Denial (Matthew 16:24–25)

First, self-denial recognizes that you do not belong to yourself.

Secondly, you war against egoism by taking up your cross.

Where do I still hold onto my life?

Where do I resist surrendering to Christ?

Do you follow Jesus only when it feels comfortable?

Do you avoid obedience when it becomes costly?

Kingdom Priorities Value Eternal Reward (Matthew 16:26–28)

Matthew 16:21–23ESV

Matthew 16:24–25ESV

Matthew 16:26–28ESV

John 15:8ESV