With school just starting up, many students' thoughts are on their futures. They have to figure out what classes to take to meet their goals. (Pick out a young person in the congregation, and ask the following.) So, what are your plans? What are you thinking? And then…And then… And then…? (etc., right up to old age.)
In a similar way earlier in summer, I read a story about a man who asked a recent high school graduate what his plans were. The student replied, “I plan to go to college in the fall.” “And then?” asked the man. “Then I'll get married, find a good-paying job, make some money, and be successful.” “And then?” asked the man again. “I suppose I'll eventually retire, travel, see the world, and take life easy.” “And then?” “Well, old age will come, but I hope to stay healthy and enjoy that as well.” “And then?” “Well, then I suppose I'll have to die.” “And then?” No answer.
How often doesn't it happen that people are so concerned about living that they never really understand life ? Life is more than going to school or getting a good job, making money, being successful, enjoying good health, or taking it easy. That's living. But there's more to life than that.
Jesus talked about it in our text when He said, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Here you have to think of “saving one's life” in the same light as “living,” acquiring things for oneself. About this Jesus said: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
If a person's chief concern is living and getting the most out of life in earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment, he shows that he doesn't know all that life is about. In the end he will lose more than he gains. So, what are you thinking ? How does it compare to God's way of thinking?
I. So often it must seem like we say: Lord, I think I know what's best. We must learn to say: Help me see that You know better. Too bad Peter didn't think that way. If he had, he wouldn't have said the foolish things that he did here. And the “kicker” to that is the fact that he said these things right after he had made that beautiful confession of faith about the Lord Jesus. Remember that? Jesus had asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” “And you?” Jesus asked; “Who do you say I am?” Peter, his faith rising to the occasion, gave that great answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You're the Savior whom God promised us and appointed from the very beginning.”
Peter thought correctly because he was thinking God's way about it, not just his own. That becomes clear from what Jesus said to him when He replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” Peter was thinking God's way as God had revealed it to him.
Dear friends, in one sense it's not hard to think God's way because God reveals to us so clearly what He is thinking. We call it the Bible. That's where He tells us what His thoughts are about life, about this world, about who He is, about who you are, and about what lies in store in the future. He tells us plainly what those things are. The problem is not that we don't know what He's thinking; the problem is that in sin we don't want to hear it or we choose to follow our own thoughts instead.
Our thoughts, unless shaped by Him, are contrary to His because we are sinners. That's why He said through the Prophet Isaiah (55:6ff): “Seek the Lord while He may be found…Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts….For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The way He thinks is as far away from our natural way of thinking as the sky is.
So, ask yourself what you are thinking. Unless it is shaped by God's thinking, it's going to be contrary to Him. That's why everything you say, everything you do, everything you read about matters of life, death, or eternity – all human reasoning must be brought captive to faith in what God has said to us in His Word. For man's thoughts, shaped by sin, are contrary to the truth, even though it seems logical or best to us.
For example after Peter made that great confession about Christ, Jesus told the disciples what the Christ had to do – suffer, die, and rise again. Peter stood aghast. He only heard suffer and die and he couldn't bear to think of that happening to Jesus. That couldn't be right; God simply wouldn't permit it he thought. So, his blunt response was, “Never, Lord! It won't happen to you.”
What is that, dear friends? Peter thought that he knew what was best. He thought he knew best how God was to save people from sin. So he took it upon himself to contradict Jesus. Funny thing is he meant well; he wanted only the best for his Lord. Good! Right? Jesus reply to him? “Get behind me, Satan!”
Satan? Isn't that a bit strong? Perhaps misguided, ignorant, even foolish, but Satan? Peter only said what he thought was best .
What would you think if the Lord Jesus turned to you and called you Satan when you thought you wanted only the best for Him? Could you merit Jesus' calling you a devil? Peter did, for he was playing the part of Satan even though he didn't think he was.
You see, Peter thought he knew best and he meant well, but his words reflected the same temptation that Satan put before Jesus in the wilderness. Remember when he told Jesus to turn the stones into bread so that He could have something to eat; and to jump off the roof of the temple so that the angels would protect Him; and to bow down to Satan who would give Jesus the kingdoms of the world? In all of those temptations the devil was trying to get Jesus to disobey the Father's will and avoid the way of suffering and death. Peter was doing the same; he was setting a trap for Jesus. If Jesus stepped into it, it would catch Him and stop Him from redeeming the world. Peter didn't want Jesus to die, a noble thought, but satanic and bad for us. Thankfully, Jesus knew better .
Dear friends He always knows better about salvation and our needs. Do you have your own opinion on what is important to believe and not important? Do you think that the differences that exist about doctrines are just minor things that we should put aside so that we all get along? Have you ever thought that God could hardly damn a friend who tries to lead a good life? Is your life following God's way of living, or do you prefer to pursue things that aren't eternally beneficial and hang on to sinful thoughts? It's not what you and I think but what God says that's important.
God would lead us to think His way so that our hope rests entirely on grace in Christ and His death for us, which blessings He only gives in Word and Sacrament. That's His way, and when we think like that we will have it. It's really better, for when it all rests on Him, the tremendous comfort and peace that Christ gives is ours.
What are you thinking about this? We pray: Lord, I think I know what's best. Forgive, and help me see that You know better.
II. Lord, I think I know what's good for me. But help me see You know what's eternally beneficial.
And often times what He knows is better is that I, like He, must suffer too. Suffering is the Christian's lot in life. In fact, if you don't suffer at some point, something must be wrong for Jesus most clearly said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” There's no other way. Christians can't avoid it anymore than Jesus did. Remember how they tried to embarrass Him and make His life miserable? Shunned Him? Mocked Him on the cross? Spit on Him? He couldn't avoid it; nor can we. Nor should we want to.
But Lord, I think I know what's good for me. How can it be good to suffer, ridicule, scorn, and hatred? That's not a happy way to live! No, it's not a happy way, but it is an eternally beneficial and better way. How?
We think suffering is bad till we hear what God thinks. He tells us, “Now, for a little while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold…refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1Pt.1:7).
God compares gold tried by fire to faith tried by temptation and suffering. Fire never takes anything away from gold. Oh, it melts it, but it also melts all the other impurities clinging to it so that all you have left is pure gold. The bad stuff is removed. Fire helps gold be all that it can be. It's beneficial to it, not destructive.
Think of the cross and suffering from that standpoint. It enabled Christ to be all that He could be, our Champion over sin, death, and the devil. And it enables the Christian to be all that he can be for Christ as it burns away the worthless that clings to us and keeps us from the Savior. Oh, they hurt! The cross hurt Christ, too. But avoid because I think I know what's good for me? No, for then I won't have the divine strength He promises (1Co.10:13), and I won't have the appreciation for the cross that He bore for me.
So it is when faith comes into existence, God never fails to thrust the holy cross upon our shoulders that He may strengthen us and make our faith more vigorous (Luther). In my sin I don't think it's good for me, but He knows it's eternally beneficial.
What are you thinking, planning? Be quick to pray. Lord, I think I know what's good for me. But help me see that You know what's eternally beneficial ; and do what's necessary to save me.