8-30-2026

 “FORMED TO FOLLOW THE CROSS”

Text: Matthew 16:21-28 – Pentecost 14

Sunday August 30, 2026

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 14th Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel lesson from Matthew 16 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that you formed and redeemed us to be disciples. Being your disciples we share your truth to all you place in our lives.  When we also share you, we will bare trials and crosses as well.  May we see see this as a way to witness our confidence and peace in you.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

Today’s lesson takes us on quite a journey! Matthew 16:21–28 presents us with a Gospel imperative. Jesus must go to Jerusalem. We are presented with Gospel necessity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus’ mission is progressing. Picking up from the ministry of John the Baptist, Jesus came to announce the kingdom of heaven in word and deed (Mt 4:17, 23). He confirmed that at the synagogue in Nazareth when he read words of the kingdom from Isaiah 61.

Jesus’ mission has also been to make disciples and prepare them for making more disciples. Jesus has been forming these disciples by calling, teaching, leading, and sending them. Now, in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus begins to move toward the completion of his mission.

Jesus has come to travel the way to the cross. For the first time in Matthew’s gos­pel, Jesus today predicts his suffering, death, and resurrection. And Jesus tells the disciples—and us—that we’re going along for the ride.

Jesus Forms Us as Disciples so That We Take Up Our Crosses and Follow Him to His.

A. Forming us as disciples begins with Jesus’ call. But called to go where? God’s calls are often mysterious and open-ended.

1. Long ago, Noah probably asked the “where” question. The only window in the ark was in the roof. Noah couldn’t see where he was going. He could only look up to the Father and trust that the Father knew the way.

2. When God first called Abraham, the Lord said simply, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God didn’t say where he would take him. Just “Trust me, and you’ll see.” But “by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb 11:8).

3. The disciples Jesus called didn’t know where their following might take them. It would be a lifelong journey of faith.

4. Living a Christian life is a way of trust for us too.

 a. You and I don’t need to know the way; we just need to know with whom we’re going. The truth lies here. You can be happy going anywhere as long as it’s with Jesus.

b. Jesus calls us to step outside our comfort zones and risk trusting him when we feel “I can’t!” “I don’t know how!” “Do what?”

c. Are you willing to abandon self-security and find new life in being attached to Jesus?

B. Forming us as disciples means Jesus teaching us.

1. It’s hard to teach someone who thinks he knows it all already. He’s too proud to admit you might know something he doesn’t know. As disciples-in-training, we need constantly to put away our pride and let Jesus teach us.

2. Meanwhile, for the less confident: “Not tried” is “Never done.” Trying is a step toward learning. God is okay with us messing up—even often—as long as we’re willing to learn.

3. Jesus would let the disciples face prob­lems they couldn’t deal with so that they might finally come to him and learn to trust him.

a. He was patient with them as they struggled to learn that greatness is about not places of honor but lives of service and servanthood.

b. At the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus said to the disciples, “You give them something to eat” (Mt 14:16), even though he already knew what he was going to do.

c. After that miracle, Jesus put them in a boat and sent them out on the lake and straight into a storm while he went up on the mountain to pray. He left them to struggle half the night before he came to them and calmed the storm. “Even the wind and waves obey him!” was one of the teachings that night.

4. In the life of a disciple, the teaching and learning never end. There is always more to learn, more to understand, more to grow. When was the last time you shared your story about what Jesus has done and can do? Start by practicing with a sister or brother in Christ. They’ll love to hear you tell what Jesus has done!

C. Forming us as disciples always includes Jesus leading us.

1. For three years Jesus led the Twelve, and every experience enabled them to be more like him.

a. Jesus led them to see his sacrificial love for the lost and hurting, for all people—Jews, Samari­tans, Gentiles, lepers, everyone. The disciples learned empathy for people’s pain. Such is the sacrificial life that the disciples would emulate.

b. Jesus led them to see his trust in the Father for everything they needed. He set the example of praying in all circumstances.

c. Jesus led them to see him take hold of grace and forgiveness for themselves and others.

2. Discipleship is an applied study that you make your own by doing, by following.

3. Jesus showed that forming disciples means letting individuals try things, serve in different ways. It means challenging them to heights they didn’t think they could reach or stooping down to help the lowly in depths they have never descended to before. Be ready to be challenged.

D. Finally, forming us as disciples leads to Jesus sending us.

1. Disciples become apostles, “sent ones.” But as with the call, we don’t know where. To whom? To do what? And how?

2. The disciples’ first taste of this life as sent ones was among the locals, the lost sheep of Israel (Mt 10:1, 5–8), familiar enough to be comfortable, but already a hint of the cross, sacrificing for others.

3. Later, the apostles were sent out to roads and places they had never imagined.

a. In Acts 8, after Stephen was martyred, the believers in Jerusalem were scattered out to Judea and Samaria and beyond.

b. The day came when Peter was sent to the home of Cornelius, a Gentile.

c. Paul reveled in the mission to take the Gospel to new places, to boldly go where no one had gone before. He would start in the local synagogue, if there was one, or the local meeting place, but then also on to the Gentiles. Paul would eventually find himself in Rome.

4. You and I are also sent to step outside ourselves and commit to the mission of the Gospel, loving those near us or maybe far (1 Cor 1:26–31).

II. As Jesus’ disciples, we take up our crosses.

A. Peter’s discipleship formation clearly wasn’t yet finished, because he doesn’t realize there will be crosses involved (vv 21–22).

1. He assumes following Jesus should be to Jesus’ coronation, not to Jesus’ cross.

2. But make no mistake: Peter rebuked Jesus about Jesus’ cross because he knew that could mean crosses for the disciples too.

3. He was right (v 24), and he sure didn’t want that!

B. To be clear, crosses are not the sufferings that are common to our human condition (2 Cor 12:7–10). Nor are they necessarily the things God uses as tools of sanctification (Jn 15:2; Heb 12:6). These are the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to make us more and more into the likeness of Christ.

C. The sufferings we endure as we take up our crosses and follow Jesus are sacrifices, even persecutions, for believing, living, speaking the Gospel. What have we sacrificed for the sake of the Gospel? What did the disciples give up or leave behind?

1. Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their nets behind. Matthew abandoned his tax booth and never went back.

2. Jeremiah, from today’s Old Testament Reading, suffered for the sake of the Gospel.

3. Today’s Epistle talks about the price of living a Christian life. Last week’s Epistle was about giving ourselves to God as living sacrifices.

4. In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested and commanded not to preach. They responded, “We can’t not preach.”

5. Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi; the list goes on and on and on.

6. “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12).

D. The disciples’ crosses all have something in common.

1. They describe the dangers and difficulties that came because of their commitment to the Gospel of Christ and the kingdom of heaven.

2. What have you suffered for the sake of the Gospel?

3. “Taking up your cross” can be a reflection of our prayer, “hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Will you sacrifice your name, your fame, and your kingdom for God’s kingdom? Moses did (Heb 11:24–27).

III. But always in carrying our crosses, we are following Jesus who carried his for us (v 21).

A. How good am I at denying myself, taking up my cross, and following Jesus?

1. I’m not very good at it. Not at all. My sinful, old nature is looking for an escape hatch at every opportunity.

2. We try to live with one foot in each kingdom.

3. My pesky sinful nature is ever-present. With Paul, I pray, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24).

4. Even Paul needed Jesus’ special encouragement at different times (Acts 18:9–10; 23:11).

B. The devil tempts us to avoid crosses.

1. After Jesus’ wilderness temptation, the devil departed “until an opportune time” (Lk 4:13). He would be back.

a. He spoke through Peter again at Jesus’ transfiguration: “Let us build three booths here” and stay awhile (cf 17:4).

b. He spoke through false friends, hypocritical Pharisees: “Escape from here. Herod wants to kill you” (cf Lk 13:31).

c. Least subtly, Satan spoke again through the mockers at the cross: “If you are the Son of God, come down; save yourself” (cf 27:42).

2. And even faithful disciples give in to temptations rather than sacrifice or bear crosses.

a. James and John wanted to be greatest in the kingdom rather than bear crosses.

b. At the Last Supper, all the disciples pledged unfailing devotion to Jesus, but they ran to avoid their crosses when soldiers showed up.

c. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, Peter, rather than sacrifice his status as a Jew, continued to avoid sharing the Gospel with Gentiles until the Holy Spirit overwhelmed him with the evidence (Acts 10).

C. Nevertheless, Jesus takes up his cross for Peter.

1. When Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan” (v 23), it is not a command for Peter to go away.

a. He has not been fired or laid off. Jesus is not turning his back on Peter or expelling him from the Twelve.

b. Instead, Jesus is calling him to “get back in line.” Like a drill sergeant addressing a raw recruit.

2. Our crosses are always following Jesus’ cross.

a. It’s not what Peter wanted for him, but Jesus knew his cross was what we all need.

b. It’s Jesus’ cross that has made us God’s people again by removing the sin that separated us from our Father.

c. And as God’s people, in our baptism into Jesus’ death, we become his disciples.

d. Which means we will carry crosses. “But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (v

Christ’s disciples aren’t perfect. Still, Jesus continues to forgive and to form us as disciples—to call and teach and lead and send us.

He also prays for us. He protects; he guides; he empowers.

We are called to take up our crosses and follow him, to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel, in order to bring the love of Jesus to the hearts and lives of the people around us.

Is it a cross? Yes. Is it an unbearable cross? No. Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (11:29–30). Amen.

wNow may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior...Amen.