Matthew 16:21-27

The Suffering Messiah
Book of the Bible
Matthew
Speaker
Tony Ferguson
Sermon Date

In this passage we read that Jesus begins to teach and show His disciples about the things that He would suffer. The disciples were looking forward to the reigning Messiah, but hadn't come to terms with the suffering of the Messiah. Peter then takes it upon himself to rebuke Jesus as this suffering business didn't really fit into his understanding of the Messiah.

Jesus informs Peter that his emotional concern was a stumbling block in regards to His purpose in coming to die for the sins of humanity. Jesus then instructs His disciples that those who want to follow Him must deny themselves and take up their cross 

Description of the book of Matthew

As you come to the New Testament the first three books you encounter (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are referred to as the "synoptic" gospels. They are called the "synoptic" gospels because for the most part, they have a "similar view" of the life and ministry of Jesus. Though they account for much of the same narrative regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, they are not identical, nor are they intended to be. They assemble the accounts in different contexts, and contain different amounts of detail, but they are all important. God always seeks to establish a matter on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses, so having these 3 synoptic gospels about the life an ministry of the Son of God is in no way redundant.

Matthew’s gospel communicates to us the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus in the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. From His lineage, to His birth, to His miraculous ministry, to His teachings, to His crucifixion, Matthew will time and time again point out that these things happened “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet…”.