But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.”But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.
5 sermons cite this verse
… towards good. So please don't give up before God gets finished the work that he wants to do on the inside of your life. Amen, family. Amen. I am in Matthew 16, verse 21 through 23. I have a few other supporting texts that we'll get to later. But the anchor thought for this is now that you know. Now that you know. And to give you some context of what's happening in Matthew 16, Jesus has been in discussion with his disciples. And he asked one of his disciples in particular, he asked Peter, says, Peter, who do you say that I am? This is earlier in this chapter. And Peter reveals to him that he believes that he is the son of God. He is the long awaited Messiah. And Jesus tells Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but the spirit did. And then just a few short verses later, he's having a different encounter with Peter. One that is quite intriguing considering the fact that he had just acknowledged that Peter understood who he was and that flesh and blood hadn't revealed it to him. It seemed like Peter was tapped in to who he was and what God was doing in the earth. And yet when we look at verse 21, the tides have changed. From that time after he had that encounter with the disciples where he acknowledged that he was the Messiah, from that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. …
… right? What does Jesus say in the gospel? He says, whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Then he says this massive line. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life. Jesus is making it so clear that we can lose, but no one ever gets beaten out of their soul. They simply forfeit. And we do it in a bunch of different ways. We make little trades, right? We make little compromises. We make little exchanges. We forfeit. Or we violate the rules and we forfeit. Or sometimes we concede. Sometimes we just simply stop playing and we forfeit. And the question we hear is Jesus saying, what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his life? Another way to say it here at the beginning of school year is the reality is this. …
… And that is the reality of Satan's existence. In Matthew chapter 16, verse 23, it'd be good for you to write this down. Satan's existence. Jesus, or in the New Testament, I should say, Jesus turns to Peter and he says this to Peter. And it's a shocking moment because it's just the disciples and Jesus. But Peter says something he should not have said. Jesus announces to the disciples, hey guys, I'm gonna tell you something. Don't tell anybody. But from here on out, I'm heading towards Jerusalem. I'm gonna be betrayed. I'm gonna be crucified. But on the third day, I'm gonna be risen from the dead. And listen to this. Peter tells him, that's not going to happen. The preceding verses, Peter says to Jesus, that's not going to happen. Jesus has said it. And Peter says, wait, you don't understand. That's not going to happen. I bet you Peter just saying it didn't think anything of it. It just seemed weird to him. Why would Jesus do this? …
… day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. And then Jesus said to the disciples, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 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? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he's done. And this is God's Word. Now, Jesus, as we just mentioned, right here in the middle of this passage, says if you do this, this, this, and this, and this, you will find it. Find what? …
… God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to You. But he that is Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but on man's. Now in this passage, we see the difference between the voice of God and the voice of Satan. Now I want you to listen very carefully to what I'm going to say because it's important you hear this before I continue. If you are a believer walking in the Spirit, you understand the meaning of the cross, and you have experienced that crucifixion, and Christ Jesus is living His life in and through you, and the Holy Spirit has filled you, and you are a walking believer full of the Holy Spirit, It should be very, very easy for you to determine that what you're hearing is of God and not of man or of the flesh or the devil. In other words, it should be the normal, natural walk of the Spirit-filled, committed believer that when God speaks, you can identify the voice of God. …