Matthew 16 – A Call to Die

Ryan Motta

Exhortations

  1. We must guard our hearts from the danger of false teachings.
  2. Where Jesus is proclaimed, we cannot lose.
  3. The way we live is by dying.

“The best protection against the darkness of error is the light of truth.” – John Piper

“Nothing can altogether overthrow and destroy the church. Its members may be persecuted, oppressed, imprisoned, beaten, beheaded, burned. But the true Church is never altogether extinguished; it rises again from its afflictions; it lives on through fire and water. When crushed in one land, it springs up in another. The Pharaohs, the Herods, the Neros have labored in vain to put down this church. They slay their thousands, and then pass away and go to their own place. The true church outlives them all, and sees them buried each in his turn. The church is an anvil that has broken many a hammer in this world, and will break many a hammer still. The church is a bush which is often burning, and yet is not consumed.” – J.C. Ryle, Principles for Churchmen

“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death — we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time — death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at His call.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“Some missionaries bound for Africa were laughed at by the boat captain. ‘You’ll only die over there,’ he said. But a missionary replied, ‘Captain, we died before we started.’” – Vance Havner

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