The Tabernacle Today

The Cross Centered Life - Matthew 16:21-28“The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.” - William Booth (1878-1912)In today’s passage we will see Jesus rebuke Peter for ‘Satan-like’ thinking, and clarify that before the Messiah rules the world from Jerusalem He first must die on the cross for the sins of the world. Jesus also makes clear that all believers also have a cross to bear before they go to Heaven.Matthew 16:21-28In the next chapters we will see Jesus make a “bee-line” for the cross. But first He needed His disciples to understand 2 things – Who He is, and what He is going to do in this ‘first coming.’Jesus emphatically declares His coming death and resurrection - V. 21All Israel was obsessed with the prophetic passages about the Messiah being the King who would rule righteously from Jerusalem. They had minimized passag