After Peter's confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," at Caesarea Phillipi, Jesus began more definitely to proclaim a violent death. Immediately, "He began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He spake that saying openly," we read. "And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him." Or, as Matthew expresses it, Peter rebuked Him, saying, "Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee." It is evident then that even though Peter was inspired to know that Jesus was the Christ, he had not yet received an understanding of the fact that Jesus must suffer death at the hands of His enemies in order to fulfill His great mission to the earth. And if Peter did not understand this truth, you may easily believe, that the thought of it {273} was intolerable to the rest of the disciples. They could not conceive of their divine leader's failing to establish the kingdom of God as an earthly dominion. Then further to impress upon His disciples the fact that His death was required by the law of sacrifice, He told them that they must themselves not expect to profit in a worldly or political way through their association with Him; but rather must they expect to suffer persecution and to sacrifice themselves. For sacrifice and service are demanded in the kingdom of God. "Whosoever will come after me," said Jesus to the awe-stricken disciples, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." [Sidenote: The significance of the death of Jesus.]