Matthew 16

The Lord speaks of His final journey to Jerusalem in the full recognition that it is there He has to meet the enmity of man. He does not look towards that city with the thought of His being made the offering for sin under the hand of God there, but rather of His being the victim of man's hatred.
His death, of course, had each of these characters in it. It was the death of the Lamb of God for the putting away of sin. It was the death of the righteous Witness against the world whom they, in full enmity, slew and crucified. It was at one and the same moment, the death of the atoning Lamb and the death of the Martyr, but it is in the second of these characters that the Lord anticipates here.
His road to Jerusalem was such that all His saints can be in that same road with Him, and He calls on them to follow Him along in this road. His words clearly display His mind on this occasion, for we could never follow Him as the Lamb, or the atoning Victim. But we may and should follow Him as the Martyr or righteous, suffering Witness against the world. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." v. 24.