Message preached Sunday, December 6, 2015 from Mark 8:34-37
Theme: The invitation to take up our cross and follow Jesus is the most significant invitation we can ever receive.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We have been studying together over the past few weeks from the latter half of the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. And we come today to an ‘invitation’ that is given by the Lord Jesus in the midst of this portion of scripture.
I can’t think of a better way to begin this morning than to simply read this invitation right from Mark 8:34-37—and to let it impact us as it might have impacted those who first heard it. Mark tells us;
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:34-37).
The thought of becoming one of His followers seems wonderful; and many people—initially, anyway—might be inclined to jump right up and accept the offer. In fact, many people think that they have accepted the offer; and that they already are His followers.
But Jesus, in this startling passage, says something about the kind of a commitment He requires of those who would be His followers, and what it will cost them. And I wonder if many of the people who were present to hear these words—and who were initially excited about the idea of becoming one of His followers—might have backed away or held back after hearing them.
It’s an invitation that demands a tremendous commitment from those who accept it.
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As I was thinking of this invitation from Jesus, a story came to mind. It’s a story that, I believe, helps illustrate something of what is involved in choosing to accept Jesus’ remarkable invitation to follow Him.
It’s the story of two young men—both of whom had been trained for ministry and who were making significant progress in a evangelism and in a Christian academic ministry. But one of these young men began to have doubts about the Bible and the gospel it proclaimed. This first young man—Chuck was his name—began to express his growing skepticism to the other. And it left the second young man frustrated and deeply confused.
This second young man was devoted to the Lord Jesus, and wanted to follow Him. He had been preaching the gospel to others, and had even been inviting them to accept the Lord Jesus on the basis of his confidence in the Bible. But now, his friend Chuck was troubling his heart. Had he been wrong to trust the Bible? Had he been preaching a doubtful message? Was he choosing to be ‘ignorant’ in holding on to the truths of the Bible? These questions and doubts were hindering his ministry. It was even beginning to affect his health.
These two young men went to minister together as faculty members of a Bible conference in the mountains of San Bernadino—but Chuck had abandoned his confidence in the Bible’s authority, while the other still struggled. Someone overheard Chuck comment that, if his friend kept going the way he was going—preaching with such unquestioned submission to the Bible and its message—he’d never be of any use in reaching the scientifically enlightened, logically minded people of today. All of these challenges from Chuck were bringing the other young man to a crisis moment. A decision needed to be made.
And so; as the story goes, this young man—faced with a tremendous ministry opportunity, and yet struggling with doubts and questions about the Bible that he preached from and the message that it declared—wandered out one night into the forest near the conference center, found a log stump in the moonlight, placed his Bible on it, and prayed, “Oh God; I cannot prove certain things. I cannot answer some of the questions that Chuck is raising and some of the other people are raising, but I accept this Book by faith as the Word of God.”
He had come to a crisis point and had made a decisive commitment. There would be no turning back for him. Many people would have thought that he had, at that moment, chosen a kind of intellectual suicide. But he went on a short while later—having made this commitment to follow after Jesus with a complete trust in the authority of the Bible and in the gospel it proclaimed—to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in Los Angeles that became historic in their impact. It was the beginning of a ministry that made him into one of the greatest world-influencers of our time.
You wouldn’t be very likely to recognize the name of the first young man—Charles Templeton. But everyone has heard of the second young man. His name is Billy Graham.1
That story is just one of many that illustrate, to me at least, something of what it is that Jesus is telling us in this morning’s passage. Everyone who wants to come and follow Jesus may do so. But He warns that there is a total commitment involved; and a decision will need to be made. Jesus tells us that, to be one of His followers, we would have to do something that is counter-intuitive to our human nature—something that is utterly repulsive to the whole self-focused, self-exalting, self-aggrandizing attitude of our age. He calls us to take up the instrument of our death to ‘self’—just as He did for us; and to go—as crucified men and women—wherever He goes, to walk as He walks, to speak as He speaks, to believe as He taught, to give as He gave, and to do as He does. Our very ‘selves’ are to be crucified. Our very lives are to no longer be our own.
That’s what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. And I confess; I’ve even been asking myself lately whether or not I have taken His terms seriously. Am I truly a follower?—as Jesus would define what a follower of His is to be?
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Let’s go back and consider these words from the Lord Jesus in the context of this whole portion of Mark’s Gospel. It started with a question that Jesus asked His disciples as they traveled along together.
Now Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, “Who do men say that I am?” So they answered, “John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him (Mark 8:27-30).
That was an important affirmation from Peter. In Matthew’s Gospel, it was an affirmation that Jesus very enthusiastically approved. It was one in which Peter rightly declared the identity of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God—the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, and the Savior of the world. Good for Peter! Jesus wanted His disciples to keep that to themselves until the time was right to announce it to the world.
But then—almost immediately—it became bad for Peter! Mark goes on to tell us this about Jesus;
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (vv. 31-33).
Jesus was truly who Peter said He was. He was the Son of God in human flesh. He was the Christ—the Messiah. But Peter just couldn’t accept what Jesus was saying about Himself; that He—as the Son of God—must now suffer the shame and indignity of the cross. Jesus had to do go to the cross in order to pay the debt for our sins. And when Peter thought he was doing the Lord a favor by rebuking Him for talking that way, Jesus sharply rebuked Peter for being an instrument by which the devil sought to turn Jesus away from the cross. Jesus made it abundantly clear that it was His set purpose to obey His heavenly Father’s call and go to the cross for us.
And that’s when Jesus also made it clear that those who would be His followers must follow Him on that same path of the cross.
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Let’s look closer, then, at this remarkable invitation from the Lord Jesus. It shows us that the invitation to take up our cross and follow Jesus is the most significant invitation we can receive.
At the beginning of this passage, I believe we see indications that this is an offer that Jesus makes freely to anyone who would sincerely desire it.
Note who it was that was given this invitation: “Whoever desires to come after Me . . .” That would include His twelve apostles. It would also include these other people who were called to Him. But “whoever” would even include you and me today. The invitation is truly a universal one. Whoever desires to become a follower of Jesus may do so. Even the worst of sinners, or even the most hard-hearted of unbelievers, or even the most religiously minded may come. Elsewhere in the Bible, Jesus says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).
But Jesus then goes on to tell them—and us today—that this invitation is the greatest and most decisive and most significant invitation we can ever hear; because . . .
1. IT REQUIRES THE GREATEST OF ALL COMMITMENTS.
He says, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (v. 34). He could ask for no higher commitment than that!
The grammatical structure of these words in the original language is important; and I hope you’ll allow me to tell you something about it. The first thing that Jesus says of those who would follow Him is stated in a particular tense of the verb—the aorist tense; and that, in this case, suggests a decisive act. “Let Him—as a decisive act of choice—deny Himself”. That means that a potential follower had made the choice to renounce “self” as the guiding principle of his or her life. They make the commitment to no longer be the captain of their own fate, but completely hand the wheel over to Jesus.
The second thing Jesus says of those who would follow Him is also stated in this form of the aorist tense. He or she must “take up”—as a decisive act—his or her cross. And let’s be careful to understand this rightly. Jesus is not merely saying that we should embrace some particular trial or cause for suffering—as when we say, “Oh well; it’s hard to deal with this trouble in my life, but it’s the cross I must bear.” He’s saying something far more startling than that.
Stop and imagine for a moment what it must have been like for people living in those days to see someone literally ‘take up a cross’. The Roman cross was a dreadful form of execution, and to take it up would have involved a tremendous physical act. When Roman soldiers dragged a convicted criminal—beaten and humiliated—out into the street to where a cross was placed, and commanded the criminal to ‘take it up’, it was because they were going to carry it to their death. It was a decisive act; and for that criminal, there would be no setting the cross back down. The Romans didn’t let a criminal pick it up, carry it a few feet, and then have them set it back down again—as if to say, “Okay. Put it back down now. I think you’ve learned your lesson. That was just a warning! Shape up; or next time, we’ll make you pick it up and carry it all the way, and really crucify you!” That kind of thing didn’t happen. To “take up the cross” was to—with absolute certainty—take up one’s own death.
For Jesus to say that whoever followed Him must “take up their cross”, it meant that they had made the decision to die completely to themselves. It meant to follow Jesus even to the point of ‘crucifying’ our own desires, or our own plans, or our own purposes. It meant even to follow Him to the point of laying down our lives for Him physically, if need be.
Those two things—to deny one’s self, and to take up one’s cross—are put in the aorist tense; and that suggests a singular decisive act. But the third thing that Jesus says is in a different tense of the verb. It’s in the present tense; and that suggests an ongoing, every-day, continual, habitual reality of relationship. “Follow Me”, He says; and He means that we are to keep on following Him in a relationship of love and obedience—day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment—as people who have died completely to self. Only if we have denied ourselves and have taken up the cross is it possible for us to continually, habitually “follow” Him as He wants. There is no other way to follow Him.
What would it mean to “follow” Him? After all, He is at the right hand of the Father, and we don’t actually see Him physically. How can we actually ‘follow’ Him today? I believe there are three basic ways. First, we follow Him in obedience to His word—the Scriptures. “If you love Me,” He said, “keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Second, we follow Him by submitting to the leading of the Holy Spirit He has sent to indwell those He has saved. He said that “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). And third, I believe we follow Jesus by looking carefully to the example of others who follow Him; and who lead the way for us. “Imitate me,” the apostle Paul once wrote, “just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). So; though we don’t see Him physically, we are still called to follow Him in these ways—and with the whole-hearted commitment of having denied self and of having taken up the cross.
I haven’t been able to think of a better way to understand what this looks like than by imagining a fork in the road of life. We travel along with Jesus—walking behind Him, following His instructions and directions, placing our feet in His footsteps—until we come to a place where the road divides. One path leads down a direction that we want to go. It’s an easier path. Everyone would approve of us—and maybe even like us better—if we take it. It will give us pleasure. It will gratify our sense of self. It’s the path we had planned to go down all along. But then, we look and see that Jesus is not on that path. Instead, He’s going down the other path—the one we don’t want to take.
We see Jesus stopping and waiting for us to come along behind Him. And we say, “No, Lord! I don’t want to go down that path. Let’s go down this one! It’s nicer! It’s the one I prefer!” And Jesus says, “No. Leave that path, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
“But Lord; you’re asking me to go to places and do things that are contrary to where everyone else is going and to what everyone else is doing! Let me stay on this path! In fact, why don’t You come on over and follow me for a while?”
“No. Go where I go and do as I do. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
“But Lord; You’re asking me to change some of my fundamental and most cherished beliefs about things! If I say that I believe what You’re calling me to believe, everyone in this world will think I’m old-fashioned—or fanatical—or irrational—or intolerant—or even a fool! Can’t You just go along with me on this one?”
“No. Conform your beliefs to what I have already declared in My word. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
“But Lord; I’ve got some things along this path that I like to do. I know that they are things that aren’t right. They aren’t the kind of things You would do. But they don’t really harm anyone; and they make me happy. And there are certain words that I kind of like to keep using. You wouldn’t use them, of course; but everyone else does. And some of them come in really handy when I’m mad! And I’ve got some grudges. I know that they aren’t the kind of feelings You would keep hold of. You say to forgive. But as You know, I’m really justified in holding on to these grudges! Can’t you just try this road for a while—and let me keep hold of these things?”
“No. Keep My commandments. Walk as I walk. Think as I think. Speak as I speak. Leave that path, and come over to the one I’m on. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
That’s really how it is. It costs everything to follow Jesus. It involves a decisive act of denying self and taking up the cross. It involves an ongoing commitment to follow in close relationship to Him—even when it’s against what we perceive to be our own self interest—even when it doesn’t seem to make sense to do follow Him. We may fail at it at times; but when we wander away, we must get right back behind Him and resume follow Him.
We need to make sure we know this in advance. Jesus demands that we give Him the absolute first place in our devotion—and put everything else second. As Jesus once said to a different group of would-be followers;
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26-33).
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Now; you might think, “Well; if that’s the kind of choice Jesus is inviting me to make, than I’m simply not going to make a choice at all. No choice, no loss.” And in a sense, you’d be rightly understanding the cost. But ‘refusing to choose’ is not an option with Jesus’ invitation. To ‘choose not to choose’ is to have made a choice; because when it comes to the invitation Jesus gives to follow Him . . .
2. IT INVOLVES THE MOST NECESSARY OF ALL CHOICES.
Jesus went on to say, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (v. 36). What a remarkable claim He makes upon us! What a tremendous choice He calls us to! Who would say such a thing but the Son of God?
I take these words to mean that if we cling to our own “life”—that is, if we refuse to ‘deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus’; if we hold on to our own life as something so precious to us that we will not forsake it all and follow Him—then we will end up losing it. In fact, the word that Jesus uses for “lose” in the original language is a very strong one. It actually means ‘to destroy’. If we cling to our life in rejection of Jesus’ offer, we inevitably end up destroying our life.
And by contrast, if we lose our own “life”—even “destroy” it for the sake of Jesus’ sake and for the sake of His gospel; if we are willing to lay down all that we are and have at Jesus’ call—then we inevitably end up “saving” our lives. When I think of this, I can’t help but remember the words of the apostle Paul as He was locked in chains in a prison cell—awaiting execution for his faithful preaching of the gospel of Jesus. He wrote;
For this reason [that is, for the preaching of the gospel] I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12).
The thing he ‘committed’ to Jesus was his own life. And the Day that He looked to was the day of Jesus’ return. He was confident that, in having forsaken his all for Jesus, he ultimately lost nothing. It was all saved for him; and his entrustment of life would be given back to Him on the day of Jesus’ coming. Shortly before being executed, Paul wrote;
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
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Paul is a great example to us. He took seriously Jesus’ words. And again, note the universal nature of those words. What Jesus promises is true of “whoever desires to save” their own life, and of “whoever loses” their life for Him. There is no ‘opting out’ of this choice. The consequences of the choice—one way or another—are inevitable. It’s either eternal loss or eternal life.
And that leads us to one more important point about choosing to take Jesus up on His invitation to follow . . .
3. IT AVOIDS THE MOST REGRETTABLE OF ALL LOSSES.
Jesus here asks a question—and allows the value of rising up and following Him to speak for itself. He asks; “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (vv. 36-37).
Jesus takes things as high as they can possibly be taken. What if, in clinging to his own life, a man gained the whole world?—or, as it is in the original language, the whole cosmos?—the whole created order? That pretty much covers everything, doesn’t it? But what if, in the process, he lost his own soul? What advantage would he have then gained?—even if he had gained everything else besides his soul? Jesus even goes on to ask what such a man could give in exchange for his own soul? Would the whole universe be enough to buy it back for him?
If someone counted things up, and found that it just costs more to follow Jesus than they are prepared to pay—if they decided instead that they wanted to cling to their own life and build it up as they wished—then even if they gained the whole universe, they would have made a bad bargain! Nothing—not even the whole material universe—is as precious as our souls. God has already told us in His word that He plans to allow this present universe to burn up and be destroyed, and that He will replace it with a new heavens and a new earth. And the only thing that He has purposed to keep are the souls of the redeemed. What a loss it would be, then, to gain the whole material universe—scheduled as it is for destruction—and lose one’s own soul in the process.
Jesus told a story that illustrates this. It’s found in Luke 12. Jesus said;
“The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).
To deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus faithfully ensures that we will not suffer this greatest and most regrettable of all losses.
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Do you hear Jesus’ invitation today? I hope you do. I hope you want to become His devoted follower. I want to as well. But let’s make very sure we understand how much it costs. It’s a decision that truly costs us everything.
But it also gains us everything!
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1From John Pollock, To All The Nation: The Billy Graham Story (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1985), pp. 40-42).