7/1/07 - Pentecost 5 - Luke 9:18-24

THE CONSEQUENCES OF FOLLOWING CHRIST
- Denying yourself
- Taking up your cross

It should not surprise you that people do not want to be Christians. It should not surprise you that those who know what God’s Word says don’t want to believe it. It should not surprise you that faithful Christians many times fall from the faith back into their sinful lifestyles. These things shouldn’t surprise you because being a Christian is hard! Following Christ is not easy! If someone is brought to faith in Christ as his Savior that means the way he lives his life changes completely. He can no longer do the things he has always done according to his sinful nature. He can no longer only focus on himself, but must concentrate on the needs of others. Once he bears the name Christian, he not only has to deal with the sin-infected problems of this world, but now he also has the added burden of persecution just for being a Christian. Listen to Jesus’ words in our text for today, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” No wonder people aren’t naturally inclined to be Christians! Look at what the life of a Christian entails! Christians deny themselves. Christians bear a cross. Christians suffer the consequences of following Christ. Of course, these things aren’t endured by Christians as requirements to be one. These things happen after the fact. These are simply the results of being brought to faith in the Savior.
The life a Christian is supposed to lead is something we all have to work on, isn’t? Especially denying ourselves. Because the act of denying ourselves is the extreme opposite of how we are naturally and sinfully programmed. If you’re hungry, what do you do? You eat. If you’re tired you sleep. If you want to go somewhere, you go. It’s natural to do what you want, when you want, how you want. But Jesus says, if you are to follow me you must deny yourself. That means, although you still take care of your own needs, they are no longer your first concern. As a Christian it no longer matters what you want, it no longer matters what you think, it no longer matters what you would like to do. Instead, everything is motivated by these questions: what does God want me to do? What would be best for his kingdom? What can I do, say, and think that is according to his will? This is tough to do. It is extremely difficult to completely forget about yourself and focus entirely on the Lord. And it has been just as difficult ever since the beginning.
[Jesus] said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”  Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:59-62). Jesus’ point is: There is no such thing as a part-time Christian. Yes, Christians struggle. I struggle. I struggle with my dedication to the Word, with my focus on the Lord, with my concentration on Christ. But there is a difference between all Christians who struggle with sin and a so-called “Christians” whose interests are divided. You can’t be a Christian part of the time and a non-Christian the rest. You can’t be a Christian just on Sundays. You can’t be a Christian whose first priority is yourself. You “must deny yourself,” Jesus says. If you follow Christ you are to shake off that sinful nature. You are to go against every selfish thought that has been occupying your mind since birth. And unfortunately, although that is something a Christian ought to do, that’s something we all fall far short of carrying out. And since that’s the case, how can we honestly tell ourselves that we are “fit for service in the kingdom of God?” What kind of Christians are we if denying ourselves is something we have never and will never accomplish like we should? What kind of Christians are we if we cannot live up to the consequence of following Christ?
What kind of Christians are we? We are failures as Christians. We are normal Christians. We are Christians whom Jesus loves. I want you to listen to these loving words of the Lord in the book of Isaiah. “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6). Jesus denied himself. Do you think he really wanted to be beat and mocked and spat upon? Do you think as a true human being Jesus really wanted to have his beard pulled out? He was perfectly capable to stop those who beat him and mocked him and spat on him. But he didn’t. “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Christ denied himself for you. He didn’t care about what he wanted or thought or liked. He cared about his Father. And he cared about you. And so he went ahead with the pain and torture, the agony and hell, the blood and the cross, and all to save you. To adopt you, to make you his own, to call you to faith, to comfort you with his peace, to give you the confidence of eternal life in heaven. Christ denied himself for you. And the incredible part about all of this is: all of these blessings happen to be consequences of following Christ as well.
And that’s really our motivation, isn’t it? We don’t try to deny ourselves in this life to gain brownie points with God in heaven. There’s nothing left to gain - Christ has gained everything for us already! We strive to deny ourselves for Christ because Christ denied himself for us. Our actions as Christians are always out of thanks, not to pay him back in any way, but simply out of unworthy gratitude. And that is also the same reason we are to take up our cross every day.
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Interesting words from Jesus here and probably even more interesting to the disciples at the time. Because consider the chronology of events here. Jesus tells them to bear their crosses well before he died on his own cross. In fact, nowhere in Scripture is it recorded for us that Jesus specifically tells his disciples that he will die on a cross. He alludes to it in a couple places, but even those instances happened after the story of our text for today. So when the disciples heard Jesus say that they were to bear their crosses daily, they were probably trying to figure out what in the world Jesus was saying. They were familiar with crosses as a gruesome form of capital punishment, but that was the extent of their association with crosses at that point in their lives. “What cross are you talking about Jesus? How are we supposed to take it up? And how are we supposed to do this every day?” The thoughts and questions of the disciples are not recorded for us in Scripture, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t grasp the meaning of Jesus’ words at the time.
Fortunately for us, we live in a time after Jesus took up his cross on Calvary. We know what the cross stands for and we rejoice in what Jesus did upon it. But as we look at Jesus’ words here, “take up your cross and follow me,” he is not talking about his cross that led to salvation. He is talking about our own crosses. The crosses we are to take up daily if we are his followers. And so what is this cross that each of us carry? Well, 1) it’s something placed upon you as a consequence. 2) It is something only Christians have to bear. And 3) we have to bear it because of Christ. Jesus here is talking about the persecution we receive because we follow him. Paul says that “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” ( 2 Tim. 3:12). In some places that means a physical persecution. Threats of death, beatings, imprisonment. At other times and in other places - as we have in this country - it’s more of a verbal persecution. Christians are made fun of in the media and on tv. You are considered a religious nut for believing in something so silly as the Bible. You are not even allowed to speak about Jesus to certain people in certain places because it causes offense. This cross that we daily bear is more than the regular sinful problems in the whole world that everyone has to deal with. This cross is a specific consequence for following Christ. This cross is the persecution we face for bearing his name.
Notice that Jesus says that we are to be active in taking up our cross, not passive. He didn’t say, “If you come after me you will have a cross placed upon you.” No, what Jesus said was, “take up your cross daily and follow me.” You are the active party. You know you will be persecuted as a Christian. You know people will give you the cold shoulder, refuse to listen, and become angry at you because of Christ. Jesus asks you to willingly take up that cross and tell them about the gospel anyway. It’s not that you seek out persecution, but you are to go forward in the name of Christ despite the persecution you know you will receive. And this is, of course, another difficult thing for us to do, even as experienced Christians. It’s difficult to willingly take up our crosses when it’s so much easier to lay back and avoid confrontation and take a break from that cross on our shoulders for a while. But that’s not what a Christian does. A Christian willingly takes up his cross daily and follows his Lord.
Even though this cross may lead to death. It has before for many Christians. And the way Christianity is being silenced in this country and the way the name of Jesus is being discarded in more and more places, there is no reason to think things we get better before they get worse. As the years go on it will become harder and harder to stand up for the truth. In the years to come you might very well have to put your life on the line just for being a Christian. That’s probably why Jesus adds the words, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” It will be a temptation for you to shy away from that cross you are to bear. And if you do: it will be easier for you. More people will like you. Your life on this earth will be much more pleasant. But you know, as well as I do, that’s not the life of a Christian. A Christian denies himself because Christ did the same for him. A Christian bears his cross out of thanks for the one Christ hung on. A Christian gladly accepts the consequences of following his Savior because he knows that through faith in him, eternal life is already guaranteed. “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). This is a promise and an encouragement from the Lord himself. A comfort for Christians everywhere who are struggling in this life of sin. And I am confident that he will keep you faithful to the end, firmly grounded in his Word, and forever a Christian living under his grace, soon to receive the crown of life. The glorious crown of life. The ultimate consequence of following Christ. A consequence I can’t wait to experience with every one of you.
Amen.
“May the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” - 2 Thess. 2:16-17