Sermon Tone Analysis

“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” [1]

He who dies with the most toys wins.

At least, that is the sentiment expressed in contemporary bumper sticker theology.

It probably sums up the contemporary worldview that esteems winning at any cost.

However, the words Jesus spoke are applicable in a broader context than merely acquiring “things.”

No doubt, we who name the Name of Christ will benefit from thinking through the issues surrounding this great question.

CONTEXT —The verse that is our text for this message follows closely on the heels of one of the better known miracles of the Master.

Jesus had just fed five thousand people [see LUKE 9:10-17].

Crowds followed him as He led His disciples to an isolated place situated outside of Bethsaida.

Jesus had removed Himself to that place with His disciples.

The crowds, eager to hear His teaching and seeking healing for loved ones and friends sought Him out.

According to the Word, He showed compassion, teaching them and healing many who attended His teaching.

As evening approached, the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowd into the surrounding towns so they could find something to eat and perhaps even find lodging.

However, to their dismay, He instructed His disciples to feed the people.

These men knew they were unable to fulfil His demand, having between themselves only five loaves of pita and two fish.

For the disciples to feed such a large crowd, it would be necessary to go into the town, purchase enough food to care for the large number of people.

It is doubtful that there was enough money between them all to fulfil His request.

No doubt noting their discomfort, Jesus instructed the disciples to organise the crowd into groups of about fifty people each.

So, with over one hundred groups arranged around the Master, He took the five loaves and two fish, and placing them before Himself, He looked up to heaven and recited a blessing over them.

Then, breaking the loaves, He gave them to the disciples, instructing them to distribute bread and fish to the people seated before them.

When the people finished eating, the disciples were instructed to gather up what was left.

They picked up twelve baskets of left-overs.

Moreover, the people had enough to eat.

The divine record states, “They all ate and were satisfied” [LUKE 9:17].

This was one of at least two incidents recorded in the Gospels when Jesus fed large crowds of people.

[2]

This incident set up the events that would lead to the teaching that will be central to our study today.

After the crowd had been sent away, Jesus retired to a place where He could be alone, giving Himself to prayer with His disciples.

It was at this time that He asked the disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am” [LUKE 9:18b]?

You will recall that the disciples reported the various statements they had heard others making about the Master.

Some say You are “John the Baptist.

But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen” [LUKE 9:19].

Jesus’ response was elicited to draw them out, “But who do you say that I am” [LUKE 9:20].

Peter got it right when he answered, “The Christ of God” [LUKE 9:20b].

I wonder whether Jesus’ response to Peter’s confession startled the disciples.

Superficially, it startles us.

First, He commanded them that they were to tell no one who He was.

It flies in the face of modern marketing; we imagine that it is necessary to promote the church, to promote the spokesmen of God, to promote the activities of the congregation, if anything significant is to happen.

We are taught that we have to generate enthusiasm and excite people with the promise of spectacular events.

Jesus, however, operated on the premise that He would draw men to Himself.

When He walked among us in the flesh, He drew men to the message He declared.

After His crucifixion and resurrection, He draws men through the revelation of who He is as the Word He has given is declared.

If the disciples had been startled by His command to be silent concerning His identity, He surely stunned them when He informed them, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” [LUKE 9:22].

Jesus had just informed His disciples that He was the promised Messiah, following that by telling them that He would be rejected by the religious elite of the land before being murdered!

However, they needed to know that He would not stay dead.

The revelation must surely have been too much to take in; these men must have stood there with their mouths agape!

Jesus’ words were undoubtedly shocking to these men who followed Him.

He followed this assertion by making a powerful, stunning statement.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God” [LUKE 9:23-27].

Think of how these men must have received His words, “My life will be taken from Me.”

While they were absorbing what He had just said, perhaps even before they would form a response, He continued, saying, in effect, “Oh, yes, and if you want to come after Me, you will need to live a life of dying to your own desire each day.”

Rome was the reigning superpower in that ancient world.

The soles of her legionnaires had marched through multiple lands, conquering nations and subjugating the populations.

The conquered peoples were compelled to support Rome, often watching as their youth were hauled away in chains to serve as slaves and never again to see their homes.

Six in ten people within the Roman Empire were slaves—men and women without any independent existence from the whim of their masters.

A slave could be killed with impunity, could be abused without any hope of justice being meted out on their behalf, could be compelled to forego every pleasure for the benefit of the master.

In such a world where the slaves outnumbered the freedmen, there was fear that those enslaved could rebel.

To keep slaves from threatening the peace of the Empire, the Romans adopted crucifixion as a means of intimidation.

Crucifixion has been described as one of the most horrendous forms of death ever devised by the fiendish mind of fallen man.

One who was crucified could linger for days, suspended between heaven and earth, alternately pushing up in order to breath until the arms and legs would cramp, the dying individual straining against the spikes that affixed arms to the cross as fatigued muscles would seek relief.

However, when the cramps were momentarily relieved, the pull of the spikes holding the arms up would force the diaphragm into the lungs so the individual could not breathe.

Alternating between exhaustion and suffocation, every muscle would be racked with intense pain.

Roman citizens were exempted from crucifixion; crucifixion was reserved for the most abject members of the race—slaves, non-citizens, people without honour, people who merited no respect.

Only those who were considered to be the most detestable, despicable or degraded members of the human race could ever be subjected to crucifixion.

Armed with this knowledge, consider how shocking it must have been to those who heard the Master’s words, to hear Him call those who would wish to follow Him to embrace crucifixion.

Could we really imagine that we would build a congregation by calling people to immolate themselves?

Can we truly expect to see disciples come into the Faith by a call to take their own lives?

This call to a life that embraces dying to self appears to have been delivered on at least several occasions.

It would appear that the call was issued with increasing frequency as the Master neared His passion.

For instance, there is another time that Jesus spoke of dying to self.

Jesus was cautioning those who followed Him not to assume that life would be pleasant if they chose to follow Him.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” [MATTHEW 10:34-39].

There was yet another time when Jesus spoke of a life marked by the execution of the self.

The context informs us that it was when great crowds were following Him.

Undoubtedly, they wanted to hear the pearls of wisdom that dropped from His mouth.

So, they crowded close to listen to Him.

At last, He spoke; but when He spoke the teaching was not what they expected, and likely not well received.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a 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 out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” [LUKE 14:26-33].

I draw a contrast with Jesus’ teaching and that of many of my fellow preachers today.

Jesus openly warned of the hardship that would attend discipleship.

After three years of hard labour, He had a tiny band of one hundred twenty people that were willing to self-identify as His followers after His resurrection.

He had twelve disciples, one of whom was a traitor and whom Jesus identified as a devil [see JOHN 6:20].

Jesus spoke of hardship and of death to the self for those who would follow Him.

On another occasion, “Someone said to Jesus, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’

And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’ [LUKE 9:57, 58].