Carrying Your Cross Daily

Raef Chenery

The Gospel of Luke • Sermon • Submitted a month ago • Presented 22 days ago

Luke 9:23–27

Spiritual Warfare

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Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Opening Dialogue: The life of an authentic follower of Christ ought to be so unique. The whole thing, ought to buzz with a palpable difference in this world. We are a people whose who life is defined by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior. We are a people filled by the Spirit, and led according to the Word of God. One of the hallmarks of a Christian is self-denial. This little concept is at the heart of the practical life of following Christ. In the middle of our passage today Jesus says "And he said to all, “anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Personal: Permit me to ask you as we begin our time today whether or not your life is consistently marked by self-denial and cross-bearing? Maybe I could ask you this, what cost have you had to pay to follow Christ? What sacrifices have you made for the sake of the glory of Christ?

Context: Our text is Luke 9:23-27. However the context before and after this short passage is vital. If you open your Bibles you see that the section really begins in verse 18 and continues all the way down through verse 36. If you follow the headers of these sections something stands out. Verses 18-22 is about the nature of Jesus. Jesus asks Peter, “Who am I” and Peter responds, “The Christ of God.” So it begins with a focus on Christology, the nature of Christ, and what he has come to do. Then, our section today, on discipleship, living as a true disciple of Jesus. Then the next section is the Transfiguration, the moment when Jesus reveals his true nature in all of his glory to three of his disciples. Once again, Christology, the nature of Christ. And so our text on discipleship, is sandwiched between two extraordinary texts on Christology, the nature and role of the Christ. This says something to us. It tells us that a very high view of Christ, will produce a very high view of discipleship. The greater we understand the nature and work of Jesus, the greater we pursue our own discipleship.

What is self denial and cross bearing?

Why ought we deny ourselves?

How might we deny ourselves?

Meaning & Application

I WHAT IS SELF DENIAL AND CROSS-BEARING

As we begin, the first question I want to address what does Christ mean by “self denial” and “cross bearing.” I believe it would be very easy for us to give lip service this text without really considering the weight of Christ’s words. And so, from the text I want to draw out ten aspects of self-denial and cross bearing.

A Self Denial is a Renouncing of One’s Own Will: The word for deny is a very strong word. It carries the ideas of disregarding or renouncing oneself. This word is used in the exact same way in Titus 2:12 which reads,

Titus 2:12 “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions…

In the same that we are instructed to turn from and renounce ungodliness, we are told to turn from and renounce ourselves. In other words, we must train ourselves to reject the pursuit of our own wills, our own desires, our own ambitions, our own agendas, and to fully submit ourselves to Christ’s will, Christ’s desires, and Christ’s agendas. And anywhere in our life where discover our will and Christ’s will at odds with one another, we reject our will and choose his instead.

B Carrying our Cross is an embracing kingdom suffering: Carrying a cross is connected to the idea of denying ourselves, but it is different. What Jesus experienced with the cross was common in the Roman empire. A condemned man would carry the crossbeam of his crucifix to the site where he would be killed. The purpose of this was two fold. On the one hand it was a public shaming, and on the other hand it was a symbol for the man that his life and his will were over. There is at least two aspects to the meaning of carrying a cross that we should consider. First, is that each of us is called to a kind of faith that would follow Christ unto death. We cannot follow Christ when it is easy and forsake him when it is difficult. To follow Jesus unto death or not at all. Second, the idea here is that God will lay before each Christian unique challenges, callings, hardships, and sufferings to bear for the sake of the kingdom of God. There will be times when in order to demonstrate your utter surrender to Christ and abandonment of your own will, Christ will ask you to pick up a hardship, that will further his glory. When those moments come, our responsibility is not to flee form the crosses God calls to bear, but to pick them up, and to carry them as Christ carried his.

C Self-Denial & cross bearing do not mean pursing a life of misery: Throughout history some sects of Christianity have mistaken this language to mean that God desires Christians to be ascetics, to essentially abandon and forsake anything and everything that might give us pleasure in this world. That is not the meaning of the text. While the life of an authentic Christian is full of many hardships, it is also saturated in joy, and the life htat is truly life. Jesus and his disciples were full of joy very often. David leapt for joy before the ark of the covenant. The Christian can confidently read Psalm 23:6 which reads

Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

You will give up much in this life to follow Jesus. But, that which you gain is a hundredfold both in this life and the life to come.

D Self Denial & Cross Bearing are not only for those in intensely hostile cultures: It would be easy to see our brothers in the persecuted around the world and throughout history and to imagine that this verse mostly speaks to them. It is those precious saints in the Middle East, in underground churches in China and throughout India, that really need to deny themselves and carry their cross. This is a mistake. The text begins “If anyone would come after me.” This is a word that is a general statement that is to be applied in every follower of Christ’s life wherever and whenever they live, whether they live in the Bible Belt or they live in Afghanistan or Chicago.

E Self Denial and Cross Bearing are essential elements of standard Christian faith: Jesus very plainly teaches that if we do not deny ourselves, or if we do not carry our cross, then we are not followers of Jesus. However much we might know about Christianity, however much we might have studied the Scriptures, and however well others in the church perceive us. To fail to deny oneself, or to the cross is to “lose or forfeit” one’s life. In other words, it is a clear sign that you do not possess saving faith, but rather possess an inauthentic hypocritical faith. In that case, your faith would be something like the schemes of Nadab and Abihu, the Egyptian priests who tried to conjure up some outward appearance of the miraculous to match what God was doing through Moses. Your faith may appear godly on the outside, but there is no life giving spirit on the inside, and time will reveal reality.

F Self Denial and Cross Bearing are exceedingly broad commands: Jesus speaks about “losing our life.” The whole of us. What I mean here is that denying oneself is not something that impacts or affects only one part or one aspect of our life. All of our life is to be regularly submitted to these principles. Like sugar well mixed into a cake batter, it permeates every part of the cake in equal amounts. If we deny ourselves in our marriage, but fail to deny ourselves in our finances, we have not yet learned the way of Christ. If we deny ourselves on our Sundays, but fail to deny ourselves on our Mondays, we have not yet learned the way of Christ. If we deny ourselves when others are watching, but fail to deny ourselves when we are alone, we have nto yet learned the way of Christ.

G Self Denial and Cross Bearing are not mystical ideas but rather are practical ideas: Many Christians believe in their minds that they are those who deny themselves regularly, but when pushed to share something practical they have denied themselves, or pushed to reveal a time in recent history when Christ laid a cross before them to bear, and they willingly carried the cross, they go hush, or they describes something that is just a normal part of every person’s life both believer and non-believer. That is because many men believe self-denial to be something simply of the soul, something totally hidden, something uniquely between God and man. That is not what is meant here. Self denial is very practical. It works itself out in the real world with real decisions that we actually feel. The cross of Christ caused pain and discomfort upon our Lord, and when we carry our cross, for the glory of Christ, it ought cause us pain and discomfort. Each Christian ought to be able to look back at the last year, and tell the story of how they submitted their will to the will of Christ.

H The need for self denial is rooted in our own corruption of mind and flesh: The Christian denies themselves because they don’t trust themselves. One of the core doctrines of the Christian, as taught in Scripture, is that sin has so rampantly worked its way through our heart and our mind and our flesh, that were we to rely on our own mind and our own will, we would always be lead astray, we would always steer away from God.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Psalm 53:3 “They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

Therefore, self-denial is simply practically living what we say we believe. We don’t trust our own wills because we know how deep sin goes. Our wills have been affected deeply the rebellion against God! If we don’t deny ourselves, then we are lead by sin filled corrupted mind and heart, nothing less.

I Self Denial & Cross Bearing is the absolute belief that every word of God’s Word is to be our standard for life: If we connect this with the previous point. Denying oneself accepts that if left to ourself we will make a mess of it. We will fail to glorify God. We will live in sin ourselves, and propagate sin around us. Therefore, it then clings to the wisdom that comes from God for all of life. Self denial requires that we are making decisions for our life, in all of life, from God’s Word and not our own. His is the unchanging standard that gives life. His is the unchangings standard that builds righteousness and goodness in a life. And so to deny oneself is to choose to say no to what you might do if left to your own will, and choose instead to say yes to what God has revealed according to His Word. Not according to a premonition we had. Not according to a feeling we had. Not according to a word that someone has spoken over us. God’s Word, the Bible, dictates how life ought to go!

J Self Denial and Cross Bearing are to be done daily: This is not something that we do once in our life and then can confidently say, “Yes I have denied myself.” Christ says in verse 23, “daily” we must pick our cross and follow him. Each and every day of our life we must wake up and confirm our commitments. We are to be like the prophetess Anna Luke chapter 2, who we are told “did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” Our self-denial must be daily, an ongoing, perpetual submission to God, waiting on God, following God. One of the best ways I have discoved to do this is through morning devotions are filling our minds with God’s Word, and engaging God in prayer, especially the prayer of confession and forgiveness of sin. It sets our minds properly at the beginning of the day.

II WHY ARE WE TO DENY OURSELVES

Transition to the Why: We have looked at ten aspects of what it means to deny oneself, carry our cross, and follow christ. Now, I want to answer the question ‘Why?’ Why would a person choose to deny themselves and carry a cross? I think our text offers at least three reasons why we ought to do this.

A Failure to deny oneself forfeits one’s life: This language comes straight from the mouth of Christ in verse 25. This passage is dealing with the question of salvation, of eternal destiny, of what happens to our soul in this life, and in the life to come. There can be no higher cost that the forfeiture of one’s life. It is very interesting isn’t it, that the very image that is used to describe how one can save their life, is that of a cross, a device that designed to take life. But Jesus says,

Luke 9:24 “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

In Christianity, the way up is down, the forward is backward, and the way to life is through death. Each and every person will bow before Christ on our judgment day. Jesus says in verse 26 that we are ashamed of Christ and his word in this life, Christ will be ashemd of us on that day when he comes in glory. What a horrifying reality. I can think of no worse fate, then for Christ to return in all of his glory, for the world to be turned on its end, and every person to be brought before his throne, and to have Christ be ashamed of me. My heart burns within me even considering such a fate. Jesus says the antidote to such a fate is to deny oneself, to pick up one’s cross, and follow Jesus. I am pleading with you right now, if you have never truly surrendered your life to Christ, do not wait until it is too late.

B A self-denying cross-bearing life brings the most glory to God: Notice how verse 26 is all about the glory of Christ, and the glory of the Father. The closest thing we have to understanding the glory of Christ that we will behold on that day, is the very next passage in Luke. In the transfiguration, Jesus takes Peter and James and John up onto a mountain where is transfigured before them. We read in verse 29,

Luke 9:29 “And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.”

God is worthy of glory and praise, not because of what he’s done for us, but because he is glorious. He is the glorious one! And a Christian is one who has tasted and seen that the lord is good. When we deny ourselves, what we are doing is we are stating with our actions, “our aim is not to bring glory to ourself. Rather, my aim is to bring glory to the glorious one.” The old hymn by Charles Wesley rings true for each Christian.

Christ, whose glory fills the skies, Christ, the true and only Light, Sun of righteousness, arise, triumph o'er the shade of night; Day-spring from on high, be near; Day-star, in my heart appear.

Dark and cheerless is the morn unaccompanied by Thee; joyless is the day's return, till Thy mercy's beams I see, till they inward light impart, glad my eyes, and warm my heart.

C Because Christ, our Champion, has led the way in self denial and cross bearing: The third, and final reason why we ought to deny ourselves is that Christ, our champion, has led the way in self denial and cross bearing. Look back at the preceding verses leading up to our passage today. In verses 21-22 Christ says,

Luke 9:21–22 “And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “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.””

Christ, our hero. Christ, our beloved. Christ, our victor. He asks nothing of us that he has not already done in full. This is in fact the words directly preceding this passage where Christ points to his death and suffering that he would experience. That which we will ever be asked to deny of our own will in this life, will be but a small fraction of that which Christ emptied himself of by taking on flesh and dwelling among men. And any cross that any of us should ever bear, even if we are to be crucified like our savior, will only be a portion of the cross that Christ bore on our behalf. For he did what no other man can do. On the cross, the sins of the world were pinned to shoulders. It is one thing to love what Christ has done for you, it is another to empty yourself out like him, to become like him in life and death.

III WHAT ARE WE TO DENY OURSELVES OF & WHAT CROSSES ARE WE TO CARRY?

I want to spend the rest of our time really getting practical about how we can do this in our daily life. If you were asked ‘What am I to deny myself?’ The quick answer to this question is that we must train ourselves to deny ourselves of everything that does not proceed from the will and wisdom of God. And to the question ‘What cross must I bear?’ The answer is ‘every cross that Christ places before you.’ This will look unique for each person. There is not a set template, for the specific reason that each of us live different lives, with different internal struggles of the flesh, different external struggles in the various communities in which we live. However, there are some areas of life that we can discuss that we can all collectively say ‘this is an area where I need to deny myself.’

A We Must Deny our Affections for Wealth & Riches: This is perhaps the one that is most sensitive for many in the room, because truly the love of money and the desire for the security of wealth is a root that can take very deep holds in our heart. Make no mistake, wealth and money are not evils in and of themselves. A savings account is not a sin. Neither is the desire to leave an inheritance. And yet, we are regularly cautioned in scripture that the flesh desires to accumulate more. More comfort. More wealth. And Christ seems to preach regularly against a heart that overly tied to wealth.

Matthew 6:24 ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Test - Tithe: Perhaps I can offer a few tests for us, to consider whether we truly understand how we are to deny our affections for wealth and riches. Do you give generously and abundantly to our church. The Biblical starting point for giving toward God’s Kingdom is 10% of your overall salary. We teach from this pulpit that it is wise to look to increase that percentage if even by 1/5 of a percentage each year. Do you tithe? If not, why not? Is it because you believe the Bible doesn’t instruct to do so? Is it because you think your money better spent in places outside of the bride of Christ? The main reason people don’t tithe is that they don’t want to deny themselves the things they prefer to do with their money.

[At SL put the giving up on the screen]

We Must Deny our Desire to Please People: Second, we must deny our desire to please others. To be a Christian, in our day, can be a very divisive thing. Some of that division can come as a result of your own foolishness, or unwise decisions and conversations. But other times, the division comes simply because you love Christ and you’re not afraid to show it. Jesus in this passage says,

Luke 9:26 “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…

The thing about people pleasing, is that it will often lead you to being ashamed of Christ in one way or another. There are some situations where remaining silent would be sin. Scripture the Bible is to be used for correction, for rebuke, for training in righteousness. And when we see foolishness, or sin, or destructive behavior in another person’s life and we fail to correct in love with truth, it might be revealing that we prefer people pleasing over obedience to Christ.

We Must Deny our Own Wisdom: Of the three this one is a surprise how difficult it is to live into. When we become Christians, we quickly recognize that we had been led by a worldly wisdom up until that point. James 3:15 teaches us that there is a kind of wisdom, a pseudo-wisdom that is

James 3:15 “This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”

Wisdom in the Bible is many things. It refers to the way we understand and live in reality. It refers to the way we make decisions in our life. And it refers to the counsel we give others. And so here is the test. When you provide counsel for others, when you give advice on direction they ought to go, how they ought to respond in different situations, whose wisdom do you use? If we are to deny ourselves, then we must deny our own wisdom. And we must learn to rely on God’s wisdom. Our counsel ought to be firmly rooted in the word of God. In fact, as often as possible, we should cite or quote the Scriptures in our advice, so as to demonstrate this wisdom is not of me, but is of God.

Closing

Church, this is the great task of discipleship, of following Jesus. It is the path of denying oneself. Of going in the opposite direction of the world, and often the opposite direction of the way you may have gone had you not been radically transformed by the grace of Christ. But if you are truly in Christ. If he has saved you by his blood and secured you by his spirit, this is the path you will take.

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