Take Up Your Cross
Notes
Transcript
In the last passage we saw Jesus addressing the disciples, wanting to know what the crowds believed and what did the disciples believe. Now Jesus is turning and addressing all who would follow after Him.
The big idea is we must be ready to give up all to follow Jesus.
If
If
A conditional statement, if you are to follow after Jesus, if you want to call yourself one of His sheep, if you want to call Him your friend.
The disciples have just confessed that He is the Christ. So where do you go from their?
There are many people who might confess Jesus, but they won’t follow Him, and they still believe that they are okay in God’s eyes.
The next few verses are how to fulfill the conditional statement. They are how to live for Jesus.
There is a certain way to please Jesus. Loving people and being a good person will not please Jesus on it’s own.
Denial of Self
Denial of Self
Not self-denial
George Ladd puts it this way:
The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God Chapter VII: The Demand of the Kingdom
Self-denial is self-centred; denial of self is Christ-centred.
Self-denial is doing things so you appear holier than others.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—
21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Self denial of things such as fasting have their place. But that isn’t what Jesus is calling us to in this passage.
Jesus is calling us to denial of self.
Denial of self means a complete dedication to Christ, even though that dedication might be at the cost of what I want or even my life.
Denial of: my will, my ambition, my desires, my hopes. All these we give to Jesus.
Kari, limiting college hours so she could serve in the youth group.
My desire was to stay with my family and preach in that area.
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
To the extreme this is we are willing to die or give up anything in this life for the sake of our savior.
Take Up Your Cross
Take Up Your Cross
People speak of our daily hardships as their cross:
I’m unemployed and looking for a job, but that’s my cross to bear.
I have to work long hours, but that’s my cross to bear.
My children are unruly and aren’t listening, but that’s my cross to bear.
I’ve been diagnosed with cancer, but that’s my cross to bear.
Those are all trials, and difficulties we face and I’m not trying to make those insignificant. But if it is something that anyone might go through whether they are saved or not; it is not a cross.
When we take the name Christ as a defining term in our lives as “Christian,” we must be ready to not only bear the normal suffering in life, but also share in the suffering of Jesus.
12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
Acts 14:19-21
Acts 14:19-21
Paul was stoned, then he goes out an continues to preach to the people letting them know that they must suffer many tribulations before they enter the kingdom.
Which is Worse?
Which is Worse?
Would you rather be ridiculed by man, or have Jesus be ashamed of you?
What is your goal in life? To live the best life you can here and now while keeping God as the side note that you do on Sunday?
Nobody experiences opposition by being passive. By not taking a stand on anything.
Do you ever take a stand for what you believe in? Or do you go along with what everyone says?
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In the gospel is where the power is, is where the difference between us and others lies.
Daily
Daily
Not a one time thing. You aren’t going to go through it once and be through.
Just like the armor of God, and the word of God we need on a daily basis. Prepare yourself for hardships on a daily basis for the reality is that Jesus is saying the hardships for following Him will be a continuing thing.
Kingdom of God
Kingdom of God
The kingdom of God is something that is spoken about in a few different ways. We tend to think of it as;
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
This is a very visible event in fact scripture says all will see it. When we think of the kingdom of God many of us think of this event. Howevever, Jesus says it will be an invisible kingdom as well.
20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
It can’t be observed, and it is something that is among you without you knowing of it.
The kingdom of God is wherever the Lordship of Jesus is acknowledged in repentance and faith.
The kingdom is something that even though it is invisible; it is, and is yet to come.
v.27- Truly there are some standing here who will see the kingdom.
There are times that we see in scripture where the invisible kingdom, breaks through and we see empirical proof of it’s existence.
The transfiguration, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension.
Jesus even says in Luke 11:20
20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When you see the power of God working in this way it is empirical evidence that the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Yes, they saw the kingdom of God in many ways.
This is important because they needed to see physical evidence that what they were following was truth.
They needed to know that when they were to lay down their lives that it was for something greater than this life.
Final thoughts
Are you living in a way, that shows people around you that you belong to the kingdom of God.
Are you willing to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ. Or will He be ashamed of you.