Jesus As A Cross-Bearer
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Intro
Intro
Alright everyone, let’s get into the message tonight. We are continuing in the gospel of Luke, and continuing to see what Luke is revealing to us about Jesus.
Now…I’ll tell you. I had a hard time naming this message today. I was brainstorming with Calvin and our Admin…and I was looking for one word descriptions of Jesus as someone who is going to bear a cross, be a death on row, suffer a death as a humiliating punishment.
We had some good ones...
Jesus is damned.
Jesus is accursed.
and we had some bad ones...
Jesus is a goner.
Jesus is an inmate.
But none of them described exactly what we are talking about tonight…so I went with the most obvious one…Jesus as a Cross-Bearer.
That’s the title of the message tonight. Jesus as a Cross-Bearer. And the reason that this one makes sense is because the title of the message needs to help you understand the response required.
And the response that the word requires of us tonight is this...
Jesus bore a cross. And you should too.
That’s the bottom line for tonight. That’s the major application point that I want you to write down.
Jesus bore a cross…and you should too.
Now that we’ve got that framework in mind, and you know the bottom line…let’s see how we get there.
Open you bibles up to the Gospel of Luke. Today we are in Chapter 9 and verses 23-26.
In this chapter, Jesus has been teaching his disciples what it means for him to be the Christ. The chosen one. The savior.
And it’s here that he begins telling them the details of what he is going to do. Not just that he is going to save them…but the explanation for how that is going to happen.
He acknowledges to Peter in 18-20 that he is indeed the Christ and in 21-22 he tells them he is going to have to die.
And that brings us to 23. Let’s look at it together.
And he said to all, “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.
Okay. So what we see here in the text is a purpose statement. A command. An imperative to do something. Followed by three points of purpose. Three “for” statements. You can see them there at the start of each verse. For, for, for.
So here’s how I decided to structure the message tonight.
We are going to go verse by verse and we will start by explaining the imperative and then the “for statements”.
So if you’re taking notes tonight. One command. And three because.
Let’s start with the command. What is it? The command is to take up your cross daily, and follow Christ.
And he starts this command with a qualifier. The verse starts with “if anyone would follow me.”
Meaning, if your heart’s desire is to follow Jesus, if you claim to be a disciple, a student, a lover of Christ…if you are one of those people who would follow Jesus…then listen up.
And right there, Jesus already divides his audience into two types of people. The first being people who don’t desire to follow Jesus. We call them unbelievers. And the second group, are the disciples of Christ.
So go ahead and place yourself in one of those categories, alright? And if for any reason, there are those of you in this room that would place yourself in the first category, I don’t want to follow Jesus, then I pray you listen to the rest of this message to see just how foolish that is. Because the things Jesus has to say about those that don’t choose to follow is pretty scary.
So Jesus starts with this qualifier, and then moves on to the meat now that he’s drawn them in. He says “let this person deny themselves and take up his cross Daily, and follow Christ.
Let’s take this verse a few words at a time.
And let’s start with the cross. This is new info for the disciples! Jesus has been saying he’s the Christ, he’s been telling them he’s going to die…and then he mentions the cross to them.
The cross, that he hasn’t gone to yet. The cross, that he hasn’t been crucified on yet. The cross, that he hadn’t even mentioned yet to them…so this is completely new information to the disciples and we need to understand that this would have completely shocked the disciples...
Shocked them that the man they love. Their teacher, there mentor, and a man that they highly respected would find himself dying on a cross.
Let’s put ourselves back into their culture.
The cross was the pinnacle of humiliation. If you went to the cross you died naked, you died exposed, and died very publicly. And often, you were left on the cross for your body to rot so all could see it and know the type of person you were in life was deserving of this awful death.
Not only that, but the cross was unbeatable. No one had ever survived a roman execution on the cross. To say that you were going to the cross meant you were going not only to a humiliating and excruciatingly painful death, but you were headed towards certain death with no way of escape.
If that wasn’t enough…to these Jewish men, the roman process of executing someone on a cross was a constant reminder of Rome’s dominance and rule over the Jewish people.
I mean they would walk down the road on their way into Jerusalem to celebrate a Jewish holiday, and littered along the path were the physical evidence of Rome’s dominance as criminals were hung on crosses and left there to die for all to see.
You can understand how the disciples would have been completely appalled at the thought of their teacher, lord, savior being hung on a cross like that.
In today’s culture it would be like using the electric chair or lethal injection.
Pictures of Chair and Lethal injection
These are rooms where someone is executed for a crime…and not only are they put to death, but there is a room in which certain people can watch it happen…can watch the punishment and death happen. Now imagine that outside and open to any and all that would like to see it.
And you’ve got what the cross was to the disciples in that moment. The images that came to their mind. Not to mention that it wasn’t just the cross that brought discomfort, it was the idea of Jesus being on it.
Let me ask you..Can you imagine someone you admire, respect, have been mentored by…a parent, a teacher, a pastor...someone that you can never imagine doing anything worthy of a death sentence…can you imagine them ending up on the lethal injection table?
If you’re answer is no…then you’re in the same place the disciples would have been.
Yet here is Jesus saying that he’s heading to the cross…and not only that…but his expectation is that they will follow him there.
That they too would find themselves under the same forms of humiliation and punishment.
On top of that…Luke adds a word to his gospel account here that isn’t found in Mark or Matthew. He adds this simple word that gives it a double meaning…it’s a slight change in wording but it’s a huge implication for us...
He records that Jesus wants us to take the cross like he did…daily. Essentially meaning, he wants us to take up our electric chair daily.
He wants us to be willing to not only follow him to our death, but to be willing to experience constant and ongoing humiliating and persecution for the sake of following him.
What Luke is stating here is that we don’t just follow Jesus once. Following Jesus is not just a moment of decision you made a few years ago in a church pew, or a summer camp, or beside your bed...
Following Jesus is something that we do on a DAILY basis. Dying to ourselves, laying down our pride, giving up our rights, going through humiliation and persecution is something that we must be willing to do not once, but everyday.
Jesus’ declaration here is that if you desire to be someone who actually follows him, if you are saved, then you will take up your cross…you will follow him…and you will do it every single day of your life.
You will deny yourself daily. Meaning, you will deny your own selfish amibitions, your own will for your life, your own desires and goals…you will allow those things to be executed upon the cross daily and instead you will follow the one who took up the cross before you and for you…Jesus.
So what’s the imperative here? What’s the command?
It’s that if you desire to follow Jesus. You will deny yourself daily. Meaning your own ambitions for you life, goals, hopes, dreams, plans..they will daily be executed…and if you desire to follow Jesus you will follow after him along the path of self denial and God glorification.
And that statement right there. That should be good enough. Jesus said it. So I’m gonna do it.
But Jesus, being gracious, and loving, and understanding of who the disciples are and how man is...
Jesus decided to give us some explanation as to why he desires to do that.
And here’s the three explanations he gives.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
1st “because statement”.
Deny yourself and pick up your cross daily because the opposite is useless.
The definition of useless is “not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome.”
That’s what Jesus says the opposite of taking up your cross daily will get you. If instead you choose to hold on to your own will for you life...
If instead you’re concerned with protecting yourself from persecution and protecting yourself from humiliation and protecting yourself from losing all that you’ve dreamed of...
If that’s you. If you’d rather pick up the flag of you and wave it around instead of the cross of Christ…then it’s going to have the opposite effect you want it to.
Trying to build up your own life will only lead to it being torn down. Trying to save it from the awful death that may be found on the cross will only lead to an even worse death in eternity.
Let me be super clear.
Jesus is saying. If you aren’t the type of believer that is willing to die for him, to give up your sin for him, to repent and follow him…then you aren’t the right kind of believer.
Jesus gives us two options in these “because” statements.
and the two options are.
You’re living for Self-Preservation.
or You’re living for Christ Glorification.
I’ll say those again
You’re either living for self-preservation, or you’re living for Christ glorification.
The first statement is Deny yourself and pick up your cross daily because the opposite is useless.
And the second because statement just further adds to it..
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
2nd “because statement”.
Deny yourself and pick up your cross daily because the opposite holds no reward.
This is a simple one.
Jesus is saying, anything that you can possibly hope to gain through fulfilling your own dreams and plans is completely useless.
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew echoes this thought. Listen to this.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Meaning…you might have your hopes and dreams on that diploma, house, spouse, dream job, dream car…but all of those things fade away. And at the end of life, you’re left with what you did for Christ..not what you did for yourself.
Casting Crown has a song that comes to mind called American Dream. This is what it says.
“He used to say, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins"
But if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end
I'll take a shack on a rock
Over a castle in the sand”
In college a worship leader once sang this song, and I remember it wrecked me. It also expresses this thought in song. It’s called “When It’s All Been Said and Done”.
“When it's all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth
Did I live my life for You”
“When it's all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I've done for love's reward
Will stand the test of time”
Deny yourself and pick up your cross daily because the opposite holds no reward.
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.
3rd “because statement”.
Deny yourself and pick up your cross daily because the opposite will kill you.
Look at that first line in verse 26 again. Jesus is equating that if you don’t deny yourself and take up your cross daily…then you are ashamed of him. And if you are ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of you at the end of all days.
That’s what he’s referencing. The term Son of Man is a term found in Daniel. And it’s used to describe the end of times, the end of the world.
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
So Jesus is referencing this amazing moment where he, as the son of God will be presented with the dominion and glory of a kingdom that will hold all people, all nations, all languages…and they are going to serve him…and this kingdom that his people will belong to will will be forever and everlasting and shall never be destroyed.
And what Jesus says here in Luke…is that in that moment, there will be people that he is ashamed of. And he will be ashamed of them, because they were ashamed of him…and of his words.
And what does that mean? It means that he will not bestow upon them everlasting life. How do we know that? The next verse.
But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
The word but, means in contrast to. So, in contrast to being ashamed of some people, there will be people who live. Which means the opposite of people living, are people he is ashamed of.
That’s why the 3rd “because statement” is.
Deny yourself and pick up your cross daily because the opposite will kill you.
If you don’t deny yourself and pick up your cross daily. If that’s not your desire. If that’s not something you fight to do, and you pray to grow in, and you desire to see ongoing progress in that…than you are still dead in your sin.
Always with the caveat, this is not what saves you.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
That’s what saves you. However, Jesus is clearly saying here that if you are saved. If you truly mean Romans 10:9…then you will see in your life a desire to pick up your cross and follow Jesus daily.
So back to the very beginning. Jesus is a Cross Bearer. And that fact demands that we to bear the cross.