Take Up Your Cross and Follow Christ in 2009
Matthew 16:24-28
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on December 28, 2008. As we get closer to 2009 believers are encouraged to resolve to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Christ.
As we approach a new year we are reminded of one of the great new year traditions: the practice of setting new year’s resolutions. I don’t know if anyone even makes these anymore. It may be the practice of another generation. But if you were to make a resolution, what would it most likely look like? What are the sorts of resolutions we usually make? Generally they are along the lines of resolving to lose weight, save money, read a certain number of books this year, learn a new language, so on.
The common thread is that most resolutions are self-serving. Inward focused. They are not bad things to do, especially when you consider that things like losing weight might help you better serve others (something I should remind myself). But the kind of things we resolve to do are usually somewhat self-serving and, to some degree, shallow.
But what should a Christian resolution look like? Especially going into 2009, a new year holding the possibility of promise and peril. Let’s think about the state of the world going into 2009 and see what the world might need from Christians. It could be because I’m something of a pessimist, or it could say something about the state of the world that it was easier to come up with bad things about the world than good things. These are troubled times.
First, the good. Going into 2009, Christianity is still exploding in third-world countries. Places that were once deep pits of darkness, places where many missionaries have been sent, are now becoming new centers of Christianity.
Another piece of good news going into 2009 is that God continues to rule over the universe. He continues to be sovereign, in control. We do not know what the new year holds but we do know who holds the new year. And he is good.
Now for some of the bad that we see going into 2009.
In America and Europe Christianity is stagnant and dying with many Christians settling for complacency and closing their eyes to lost people around them and problems in the world. In Europe churches are becoming increasingly scarce and empty. Once the seat of Christianity, Europe is almost thoroughly secularized. You and I might lament this fact but many are celebrating it.
Like many individuals, many churches have become self-serving organizations, more concerned about institutional survival and prosperity than biblical faithfulness.
Again on the religious front, in America some 70% of people believe everyone, regardless of religion or belief, will go to Heaven. Among those who call themselves Christian that number is around 50%. 50% of all professing Christians believe Buddhists, atheists, Muslims and Jews will be saved without ever calling on Jesus Christ. Meanwhile people’s knowledge and understanding of the Bible continues to fall.
Economic collapse has brought ruin to many and no one is quite sure what tomorrow will bring.
Despite many political and military efforts to bring peace, the risk of conflict around the world seems as dangerous as ever.
In the U.S. an estimated 1.4 million babies are aborted each year. Worldwide the number is an astounding 43 million.
Sin is as common as ever but it has grown even more acceptable. Things once thought shameful are now practiced in the streets. The sexual revolution of the 70’s continues to grow so that today teenagers are more likely than not to have sexual relations, to “hook up” – an expression referring to performing sexual activity – rather than date. Homosexuality is on the rise. Greed and avarice are on display all around us.
Going into this sort of world, what should we resolve to be as Christians?
In a world filled with so many frustrations, dangers, and heartaches – and our list only scratched the surface – our common desire is to isolate ourselves from the pain, to do what we can to be cut off from tragedy and suffering. For the last forty years America has largely succeeded in that goal but more and more we will not be able to hide. And we shouldn’t hide from it. As Christians we should be in the middle of it, sharing the love and peace of Jesus Christ.
This year, then, let’s not be afraid to make resolutions that are outward focused and God exalting, even if it calls for us to live sacrificially. No more wimpy Christianity. No more gutless expressions of grace. Let’s resolve to be committed followers of Christ, willing to follow him anywhere, all the while bearing our cross. Many will hate you, many will want to kill you, this is only what Jesus promised would happen. But many will turn to faith in Christ and regardless of human response God will be glorified by your faithfulness.
The new year’s resolution for Christians should be summarized from Matthew 16:24-28 with the details of our resolution filled in from all of Scripture. Let’s read the text, reading it as a Christian call to action and resolution.
In this passage Jesus calls on his followers to carry out three actions, he also gives three arguments that puts our actions in perspective, and he ends with the promise that his power and authority would be demonstrated before some of them.
Jesus first calls for us to deny ourselves. To humble ourselves. From time to time God grants me a vision of the world as he sees it. No, this is no mystical experience but a moment of clarity of what the ways of the world are really like. I had one such moment when reading about the growing Israeli-Gaza conflict. In this moment the world looks like one big ant bed with people nothing more than ants scrambling over one another. Trampling on each other, crushing one another into the mud, fighting and killing and destroying and pillaging in the attempt to elevate themselves, gaining power and position and recognition. In the end they are still just ants, all mediocre, all ultimately powerless. Meanwhile God is sovereign over the universe. The only way those ants could know anything of true glory would be to turn to God and experience the glory of the Lord. But they refuse to see this, refuse to worship anything other than themselves. And so the killing and violence and hate continues. Though usually less violent, the same things can take place in our schools, in our homes, our neighborhoods, our churches. We are ants scrambling for greatness but we will never be anything more than ants.
Jesus calls for us to recognize true majesty and turn to God. Deny yourself. No more scrambling for personal greatness but turn from yourself to God in service to others. Deny yourself! The gospel of peace is not spread when you seek to build your personal kingdom, your private domain. God is not glorified when Christians are ambitious for their own gain. Be ambitious for God’s kingdom. Do what you do to advance his work in the world. Deny yourself. Live for Christ.
Have the attitude of Paul in Acts 20:24 who believed he was facing death but was concerned only to do what God called him to do: But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
The second action Jesus calls us to is to take up your cross. In case anyone is not clear on what Jesus is asking us to do, Paul adds a detail in Romans 12:1: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Jesus’ command would have absolutely shocked his hearers. There was no more painful, more cruel, more disgraceful way to die than on a Roman cross. Deuteronomy 21:23 says that anyone hung on a tree is cursed, and Galatians 3:13 says this is exactly what happened to Christ: he became a curse for us when he was hung on the cross. And he calls for us to risk the same sort of pain and humiliation and suffering and agony? Every day?
Take up your cross, Jesus says. Be a living sacrifice, Paul says. The point of these commands is to live life without clinging to life. While you live, live! But while you live, don’t grasp to life as though it were the most important thing. Far more precious than your life is your faithfulness to God. He may call us to face suffering or tragedy or disaster, whether it be through some illness or the mission fields of Africa, Asia, or your own back yard.
I have told the story before of early missionaries to Africa who would carry their belongings in a coffin. They knew it was a one-way trip, and they went prepared to die, ready to give their lives for Christ. They were living sacrifices. Will you be a living sacrifice, take up your cross, here in Panama City?
In Luke 14:25-33 Jesus gives some additional startling instructions: Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “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.
If you want to be a follower of Christ you should know what you are getting yourself into. Christianity is a call to salvation, to resurrection, to a banquet table in Heaven, but it is also a call to a cross, to sacrifice, to risk suffering and humiliation on earth for the sake of Christ. Count the cost. If you claim to be his, you will take up your cross.
The third action Christ tells us to carry out is to follow Him. Where would he lead you? Where would you be willing to follow? Jesus led his disciples to his Golgotha, his cross, his crucifixion and beyond that he led many of his followers to their own crosses. They were faithful unto death. Will you have such faithfulness?
We are not aimless wanderers, and we are not the masters of our own destinies. We will follow Christ and go wherever he leads, following wherever he thinks is best.
This requires trust, this requires faith. Trust that wherever he leads you, his will is good. Faith that his plan will be accomplished. God will have the victory! Trust him and follow him wherever he leads.
Jesus gives his disciples three arguments that put his three commands into perspective. Why should you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ? Because of what we find in verses 25-27:
In scrambling to preserve ourselves we instead lose ourselves. (v25)
The treasures of the world do not equal the value of one’s soul. (v26)
God will repay people for their deeds. (v27)
These three verses all say essentially the same thing: you do not control your fate, God does. You cannot preserve your life, only God can. Are you self-serving, motivated with the interest of preserving your life? You might live to be 100 but in the end you will be lost. Are you a servant of Christ, seeking to do his will no matter what the cost to yourself? Then for all eternity your life will be safe, preserved in Christ. He who seeks to save his life will lose it, he who gives his life for Christ will find true life. You give your life every day by being a living sacrifice.
Of what value are all the things of the world if at the end you forfeit your life, your soul? Of what value is worldly opulence in the face of eternal judgment? If you want safety and security then turn to Christ. Serve him. Honor him. Follow him. Take up your cross. Deny yourself. Be fully his and in him find true security.
During his first time on earth Jesus came as savior, the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for the sins of the world. When he comes again it will be as the righteous judge, the conquering king. With an army of angels and the glory of his Father he will judge people for what they have done.
Be careful not to confuse how this works. Salvation is by faith, not by works. No one on the planet will be saved because they have been good enough to merit salvation. No one merits salvation. No one is good enough. We are saved when, by our faith, we are covered with the righteousness of Christ, made worthy to stand before God because of what Jesus has done, not because of what we have done. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
When you enter into Heaven it will be because of the work of Christ on your behalf. You stand innocent because of his righteous deeds.
Nonetheless, to be saved means something. To be born again means an actual change has taken place. There will be evidence of saving faith. You will produce fruit. You will show good works. Christians will be saved not because of their work but because of Christ’s work, but in your salvation you will demonstrate good works, and your reward in Heaven is in part determined by what you do.
Those who show only selfish clinging and grasping, nothing of faith and trust in Christ, will receive judgment.
Those who have true faith, saving faith in Christ – faith demonstrated by trusting Christ completely with their lives by denying themselves, taking up their crosses, and following him – will receive the reward of eternal life and to the degree that they were faithful, will receive even richer rewards in Heaven.
After hearing all of this, some in Jesus’ audience were likely perplexed and ready to challenge him. Who in the world is this person Jesus to claim such authority? How could he demand such allegiance, calling people to follow him and trust him with their eternity? Could anyone really trust the words of this man?
Jesus’ demands always came with demonstrations. In this case he promises that some of his disciples would see his kingdom before they died. There have been a host of explanations as to what Jesus meant by this but the most natural explanation is found in what takes place a few verses later in Matthew 17.
For the majority of believers seeing the Son of Man come in his kingdom will not take place until they go to be with him in Heaven or perhaps are still living when he returns a second time. Jesus did not mean some of his disciples would live for a really long time. I once read a story in which one of the disciples was said to still be alive today, hiding in a cave somewhere in the middle east.
This promise of Jesus’ was fulfilled in Matthew 17:1-8 when Peter, James and John were allowed to see Jesus transfigured, shown in his glory and power. For a brief time they were able to see the Son of Man in his kingdom. And as at his baptism, here we hear the voice of God declare, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased…
How is it that Jesus is able to call for obedient followers? How can he claim that he will judge the world? Because he is very God, the Son of God. Throughout the gospels we see his authority demonstrated. In his transfiguration some of his disciples were able to see him in his kingdom and heard the approval of his Father. Jesus has authority over all the earth. Trust in his goodness, trust also in his power to do what he says he will do.
When he was nineteen years old, Jonathan Edwards put together a set of seventy resolutions to guide his life. These resolutions were focused on helping Edwards be a more faithful, better equipped servant of God. It would be worth our while to study his resolutions and seek to apply them in our own lives but this morning I want to leave you with one resolution for the new year:
Resolved this year to walk with God, to follow Christ, to deny myself and abandon fleshly pursuits, trusting Christ enough to take up my cross and follow him, giving my life as a living sacrifice for my Lord.