Sermon # 24
Matthew 16:24
We live in a day
of "casual Christianity." I heard someone recently say that the average church
could drop one fourth of its members from the membership roll and neither the church nor
the dropped members would notice any difference.
Casual Christians
are those who want to be numbered among the Flock, but could care less about following the
Shepherd. They want the forgiveness the cross of Christ brings but never intend to carry
their own cross. They want warm, fuzzy moments on Sunday mornings but offer no commitment
to Jesus on Monday mornings. In short, they want the crown without the cross.
“Then
Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (25)"For whoever desires to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (26)"For what
profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a
man give in exchange for his soul?”
The next command
that we want to examine (there are actually two of them) are found in verse twenty four,
where Jesus says, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let
him deny himself (aparnesastho), and take up his cross, and follow Me (akoloutheitho).
In this passage
Jesus lays out the principle of discipleship, when he says, “If anyone would come
after me.” We are not allowed
to come to God on our own terms we must come to Him on His terms. To those who had not yet placed their faith in
Jesus His words, “come
after me” can be applied to the initial decision to surrender their lives
to Christ for salvation. To those who have
already placed their faith in Jesus for salvation, the call to “come after me”
is a renewal of a call to a life of daily obedience to Christ. This is necessary because we are all under the
constant temptation to take back what was given up and to reclaim what was forsaken. It is
altogether possible to again place one’s own will above God’s and to take back
rights which were relinquished to him.
Here
Jesus says if you are going to “come after me”
here is what you must do.
First, The
Disciple is Called to Lay Something Down – Deny Himself "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself…”
It is important
to understand that Jesus does not mean what we usually think of as
“self-denial.” By this we usually mean that we are giving up something. It is like how some Christian’s observe
Lent, by giving up something, perhaps it is the giving up of a bad habit in life, or up
something really important like, “I am going to give up, wearing my “Bullwinkle
the Moose” Houseshoes. That is not
the Jesus talking about. He is not only concerned with what we do, but even more
importantly what we are. Therefore he is not
talking about denying ourselves luxuries or even necessities, but about “denying
self” with is entirely different. Denying self means that we renounce our right to
ourselves, the right to rule our own lives.
The phrase
“deny himself” literally means, “to completely disown, to utterly separate
oneself from someone.” It is the same word used to describe Peter’s
denial of Jesus outside the high priests home, Matt. 26:34!
Each time he was confronted about his connection with Jesus, Peter more
fervently denied knowing him (vv. 70, 72, 74).
The disciple is
to utterly disown himself, to
•We are to
count the old man as being dead, (Rom. 6:11).
•We are to
make no provision for the flesh.
(Rom. 13:14).
•To deny
oneself means to follow the example set forth by the Lord Jesus Himself in coming to this
world. (Phil. 2:5-8).
•We are to
live our lives as one alive to God, but dead to sin and to the world, Gal. 2:20.
What does all
this mean in a practical sense? Someone has said it this way, “If when you are good,
evil is spoken, and when your wishes are crossed and your advice is disregarded, and your
opinions are ridiculed and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, and even defend
yourself’ but your take it patiently in loving silence, then you are dying to
self. And when you lovingly and patiently bear any disgrace, any irregularity, any
annoyance, when you stand face to face with extravagance and folly and spiritual
insensitivity and endure it, as Jesus did, that is dying to self. And when you are
content with any food, any money, any clothing, any society, any solitude or interruption
by the will of God, that is dying to self. And when you never care to refer to
yourself in conversation or record your own good works, or itch after commendation from
others, and when you truly love to be unknown, that is dying to self. When you see
you brother prosper, see his needs wondrously met, and can honestly rejoice with him [with
his big house, with big car, with his big pool – whatever it may be] without feeling
envy, and never question God though your needs are greater and still unmet, that is
dying to self. Now when you can receive correction and reproof from someone of less
stature, and admit that he is right and find no resentment or rebellion in your heart, that
is dying to self.”[As quoted by Craig
Giannini. “Gaining by Losing.” www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~gvcc/sermon_trans/Gain_by_Losing.htm.
]
It sounds hard because it is hard! Self does like to be denied, but until it is, we cannot possibly follow after Jesus like He desires for us to!
“Fred
Craddock, in an address to ministers, caught the practical implications of consecration.
“To give my life for Christ appears glorious,” he said. “To pour myself out
for others. . . to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom—I’ll do it. I’m
ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory.
“We
think giving our all to the Lord is like taking $l,000 bill and laying it on the
table—‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’ “But the
reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $l,000 for
quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the
neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ‘Get lost.’ Go to a committee
meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home.
“Usually
giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of
love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder
to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.”
[Darryl Bell -
www.bible.org/illus/nt/nt-71.htm]
The Disciple is
Called to Lay Something Down – Deny Himself and…
Secondly, The Disciple Is Called To
Lift Something Up – Take Up His Cross - "If
anyone desires to come after Me … let him … take up his cross…”
To understand
what this cross Jesus refers to is, we need to talk about what it isn’t. It
isn’t your lost husband or wife. It isn’t your wayward children. It isn’t
your ding-a-ling neighbor. Your cross isn’t your difficulties, your health or the bad
situations you face in life. We say “that’s my cross,” but it is
not! That is not what Jesus meant. The cross is not just a place of suffering, it is
a place of death!
When Jesus spoke
of the cross everyone in his audience knew what he was referring to.
John MacArthur
writes: “…the
cross was a very concrete and vivid reality. It was the instrument of execution reserved
for Rome’s worst enemies. It was a symbol of the torture and death that awaited those
who dared raise a hand against Roman authority. Not
many years before Jesus and the disciples came to Caesarea Philippi, 100 men had been
crucified in the area. A century earlier,
Alexander Janneus had crucified 800 Jewish rebels at Jerusalem, and after the revolt that
followed the death of Herod the Great, 2,000 Jews were crucified by the Roman proconsul
Varus. Crucifixions on a smaller scale were a
common sight, and it has been estimated that perhaps some 30,000 occurred under Roman
authority during the lifetime of Christ.”
[John MacArthur.
“The MacArthur New Testament Comentary.” Matthew 16-23. (Moody: Chicago,
1988) p. 49]
When Jesus says
that we are to take up our cross, He is saying that we are to live as dead men. We are called upon to take up that cross, once for
all, and go after Jesus. We are not to back
out, turn around, or lay down the cross. We
are to die on that cross, giving our all for His glory!
This phrase has the idea of being willing to go all the way for Jesus - no
holds barred and no turning back - just a steady, humble walk that follows His footsteps
and His path through this world. Jesus said
it as simply as it could possibly be said, John
12:26,"If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me;
and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will
honor.” (NKJV)
The Disciple Is Called To Lift
Something Up – Take Up His Cross and…
Third, The Disciple Is Called To
Live Something Out – Follow Me - "If
anyone desires to come after Me …., let him … follow Me.”
Here
Jesus says, literally “let him follow me day by day.” To be a disciple of Christ is to be continually
following after Jesus. It is a way of life. It is to be your pattern for living.
Let me make one more point and then we close. If a disciple is a “follower”
and we are disciples of Christ, it follows that that we are willing to be lead. We are
willing to be led into places that we don’t understand; even places that are dark and
scary and even painful and unpleasant; because we trust and follow the Shepherd.
The
Psalmist says in, “The
LORD is my
Jesus
words in verse twenty-four can be
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