The cross. It’s an instrument of death, a brutal form of execution. It causes horrible and unimaginable torture. It was perfected by the Romans as a method of capital punishment, which caused maximum pain and suffering over a significant period of time. In fact, the word "excruciate" which means “to cause great agony, torment” comes from the Latin for "from, or out of, the cross.” Yet, Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
Billy Graham said this, “When Jesus said, ‘If you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,’ it was the same as saying, ‘Come and bring your electric chair with you. Take up the gas chamber and follow me.’ He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind ~ the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible. Jesus had in mind the place of execution.”
Why would Jesus, the One who loves us beyond our ability to even comprehend, the One who wants only the best for us, the One who suffered and made the ultimate sacrifice for us, the One who endured the torment of the cross and knows the pain it inflicts first hand, the One who cried out to the Father that the cross might be taken from Him call us, His beloved, to ourselves bear the cross?
I’d like to suggest to you this morning that it’s because He knows there is no other way. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow Him because He knows there is no other way for us to experience true peace, true significance, true fulfillment, true life except through the cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” No other saying of Jesus is given more emphasis than this one. It is found with slight variations in all four Gospels, twice in Matthew and twice in Luke/
For many years this passage of Scripture created problems for me. I saw it as an ultimatum. Something Jesus was demanding which would only complicate my life, weigh me down, and rob me of all the fun in life. But I’ve come to understand that Jesus’ words are not a burdensome command at all but a truly liberating and life giving invitation. It comes from a compassionate heart, not an overbearing one. From the heart of the One who wants to free, not to repress. His motivation behind this command is to offer, to allow for true life. So we can stop searching and start living ~ truly living.
In 1987 the rock band U2 described our unsuccessful and unending pursuit for meaning ~ true peace, true significance, true fulfillment, true life in their song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Many people search all their lives for true life. Some even tragically end their lives because no matter how hard they try or where they look, they cannot seem to find what they are looking for. More is never enough. Because the world has nothing to offer that can bring true peace, significance, fulfillment, true life. Some of us are still searching. We are searching for the meaning of life in life ~ in our jobs, in our families, in our possessions, in our accomplishments. But Jesus said true life only comes through death, death to self. “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ.”
Jesus calls us to come to Him and die to ourselves because He knows that there is absolutely no other way to gain true life. A life marked by peace, significance, fulfillment, joy, and rest. Who doesn’t want that? It’s quite evident in the society that we live in that we all want it. It is also evident that many of us still have not found what we are looking for. But in this passage Jesus gives us the three steps we must take to have true life.1) Deny self. The first step in Jesus’ invitation to true life is to deny yourself. To deny means to refuse, disown, disregard, renounce. So when Jesus calls us to deny ourselves He is telling us to give up our claim on ourselves. To stop living for ourselves. To, in fact, die to ourselves and our selfish desires. 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 says, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” We do not belong to ourselves. Our lives are not our own, so we must stop living as if they were. 2 Corinthians 5:14,15 says, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
We are selfish. There’s no denying it. There’s no way of sugar-coating it to make it sound better or feel better. We are selfish. And I am the queen of selfishness. It’s all about me. My hardships, my money, my will, my desires, my expectations, my wants, my needs, my feelings, my ambitions. Everyday, I am reminded by my words, my actions, and my thoughts how truly self-centered I am. Can anyone relate?
Just the other night, Tony came home from school and I had the television on the American Junior program. We only get four channels so we don’t have much to choose from. I wasn’t really into the show, it was just on for the noise factor. But when he came in the door, headed straight for the remote, and switched the channel you would have thought that he had just…eaten the last piece of my favorite chocolate cake. I mean, that he had just bought me the wrong size pants for my birthday. I mean. Oh, never mind. You get the picture.
Great biblical figures did it too. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon who was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth, (2 Chronicles 9:22) recounts his life. How during his forty-year reign as the King of Israel, he undertook great projects. He built houses and planted vineyards for himself. He bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in his house. He also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before him. He amassed silver and gold for himself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. He acquired men and women singers and he even accumulated 300 concubines and 700 wives, which led to his downfall. (I can’t imagine why.) All these things he referred to as the delights of the heart of man. He said, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless,” (Ecclesiastes 2:4-11).
All that he had done, all that he had acquired, every bit of it was meaningless. Could it be that all the things of this world, the things that we assume bring delight to our hearts, are the very things that keep us from experiencing true delight, true life?
It’s not about us and what we want or what we think we want. We must be willing to give up our claim on our life. We must be willing to die to the life we want so that Christ can give us the life He wants us to have. “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Jim Elliot, a missionary who was martyred in Ecuador, wrote in his journal: “A man is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” We need to view ourselves as Paul viewed himself. In his letter to the Philippians he said, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him,” (Philippians 3:7-9). It is only when we deny ourselves, when we die to ourselves and our selfish desires that we can have true life in Christ.2) Take up your cross daily. The second part of Jesus’ invitation to true life is to take up your cross daily. This action can be summed up by these words from Paul in Philippians chapter 2: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…who humbled Himself and became obedient to death ~ even death on a cross!”
On a daily basis we must make the decision to take on the attitude and heart of Christ. We must pursue Christ-likeness. Becoming like Christ is not something that just happens overnight or over a period of days, weeks, or even years. Passivity and Christ-likeness go together about as well as avid Ohio State fans and Michigan fans on the day of the big game. We must desire to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But before we can be filled, we must first be emptied. In Colossians, Paul implores us to rid ourselves of sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language. We have to get serious about it. We have to want to change. We have to be passionate about it.
The passion that we must have about becoming like Christ can be likened to the passion that is demonstrated by the players at a sporting event. Have you ever listened in on a huddle of high school football players just before game time? What do they do? They’re in there jumping all over each other, beating on each other, banging helmets together, yelling at the top of their lungs. The conversation goes something like this, “Who’s going to win? We are! Are we going to pound their faces into the ground? Yeah!” Now, that’s passion! Those kids are pumped up and excited about that game…for the next two or three hours, nothing in the world matters more than winning the game. And they are like this every day!
What if we possessed that kind of passion for our relationship with Christ, with becoming like Jesus? Of course we don’t want to be knocking each other around and banging our heads together, but what if we cared as much about taking up our cross daily, about pursuing Christ-likeness?
Let me tell you, this church has some passionate young people in its youth group QUAKE. They are on fire for Christ and they are serious about becoming Christ-like daily. They are here every day we open the doors for a youth event. They are even at McDonald’s at 6:30 in the morning on the second and fourth Fridays of the month for youth prayer breakfasts. And if you have a teenager you know how much of a sacrifice that is because every millisecond of sleep is sacred. These young people were hungry to grow in their relationship with Christ so we started a Wednesday night Bible study and we’ve just finished working through the book of James. They are instrumental in leading the 5th and 6th grade ministry that we just started this month. Lauren Brake, Kathy Connolly, and Kristina Mohn are working hard with me on our girl’s retreat that we are having on September 5th and 6th to discuss issues like: destiny, modesty, purity, and acceptance because they are passionate about helping their peers be confident about whose they are and who they are in Christ. Our young people are taking up their cross daily. They are passionate about having the attitude and heart of Christ everyday. They are passionately pursuing Christ-likeness daily.3) Follow Him. The third step in Jesus’ invitation to true life is to follow Him. Dying to ourselves and daily pursuing the attitude and heart of Jesus, is nothing more than good intentions and is useless unless we put it into action. Jesus’ command to follow Him is a call to continue His work, to share His word. It’s a call to action. James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Jesus expects us to put or faith into action. 1 John 2:5,6 says, “This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”
Jesus set us an example. An example of a servant in action when He got down on his hands and knees washed the feet of the disciples. An example of compassion in action when He raised the widow’s son from his casket. An example of forgiveness in action when He pardoned the adulteress. An example of passion in action when He cleared the temple of the money changers. An example of self-control in action when He stood silently before His accusers and endured the beatings and the insults. An example of sacrificial love in action when He gave his life on the cross for us. And He calls us to do likewise. He calls us to action. To not only be hearers of the word but doers.
Jesus also calls us to continue His work by sharing His word. I have often heard it said that if it were only for heaven that Christ died for us, then He would take us there the moment we accept Him as our Savior. The fact is that He needs us here on earth to continue His work. 1 Timothy 2:3,4 expresses His heart, “God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
So many need to hear about our Savior. Even and especially those whom society considers to have it made. A devotion in Our Daily Bread tells the story of the rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who led a promiscuous life, indulging in drugs and behaving outrageously on and off the stage. At the end of a concert in 1970, Jimi smashed his guitar. The audience screamed and applauded, but suddenly the frenzied applause stopped. Jimi had fallen to his knees where he stayed motionless. He finally broke the stillness by asking, “If you know real peace, I want to visit with you backstage.” But apparently nobody responded to his startling invitation. Several days later he died from an overdose of drugs.
Jesus didn’t just hang out with his twelve best friends. He didn’t steer clear of those with unfavorable reputations. He didn’t shun the unclean. He didn’t condemn the guilty. He didn’t despise the unlovable. He died for all and He wants all to have true life. He called us not just to believe in Him and thus save ourselves, but to follow Him so that others might be saved as well. The only thing greater than experiencing the love and forgiveness of Christ in your own life is leading someone else to experience the love and forgiveness of Christ for themselves. The only thing more incredible than experiencing true life for yourself is leading someone else to experience true life for themselves. And we can only do this is if we are willing to follow Jesus into action.
There is a cost to becoming a follower of Christ. It’s the cross. It’s death to ourselves. But that which appears to be death to us is often that which gives life ~ true life. In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor. “Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked. Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, for my sister.” Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room ~ Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy, Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned. As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny’s smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube. With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaken, broke the silence. “Doctor, when do I die?” Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he agreed to donate his blood. He thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his own life. In that brief moment, Johnny had made the greatest decision of his life.
Jesus calls us to bear the cross because He knows there is no other way. Will you cry out to God as the psalmist did, “Earth has nothing I desire besides You.” Will you choose death to self so that you may have true life and so that you may help others find true life for themselves? Will you choose the cross this morning? It’s not a burden. But an incredible blessing. Jesus invites you to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him. It’s the only way to experience true life. It’ll be the greatest decision of your life.