MARK 8:31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." 34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels."
That is a pretty powerful text. So much so, that this instance is also spoken of in MAT and LUKE. The thing that strikes me in this text is Jesus’ response to Peter. Pretty disturbing...Jesus rebuked him, called him Satan, and told him "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Jesus LOVED Peter.....built the church on him....but called him down whenever Peter tried to impose his own will instead of Gods will.
I wonder how many of us "do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Jesus tells us how we need to come to Him, doesn’t He? He told not only the disciples, but everybody...vs 34 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So what I would like for us to look at is "How do we DENY ourselves?" Because obviously we need to. The first thing I want to do is define the word "deny". The on-line dictionary lists several defintions among them are these
1.deny oneself (something); restrain, especially from indulging in some pleasure; "She denied herself wine and spirits"
2.refuse to recognize or acknowledge; "Peter denied Jesus"
We know that Jesus instructs us to deny ourselves. Are we to avoid indulging in any and all pleasure? This example uses wine, but some of us need to "deny" ourselves that extra trip to the refrigerator! Or maybe "deny" the enjoyment we get out of talking bad (gossiping) about someone. Or we could "deny" ourselves whenever we feel like we have done something really good and special but it seems someone else is getting credit for your work! How frustrating is that?
Let’s look closer at "deny". If someone accuses you of something you didn’t do, your initial reaction is to "deny" those charges. And hey, if someone tries to accuse you of something really, really bad, you don’t just "deny" the allegations....you vehenemently deny it! "Hey, I did NOT do that!" We get passionate about it! And should, if you are innocent! Sometimes though, people deny things that ARE true. Have you ever seen someone deny something that you absolutely KNOW they did.....even have evidence...and they deny to the very end! There are several, I’m sure, murderers on death row that are still denying their crimes....even though DNA evidence has caught them dead to rights...so to speak.
So is "denying ourselves" simply a matter of saying "I didn’t do it?" Of course not! That’s not at all what Jesus was talking about here. What Jesus is saying here is that we must put the things of God above the things of man....including the things that WE think are more important to us, we must "deny" these thing in order to "take up our cross and follow Him". It is absolutely urgent that we understand here tonight that we MUST do this in order to follow Christ. That’s what Jesus said...
So what must I do to deny myself, Pastor? Denying self requires us to give up anything that we would want or seek that would hinder our doing the will of God. This does not mean that, if we want something, it is necessarily wrong. It means we must take our wants and desires down from the throne and place Jesus and His will as the governing power in our lives. There is room in each life for only one master. MAT 6:19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
How many of you understand that we live in a selfish generation? We want immediate gradification, don’t we? Had to have fast food resturants..weren’t fast enough so we got drive-thru’s. Had to have Bank drive-thru’s too....still not fast enough, give us ATM’s...and lots of ’em! Don’t wanna have to look too hard to find one....you wouldn’t want to be inconvinienced, would you? After all, isn’t it all about me? Aren’t I the center of everyones universe? Hmmm......maybe we’d better quit worrying so much about ourselves and worry more about the cross...."deny" ourselves, if you will. Look on down to vs 24 in MAT 6:24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Jesus is telling us that EVERYTHING we are worried about down here on earth will be destroyed. Got a nice house? Have to skip out on church sometimes so you can take care of it? Cut the grass? Paint? It will be destroyed! Got a new car? Do you have to miss church to work overtime to be sure you can make the payments on it? Proud of it? I guess you’d better enjoy it now, it too will be destroyed! Oh, by the way, everything that we are so proud of...Jesus said theives can break in and steal it all from you! He also said in vs 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Take up your cross and follow Jesus-
A lot of peeople think this means bearing burdens and suffering hardships for the Lord. Surely such hardships will at times be required, but there is a fuller meaning if we consider the context.
(1) What is a cross for? It was not just a burden to be borne. Far more than that, it was an instrument of death and total sacrifice. (2) Jesus said take up our cross and follow Him. He bore a cross and we must bear our cross and follow Him. But where was He going with His cross? He had just said He was going to die. (3) In the next verse Jesus said we must give our lives for Him. (4) Then He asked what good our lives would be to us, if we are unacceptable at the judgment.
Hence, "taking up your cross" refers to giving your whole life to God, as Jesus was about to give His life for us. This involves bearing burdens, but it is deeper than that. It is a total dedication of life. Our whole life is given to His service in anything He says. This will lead us to willingly deny self. Following Him then requires us to live as He lived His life
Luke adds "take up your cross daily" (Luke 9:23). There is a sense in which Christians must give their lives to God every day. This is not necessarily a physical death as Jesus died for us (though such might be required), but a daily total sacrifice of self to do the will of Jesus. Whatever He wants with my life is what must be done with it. What I want no longer matters, but I give myself for Him, just as He gave Himself for us despite the fact His human nature did not want to have to do it. Yes, Jesus had to "deny" Himself too...and it was hard on Him as well...remember He prayed to let this cup pass from me if possible...
The determination to give our lives to God’s service is called "repentance." In repenting we determine to turn away from our own will and live our lives to please God. We cannot be saved without this, and that is why repentance is so important in salvation. It also explains why so many people are not truly Jesus’ disciples (whether or not they may claim to be His disciples): because they are not willing to make this total sacrifice.
The next verse then helps us understand Jesus’ point and strengthens the application. If a person holds his life so dear to himself that he wants to use it to please himself, do his own will, and accomplish his own purposes, rather than denying self and serving God, that person will in the end lose his life eternally. But anyone who loses his life for Jesus’ sake - gives it in service and sacrifice to God by denying himself, as described above - such a man will save his life by gaining eternal life.
There can be no greater or clearer teaching anywhere of the meaning of being a disciple. This is how our Master lived, so this is how His disciples must live. We must live lives of complete and total submission to the will of God.
Deny yourself.....not Jesus!
