Commitment Sunday February 11, 2002
The Cross of Commitment
Luke 9:23
It may be hard to imagine the renowned theologian J.I. Packer sitting in a hot tub, but that is where he is when he makes this quote:
“The other day ...as I sat there savoring hot tubness, cracking small jokes and adjusting to the feel of being bubbled over from all angles, it struck me that the hot tub is the perfect symbol of the modern route in religion. The hot tub experience is sensuous, relaxing, floppy, laid-back: not in any way demanding ...but very, very nice, even to the point of being great fun.
Many today want Christianity to be like that and labor to make it so. The ultimate step, of course, would be to clear church auditoriums of seats and install hot tubs in their place; then there would never be any attendance problems But if there were no more to our Christianity than hot tub factors-a self- absorbed hedonism of relaxation and happy feelings, while dodging tough tasks, unpopular stance, and exhausting relationship-we should fall short of biblical God-centeredness and the cross-bearing life to which Jesus calls us, and advertise to the world nothing more than our own decadence.”
Bob Beckett is a pastor from Hemet Cal. That we see in the Transformations Video – He refers to Hemet as a “pastor’s graveyard,” a place where pastors do not last long and often leave the ministry altogether after ministering there. Bob and his wife never unpacked because they were waiting for the day that God would take them out.
Then they realized that God was calling them to a lifetime commitment – they went out and bought their burial plots. – it was then that things started to turn around. Both for their church and the town saw amazing transformation, church growth and unity.
When God calls us he calls us to deep commitment.
When Jesus calls us to be his follower, this is what it says: “Then he said to them all: "Those who would come after me, he must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for me will save them. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self?”
Denying yourself
Denying your will – Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Denying selfish desires
– A knight’s tale –
While Sir Orrick is in Paris he travels to a Cathedral to visit the woman he loves. In the Cathedral, he asks her, “Joselyn, How may I prove my love to you?” She tells him, “If you would prove your love, you should do worst.” He replies, “My worst, what do you mean?” “ Instead of winning to honor me with your high reputation, I want you to act against your normal character and do badly.” “ Do badly?” “Lose.” “Losing proves nothing, except that I am a Loser.” “Wrong!, Losing is a much keener test of your love.” “Losing would contradict your self-love and Losing would show your obedience to your lover and not to yourself!”
There are times that what we would like to think is commitment to God is only a commitment to our own success. True commitment to God is a commitment to obedience even if it means failure
Denying your righteousness
To come to God we have to give up any notion that we have the ability to please him on our own. Isaiah says that even our righteous acts are like dirty rags in comparison to the way we need to act.
– counting all this as loss – Philippians 3:7-11
“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ”
Denying your “self” – When I was working with handicapped kids at Pioneer Camps – pouring my life into these kids day in and day out – it was a great spiritual exercise that taught me a bit of what it means to lose myself in the service of others.
Philippians 2
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature[1] God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature[2] of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
Taking up your cross
When Jesus calls us to take up our cross, he is not talking about accepting normal human suffering like illness, economic troubles, rebellious children…
“I have athlete’s foot – it’s just my cross to bear.” These things are the stuff of life, they are not our cross to bear.
These things are important to Jesus: he heals the sick, feeds the hungry, he weeps at the grave of a friend, and raises him to life. They are important, but they are not our cross to bear
The cross was not a pretty object of jewelry or even the symbol of a religion as it is today – it was a method of execution. When Jesus was sentenced to death, the beat him so badly that he could hardly walk on his own, then they gave him this full sized cross to drag through the streets – it was rough and big enough to hang a man on 6’ wide, 8-12’ long. As he walked through the streets, the people that hated him took their opportunity to get their own hits in. Mean boys would hurl insults and street trash at anyone who was carrying a cross they were fair game.
Jesus alludes to what would happen to him in verse 22
When we are called to take up the cross, we are called to suffering
There are times when I talk to Christians who are going through hard times, and inevitably the question arises “why me?” We in our culture expect to go through life with no suffering, but Jesus actually tells us to expect it – it is the way of the cross.
John 15:18-20
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: `No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
Matthew 5:11-12
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
When you take up your cross, you should be surprised if it doesn’t hurt, not if it does.
When we are called to take up the cross, we are called to death
When Jesus finally arrives at Galgotha, the place of the skull, his long walk with the cross, (with Simon of Cyrene’s help) comes to its inevitable conclusion. The hang him from the cross and he dies.
When Jesus tells the disciples to take up their cross, they knew that it meant one thing – it meant that they were called to die.
If you saw someone leaving your town surrounded by Roman soldiers and they were carrying a cross, you knew that they were not coming back – it was a one way trip.
When Jesus invites us to take up out cross, he is asking us to sign our own death warrant. When the early Christians were threatened with death by the authorities, they were able to respond by saying, “well, I brought my own cross.” There is a great freedom in taking up the cross, because there is little that can be taken from us.
The Reward – Life!
This is the strange paradox of our faith – that when we give up our lives, when we take up our cross, it is only then that we receive life, and life to the full. Jesus calls us to take up his cross, but he also says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
When we give up our will, we are given his will
When we give up our righteousness, we are given his righteousness
When we give up our old self we are given a new beautiful and radiant identity!
When we take up the cross, we are given eternity.
Today is Commitment Sunday.
What sort of commitment are you going to make?
Committed to God
Deny yourself – make him Lord
Habits that produce Christian maturity
Committed to each other
Acts 2:42-47
Small group
Spiritual Friendship
Committed to the others
The lost
The poor
Moment of Silence to pray about the commitment that you will make today
–make it something practical & real, not vague like “being a better person.”
