MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Powerpoints used with this message are available for free. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #358.)
TEXT: Mark 8:34; 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
This morning I want us to look at a verse of Scripture, Mark 8:34. "Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples & said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself & take up his cross & follow me.
Most of you are familiar with this verse. But when Jesus talks about us denying ourselves & taking up a cross & following Him – what does that mean?
Well, we’ll discuss that in just a few moments. But before we do, I believe that we ought to realize 2 things about Jesus.
A. First of all, there is the startling honesty of Jesus. Following Jesus is not easy! And He never sought to lure people to Him by the offer of an easy way.
ILL. In the early days of WW2, when Winston Churchill took over the leadership of England, all that he offered his people was "blood, sweat & tears." And that is very much like what Jesus offers to His followers, too.
B. Secondly, Jesus never calls upon us to do anything that He was not willing to do Himself. What He asks us to face, He has already faced. And when He calls upon us to take up a cross, He, Himself, has already borne one for us.
That goes against the grain of what the world teaches. The world teaches that anything that bothers us or becomes difficult, we should avoid.
And yet, the words of Jesus are still there, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself & take up his cross & follow me."
PROP. What did He mean? What does it mean to "take up" or "bear a cross”? What does the Bible teach about "cross-bearing?"
I. CROSS-BEARING IS ALWAYS VOLUNTARY
First of all, the Bible tells us that "taking up a cross" is voluntary. Jesus calls & challenges us, but it is our decision. Taking up a cross & following Jesus is voluntary.
But I’m afraid that generally we’re pretty careless in the way we talk about our “cross-bearing.”
ILL. For example, suppose that after extensive testing the doctor tells me, "I'm sorry, but you have diabetes, & you'll have to deal with it for the rest of your life."
Now that may be a burden that I must bear, but it is not a cross I have taken up for Jesus. So I can't then tell others, "Well, that's my cross to bear," because I didn't volunteer for it.
Or if a tornado sweeps through our area & destroys my home, I can't call it "a cross I have to bear," because I didn't volunteer for that either. It is not something that I chose to do for Jesus.
SUM. You see, if I talk about bearing a cross, that means I am voluntarily taking it up for Jesus. I'm going to enlist, to offer myself in some way to serve Jesus.
II. CROSS-BEARING IS AN ACT OF LOVE
A. So, cross?bearing is not an accident that happens to us, or something unavoidable that we must face. Cross-bearing is an act of love that we choose to do. It is a task that we undertake, a price that we pay, out of love for Him.
For Jesus it meant going to a cross to die because He loved us so much.
It means reaching out to people who are unlovable & unlovely & who may never return the love. And yet we are to keep on loving because that's what Jesus did.
B. You want to read a description of what it means to carry a cross? Turn over to 1 Corinthians 13. Listen as I begin reading in vs. 4, & I want to change the word "love" & put the word "cross-bearer" in its place.
"A cross-bearer is patient. A cross-bearer is kind. A cross-bearer does not envy. A cross-bearer does not boast. A cross-bearer is not arrogant or rude. A cross-bearer is not self-seeking.
“A cross-bearer is not easily angered, nor keeps records of wrongs. He does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. A cross-bearer always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
ILL. Dr. Paul Brand told about his father who went as a missionary to India. For years his father saw almost no converts, due primarily to a Hindu priest who warned the people that if they listened to the Christians their cattle would die.
Sure enough, the cattle of those who came to the Christian chapel did die, but only because the priest poisoned them! As a result, almost no one would listen to the gospel. Discouraged, Brand’s father at times doubted his calling.
Following the First World War a terrible flu epidemic took the lives of thou-sands in India. People lived in isolation & many died from dehydration. Dr. Brand’s parents cooked a huge vat of soup & took it in buckets to the afflicted. When the wife of the Hindu priest became ill, the Brands lovingly ministered to her, but she also died.
When the priest himself became ill, the Brands brought soup & attempted to assist him. But before he died, he asked the Brands to adopt his daughter. He told them, “All my life I have served my people, but now that I am hurting no one comes to help me but Christians. I don’t want my daughter to grow up as a Hindu.”
Because of the obvious love & concern shown by Christians, even to those who had persecuted them, their witness & mission in India grew & grew. (Bob Russell in the 2-24-2002 “The Lookout” Standard Pub. Co)
SUM. That is what cross-bearing means. It means taking the love of God even to the ends of the world - to touch the lives of people who are unlovable. It means denying & sacrificing. It means paying the price regardless of the hardships to be endured.
III. CROSS-BEARING IS HARD
A. Now it is not hard to understand that people have always had trouble with that idea. Whenever the message of the cross has been preached people have always objected to it. "Wait a minute. That is hard. I can't do that."
Jesus talked about His impending death on a cross & His apostles balked at that. They tried to keep Him from going to Jerusalem. They said, "We don't want you to die." When He did die on the cross they hid behind locked doors, fearful of what might happen next.
A few years later, when Paul wrote about the cross in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 he said, "Jews demand miraculous signs & Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews & foolishness to Gentiles,
"but to those whom God has called, both Jews & Greeks, Christ the power of God & the wisdom of God."
That hasn't changed much, has it? We can understand the Jews stumbling over the idea of their Messiah hanging on a cross. They were an oppressed people. They had been oppressed by Assyrians & Babylonians & Greeks, & now by the Romans.
But one thing kept them going through it all. Every night they came together in their family circles & read again God's promise of the Messiah.
Fathers would tell their children, "One day the Messiah will come & set us free. He will be a magnificent king with legions of soldiers behind him. They will defeat our enemies & make them bow down before us. And God's people will be in control."
Then the Messiah came, but not as they expected. He came as a carpenter from Nazareth. Some called Him a madman. His army was made up of twelve men. And instead of great military victories, there was a crucifixion.
So the cross was a stumbling block to the Jews. It wasn't what they expected. It wasn't what they wanted. But it was what they needed!
B. Jesus' talk about bearing a cross bothers us, too. As we lean back in our easy chair, hot coffee in our cup & a loving companion by our side, rejoicing in our successes, we hear Him say, "Take up your cross & follow me."
He says, "There are some lost sheep & I need a shepherd to find them & bring them home again." But we say, "Lord, I don't want to bear that kind of a cross. I've worked hard & I really need more time for myself."
Sunday morning comes & He says, "I have a classroom of squirming kids who need to hear the good news about Jesus." But we say, "Not me Lord. I don't want to carry that kind of a cross."
You see, Jesus is putting crosses all around us, just waiting for us to pick one up. Someone says, "Missionaries need money to carry the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world." And once again we find ourselves wrestling with a cross.
Over here are all the things that we want. And over there are the needs of a lost world. And the words of Jesus come back to haunt us, "If you're my disciple, then deny yourself & take up your cross & follow me." The idea of carrying a cross is a stumbling block & we keep falling over it.
APPL. But I wonder what kind of world it would be if we just had the courage to put into practice what Jesus taught? If we could turn the other cheek & go the second mile & really learn to love our enemies, I wonder what kind of world would be the result?
We're running around busily piecing together our lives, trying to build homes & stockpile possessions. But one day, poof, it's all going to be gone. It's going to burn up, disappear & count for nothing. And the only thing that will last is the cross that we have borne for Jesus.
C. History is full of examples of people who, by giving of themselves, gained life eternal.
ILL. Late in the 4th Century, there was a Christian by the name of Telemachus who decided that the only way to protect himself from the corruption of the world & to serve God was by becoming a hermit & living in a desert region.
But one day as he rose from his knees, it dawned upon him that if he wanted to serve God that he must serve men; that by staying in the desert alone he was not serving God, & that the cities were full of people who needed his help. So he bid farewell to the desert & set out for the greatest city in the world, the city of Rome.
Now by this time the terrible persecutions of the first 3 centuries were over. Christianity had won! In fact, Christianity was now the official, approved religion of the Roman Empire. Even the Emperor himself was a Christian. And so were most of the people. At least, in name they were Christians, if not in fact.
Being a Christian was the politically correct thing to do, if you wanted to be in favor with the Emperor.
Anyway, Telemachus arrived in Rome at a time when Flavius Stilicho, the Roman general, had won a mighty victory over the Goths. So to Stilicho there was granted a Roman "triumph" with processions & celebrations & games in the Coliseum, with the young Emperor Honorius by his side.
Remember, Rome was supposedly a Christian city now, but one thing still lingered from its terrible past. There were still the bloody games in the Coliseum.
Christians were no longer thrown to the lions; but still those captured in war had to fight & kill each other to make a Roman holiday for the people. Still men roared with blood lust as the gladiators fought.
Telemachus found his way to the Coliseum. There were 80,000 people there. The chariot races were ending; & there was a tenseness in the crowd as the gladiators prepared to fight. Into the arena they came with their greeting, "Hail, Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!"
The fight was on & Telemachus was appalled. Men for whom Christ had died were killing each other to amuse a supposedly Christian populace. He leaped down into the arena & stepped between the gladiators, & for a moment they stopped fighting.
"Let the games go on," roared the crowd. The gladiators pushed the old man in the hermit's robe aside. Again he came between them. The crowd began to hurl stones at him. They urged the gladiators to get him out of the way.
The commander of the games gave an order. A gladiator's sword rose & stabbed; & Telemachus lay dead. Suddenly the crowd was silent. They were shocked that a holy man should have been killed in such a way. Quite suddenly there was a mass realization of what they had done.
Historians tell us that the games in Rome ended abruptly that day ? never to begin again. Telemachus, by dying, had ended them.
Gibbon, the great historian, wrote of him, "His death was more useful to mankind than his life." By losing his life he had done more than he could have ever done by living a life of lonely devotion out in the desert.
CONCL. This morning we offer you a cross. Not a life of ease, or a church that has all the solutions to your problems.
We can't guarantee you success on your job. We can't promise that you'll stop having problems. All we really have to offer is Jesus Christ & his cross. Will you come to Him as we stand & as we sing?
