Book of Luke - Ch. 9, Vs. 22-27 (07/06/2003)

Good afternoon. Did everyone have a good meal?

Well Yeah, I will say how sleepy you get Luke chapter 9 and Verse 22

I Think we stopped with verse 23 actually, so we'll We'll start with verse 22 and read down to verse 24

I Think everybody's here. That's gonna be here.

So Well, actually Let's read down through the end of verse 27, okay, so we'll start with 22 and go through 27

Verse 27 Saying the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and Be raised the third day and he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and Follow me and I believe for today.

We're starting with verse 24 for whosoever will save his life shall lose it

But whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it For what is a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away?

For what whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the

Son of Man be ashamed When he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and of the

Holy Angels But I tell you of a truth There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God so Let's discuss this part the key

To understand in the part that I'm teaching on starting with 24 really is found in a word in verse 23

So look at verse 23 And he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself

And take up his cross daily and follow me look at the word himself the word himself in the

Greek is It's almost sounds like you're saying how to So that's kind of easy to remember and what it means is self

Self So you could read it this way and he said unto them all if any man will come after me let him deny self and Take up his cross daily and follow me.

Now if you understand that and you Apply that down into verses 24 and following that make a whole lot more sense

So I'm gonna read it as it would be more literal in the Greek. So let's look at verse 24.

I'm gonna put that word How to That word comes from a little smaller

Greek word autos Which literally means self and I'm going to insert that in this verse where it goes look at verse 24 for whosoever will save self life

Shall lose it But whosoever will lose Self life for my sake the same shall save it

For what is a man Advantaged if he gained the whole world, etc So you can see what it's talking about is the self life makes a lot more sense if you were 2024 he's not talking about that.

God doesn't want you to live a life Obviously on this earth and that if you focus on living life, you'll lose your life

A lot of people have struggled with that verse, but it's all because if you in the English, it's not as clear

But in the Greek, it's clearly talking about selfishness Jesus Christ taught very clearly that a selfish person is not living true life

He is living a death life So if you want to live abundant life, you must crucify the self life

Notice that's what it says in verse 23 Let's read it again together and he said unto them all if any man will come after me let him deny

Self and take up his cross daily and follow me So the way to live an abundant

Christian life is to be self Less not selfish

To put self so far back that you don't even see self and you're focusing on others and on the

Lord himself Now, how do you do that? How does the person do that? How can you not be selfish?

You must be filled with the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ because the Spirit of Christ was never selfish

Never didn't have a selfish bone in his body Nor a selfish fruit in his spirit

He was totally given over To give to the ones he loved to always be giving to the ones he loved never taking

So self was crucified Now that is the key and it says whosoever will save self life will lose it so a person that wants to be selfish loses life, he's not even living true life a

Person who would lose the self life and let it go for Jesus sake

Will have true life Now, what does it mean if you let self life go for Jesus sake?

Well It's the only way you can let it go is To be in Christ connected with Christ So it's obvious to those who are observing your life in mind from an objective viewpoint

When we are spirit filled and when we are carnal When we're walking in the flesh, we're selfish.

We use the word I a lot When we're walking connected to Jesus Christ, we're always looking out after the other person

And self is last Now let's move on that's an interesting lesson, isn't it?

First 25 for what is a man advantaged if he gains the whole cosmos?

That means the whole created universe What if you could gain? the whole universe

But you lost your own soul Or what if you could be gaining the whole universe and then you get cast away by God For whosoever shall be ashamed of me in my words of him shall the

Son of Man be ashamed When he shall come in his glory and his fathers of the Holy Angels There are some interesting words to study in these little passages

About what it might be like to To be well, first of all he says

If you what advantage would it be if you gain the whole cosmos and you get cast away this word cast away is

Apple loom a e Apple loom a e it comes from a little

Greek word oppo which means away and Another Greek word ole thros, which means ruin

Think about that to destroy but it doesn't mean to destroy in the sense of making it not exist anymore

It means to ruin something so that it is still there. It still exists

But it's ruined so the word Apple loom a e means someone who is ruined off or Ruined away

Now what picture does that give you? It gives me a vivid picture

What advantage would it be for a person if he could gain the whole world?

But if he were cast away if he were ruined away

What is hell? Hell is a place that is away from God.

It's away from where God is and it's a place where you are ruined you're not utterly destroyed or annihilated, but you are ruined and This is a description this word cast away is a description of hell.

It's a place away from God Where the person is ruined question is asked what good is it if you gain the whole world and you are cast away?

Or whose whosoever shall be ashamed of me Now this is an interesting phrase

Because in the Greek it literally carries the connotation of a feeling of shame so it's it's something happens on the inside if if a person

Is ashamed of Jesus Christ if on the on his inside He feels in a feeling of shame when he considers the thought of mentioning his name mentioning the name

Jesus or Telling someone he's my lord and he feels shame on the inside about that Well, that's not a saved person

I can remember when I was lost having that feeling of shame about the name of Jesus Christ I would never use it didn't want anyone to hear me use it.

It was a Feeling of shame on the inside Then when you get saved you have the opposite you're bold about it.

You want to mention his name everywhere you go It's a big thing to look at as far as whether you're saved or not

Do you feel shame in your heart? If it comes to giving a testimony or mentioning

Jesus to other people if you do you haven't been saved yet In fact, if you died physically in that state you would find yourself in a place where the

Lord Jesus himself Would be ashamed of you Says whosoever shall be ashamed of me in my words of him him shall the

Son of Man be ashamed When he shall come in his glory and in the fathers and of the holy angels

So we see here a great lesson About the self -life the self -life destroys true life

You cannot have abundant life in Jesus Christ and be selfish at the same time it is impossible

You cannot be connected with the Holy Spirit filled with the Holy Spirit one with the Spirit and be thinking about yourself

It will not happen You are the last person you would think about if you're connected to the

Spirit of Jesus Christ After all, how could he go to the cross for you if he was thinking of himself?

And How can we live for the Lord if we're thinking of ourselves we can only live for self you can't have two masters only one

So check out your thought life. Are you ashamed of Jesus? Ashamed to live for him if you are you you need to be born again

Think about your your life as a Christian Do you use the big

I a lot You thinking about yourself? What you need your needs are your desires are are you trying to think?

How will you help the brother or the sister meet his needs and his desires? And what about the

Lord's desires? What are you thinking about? It shows you whether you're carnal or whether you're spiritual

Whether you're fleshly or whether you're spirit filled You cannot be spirit filled and selfish at the same time

In fact, Jesus taught you cannot be selfish and be living life

When you move into the self you get off that track that brother Otis likes to draw where you're in time

And you're living for the Lord When you get selfish you drop right off and you go down here and you can only come back where you got off.

So You've lost some human time seemingly That you can't really get back

Selfishness is a Definite break in the communion between you and the Lord And the only way to not be selfish is to be tied in directly with him

Because then you have the fruits of his spirit Fruits of his spirit. Let's pray pray.

Let's don't spray. Let's pray Lord, thank you for this day together Thank you for your wonderful words and that you protected them and preserved them for us where we may read them together today

Where they truly are spirit and life And so fill our hearts and our lives with your life as we contemplate your words and we ask it in Jesus name.