Take Up Your Cross (Sermon)

The Cost of Following Jesus in Matthew 16

Let's once again turn to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 16, and the title of this message is Take Up Your Cross. Take up your cross. This is what Jesus said to his disciples, and obviously the cross is what?

As that great hymn of the faith says, the cross is the emblem of suffering and shame. So this isn't something people would be inclined to want to do, to take up their cross. We're going to talk about what this means, but let's just go back in Matthew's Gospel chapter 16.

This will be the third and final message, and this is just one of the most important chapters in all of the Gospel of Matthew. Peter makes his great confession of faith. That's verse 16. And then after that, Jesus reveals, finally reveals his mission that before the kingdom can come, Jesus must first go to Jerusalem, be rejected and killed, and then rise the third day.

That's verse 21. So in order for the disciples, because in their mind it's all about the kingdom of God. Jesus is the Messiah. He's saying repent. The kingdom is at hand. They think it's about ready to be ushered in.

They're looking for kingdom glory, but first Jesus is teaching them a lesson about kingdom duty, and that's really true. Before we receive the glory, before we receive the rewards, we must first go through the trials, and that's something that every believer has to face.

So let's read Matthew 16. We'll begin in verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the son of man will come in the glory of his father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works.

And assuredly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom. Just pause there. What does that mean? There would be some who would see Jesus coming in his kingdom.

When did that happen? Well, let's just keep reading Matthew 17, starting in verse one. This is when it happens. Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and Jesus was transfigured before them.

His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.

And if you wish, let us make here three tabernacles or tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And while he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came from the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

Hear him. And may God bless the reading of his word. You know, I just find it so remarkable. This is the first time Peter really professes that he believes in the deity of Christ. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

And then just a few verses later, Jesus is showing him his divinity, and that he breaks forth and is transformed before them. So if Peter had any shred of doubt, which I don't think he did, that Jesus was the divine son of God, now he knows for sure because he's seen it with his own eyes.

And Peter will later talk about this in his epistle. But the first five verses here, verses 24 through 28, I mean, let's be honest. This is a challenging passage, is it not? If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself.

Okay, so we're talking about denying self, taking up your cross. And I think this might scare some people away. You know, it probably would have scared people away back then. And even today, if somebody said, hey, come to Jesus, follow Jesus.

Oh, by the way, you have to deny self and take up your cross. And knowing that the cross is a symbol of suffering. I mean, right, that's going to scare some people off. I think that's actually the point, to scare some away.

I think in the day and age we live in, what happens in churches, we want to make it, churches try to make it very easy to come to Christ, right? Have you noticed that? Come to the altar, say this prayer, respond, make a decision for Christ, which I get it.

That's good. You want to make a decision for Christ. It's good for someone to pray and say, Lord, I believe in you, please forgive me. We need to do that. But rarely is it explained upfront what the Christian life looks like.

That yeah, to some degree it is a life of self-denial. Say this prayer and receive eternal life. That sounds good to people. It's easy. I can do that. But take up your cross, deny self. That doesn't sound quite as good.

I mean, you tell me, am I, I think that's, I think that's true. So I guess it's not surprising that churches would do this. We want to make it easy to come to Christ, but at the same time, Jesus was honest with his disciples and I need to be honest about what it means to live the Christian life as well.

And I don't need to tell most of you who have been Christians for quite some time that yeah, suffering does accompany the Christian walk. It's not always easy. Here's the thing though, unbelievers go through suffering as well.

They deal with adversity as well over different things. Maybe the great difference is we have hope there's light at the end of our tunnel. There's, there's nothing for them. So Jesus, let's just go through these verses and hopefully this will be an encouragement even though it's, it's very difficult.

Verse 24 again, Jesus says to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So this concept of following Jesus, we know that it includes listening to what he says, following, obeying his teachings and all the rest.

But for his disciples, this term follow me, we might ask, okay, literally, where did they have to follow Jesus? They were literally following behind him. He was walking from town to town and they were behind him following him or maybe side by side talking to him at times.

We're not following Jesus in that literal sense, are we? Like Jesus isn't here and I don't follow him to Greenfield, right? That's not what we do, but it is what they did. Where was Jesus going? Where did he say that he had to go?

Well, he had to go to Jerusalem where he'd be rejected. He would face suffering and then yes, he would go to the cross. They know that he just told them that and he's like, okay, you're going to follow me, right?

Think about that. You're going to follow me to Jerusalem where I'm going to be arrested. You might get arrested. I'm going to the cross. You need to be ready and willing to follow me. Yes, even to the cross.

I don't know if they thought about this, but that's what's involved in take up your cross that you might actually have to suffer death as well, just like me. That's a hard thing to do. Okay, one commentator says this about this statement, take up your cross.

When persons were condemned to be crucified, a part of the sentence was that they should carry the cross on which they were to die to the place of execution. Thus, Christ carried his until he fainted from fatigue and exhaustion.

The cross was usually composed of two rough beams of wood united in the form of this figure of a cross and it was an instrument of death and of course everybody knew that. To carry it was burdensome, disgraceful and was an additional punishment.

So to carry the cross is a figurative expression denoting that we must endure whatever is burdensome or is trying or is considered disgraceful in following Christ. It consists simply in doing our duty.

So at least this one commentator, and many of them say the same thing, it is the Christian's duty to take up the cross. I mean, Jesus is saying this to the 12, but by extension he tells it to anyone who would come and follow him.

Now here's where I'll make a little bit of a distinction. Let me just ask you to get an idea from the congregation. Is there a difference between being a believer and being a disciple? Who says there is a difference between being a believer and a disciple?

Who says there's no difference? Same thing. A disciple is a believer, a believer is a disciple. Okay, so one hand here, a tentative hand on the other, you're not answering the question. Is it because you don't know or you're afraid of what's happening next?

Okay. I'll just assume you don't know, since you didn't raise your hand. Okay, so let me back up a little. Was the Bible written to you? Was the Gospel of Matthew written to you? Yes. You know, depending on how you describe it, we might say the Bible is written for us, but let's say Paul's letter to the Corinthians, that wasn't written to us, it was written to the Corinthians, but it's for us, right?

So the whole Bible is for us, even if Jesus never spoke these words directly to me or you, but there's application for everybody. So my point is, Jesus didn't say to me or to you, take up your cross. He said this to the 12 disciples.

Does this apply to us? Yes it does. Now the disciples were the ones who had to actually follow him to Jerusalem, and if you believe church history, Peter in particular, Peter actually followed Jesus to the cross.

Tradition says, and it's more than tradition, at the end of John's Gospel, it's pretty good biblical evidence that the apostle Peter, later in life, was crucified. So Peter actually did follow him all the way to the cross, but he says this to them, and the apostles, they were the ones who originally had to die for the cause.

James was killed early on, some of the disciples were killed later on. We believe John was the only one who lived and actually died of old age, but the apostles, they were the ones who suffered like few other Christians have ever suffered.

But at the same time, they were and will be rewarded like few other Christians will be rewarded. I mean, who is going to receive a greater reward at the judgment seat of Christ? The apostle Peter or some of us?

I mean, there's no comparison, right? So a great deal of suffering, but great reward, and let me just say this. If you're a believer and you are dealing with some suffering in your life, if you're faithful in the midst of trials and tribulations, that just means a greater reward, okay?

So that should be a comfort, hopefully it is. But there's many statements in the Gospel about Jesus talking about qualifications for being a disciple. Basically, Jesus says, if you're not willing to put father, mother, family, everything you need to set aside, I need to come first.

Jesus made several statements. If you're not willing to do this, if you're not willing to do that, you are not fit to be my disciple. Remember those verses? Okay, so not everyone was cut out to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and follow him day by day.

Did Jesus ever set that qualification for believers? Did he say, you are not fit to believe in me? He never said that. So the point being, anyone can believe in Jesus. Anyone can believe, but not everyone can be a disciple.

So I think there is a distinction to be made between a believer and a disciple. Here's the distinction. In Matthew's Gospel, a disciple at this point was someone who committed their life to following Jesus either full-time or at least part-time because Jesus had the 12, were they full-time or part-time?

The 12 disciples were full-time and then Jesus had another 70 that he sent out. These are probably maybe more part-time. He had more than 12 disciples, but you understand this is like vocational ministry.

They're doing this hours and hours every day or every week. Is that true for believers? It's not really true for believers. So this is a discipleship training program, basically, that is a bigger commitment.

That was Peter, James, John, and the rest. They were fully committed, full-time Christian ministry. So to help you understand by putting this in modern terms, you might say a disciple today is something like a missionary or a pastor or an evangelist, someone who is in full-time or at least part-time Christian service.

There's a bigger potential for reward, that's true, but you know what? People like that also have a bigger target on their back. I think if somebody was to suffer persecution right now, who would it be?

It's probably not even the pastors here in the United States. We have it pretty good overall. If someone was to face persecution or if there are people facing persecution right now, who is it? It's the missionaries, without question.

I can't give out too many details, but we have one missionary in India right now who is facing real persecution. Things could go sideways real quick with the things that have been going on. So they face persecution, trial, tribulation.

They really are, this one missionary, he truly is carrying his cross right now. Maybe I pray to God he is never harmed for the faith, killed for the faith. Could he be, though? Yeah, it's very possible.

And you know what? I believe he'd be willing to do it. I know if you asked him, he'd definitely tell you, you know, by God's grace, I'd be willing to do it. But the average believer, and this has always been the way, the average believer probably is not going to be imprisoned or face martyrdom, although that has happened.

So long story short, a full-time disciple is someone fully committed, they're probably going to suffer more than the average person, they're taking up their cross, but greater opportunity for reward.

On the other hand, when it comes to believing the gospel, anybody can believe and your reward will depend on what you do for Christ. Have you ever suffered for Jesus's namesake? I mean, I know some of you and what you have gone through.

I'll just share one thing that I've suffered, and I don't even want to use the term. It was a minor annoyance, I'd rather put it that way. A few years ago, I preached something that was true. I mean, it was totally true, I could say it now and it wouldn't even be controversial, but then, tensions were high, so I said something, and the people that wanted to run me out of town or whatever, and I had people driving by my house at night, and I caught somebody one time flipping the lights off, and they drove away once they noticed I was outside.

But there were real threats that came in my direction. Would they actually follow through? Probably not. But, you know, there were people trying to make me feel uneasy at home and threats and all the rest.

Turned out to be a lot to do about nothing. I know there's people in this room who have been passed over for promotions. All you do is believe the Bible, you're not even really pushy about it, and, you know, some people, yeah, you get passed over for promotions, someone might have lost a job over it, but what it usually comes down to, taking up your cross, usually it's ridicule.

People make fun of you, call you names, that's the type of, you know, persecution, if you will, that we face here in the United States. So for the average believer in this land, I would say, you know, we don't have too much to worry about.

On the other hand, let's say there's a young man in this congregation, actually, I pray that one day this will be the case, that there's a young man or middle-aged man, whatever, in this congregation that decides, hey, I want to enter into full-time or part-time ministry.

I would probably warn, especially a young man, I would probably warn him that while things are good right now, you have to realize in 10 or 15 years, the way this country is going, in 10, 15 years, if you're bold in what you preach, you might end up facing prison.

It's unimaginable for some people, but it's already happening in Europe and Canada. People have been put in jail, at least, for simply preaching what the Bible says. Today it's usually the lawsuit route, they try to bankrupt you and all that, but you would have to warn somebody about entering into ministry that there is real potential for trouble.

Rewards, Self-Denial, and the Judgment Seat of Christ

Now, should that discourage the person? Should this discourage you that maybe you could lose your job for believing certain things that the Bible says? Or should you be willing to take up your cross? Here's why you should take up your cross.

Number one, Jesus said to do it, okay? And number two, if you do it and you remain faithful, great is your reward in heaven. Sometimes we don't think about our rewards now. There was somebody years ago, they said, I don't care about rewards, I just want to get to heaven.

I'm not worried about rewards. Once you're there, you'd wish that you had some rewards, okay? And we want rewards. There's nothing wrong with that. So going back to the disciples, Peter took up his cross, didn't he?

Peter faced great adversity for the faith. There was that one time where he was put on the spot and what did he do? He denied Jesus three times and he was broken over that, but Jesus forgave him and restored him to ministry.

And that should be an encouragement as well, because some of you have denied Christ. We've been in a position where I know the right thing to do. I know the right thing to say, but in the moment you don't do it.

You don't say it because of whatever fear of man. The good news is you can be forgiven of that. You can be restored. God can still use you. But Jesus, going back to Peter, Peter was restored. Peter later on in his life, church tradition says that Peter was crucified upside down because according to him, he did not feel worthy to die like his Lord.

Most of the disciples, we think, died for the faith, again, except for maybe John. So when Jesus makes the statement, take up your cross, they knew what he was talking about. There is one occasion in John's gospel right around the same time where Jesus says, I must go to Jerusalem.

And Thomas basically turns to the other disciples and he said, okay guys, let's go that we may die with him. And you know, something that Thomas was being a little cynical, but I think he really was willing to lay down his life.

Verse 25, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. I mean, if there's anyone who questions people's loyalty, question their commitment to Christ, if a person's willing to die for Jesus, I mean, that's a pretty good indicator they truly love the Lord.

Thankfully, most people, most Christians throughout history never have to do that. But what if? So we talked about the martyrdom aspect of this. I think Jesus is also expanding on the idea here of self-denial.

Do you like denying yourself? How many of you deny self on a regular basis? For most people, denying self is like, hey, I want that piece of cake. I'm going to say no. I mean, that is self-denial. That's true.

We're talking maybe a little more than that. The self-denial is to give up your will and to say, okay, it's not about me and what I want. It's not my will be done, but what? But thine. We come to that point, hopefully, where we say to God, I've tried it my way and it's not working.

Or maybe I've tried it my way and it does work, but I want to do it your way. I want to do the right thing. I want to do things God's way, where it's less about me and it's more about him. And it's more about serving others.

You know, it's human nature from the time we're born to be selfish. I mean, this is just the way people are. People say things, it's my life, I'll do what I want to do. But the Christian life, we're no longer our own.

It isn't my life. You realize that? As a Christian, it's not your life. Because why? Yeah. Scripture says we have been bought at a price. If we have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, our life is no longer our own.

Therefore, we should commit ourselves to serving God and serving one another. I mean, that self, that love for self, it's always going to be there. You have to deal with it and crucify the flesh daily, that type of thing.

But it really is about putting God first and looking for those opportunities where I can do something for someone else. Philippians 2 verse 3 says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. So in our flesh, we want to indulge.

We want to do things for ourselves. We want to do things that are going to make us happy. And does that work? You would think in your mind, if I do all these things for myself, it's going to make me happier, but it never really does it.

It never really satisfies. But when you invest in other people and put God first, I mean, that's the key to true joy. I'm sure many of you could think back years ago when you lived life your way, on your own terms.

You did what you wanted to do, when you wanted to do it, how you wanted to do it. And it really didn't give you that happiness that you were searching for. But this is why we need to be born again and deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him.

Verse 25, again, the statement, whoever desires to save his life will lose it. The other side of this is the person who rejects God. I mean, we're talking about people who say yes to God. What about the person who says no to God?

And they continue to live for themselves. How many times did Jesus go into a village, preach repentance or preach the gospel, and the people didn't listen? That happened a lot. Happened a lot. So those people who live in rejection to God, you know, this life is but a vapor.

Eternity of those forever, which leads to verse 26, for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? If somebody offered you $10 billion for your soul, would you take it?

What if they said, you know, some of you grew up listening to rock and roll. And there's a thing in rock and roll where a lot of people like Bob Dylan, and there's a lot of people who have said this, that they sold their soul for rock and roll.

And what they will say, and people have given this testimony, I sold my soul to the devil in exchange for worldly success. Now, I don't know if they really did that. I suspect some of them actually probably did.

And that had to do with why they're so popular. But that's what they say. Can you imagine that? Let's say you could be a celebrity. You could be rich. You could be famous for the next 45 years, okay? And then you die, and then what?

That's what Jesus is talking about. For what profit is it to a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Of course, this is a rhetorical question, right?

I mean, what is your soul worth? Well, there's no price that you can put on it. That should be the way it is. But if you say yes to God, and if you put God first and you serve others, just having that peace, that peace with God and the peace of God in your heart, what is that worth?

There are people who would pay millions or billions of dollars if they could just have peace in their heart. Well, there's a way to have that peace. Part of it is to deny self, take up your cross, but it's the Christian life.

The Transfiguration and the Father’s Voice

Verse 27, Jesus now going from the expectations, the duties, now he goes to the rewards. He says, for the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works.

Now, this is a reference to Jesus when he comes again. We believe that this church, and I know there's Christians who have different views on this, and I think they're wrong, but they're good brothers and sisters in Christ, so it's okay if somebody has a different view on this.

We believe, though, that the Bible teaches the rapture of the church. First Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18, and we believe that happens before the tribulation because chapter 5 of Thessalonians is the tribulation, the day of the Lord.

The rapture happens in chapter 4. Chapter 5, okay, we believe in a rapture that could happen at any moment. You realize that at any moment, Jesus could come back, take his people to be where he is, and we believe it's at that time that we stand before what is called the judgment seat of Christ.

So at least in theory, one minute from now, you could be standing before Jesus, and he would be handing out the rewards, or lack thereof. Does that change anything for you? Just that idea? And again, there's Christians, well, it's going to happen this way.

Well, if one thing we all agree on, it's going to happen. I submit to you, we should all be busy, picking up our cross, taking up our cross, denying self, working for those rewards. We don't work for salvation.

Salvation is a free gift. You're saved simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, putting all your trust in him. We do work, though, for reward. Jesus now makes this statement, this cryptic statement, Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

I think what Jesus wants to do in saying this to his disciples, and what you're going to face in the trials and tribulations you're going to have to go through, Jesus wanted to show them something that would really strengthen and encourage them.

So he says, some of you soon are going to see the kingdom of God, or the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So the Greek word translated kingdom here is basileia, which means royal power. So some of you will see me coming in my royal power.

In all the synoptic gospels, the very next thing that happens after Jesus makes this statement is the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James, John, those men who two out of three gave their life for Christ, but they all committed their lives.

Those three men who made up Jesus' inner circle, what did they see? They got to see the deity of Christ on full display. If you saw that, would you feel pretty good about serving God? Would you walk away from that saying, okay, now I can do this?

Of course, it's the spirit that gives us the ability to live the Christian life, but they have to be on this level now where they're feeling very confident. They know for sure Jesus proved who he was.

Just one thing about this whole ordeal, I like what Peter says. It says that in verse three, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with Jesus, and then Peter, you know how Peter was. He just has to say something.

So he's there, and he's like, Lord, it's good. This is good. This is a good thing for us to be here, and can I set up a tent for Elijah? That's fine. That's fine. Peter said a lot worse, so this is okay.

Some commentators think, though, the error Peter may have been making, or at least God wants to make sure that nobody ever thought that Jesus is on the same level as Moses and Elijah. You get this booming voice from heaven, hear him.

This is my beloved. Moses was a great man. Elijah, greatest prophet ever up until John the Baptist, but this is my beloved son. Hear him. What is Jesus saying? Well, this morning, based on the text, what Jesus is saying to you is, if you're a believer, I think he's saying deny self.

Let's see what we can do this week to deny ourself. Again, it's counterintuitive. You think, well, I want to be happy. I want all the things that I want. I want to, it's my life, and okay, I know better, but don't indulge, okay?

Deny yourself. Put other people ahead of you. Maybe you're already doing that. Also, take up your cross. Be willing to vocalize your faith in those moments where you know the right thing to do is to speak up, or you know the right thing to do is to not shrink back from this.

Do the right thing. Deny self. Put others first. Put God first. Take up your cross and follow him. Will there be some adversity? Yeah. Yeah. You might have to face some sort of suffering for Jesus's namesake, but great is your reward in heaven.

One last thing. It's sort of like the pain that comes before the gain, right? If you go to the gym, if you want to make real progress, it's pain before gain. Well, Jesus, before he wore the crown, he had to go to the cross, so whatever it is that the Lord puts in front of us, may we be faithful to serve him, to serve one another.

If we do, if we are faithful, before we enter the kingdom and before we see the kingdom glory like Peter, James, and John did, we first have to learn about kingdom duty. So this week, God is going to give you tests.

He's going to give you opportunities, and may we be faithful in them. Let's pray. And Father, how grateful we are that you've given us your word, and I thank you that Jesus was so clear in what is expected of us.

If we are to be his followers, Lord, we need to do these things. Most of all, Lord, we thank you that your Holy Spirit gives us the power and the ability that what we and our flesh would not want to do, we now desire.

Lord, help us to deny self, to esteem others greater than ourself, and to be able to say not my will be done, but thine. And as always, if there's someone listening today who has never believed on the gospel of Christ, crucified and risen, may today be the day they forever change their eternal destiny.

It's in Jesus' name we ask it, amen.