WWUTT 2188 Deny Yourself and Take Up Your Cross (Mark 8:34-38)

Jesus said to his disciples and to the crowds, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses it for my sake will save it.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Mark 8:34-38 and the Question of What Kind of Messiah Jesus Is

Thank you, Becky.

In our study of the gospel of Mark, we are in chapter eight. Finishing up the chapter today, I'm gonna begin reading in verse 34 and go through verse 38 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord.

And he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels.

Now, if you'll remember yesterday, as we read about Peter making the confession that Jesus is the Christ, I said that was really a turning point in the gospel of Mark. We've gone from answering that question, who is Jesus, to now we are answering the question, what kind of a savior is he?

So first of all, the first half of Mark is answering that question, who is Jesus? And we finally come to a definitive black and white answer as we read it yesterday with Peter proclaiming, you are the Christ.

And now the question that is gonna be answered from here on through the gospel of Mark is going to be, what kind of Christ? Christ meaning Messiah, meaning savior. So what kind of savior is Jesus? Now, what we read here at the close of chapter eight comes right on the heels of Jesus having just told Peter, get behind me, Satan.

So you gotta think of it in that context, when Jesus summons the crowd to himself and says, if you wanna come after me, you have to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. If you love the words that I say, you will do them.

If you don't love the words that I say, then you won't do them. And this is marked in verse 38 as a person who is ashamed of Christ and his words, who doesn't hear his words, doesn't do his words, and is therefore ashamed of his words.

So the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father and with the holy angels. So you have those statements that kind of bookend this passage. If anyone wishes to come after me, but here's for the person who is ashamed of me.

So let's come back to verse 34. We'll consider this in context and line by line. So Jesus summons the crowd with his disciples. Now, originally he was speaking with his disciples and asked them, who do you say that I am?

Peter says, you are the Christ. Verse 30, Jesus warned them to tell no one about him. So it's not yet time for the crowds to know who Jesus is. Yet, when Jesus says, if anyone wishes to come after me, he says this, not just in the presence of his disciples, but in the presence of the crowd.

Now, even though the disciples are not yet supposed to tell the crowd that Jesus is the Christ, this guy's the Messiah that we've been waiting for. Nonetheless, these murmurings had already existed in the crowd.

There were people that were talking about it, though it had not yet been confirmed. It had not been stated by Christ. It had not been stated by his disciples so that the Pharisees could have no cause to arrest him.

Even though the crowds were speaking about it, that wasn't enough for the Pharisees to arrest Jesus and want to put him to death for blasphemy, for claiming to be the son of God. So the topic of discussion was definitely there among the people, but it had not been definitively stated to the people and especially not in the hearing of the Pharisees.

So with the people who are continuing to come after Jesus, we've been seeing this throughout Mark, crowds following them wherever they go, wanting to see miracles, wanting to hear more teaching, whatever it is, because of the teaching that Jesus gave, being more authoritative than even the scribes and the Pharisees.

This is somebody who speaks with authority, not as the rest of our scribes do. So there was something about that that was intriguing to the people, which is why they wanted to hear him teach. It wasn't necessarily because they loved his teaching and therefore wanted to do it.

It still had that particular intrigue to the crowds at this particular time. So you have crowds that are following after him, but why? What is the motivation in their heart? And so Jesus says this, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself.

And again, this is said in the face of what Peter had just tried to do. Jesus was telling his disciples, he preached to them exactly what was gonna happen. Here are the events as they're gonna play out.

This was back in verse 31. He began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again.

He even tells them he's going to go to his death, but he's going to rise again. And Peter doesn't hear that part. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. And Jesus has to say to him, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.

So this statement that Jesus says in the hearing of his disciples and of the crowds is said immediately following this confrontation that Jesus just had with Peter. If you wanna come after me, then you must deny yourself.

Was Peter denying himself at the moment that he takes Jesus aside to rebuke him? Of course not, he's just thinking of himself. Now, like I said yesterday, Peter may have thought that his intentions were sincere.

He surely meant what he said when he rebuked Jesus for saying that he was gonna go and die. Peter thought he was just caring for his Lord. I'll never let this happen to you. We don't have any dialogue from Peter in Mark's account, but we do in the other gospel accounts where Peter wants to prevent Jesus from going.

Matthew chapter 16 is specifically what I'm thinking of. And he just sincerely loved Jesus. He didn't want Jesus to go back to Jerusalem and get arrested and put to death. No, I will never let that happen to you.

But if Peter had his way, we would not be saved. So no matter how sincere he was, and no matter how heartfelt he may have been and the love that he had for Jesus, the love he thought he had for Jesus, he was responding according to his flesh.

It was selfish. It was just for himself. It was certainly not with the mind of God. It didn't have the big picture in mind. It wasn't even attentive to the word that Jesus just said. It was like Peter just deliberately ignored him.

I just don't like the killing part. Can we do everything else that you said in there except you dying? And that's the way we read scripture sometimes, isn't it? We get to the parts we don't like and we want to cut those out.

I like all this stuff around it, but I don't really like that part so much. And Peter was doing that. That's what Peter was doing. There were parts in what Jesus was teaching that Peter just simply didn't like.

And so to combat this further, not just a personal rebuke to Peter, but even to all the disciples and all of the crowds, Jesus makes the statement, if you want to come after me, you're coming after me for miracles.

You're coming after me to hear what it is that I'm saying because you think it sounds like I'm saying something authoritative. You think that I'm the Messiah and I'm going to overthrow the Romans and I'm going to take over this kingdom again.

Whatever reason you think you're coming after me, if you really want to come after me, if you really want to be my disciple, if you want to follow me, if you want to receive all of the treasure and reward that comes with being a disciple of Jesus, then here's what you must do.

You must deny yourself. It cannot be about you and about your interests and how this benefits you. Do we benefit from following Jesus? Yeah, we do. Absolutely we do. Our sins are forgiven. We have the promise of everlasting life with God forever in glory.

We've been made right with God. We have fellowship with God once again through faith in Jesus Christ. So do we benefit? Of course we benefit. We're even brought into the family of God. We're made a brother or sister of Christ with the rest of his church.

We've got an automatic family when you come to Jesus. There are so many wonderful blessings and benefits, knowing meaning and purpose, being able to communicate with the God of the universe, the God who made you, the God who has future plans for you, who knows exactly what he's doing with you.

Everybody else in the world has no idea what's happening tomorrow, but you are in the hands of the one who holds tomorrow in his hands. So there are some wonderful benefits to being a follower of Jesus, but it's not about how it benefits you.

It is about worshiping God, giving glory to God. Even everything that Jesus did was to the praise of the name of his father. As you read in Philippians 2 .12 or 2 .11, I guess it is. Jesus did all of these things, leaving his throne in heaven, living a perfect life in a human body, being obedient even to the point of death on a cross.

And therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, verse 11, to the glory of God, the father.

Even all that Jesus did was to the praise of the father's glorious name. And so all that we say and do is likewise to be for the praise of God. It cannot be what you get for yourself, how you benefit from this, although we do benefit from this.

It is about worshiping God. Denying yourself means it's not about you. It's not about you doing it for your personal interests. You don't just follow Jesus to get a get out of hell free card. Although, praise God, we are saved from an eternity in hell by faith in Jesus Christ.

You follow Jesus for Jesus is because you want God and nothing else can satisfy. But having God, he who created all things, he who gave himself for us, that we could be reconciled to him. It is all about God.

You must deny yourself. As we read in Proverbs 3, verses five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. A cross is an instrument of death.

It's part of denying yourself. Putting to death your sin, your personal interests, your own personal goals, if those goals would be contrary to God's will and God's desire for your life. So putting to death all of those personal things, selfish things that you would take up a cross and follow after Jesus.

Now this statement, take up a cross, this is set in contrast with the disciples' expectations. Remember, Jesus told the disciples, he was gonna go into Jerusalem, he was gonna be arrested, he was going to be killed, but he was gonna come back on the third day.

Peter rebuked him for that. Now here's Jesus saying, now if you wanna come after me, this is not about going into Jerusalem and overthrowing the present rule, kicking out the Romans and kicking out the Herods.

You've gotta die too. You have to take up your cross, your instrument of death. Putting to death yourself and your desires, that your desire would be what God wills. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

Losing Your Life for Christ and the Gospel

Verse 35, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. So this could even tie back into the parable of the soils that we had read previously, where you have the word that falls into the rocks, you have the word, the message of the kingdom that falls into the thorns.

And it's the plant that grows up among the rocks that doesn't have any root in itself, but then the sun comes out and it withers away, it's scorched and it withers away. And Jesus said, this is the one who immediately receives the word, the message of the kingdom with joy, but having no root in themselves, when persecution arises on account of the word, they fall away.

When people start to feel the difficulty of following Jesus, of what it means to be a Christian, then they'll try to get out. Now I'm getting persecuted for this. There are people that are oppressing me, they're making fun of me.

Suddenly being a Christian doesn't feel all that safe. It doesn't feel all that warm and fuzzy. And so a person will either soften the message that they believe, they will try to make it sound more friendly to the world, which is less like what Christ said, and now more like what the world would want Christianity to be.

And in which case they have tried to save their own life from all those people that are ridiculing me, that want to come against me. Well, this is kind of hard. So maybe if I change the message a little bit, then following Jesus will be a little easier.

Well, whoever tries to save his life is going to lose it. But whoever loses his life, once again, giving up those things that you want, your own personal desires, your own comfort and safety even. Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

And that will even play out literally. Whoever is massacred, martyred, because you believed in me and you believed in my gospel, you'll lose your life in this life, but your life is saved because it belongs to Christ.

You see right now the persecution that's happening all over the world. Persecution, especially in Africa, we see news reports coming out of Nigeria all the time of the Christians that are persecuted there.

Hundreds of Christians put to death every year in Nigeria because of their faith. North Korea, China, parts of the Middle East, India, Pakistan, there are places everywhere that are hostile to the gospel where Christians are being put to death because they believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But though they lose their life, they have saved it because they have put their trust in Jesus. He who rose from the dead will raise us from the dead as well. Verse 36, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

You give up Christ, you can get all the world as a result, but what have you gained, really? You've gained things that are perishing. And so just as your life is going to perish, all the stuff you've put your trust in is gonna perish.

It's not gonna save you. This is why you can buy a new gadget or something like that and it feels pretty good for a while. I have the new phone, I've got the latest model, I've got a new video game system, I've got a new car, I've got a new house, whatever it might happen to be, I have a new job.

We find something new and it makes us feel like a new person but then that feeling is gonna wear off eventually, why? Because we know the stuff that we're putting our trust in doesn't last. And so just as this stuff doesn't last, neither will our happiness in that stuff last.

We cannot put our trust and our dependency in things of this world that are wasting away, that eventually are gonna come to nothing. Of course, we know that in the natural course of things, this stuff is eventually going to be nothing.

The new stuff that you get today that makes you happy today is gonna be the stuff of tomorrow's garage sales and garbage heaps. Then it's a burden to you in the sense that look at all this stuff I've got, how do I get rid of this?

I gotta take it to the dump and it costs me money to throw it away. What does it profit a man if you gain everything? But you're gonna lose your soul. Verse 37, for what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Answer to that question, nothing. There is nothing that you can give in exchange for your soul. You can't buy back your soul. You don't even own your soul. So where have you invested your soul? Have you invested your soul in the stuff of this world that's wasting away?

Then that's what's gonna happen to your soul. But have you stored up for yourselves treasures in heaven, as Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you have treasure in heaven, your treasure is a place where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.

But you have stored up your treasure in something eternal. And so likewise, you will live in eternity with God. And so Jesus concludes his address to the crowd this way in verse 38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation.

Adulterous meaning, you go after whatever things make you happy. You go after the passions of your flesh. Whatever is going to satisfy your fleshly desires, whether that sexual immorality or greed and covetousness or anger and bitterness that you have toward other people, the grudges that you take vengeance out on, whatever it might happen to be, this all plays into an adulterous spirit.

That you want to be friends with the world, which will put you at enmity with God, as talked about in the book of James. So whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him.

Now, and again, the person who is ashamed of Christ and his words includes the person that will change the words. They might say that they're Christians, but their version of Christianity is something that's just a little easier for them to do.

It's a little less threatening. It's safe. The world likes me now because of this version of Christianity I have. So all you Christians in the Bible-believing Christianity that you have, you know why people hate you?

Because you're not really doing it the way that Jesus wants you to do it. No, Jesus said, if they hate you, remember they hated me first. We need to be faithful to what Christ said in his word and live our faith out according to those words.

But if you're ashamed of Christ and his words, then the son of man will also be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. Talking about on the day of judgment. If we are in Christ, then that day is not anything that we need to dread.

We're going to get to go home. We will get to be with God forever in glory. You know, in Revelation chapter 22, the very last chapter of the Bible, it says three times there, Jesus says, behold, I am coming soon.

Behold, I am coming soon. I am coming soon. So that you get to the point where you can say with the apostle John in Revelation 22, 20, amen, come Lord Jesus. We want to go home. We want to be with Christ forever in glory.

So that day when Jesus returns is not a day for us to dread. It's a day to rejoice in. But those who have not denied themselves and taken up a cross and followed Jesus and listened to his words and obeyed them and loved the gospel and shared it for those who did not do those things, that day when Christ returns will be a day of great dread.

Let's finish here with prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read and these reminders that we need to hear every day. As one of the reformers said, preach the gospel to yourself every day because you forget it every day.

So it is good to hear this exhortation that we would deny ourselves, take up a cross and follow after Jesus. That we have heard the gospel message that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead.

Whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. We need that message to be spoken to us every day so that we remember every day the salvation that we have in Christ and to turn from ourselves, the passions of our flesh and to follow Christ.

Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Ministry Schedule and Closing Announcements

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand the Text.