Take Up Your Cross
Matthew 16:21-28
The Last thing Jesus said
is that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.
Jesus is saying, “if
you want to be my follower, you cannot have everything you want to have, and
you cannot do everything you want to do no matter how happy or good you think
it might make you feel.” Satan wants you to operate your spiritual lives
through feelings; Nothing wrong with feelings. But this Christian life is not about
what makes you happy.
There is nothing easy about
being a Christian if you’re serious about it. Most people are not strong enough
to do it. Anybody can be a church goer, but not everybody is going to be
willing to pay the price to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
To deny yourself does not simply mean I don’t do these things anymore. It also means, making yourself available to do what God is calling you to do. What God has created you to do? It’s not possible for us to go from denying ourselves, to following Jesus. There is that stage of picking up our cross first. To pick up the cross is just as voluntary as denying yourself.
Denying yourself does not always include pain. When you deny yourself illegal drugs, your body benefits? When you deny yourself, the temptation to steal, you stay out of jail. When you deny yourself premarital sex, you avoid pregnancy, Aids, child support payments, a life of poverty and a whole lot of other things. This is the kindergarten, first grade level of Christianity
But this idea of taking up a cross and voluntarily suffering pain today for a long term gain requires people who are willing to be NUTS for Christ. The cross is moving on to higher level. The cross is always going to involve some pain in our lives. It will always involve some element of hurt. It’s not going to be something that we look forward to, or jump with joy at the prospect of going through.
When we pray, “Lord, use me to win one person to you this year for Christ, and Lord I want to go deeper in 2014.” Do we realize we’re saying, “Yes Lord, I’m willing to go to the cross?” The only way for Jesus Christ to bring salvation to the world was through his suffering on the cross.
There are going to be hardships we are going to have to endure in order for God to bring salvation to those around us. A lot of it is going to have to do with the attitudes we display when trials come into our lives. Especially those that are unfair. Nothing could have been more unfair, than for Jesus to have picked up his cross and died for you or for me... To take up our cross means eliminating the belief that our lives are somehow going to be fair. It’s a given your teacher is not fair, your boss is not fair, your spouse is not fair, your children are not fair, your parents are not fair, your friends are not fair.
1 Peter 2:19-20 “For it is commendable if a person bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” that’s an incredible statement by Peter. To take up our cross is always a voluntary positive act on our behalf. This is exactly what Jesus did on the cross.
It’s important to realize that Jesus never told the disciples anything about the suffering he was going to go through and the cross they were expected to carry, until they were convinced that Jesus was the Son Of the Living God. It is only after we have settled our relationship with Jesus Christ that He begins to introduce the cross into our lives. We cannot move beyond Kindergarten faith, without a cross in our lives. It is sheer nonsense to ask to grow deeper in God or to be used by God without expecting there to be some sufferings and inconveniences in our lives. The same God, who willed a cross in the life of Jesus, wills a cross for anyone who would come follow after Jesus.
Whether or not we are willing to take up our cross depends a lot on what we believe about what’s on the other side of death. If we believe, the really good things in life and the fun things in life are what we presently see around us, that’s what we will spend our lives chasing.
If we believe, that what really matters in life is how and where we spend eternity, we will take up our cross as often as required not only for our sake, but for the good of those we love. You see, Jesus picked up his cross, not to be able to say “look what I did.” He picked up his cross, knowing that nothing he could have gained by bypassing the cross, was worth the reward of having been to the cross.
Picking up our cross is not a one time event. We are called to do it everyday. The next time you want to do something that God says not to do. Pick up your cross. The next time you don’t feel like doing, what it is clear God wants you to do, pick up your cross. Who is truly going to be able to do this daily? Only those who have made up their minds that this is real. Following Jesus is a costly thing. It does cost us our lives. But we never know the tremendous good God is going to bring into our lives, by us taking up our cross so that we can follow Jesus.
People are giving their lives for so many things that ultimately do not really matter. Why not choose to give your one life to something that will count for all eternity. Make it worth it.
Jesus even throws in a bonus promise. Like us the disciples were thinking, well Lord if I take up my cross, it might seem like I have to leave everything just to follow you. Peter even said, “Lord we have left everything to follow you.”
But Jesus’ bonus verse in Mark 10:29-30 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.”
You can make the decision to hold on to what you have, but realize in the end you will lose it all. Or you can take up your cross for a whole new level of living. You are loved!
To deny yourself does not simply mean I don’t do these things anymore. It also means, making yourself available to do what God is calling you to do. What God has created you to do? It’s not possible for us to go from denying ourselves, to following Jesus. There is that stage of picking up our cross first. To pick up the cross is just as voluntary as denying yourself.
Denying yourself does not always include pain. When you deny yourself illegal drugs, your body benefits? When you deny yourself, the temptation to steal, you stay out of jail. When you deny yourself premarital sex, you avoid pregnancy, Aids, child support payments, a life of poverty and a whole lot of other things. This is the kindergarten, first grade level of Christianity
But this idea of taking up a cross and voluntarily suffering pain today for a long term gain requires people who are willing to be NUTS for Christ. The cross is moving on to higher level. The cross is always going to involve some pain in our lives. It will always involve some element of hurt. It’s not going to be something that we look forward to, or jump with joy at the prospect of going through.
When we pray, “Lord, use me to win one person to you this year for Christ, and Lord I want to go deeper in 2014.” Do we realize we’re saying, “Yes Lord, I’m willing to go to the cross?” The only way for Jesus Christ to bring salvation to the world was through his suffering on the cross.
There are going to be hardships we are going to have to endure in order for God to bring salvation to those around us. A lot of it is going to have to do with the attitudes we display when trials come into our lives. Especially those that are unfair. Nothing could have been more unfair, than for Jesus to have picked up his cross and died for you or for me... To take up our cross means eliminating the belief that our lives are somehow going to be fair. It’s a given your teacher is not fair, your boss is not fair, your spouse is not fair, your children are not fair, your parents are not fair, your friends are not fair.
1 Peter 2:19-20 “For it is commendable if a person bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” that’s an incredible statement by Peter. To take up our cross is always a voluntary positive act on our behalf. This is exactly what Jesus did on the cross.
It’s important to realize that Jesus never told the disciples anything about the suffering he was going to go through and the cross they were expected to carry, until they were convinced that Jesus was the Son Of the Living God. It is only after we have settled our relationship with Jesus Christ that He begins to introduce the cross into our lives. We cannot move beyond Kindergarten faith, without a cross in our lives. It is sheer nonsense to ask to grow deeper in God or to be used by God without expecting there to be some sufferings and inconveniences in our lives. The same God, who willed a cross in the life of Jesus, wills a cross for anyone who would come follow after Jesus.
Whether or not we are willing to take up our cross depends a lot on what we believe about what’s on the other side of death. If we believe, the really good things in life and the fun things in life are what we presently see around us, that’s what we will spend our lives chasing.
If we believe, that what really matters in life is how and where we spend eternity, we will take up our cross as often as required not only for our sake, but for the good of those we love. You see, Jesus picked up his cross, not to be able to say “look what I did.” He picked up his cross, knowing that nothing he could have gained by bypassing the cross, was worth the reward of having been to the cross.
Picking up our cross is not a one time event. We are called to do it everyday. The next time you want to do something that God says not to do. Pick up your cross. The next time you don’t feel like doing, what it is clear God wants you to do, pick up your cross. Who is truly going to be able to do this daily? Only those who have made up their minds that this is real. Following Jesus is a costly thing. It does cost us our lives. But we never know the tremendous good God is going to bring into our lives, by us taking up our cross so that we can follow Jesus.
People are giving their lives for so many things that ultimately do not really matter. Why not choose to give your one life to something that will count for all eternity. Make it worth it.
Jesus even throws in a bonus promise. Like us the disciples were thinking, well Lord if I take up my cross, it might seem like I have to leave everything just to follow you. Peter even said, “Lord we have left everything to follow you.”
But Jesus’ bonus verse in Mark 10:29-30 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.”
You can make the decision to hold on to what you have, but realize in the end you will lose it all. Or you can take up your cross for a whole new level of living. You are loved!
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