You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace.
Join us.
But if you'll turn with me to Luke chapter 9.
Luke 9 is on page 867 of the Bible in the pew in front of you.
Luke chapter 9.
Kids, have you ever played follow the leader before?
You played that game?
It's kind of a fun to those of us who are wondering about that and what it would mean for them if they were to follow Jesus.
So first question Jesus addresses in this passage.
What is required of followers of Jesus?
Look at verse 23.
He said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Here's what it means, Jesus says.
Here's what it looks like.
Self-denial.
Carrying your cross.
It's been called the essence of Christian discipleship by theologians as respected as John Calvin and Matthew Henry.
But what does it really mean to deny myself and take up my cross daily?
What is Jesus talking about when he says that's required for his followers?
Let him deny himself.
First of all, notice that it's active.
It's a requirement not just to endure suffering passively when it comes upon you, but actively to reshape your life.
Intentional self-denial.
Self-denial.
And we think a lot about self-words, don't we?
Some of my favorite, self-esteem, self-respect, self-worth, self-image, self-confidence, self-help.
We like to talk about self-words.
We know a lot of them, but self-denial.
Really?
Self-denial?
Y'all, to say it nicely, just to be honest about the situation, we have a tendency to focus on ourselves all of our lives, don't we?
In infancy, we cry for what we want.
And then as toddlers, we turn into little me monsters who everything is mine, mine, mine, right?
Crying for that all the time.
As grade school children, we begin to think that we know what's best for me more than my parents do, and I know better what I want.
Then we become teenagers.
And we're actually told by seemingly everyone around us that life is all about us, and we should go and enjoy four years of just the fullness of experiencing life, and it's all about me and what I want.
As soon as we can get there, if you can just make it to those four years.
And then we graduate, and we get a job, and we start focusing on making enough money so that we can do what we want to do, so that we can go on vacation.
So that we can retire early and do what we really want to do with our lives.
Self-focus looks different at every age, but it rarely looks like self-denial, which is where Jesus starts.
It's the beginning, the minimum requirement, as it were, for being His follower.
This is what His followers must do.
If anyone comes after me, let him deny himself.
That word for deny really means to say no to, which sounds easy enough.
But it's bigger than we often think.
We often think about self-denial as saying no to a second donut, or saying no to sleeping in when you really want to, and instead waking up early to get ready for VBS.
Four days in a row.
That's self-denial.
What that really is, is that's denying my desires.
And these things may well happen as we deny self, but denying self is actually denying a person, not a desire.
Think, for instance, of Peter denying Jesus.
So when Jesus says, deny yourself, He means over and over in your life, saying no to self-definition, to allegiance to myself, to setting my own agenda for my life.
And that may involve some of those other things, but think of it this way.
Just as Jesus zealously insisted on following His Father's plan for His life, so He calls us to say yes to His plan, and no to our own agendas.
No to self-rule and self-determination.
In other words, denying self is not first about changing practices, but rather about changing priorities.
Let me give you an example of what I mean in my own life.
I drive an old, blue Honda Accord.
And when I say old, I mean that it recently got its own driver's license, that it voted in the last election.
I won't say for whom, but it's old.
Very old.
And I've had it for a while.
Driving an older car, for you, may sound like self-denial, right?
I've thought that.
But recently, several of my friends have loved me enough to actually challenge me on my attitude towards the old car.
As that car has begun having some mechanical issues and they've seen me respond,
they have said to me, some of them more gently than others,
I think you have a problem.
You want people to think of you as a pastor with an old, cheap car.
Humble.
Sacrificial.
Super spiritual.
But they were not joking.
And I've realized they're really right.
And see, that's actually the opposite of self-denial.
That's actually self-definition and self-promotion in the guise of spirituality.
Do you see that the thing may have seemed like it was denying self,
but what was going on in the heart was actually quite the opposite.
Self-denial may eventually mean that some of us drive cheaper cars than we can afford.
But it begins by calling us to find our identity in what God says about us,
not what others think about us, no matter what car we drive.
That's the bigger picture.
That's at the heart of self-denial.
So denying self means not finding my security in my money, but in Christ.
It means not finding my pleasure in my pet sin, but in Christ.
It means not finding my identity in my success, however I define it, but in Christ.
And yes, when those priorities shift, if you stop and think about that for a minute,
if those priorities genuinely changed in your life, our practices will follow,
perhaps even more radically than you've imagined so far this morning,
what it may mean to deny yourself.
We're actually called to a daily life that is modeled every single day on the way that Jesus died.
That's what he says next, right?
What does self-denial look like?
Carrying your cross daily.
Now, Jesus died on the cross, certainly.
But this command for us focuses on taking up our cross daily.
There's a difference for us.
This is about how we are to live.
And that the taking up of the cross in this culture,
that moment of taking it up was when you hoisted the cross across your back
and began your long walk to the place where you would be crucified on it.
It was designed to be an excruciating physical, emotional, and social experience.
Imagine it as you put that cross beam on your back
and you're dragging it along in front of the crowds who've gathered.
You were a dishonorable failure in a culture that valued honor and success above almost anything else.
You'd seen people come back triumphant from victory to a parade and march through the city,
celebrated and rejoiced over, and this is exactly the opposite.
You're not the conquering hero.
You're the failure being spit upon and mocked and humiliated as you drag the cross through the street.
It was the ultimate in social rejection.
Your reputation is shattered entirely.
You're mocked by the world as you walk to your death.
And I hate that part because I love for people to praise me, not mock me.
To think well of me, not poorly of me.
To accept me, not reject me.
And Jesus says this is what it means to take up your cross.
This painful rejection is required of anyone who would follow him.
In fact, it's required repeatedly for us to live as he died.
Remember last week, his suffering and rejection and then his death.
So what does that look like for us?
Here are just some categorical ideas that I hope will prompt specific ideas in your hearts.
It may mean that in a culture that prizes image,
we willingly look bad, even on Facebook.
We live below our means or find ourselves called foolish because we hold to the things of Christ.
It may mean that in a culture that prizes independent strength and autonomy of the individual,
we willingly declare and demonstrate our dependence on God and on others.
We admit our needs.
We boast in our weaknesses because we see our strength is in Christ.
It may mean that in a culture that prizes comfort and safety,
we willingly suffer physically in ways that we think are beneath us.
We risk our physical well-being for the sake of another or alter our beloved schedules
in order to love someone in need because we have a security, a safety in Christ that no one can steal.
It may be that just in the midst of those types of things,
we would meet Jesus since that's the path our Savior walked.
It may be, in fact, that if we never seem to find ourselves on that path at all,
that we need to admit we're not really following Jesus at all,
but rather following self and sprinkling some good Jesus stuff in it
so that we feel better about ourselves as we go towards reaching our goals.
Self-fulfillment, self-promotion is actually what we're following.
This is the point in the sermon where you begin to wish that I said what this means
is that we all needed to downsize our homes and give the extra money to the church each month
because that becomes a bit easier, a little bit more palatable,
and there's actually something bigger and broader being asked of us
than a box we could check even that easily.
Jesus is going to have some more specifics for us even before we get to the end of chapter 9.
But y'all, he starts by saying that following him should cost us everything.
Everything.
He walked the path where it cost him everything, right?
When did we begin to think we should have it easier?
The wonderful cross, the one he went to,
bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.
That's the path he's called us to follow and
sometimes we think it should be easier than that.
My pastor in Clemson, who was also a professor of mine at Covenant in St. Louis,
his name is Jimmy Agin,
has studied and written about Jesus' downward path to glory
and it's helped me so much with this particular passage
that in a couple of places I'll just quote him directly.
So anyway, that's who he is.
Here he says,
those who carry a cross
define themselves not by greatness and glory
but by their nearness to Jesus.
Now that's what self-denial and cross-bearing is all about.
I'm about proactively shaping my life around his priorities,
defining myself by being near Jesus.
You want to know something that's a little bit scary?
When we talk about core commitments as a church,
last week I mentioned those a little bit,
you can read about them in branches.
When we talk about what we're committed to,
we start at saying we're committed to being Christ-centered
and that sounds nice, doesn't it?
Yes, we're about Jesus.
Yes, you preach about Jesus
but you know what being Christ-centered means for us?
It's not only about the pastor preaching about Jesus.
It's about all of us following Jesus.
And there's only one path that Christ, the Messiah, takes.
There's only one Christ-centered path
and it's the one that goes down first.
down to places where we give up the right
to determine our own priorities,
the right to demand our own preferences,
the right to determine our own identities.
The path we're on calls us to give those things up.
We begin to define ourselves instead
by being near Jesus on that downward path with him.
Y'all, it's not easy.
It's hard for me.
It's hard for you.
It's hard for all of us who've been called to follow Jesus.
That's part of the point.
If we're going to go on that path,
we need the Holy Spirit working in each of us.
And we need each other
to make the painfulness and the loneliness of that path
seem just even a little less lonely and painful
because we're walking it together.
It's a counter-cultural, painful, marked-by-rejection path.
And if we're to walk it as Jesus did,
we're going to need to walk it together as he intends.
Amen?
We need him.
We need each other for that.
I think our brothers and sisters in Egypt
have modeled this beautifully for us recently.
You've probably heard in the news
there have been many attacks on Christians in Egypt
in recent weeks.
Dozens of them losing their lives in attacks
because of their following Jesus.
And in spite of their deep grief,
in spite of living in a culture
marked by honor and revenge,
where what would be expected
and promoted as noble and worthy
is attempts at retaliation and revenge.
In spite of that,
they're striving together to forgive.
One woman whose husband was killed by a suicide bomber
stood with her children on national television
and said this,
I'm not angry at the one who did this.
I'm telling him,
may God forgive you
and we also forgive you.
Believe me,
we forgive you.
You put my husband in a place
I couldn't have dreamed of.
And the Muslim community around them has marveled.
One famous Muslim talk show host saying,
how great is this forgiveness you have?
If it were my father,
I could never say this.
But this is their faith and religious conviction.
Yes.
And even more than that,
it is the countercultural way of our Savior.
May God make us more and more a community
where we are defined and shaped in our lives
by the priorities of Jesus,
His forgiveness,
His sacrificial love,
His glory.
As God does this among us,
as He brings us together to follow Him
in these ways that are painful and difficult
and often unfamiliar,
what's the hope offered to us?
Is Jesus just saying,
we're going to be increasingly miserable
and there's nothing ever for you in this?
Just go lose your life,
give up everything?
Nothing.
Actually, He's offering the promise of true life.
The life we were created to live, right?
Listen to what He says, verse 24.
Whoever would save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
will actually save it.
For what does it profit a man
if he gains the whole world
and loses or forfeits himself?
It's that seemingly upside down path again,
isn't it?
How do you save your life?
Lose it.
Give up your sovereignty over yourself.
And Jesus says here,
I know the path appears
and even feels to be headed downward,
but I'm promising you a destination
of true life,
eternal glory.
He understands that it's not in the places
we often think to look for it.
But remember last week
how Jesus insisted on His gospel
being a cross-centered gospel,
that He must go there,
that it must be about the cross,
not merely a prosperity gospel
or social gospel
or an American gospel.
Now in light of that,
the cross says to us,
loud and clear,
your great need
and God's great goal for you
is not material prosperity,
moral reformation
or temporal security.
Did you hear that?
That's not God's greatest goal for you.
Material prosperity,
moral reformation,
temporal security.
Jesus came to suffer
and die for you.
His great goal for you in that
is not that you would make
a few more thousand dollars
on your salary next year
or that you would have
a more comfortable life
for a few more years
on this earth.
It's just not His goal for you.
It's not the greatest thing
He can imagine you having.
His goal for you
is a restored relationship with Him.
The true life that comes from that
that's so fulfilling,
you can give it away
to everybody else
because you have everything
you need in Him.
That's His heart for you.
That's where life is truly found.
Jesus is telling us
we can get all the world
has to offer
and still end up empty
in the end.
It's why we sang
I'd rather have Jesus
than anything
this world affords today.
That He is no fool
who gives what He cannot keep,
the things of this world
to gain what He cannot lose.
An eternal relationship
with His Father,
the fullness of life
that He created us for.
And we sing it
because it's true
and because we struggle
to believe it.
And we need to help each other
believe it
and so we sing about it.
Young people,
following Jesus is not easy.
Sometimes it hurts.
Sometimes it costs you things
that you really care about a lot.
And we want to be honest
with you about that.
It's joyful.
We love coming to church.
We love being together.
We'll have a great barbecue
in a couple of weeks.
There's a lot of joy in it
but it's hard.
The life that Jesus promises you
is so much more fulfilling
and so much more beautiful
than what the world offers.
And I want you to know that
because it's going to be difficult
to see that sometimes.
God's greatest goal for you,
the good life He sets out for you
that you look forward to
is not just getting into
a good college.
It's not just being known
as a good kid.
It's not just to stay safe
so you can live to be 100
or something like that
because that's awesome.
He actually has something
so much more significant for you.
He defines what's really good.
Those are the types of goals
we set for ourselves.
God says,
let me tell you what's good.
where life really is.
It's in knowing Him
and trusting Him
and being valuable
because you're His child.
And when you get filled up
by that kind of value
and significance,
you can give away your life.
You don't have to be
in control of it.
You don't have to have
everything go your way.
Some of you are going to
find yourselves in places
where you have to say no
to your own instincts
about what to do
with your body,
about how to treat
your classmates.
And when you do that,
when you say no
to those things
in order to follow Jesus
and what He calls you to,
you'll get made fun of.
You won't like it.
It'll hurt.
And you're going to have to believe
that Jesus is worth it.
That what He's calling you to
is a life more beautiful
than what you thought
you were going after.
You might be left out
and you won't feel like
you're living the good life
and Jesus says,
that's what it means
to follow me.
You're actually not alone.
I'm there
and you can find me
infinitely valuable.
It's what Moses found out.
Hebrews chapter 11
tells us about the value
Moses found.
By faith when he was grown up,
he refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather
to be mistreated
with the people of God
than to enjoy
the fleeting pleasures
of sin.
He considered the reproach,
that means having a bad name,
having bad things said about you
and feeling bad.
The reproach of Christ
of following Jesus.
Greater wealth
than the treasures of Egypt.
All that the world
had to offer for him.
For he was looking
to the reward.
I use these verses a lot.
I'm aware of that.
It's because he considered
the reproach of Christ
greater value,
of greater wealth
than the treasures
of Egypt.
And I think we need
the reminder
of the choice
that we face
in following Jesus.
And we also need to know
that others have followed him
at great cost
and found him
worth it.
Found Jesus
more valuable
than all the world
could offer.
Have you seen
the emptiness
of worldly things?
Honestly,
ask yourself,
when you run
the profit sheet,
when you put on one side
all the things
that the world
has to offer
and on the other side,
Jesus,
true life in Jesus,
which one's more valuable
to you?
Jesus asks us
that question.
Have you grasped
the hope
of true life
in Jesus?
Jesus points us
to that eternal perspective
in the last two verses
of this passage.
Whoever's ashamed
of me
and of my words,
of him will the
Son of Man
be ashamed
when he comes
in his glory
and the glory
of the Father
and the holy angels.
But I tell you,
truly,
there are some
standing here
who will not taste death
until they see
the kingdom of God.
The hope
of a God
who is not ashamed
of us on that day
but who delights
in us
as he delights
in his Son
of an eternal kingdom
that we look forward to,
the reward.
It's worth it
even when you follow Jesus
out of a stable job
into a scary,
unpredictable calling.
It's worth it
even when you follow Jesus
to stay in an unfulfilling marriage
and show love
and forgiveness.
It's worth it
even when you let your kids
take the gospel
to a place
you're not sure
they'll be safe.
Why is it worth it?
It's worth it
because you meet Jesus
in those places
and he's worth it
because he's
that valuable.
In the places
where you deny yourself
and take up your cross,
you meet Jesus
and find him
to be worth it.
Jimmy Agin says
the call to deny ourselves
rests on the assumption
that we value Jesus
enough
to lose our lives
for his sake.
In fact,
that we would rather have
the kind of life
he gives
than the kind of life
that would enable us
to gain
the whole world.
Everything in our culture
tells us to promote self
and protect self
not deny self.
Most of the inclinations
of our hearts
do the same thing.
So why deny self?
What is the inspiration
for followers of Jesus?
It has to be him, right?
The cost of following Jesus
is certainly high.
Let's not be unclear.
But he doesn't ask you
to give anything
he hasn't already given.
And he doesn't call you
to go anywhere
he hasn't already gone.
See, when we play
follow the leader
with Jesus,
it's not a game.
It's not child's play.
When we play
follow the leader
with Jesus,
the image I have in mind
is rather one
of a battle scene
where before
they march into battle
in the hand-to-hand combat,
you see the leader,
the king,
the general,
William Wallace,
whoever it is in your mind,
he calls them
to go and march
but then he does what?
He rides right in front of them
out at the head of the pack
into almost certain death
in that battle.
Why do they follow him?
Because he made
such a great speech?
Because he told them
they had to?
That they must follow?
They follow him
because he willingly
rides in front of them
into that battle.
Remember,
before calling us
to self-denial
and cross-bearing,
Jesus has just said what?
That he
must
suffer
and be rejected
and be killed.
Verse 22.
And this morning,
he calls us
to follow him
there.
Dr. Agin says
the new priority
of the follower
of Jesus
is this.
I believe it is safer
to follow Jesus
to the place of death
than to run away.
Safer to follow Jesus
to the place of death
than to run away.
this table reminds us
that the Savior
we follow
denied himself
the glories
and comforts
of heaven
way more than
we've been asked
to deny ourselves.
That he
became nothing
and humbled himself
to the point of
death on the cross
for us
because he
loves us.
This table
reminds us
that the Savior
we follow
is the one
who has ridden
before us
into the battle
not just with the possibility
that he might die
but with the intent
that he would die
for us
in our place.
Remember how
Paul recounts it
for us.
The Lord Jesus
on the night
he was betrayed
took bread
and when he had
given thanks
he broke it
and said
this is my body
which is for you
do this
in remembrance
of me.
In the same way
also he took the cup
after supper
saying
this cup
is the new
covenant
in my blood
do this
as often
as you drink
it
in remembrance
of me.
Jesus came
and said
this is what
I'm doing
I'm going
to give
my life
for you
and so
this table
where we
celebrate that
is not the
table of Southwood
or the Presbyterian
church
it's his table
that he sets
before us
to remind us
of his great
love for us
and giving
his life
for us
his body
broken
his blood
shed
for us
if you know
him
and trust
him
if you're a part
of his church
the people
who are
imperfectly
and with
great failures
following after
him
come here
eat
be refreshed
remember
and celebrate
his love
for you
the one
you're following
after
has already
died
and suffered
the worst
you could imagine
so that you
could know
him
forever
if you
don't know
Jesus
I'd encourage
you
don't come
to this table
this morning
but come
to Jesus
come and talk
with us
about who
he is
and what
it is
that he
would call
you to
it's a kind
of life
you didn't
show up
this morning
wanting
to sign
up for
it's
beautiful
it's
glorious
because
he's
there
with you
pray
with me
and we'll
come to
this table
together
father
for the gift
of your son
we give you
great thanks
we ask
that
this bread
and this juice
that remind us
of his body
and blood
would be set
apart
this morning
for you
to do
great things
in our hearts
she would
teach us
again
of your love
she would
show us
again
that we
would taste
the path
that our
savior
has walked
and calls
us to
follow him
in
would you
encourage
and strengthen
our faith
through it
we ask
in his
name
amen
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