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8.16.20 Luke 9:23 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  and now we'll get to God's word. In Luke 9, 23, if you're able to stand just for the reading of one verse, I would ask you to do that now. Verse 23, and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. This morning, I borrow a prayer from the Valley of Vision. Let's pray together. Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, you have brought us to the Valley of Vision.
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  where we live in the depths but we see you in the heights hemmed in by mountains of sin we behold your glory and let us learn by paradox that the way down is the way up that to be low is to be high that the broken heart is the healed heart that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit
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  that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. And Lord, in the daytime, stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells, the brighter your stars shine. And so let us find your light in our darkness, your life in our death.
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  your joy in our sorrow, your grace in our sin, your riches in our poverty, your glory in our valley. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Well, I want to begin by thanking Pastor Nathan for preaching last week, who last week, last Sunday, explained the significance of the feeding of the thousands and what a contrast in the lives of the apostles from the week before. When I preached, after having been sent out with nothing,
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  With being imbued with power and the authority of God and wielding that power after having been given nothing and yet casting out demons and healing diseases, the apostles, Pastor Nathan said, asked Jesus to send the crowds away because they couldn't provide lunch? Even after having been supplied with fish and loaves, infinitely more than they'd had the week before, they still could not understand how the Lord would provide for so many five...
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  thousand men. Another one of the accounts says not including women and children, maybe some 20,000 people divided into groups of 50 received more food than they needed. And one of our board members, Francisco Villegas, came up to me last Sunday and he just said, you know, massive numbers of Christians divided into groups of 50.
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  It sounds a lot like the church in Colorado. That's what he said. I thought that was a pretty funny observation. Pastor Nathan last week challenged us with the thought that although God does miracles, he includes us in the ministry. Jesus is the bread of life. It is our job to distribute the bread to the masses. And the good news, church, is that there will always be more than enough. This morning, we study perhaps my favorite statement that Jesus ever made.
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  A statement which has become famous, a statement which honestly defines the very essence of Christian discipleship, a statement which is often memorized and yet rarely applied the way the Lord intended. This morning, Jesus basically says that Christianity isn't for everyone. What a backward thought, right? What a backward thought in the life of the believer whose job it is to go out and hand out the bread to everyone.
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  To have some of them look at the bread of life and reject it is crazy to us. Why would anybody do that? But Jesus says that's exactly what's going to happen. It's offered to everyone freely, but not everyone. After learning what it truly means to follow Christ, we'll remain interested. Just a few chapters from now in Luke's gospel, in chapter 14 and verse 28, Jesus says this, for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough money to complete it.
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  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and he's not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and wasn't able to finish. He says, before you follow me, count the cost of discipleship. And I'm surprised at the confusion that remains among self-professed followers of Christ. I'm surprised at the ambiguity that members of many churches accuse Christ of.
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  They'll say things like, I just don't know who Christ is, or I just don't know what Christ wants from me. Why so ambiguous? There's a parable. They say it can be traced back nearly 500 years before Christ, which has been used in an effort to explain the ambiguity of religion. And the parable goes like this. A group of blind men heard that a strange animal called an elephant had been brought to the town,
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  of its shape or form. Out of curiosity, these blind men said, we must inspect and know it by touch of which we are capable. So they sought it out. When they found it, they began groping around it. The first blind man grabbed its trunk and he said, well, an elephant must be like a thick snake. The other one grabbed its ear and said, well, it's kind of like the shape of a large fan.
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  Another one of the blind men grabbed around its leg and said an elephant is like a pillar, like a tree trunk. Another put its hand on its side and said, well, an elephant must be like a wall. Another felt its tail and said an elephant must be like a rope. Still another grabbed onto its tusk and said that an elephant is a hard, smooth spear. Now explaining that parable is simple. The elephant in the parable is God. The blind men are religious followers.
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  The point of the parable is that every religion is basically the same. That's the point. We're all blindly groping along the same elephant trying to figure out what it is. And we draw different conclusions because we're feeling different parts of the same beast. But the reality is the differences of opinion regarding religion are simply because none of us can see the entire animal. And church, many...
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  Many, many in our culture today explain away differences in religion this way. They will say that all religions are basically the same, they all believe the same things, and their differences are minor and petty and can be explained away by saying, well, you're just groping around different parts of the same animal. And it makes sense that our culture says that, church, because, like the parable says, they are blind.
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  Listen to 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4. In their case, that is the case of unbelievers, in their case, the God of this world,
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  That's Satan, the enemy of our souls. The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The enemy of our souls blinds the eyes of unbelievers. I mean, spiritually speaking, they are blind. They can't see the truth. And so they have no idea who God is. They can't see God. They can't see Christ, who is the image of God. They have no clue.
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  but not so those who are in Christ. 1 Corinthians 2 says this, we believers have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. He says it's like the lights have been turned on. You've been given the spirit of discernment, the Holy Spirit of God who teaches you.
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  who opens your eyes to see spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2 continues, the natural person, the one who does not have the spirit, does not accept the things of the spirit of God. They're folly to him. He's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned, but we have the mind of Christ. What Christ does in this morning's text, one verse, is turns on the lights. You don't need to guess. You don't need to wonder.
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  about what it means to be a Christian. Jesus just flat says it. When I was young in ministry, I used to call these come to Jesus moments, where Christ strips away everything else, where Christ snaps into focus only the most important aspects of what he came to teach. That's exactly what Jesus gives this morning. If you want to come to Jesus, he says things are about to get real. Discipleship is
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  about to get real. And I've got two points regarding the reality of discipleship. The first one is this. The reality is that discipleship isn't for everyone. Look at verse 23. And he said to all, if, he said to all, if the reality is that not everyone goes to heaven. Jesus, in this one word, if,
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  He recognizes that although anyone can receive him, he recognizes in this one word, if, that not everyone will receive him. If you go back to that elephant analogy, do you know what I found? You know, the only people who actually think that all religions are the same are those that don't believe any of them to be true.
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  You know, I've never met a Muslim man who honestly thinks there's no difference between his beliefs and those of Christians. You'll never meet an actual Muslim believer, a believer in Islam, that really honestly thinks that he's the same as a Christian. They don't think that. You'll never meet a Hindu who says there's no difference between himself and a Buddhist. There isn't any. There's no difference somewhat. You'll never meet a Catholic who says there's no difference between a Catholic and a Baptist. You'll never meet one.
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  A Jehovah's Witness who says there's no difference between the JWs and Mormons. There isn't one. In fact, wars have been fought over such things. Men and women have been executed and shot and sawn in two and burned at stakes and guillotined over the differences in their beliefs. In fact, one Catholic cardinal has said that all human conflict is ultimately theological.
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  Did you catch that? All human conflict. Every fight, every impassioned debate and argument, every war that's been fought is inherently, ultimately theological. Every conflict boils down to differences of opinion about God. There are those, it is true, who believe that no matter what you believe, you will go to heaven. There are those. They're called universalists. In fact,
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  There's an entire denomination of churches, even some here in Denver, known as the Unitarian Universalists, UU. They rally around the doctrine, if you want to call it that, that you can believe whatever you want and still go to heaven. That's what they think. In fact, members of their church, they have theists, those who believe in God, those who claim, even some of them claim to be Christians. They have, as members of their church as well, atheists and agnostics.
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  They say you can believe whatever you want. You can believe nothing. You're all correct. And listen, church, you can be a Unitarian Universalist. You can choose that. But Jesus was not. Jesus was not of the opinion that everyone would go to heaven. He says here the word, if you can believe that you can believe whatever you want to believe, that everything will work out in the end. But Jesus didn't believe that.
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  Last week, Jesus asked his apostles the most important question on earth. And Pastor Nathan covered it. Who do you say that I am? The most important question that any of us will ever grapple with in our lifetime is the question, who is Jesus? And the reason it's the most important is because your answer to that question, what you believe about Jesus, will actually determine your eternal destiny. And Jesus says, if.
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  if anyone comes. That's first. He says not everyone will go to heaven. He says discipleship, the reality is that discipleship isn't for everyone. And second, the reality is that discipleship is not simply saying, bow your heads and close your eyes and repeat after me prayer. Let me say that again. The reality is that discipleship
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  is not simply saying, bow your heads, close your eyes, and repeat after me prayer. Jesus defined discipleship as deny and take up and follow. Look at the rest of verse 23. He said to all, if anyone would come after me, you want to be my follower, a disciple, that's what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Christ, coming after Christ, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.
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  And what a difference between the message of Christ here in verse 23 and the message of the modern church. What Christ is saying is that believing in Jesus and following Jesus are exactly the same thing. If you are a believer in Jesus, you will follow Jesus. They're the same thing. Salvation, he says, is.
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  And for many years and from many pulpits, the gospel has been presented in our country this way. Feel bad about what you've done. Say these simple words after me and you won't go to hell. That's how the gospel has been presented from many pulpits and for many, many years, decades even. A phrase has even been coined describing this watered down version of the gospel. The coined phrase is...
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  Easy believe-ism, right? That it's just you say a simple prayer, almost formulaic. If you'll repeat these words after me, then you won't go to hell anymore. And that's how the gospel has been presented by many. But that is not what it means to be a follower of Christ. Many have parroted those words, but their souls are still in jeopardy. Because although they mouthed the words of salvation, they never became actual disciples or followers.
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  of Christ and for many years and from many pulpits, the message that has been preached was that you can receive Jesus as Savior from your sin without receiving him as Lord of your life. That's not what Jesus said. And I want to be very careful here. Make sure you hear this, church. I want to be very careful here not to state too emphatically that anyone has the right to judge the genuineness of your devotion to the Lord other than you.
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  The genuineness of your salvation can only be truly discerned by you. It is between you and the Lord. You know the genuineness of your own salvation. And I know full well that spiritual appearances can be deceiving. There are spiritual pretenders in the church. Jesus even said that there are many, Matthew chapter 7, who would put on a spiritual front.
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  casting out demons, performing miracles, preaching in his name, and yet didn't actually know Jesus. These are wolves, wolves on the inside, but in sheep's clothing. Sheep on the outside, they look like Christians, but on the inside, they are not. Jesus taught that, which means that the reverse is probably also true. There are probably others who do know the Lord, and yet who are walking in sin. They've forsaken their first love.
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  They look and live very much like the world and yet they are genuinely forgiven and on their way to glory. I know that that is probably true. It's like the reverse. These are sheep on the inside, but they're wearing wolves clothing. They look like the world, but on the inside, they're genuine believers. I know that those two realities exist, but what Christ taught and what the rest of the scriptures teach is that believing in Christ for salvation
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  In other words, embracing Jesus as your lamb who takes away your sin is the same faith as believing in Christ as Lord. It's the same faith embracing him as the lion of Judah who sits on the throne of your heart and calls the shots of your life. He is the lion.
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  and the Lamb. And what Jesus taught in this text is that believing in him and confessing him as Lord will not only save you from eternal destruction tomorrow, but should radically transform the way you live your life today. 1 John 3 and verse 18 says, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And the context here in 1 John 3,
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  It's kind of a redefining of genuine love for others in the church. But let me ask this. Why would our love for the Lord be defined any differently? He says in 1 John 3, love genuinely. Don't just say you love people. Don't just mouth the words. That's meaningless. It's hollow. He says instead, love in genuineness, in truth, and in deed.
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  Don't just say you love them. Show that you love them. And let me ask you, why would our love for the Lord be defined any differently? Why would the Lord command us to love one another genuinely with action and then accept a superficial nominal love for him? He wouldn't accept that. He wouldn't. And here in Luke 9 and verse 23, Jesus defines genuine discipleship three ways. Three ways. First, he says, let him deny himself. Deny himself.
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  there is no more countercultural statement than this one. I do think it's funny that our president has been derided as a narcissist. What's funny about that is not, and I'm not standing in defense of that. I am not. I'm not trying to defend him in any way. But what's funny about the accusation is that it's almost like those who are calling him a narcissist are excusing themselves from being a narcissist.
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  You know, honestly, church, I'm having trouble finding anyone in 2020 America, including me. Every time I look into the mirror, I'm having trouble finding anybody in 2020 America who doesn't struggle against self-love, self-promotion, self-aggrandizement. I struggle with it. In love with myself. Absorbed with myself. And Christ says here that if you want to follow him,
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  Do the exact opposite. Deny yourself. The word here for deny is actually an emphatic, our Nehemiah. It's the same word used of the reprobates who in their hatred of Jesus deny the truth of his message. Deny him, reject him. It's the same word, our Nehemiah, used by John the Baptist when he denied that he was the Christ.
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  I am not the Christ. I'm not. And in fact, I need to decrease so he can increase. It's an emphatic denial. It is the same word. And this is really interesting. This is the same word, our Nehemiah, used by the apostle Peter when he denied Christ three times. You can imagine Peter's angry and frightened and even cursing denial. I don't.
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  know him. And that is the way that we must deny ourselves. Psalm 115 and verse 1 says, not to us, O Lord. And then he repeats it to make it emphatic, not to us, but to your name, give glory, a denial of ourself. And denying oneself is a refusal to rely on one's own ability to save.
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  I can't save myself, deny myself. It's a disowning of any confidence one ever has in their own flesh. You know, our favorite parts of sermons are always the illustrations. They're stories, especially when they're personal, that have a way of drawing us in and then punching a point home. And I love when Scripture illustrates its own truths. Turn in your Bibles with me, if you would. Turn to the right. Look at Philippians. Philippians chapter 3.
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  The Apostle Paul writing to the church at Philippi. Look at Philippians chapter 3. You find here his own kind of autobiography, a list of credentials. He just says no one was more religious. No one was more religious than the Apostle Paul. No one was more committed to the cause than he. And look at verse 4.
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  Chapter 3 and verse 4, he says, I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. And now he gives this litany of credentials like he's just piling up accomplishments. One on top of the next, just creating this mountain of legitimacy, credibility, accomplishments. I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day.
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  So not only was I faithful, my parents were faithful. When he was eight days old, the proof of his godly lineage was confirmed. He was circumcised eight days old. Then he says of the people of Israel. So in other words, I'm part of the covenant people of God. I am a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  of the tribe of Benjamin. You know, church, only two tribes actually survived. You could count Levi in there, maybe three tribes, but two in terms of tribal allotments ever survived the captivity. One was Benjamin, the other Judah. And he says, I'm from one of the faithful tribes. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. Nobody in the country better than me. As to the law of Pharisee, I was one of those guys who set the standards so high.
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  As to zeal, a persecutor of the church, you'll recall that the apostle Paul in the book of Acts was actually given letters of recommendation. Letters from governors, city officials, synagogue officials, who sent him out, authorized him to go and to put Christians in jail. I was the guy stamping out the cult of Christianity. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. Perfect.
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  But whatever gain I had, he says, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. This is interesting. He says, you can imagine him piling up these credentials, this big mountain. And he says, not only, he doesn't just call those a waste of time. All of that effort, all of that work, you know, it was a waste of time. That's not what he says. He says, whatever gain, I actually count as loss. So all of those plus signs don't just become neutral.
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  He doesn't zero out. He says all of those plus signs now become negative signs. It's not like he's saying I had this mountain, but it turned out the mountain was just level ground. He says the mountain has turned into a hole instead. It's a loss. He continues. Look at verse eight. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.
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  Rubbish, wow, okay. All of that stuff, he says, I count as rubbish, that word for rubbish. And I can still recall being in high school and hearing my pastor preach on this passage, and I can still recall him talking about this Greek word, the word skubalon, skubalon, rubbish. It's the word excrement, filth, waste, except...
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  That it was the most horrific word in the Greek language for excrement. Now, we have an English equivalent here, which I will not use from the pulpit. But you adults, you know what word I'm talking about. This is one of those four-letter words that we would not let our kids say. This would be inappropriate. That's the word that he uses. That's the word. You want to know what it was? It was a big old pile, all right.
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  But it was not a pile of accomplishment. It was a pile of scubalon. That's what it was. You can imagine, Jesus is just saying, deny yourself. You want to stand up here and pretend? You want to pretend like you're great? You want to pretend like you're all-knowing? You want to pretend like you're better than somebody else? You want to brag about your accomplishments like you're better than you actually are? Okay, you can do that. You can pretend. But understand that if you do so,
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  If you do not deny yourself, the opposite of denying yourself is denying Christ. That's what you're doing. Denying Christ. Second, he says, take up your cross. We'll go back to Luke chapter 9. He says, let him deny himself and take up his cross. Take up your cross? Certainly, Jesus didn't mean death. I mean, I thought Jesus came to give life, right? Life abundant. That's what John 10...
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  And verse 10 says, but Romans 12, 1 also calls us a living sacrifice, laying down of our lives. John 12, 24, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus was obviously talking about himself. I'm going to die and bear much fruit. But he was also setting an example for us.
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  Dr. Alexander Bruce has said cross-bearing is the law of discipleship. You want to be a disciple of Christ? There is no other way to do it than to bear your cross, take up your cross. And Christ's statement in verse 22, one verse earlier, that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.
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  phrase flows naturally into his statement now that if you intend to follow him, you should expect the same treatment. I would encourage you, church, to stick around next Sunday for verse 24 and the promise that if you lose your life for Christ's sake, you will find abounding life for eternity. So he's going to talk next week about what that means in verse 24.
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  In case you can imagine, in case you imagine taking up your cross in somehow kind of a romantic or heroic manner. Yes, Lord, I will follow you. I will pick up my cross and drag that thing up the hill to Golgotha the way that you did. In case you imagine it somehow romantic or heroic, he includes one more word. Take up your cross, he says in verse 23, daily, daily. The Lord directs our attention.
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  to the commonplace mundane trials of the ordinary Christian daily life. And you may say, well, like what? What is the ordinary daily taking up of our cross? Here are a few examples, like serving your spouse, serving your spouse. You know, it was easy. It was so easy to serve your spouse when you were on your honeymoon, right? For that one week, it was like, man.
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  We got married. This is bliss. This is wonderful. Everybody just threw us a party. They're so excited for us. And now we get to go on an ill-deserved vacation, right? We're just going to go. We just stare into each other's eyes. We can't imagine ever being upset with each other. This is the greatest. And then you get about 10 years in. You're up to your knees in diapers.
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  She works the morning shift. You're working the swing shift. You're barely making ends meet. And now they've just announced that your kids' schools will be closed and they will continue to do school online and at home. And you got to try to figure that out. That is a daily cross. Take up your cross. Be faithful. Another one. How about honoring your employer? Even if you hate your job, you hate your co-workers.
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  That is your daily cross. Be faithful. How about this? Being a part of a church. You say, well, that's not burying my cross. Is it not? You know, I love our church. I honestly think Highland is the greatest church in the world. There are no better people. There is no better place than Highland Baptist Church. I love it here. I love being your pastor. I love it. I love it.
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  But did you know that sometimes even I don't want to come to work? Sometimes I don't want to come to church. You know, it'd be so fun just to show up once in a while, maybe on a potluck Sunday, right? You just kind of line up your schedule to show up when there's food anyway. You shake a few hands, you hang out, you play some softball, you goof around, sing a couple songs. I'll see you all in three months. Oh, that'd be so much easier than this.
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  committing yourself to the daily grind of Christian community. Being a part of a genuine family of God means being a part of when people's lives are messy. It's being a part of their lives when their kids aren't nice. It's being a part of their lives even when they're annoying and demanding. You say, well, Christians would surely never be annoying and demanding.
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  If you think that way, you've never been a part of a church. They're the greatest people in the world. But we also still struggle against our own flesh. Committing yourself that way, that's a daily cross. Be faithful. Here's another one. What about this one? Being consistent with your kids. I know that not everybody in our church is in the throes of parenting, but many of us are.
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  Many of us fit in that demographic kind of parents between the ages of 30 and 50. We've got little kids or we've got grown kids at home and now moving out and doing whatever, going to college. And just that consistency that's needed. You know, very rarely in parenting do I legitimately not know what to do. Sometimes I'm like, man, I don't know what to do. Lord, I need help. I need counsel. I don't know what to do. Most of the time, honestly, church.
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  We know what to do. It's having the consistency and the energy to do it. Tired. And I've had the same conversation with my son 200 times. I don't want to do it at 201st. They still don't get it. But we know that consistency in parenting is what makes godly young men and women. It's a daily cross. Pick up your cross daily. Daily. And be...
• 32:48
  faithful. And the cross that Christ calls us to bear is not some glorious one-time event. It is a daily laying down of our lives for others and for the gospel. It is a daily falling on our sword for the sake of his name. Take up your cross daily. And then very simply at the end, he says, follow me, follow me. First John chapter two and verse six says that we
• 33:17
  who know the Lord, must walk as Jesus walked. Walk like Jesus walked. And so how did Jesus walk? Very simply. This can be summed up in just a few points. First, in perfect obedience. In perfect obedience, never outside the will of the Father. Second, in constant prayer and worship. Read through the Gospels. Jesus was always in his Father's presence, worshiping, praying. And third, in restful trust.
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  that God would accomplish his will. Jesus was never nervous. He was never nervous. He was never scared, scared that the Lord's will, his father's will, would not be accomplished. He was in restful trust that the father's will would be accomplished. You know, Jesus, in verse 23, issued just a simple come to Jesus moment. The reality of discipleship is that it isn't for everyone.
• 34:13
  Not everyone, despite popular belief, despite what many believe in North Denver, not everyone will go to heaven. That is not true. We must count the cost before committing our lives. If we're willing to deny ourselves instead of denying the Lord, if we will take up our cross today and then take it up tomorrow and then take it up the next day, and if we will walk like Jesus walked, then he says we will be found to be true disciples. And Lord, I pray.
• 34:43
  that you would bless the preaching and hearing of your word this morning. God, thank you for the truth that it contains. You, Lord Jesus, have the words of eternal life, and we commit ourselves to you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.