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Take Up your Cross: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast The First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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  preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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  learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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  You can find more information about our church at
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  fumccollingswood. Dot org.
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  Thanks for listening. This morning Scripture comes
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  from Luke Chapter 9, verses 18 through 27.
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  Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were
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  with him, he asked them, Who do the crowd say I am?
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  They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and
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  still others that one of the prophets of long ago has come
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  back to life. But what about you?
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  He asked, Who do you say I am? Peter answered, God's Messiah.
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  Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.
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  And he said, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be
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  rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers
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  of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be
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  raised to life. Then he said to them, All,
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  Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up
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  their cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their
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  life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will
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  save it. What good is it for someone to
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  gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
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  Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be
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  ashamed of them when his, when He comes in His glory and in the
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  glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
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  Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste
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  death before they see the Kingdom of God.
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  This is the word of God for the people of God.
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  Thanks be to God. Amen.
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  Bear with me. I feel fairly lousy this morning
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  and have since about Tuesday, so we're going to get through, but
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  bear with me if my voice is not as strong as it usually is.
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  I don't know how much their stories are told anymore, but if
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  you think about a list of American folk heroes, people
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  like Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Paul Bunyan, Wild Bill
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  Hickok, Jeremiah Johnson, John Henry, those kind of people.
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  Do you guys know any of those names?
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  I just said one, one. OK, All right.
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  Well, they, they, they all have something in in common, right?
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  These these figures who have risen to mythological levels,
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  they're all people who are praised for either striking out
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  on their own or or single handedly accomplishing some
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  great work. The values that they represent
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  are not community or interdependence or
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  collaboration. They represent the values of
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  individualism, determination, self reliant, right?
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  These values have contributed to what has been called the myth of
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  rugged American individualism. The idea that with enough hard
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  work and ingenuity and determination, that's all it
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  takes to kind of pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make
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  something of yourself, right. These ideas have been translated
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  into the postmodern American psyche as what Carl Truman calls
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  expressive individualism. Expressive individualism, which
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  is another author Allan Noble sums up, can be described as a
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  mindset that says I am my own and I belong to myself.
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  I am my own and I belong to myself.
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  That kind of sums it all up, right?
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  It's, it's the philosophy that says there's there's no
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  objective truth out there outside of me.
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  There's no reality outside of what I know and I experience and
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  I feel nothing outside of me which determines what is right
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  and good and true. So I'm free, right?
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  I'm free to create meaning and to attribute value however I
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  choose. And, and no one can really tell
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  me otherwise, because that might be their truth, but that doesn't
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  mean it's my truth. We're told that this is what it
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  means to be free, that there are no external constraints placed
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  on us whatsoever. If something feels good to me,
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  then it's right. At least it's right for me.
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  This sounds incredibly free at first, right?
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  No one telling me what to do or how to think.
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  But the reality is it actually becomes a heavy burden on those
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  who are living under this kind of philosophy because it puts
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  all of the responsibility for determining meaning and value on
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  us, right? And that's a burden that we were
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  never meant to bear. And ultimately, this philosophy
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  will collapse in on itself under its own weight because it can't
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  actually support itself, right? And so we see among the the
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  younger generations, the emerging generations, this, this
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  heavy, this heavy told Joe wasn't feeling well, this heavy
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  amount of of mental illness, anxiety struggles.
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  Thankfully, thankfully, Jesus offers an alternative to this
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  philosophy of expressive individual individualism.
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  He offers a true view of reality.
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  And I think we find it in this passage that will just read for
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  us this morning from Luke Chapter 9.
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  In this passage, Jesus has been having a conversation with his
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  disciples about his own identity.
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  Right now, identity is a big part of these conversations,
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  right? In expressive individuality.
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  Who am I and and what is the identity that I choose to to
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  show to the world? And Jesus is here talking with
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  his disciples about his identity.
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  And it's here that Peter makes the confession that Jesus isn't
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  just a prophet, and he's not just John the Baptist come back
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  or Elijah raised from the dead, but that Jesus is God's Messiah,
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  the anointed one that they, as the Jewish people had been
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  waiting for for years and years and years.
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  And it's only after this declaration that Jesus begins to
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  shift his conversations with those same disciples.
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  Everything changes from this point in the gospel.
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  He begins to tell them not only that he came to call people to
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  repentance and to bring healing, to announce the Kingdom of God.
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  He begins to tell them that he must suffer at the hands of the
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  religious leaders, that those same religious leaders would
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  ultimately kill him. But then on the third day he was
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  going to be raised back to life. And then we get to what I think
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  is one of the most important and most difficult things that Jesus
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  says in his entire ministry as recorded in the Gospels, a
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  statement we still need to wrestle with today and which
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  over the course of this sermon series we will wrestle with.
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  In Luke 29 verse 23 it says Then he said to them all, whoever
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  wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up
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  their cross daily and follow me. Let's break this down a bit into
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  some bite sized pieces phrase by phrase and see what it is that
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  Jesus is inviting us into. OK, He says.
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  He begins by saying, whoever wants to be my disciple, anyone
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  who wants to be apprenticed to Jesus, who wants to be with
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  Jesus and become like Jesus and do what Jesus did, anyone who
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  wants to learn to follow the way of Jesus, well, this is what it
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  means to be a disciple. And I believe that this is not
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  just an invitation to those who are already following Jesus and
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  not just for those 12 young men who Jesus had called to be his
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  apprentices. Whoever here means anyone, it
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  means whoever, which means us, right?
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  It can mean us. You could just as easily read
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  this as saying if you want to be Jesus disciple, right?
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  So that's that's the scope of this.
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  This is available to anyone who would follow Jesus.
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  Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves.
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  You must deny yourself. Now, deny can mean to declare
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  something to be untrue, right? It can mean that a refusal to
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  admit something or to give a negative answer to an inquiry,
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  but I don't think that's what Jesus is really meaning here.
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  I I don't think Jesus is calling his followers to acknowledge
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  that or to refuse to acknowledge that we exist, Right?
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  That's, that doesn't make any sense.
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  However, there's another meaning to the word deny, which is to
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  restrain oneself from the gratification of desires.
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  And I think this meaning for our English word deny gets closer to
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  the meaning of the Greek word here, which means to disregard
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  or to pay no attention to or to say no to.
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  So what Jesus is saying is anyone who wants to follow
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  Jesus, well, they're going to have to say no to him or herself
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  at some point. Now this doesn't mean, as it has
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  been interpreted at different points in church history, that
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  we are to abuse ourselves for the sake of Jesus, right?
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  Jesus isn't calling us to self flagellation or to self harm,
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  but he is telling us that following him will involve
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  saying no to at least some of the desires that we experience.
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  Because of the intrusive and infectious nature of sin, all of
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  the desires that we have, they've been disordered apart
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  from God. The things we desire, good
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  things we may want too much of, Things we know that are bad for
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  us, but we still crave things that are normalized in our
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  sinful society, which are contrary to God's way of life,
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  which is revealed in Scripture. These desires are disordered
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  within us, and it's these desires that were called to
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  deny. Now not only are we called to
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  deny ourselves, if we're going to follow Jesus, he goes further
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  and says you actually have to take up your cross daily.
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  And while the cross has become a decoration, right, Something we
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  might put in our churches or our homes might wear as jewelry, as
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  earrings, or around our neck. Something might get tattooed on
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  our bodies too, decorate us and and remind us of things.
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  We must never forget that the cross is one of the most
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  torturous means of execution that humans in our violent and
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  sadistic history have ever developed.
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  It was a means of torture and execution.
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  When Jesus said these words, take up your cross.
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  It didn't fill his hearers with warm mushy feelings or or
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  thoughts about the love of God. It was a symbol of suffering and
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  death. And because it came from the
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  Romans of oppression, the invitation to those who would
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  follow Jesus was an invitation not just to deny themselves, but
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  to actually die to self, or as Paul would write later, to
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  crucify the sinful nature, to put to death the deep of our
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  sinful flesh. And I don't know about you, but
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  this doesn't sound particularly pleasant.
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  But I think if we're, I think that was part of Jesus's point,
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  right? If we're going to follow Jesus,
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  it won't all be pleasant. There will be suffering involved
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  and at times it, it's, it's going to suck, right?
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  And that that's not just a one time, once and for all
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  occurrence that was called to pick up our cross.
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  Jesus says we'll need to take up our cross daily.
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  We'll need to die to our self daily.
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  We'll have to choose to crucify our flesh daily.
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  Now standing on this side of the resurrection, we must also
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  remember that while the cross is a symbol of suffering and death,
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  it is also the path to resurrection life.
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  Or because implicit in Jesus invitation to take up our cross
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  is an invitation to be included in his resurrection as well, to
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  be raised to new life, which is not just eternal after we die,
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  but it's a new way of living in this life.
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  Jesus is describing what it will mean to follow Him.
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  Last phrase of verse 23. Whoever wants to be my disciple
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  must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
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  It's not an invitation just to adopt Jesus's philosophy of life
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  or to agree to live according to his teachings as best as we can.
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  It's an invitation to submit to Jesus's way of living and the
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  consequences of living that way, because it will be opposed by
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  the powers of this world. It's like Jesus said elsewhere.
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  Elsewhere, if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated
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  me first. Friends, suffering as a
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  Christian isn't a bug. It's a feature, all right.
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  It's what it means to follow the crucified Lamb.
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  Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up
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  their cross daily and follow me. That's the invitation.
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  Who's ready to sign up? No one's saying it's going to be
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  easy, but friends, it's worth it.
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  It's worth it to acknowledge that you are not your own, that
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  you were bought with a price. And that means we should honor
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  God with the way we live, that we should honor God with our
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  bodies and what we do. Denying ourselves is one way we
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  do that. It's our way of participating in
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  the transformation that God is working in US.
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  And, and This is why the Church has practiced fasting
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  particularly but not exclusively in connection with this season
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  of Lent that we have entered into.
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  And it's why I'm inviting you to join us for our study of the
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  practice of fasting on Wednesday nights or Thursday mornings.
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  Because fasting, when done properly with the right motives,
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  it can be training in denying our self or or our desires.
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  It's practice, maybe even weekly practice, in saying no to our
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  bodies in the midst of a world that is always encouraging us to
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  say yes. Fasting is creating space for
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  God to speak into our lives about those disordered desires.
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  And that's going to mean different things are going to be
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  key for different people, right? Your struggle may be one of the
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  areas that we're going to spend time looking at over the next
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  few weeks. Things like politics and money,
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  your time and entertainment, your sexuality or your pride.
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  But it could just as easily be something else.
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  It could be for you. It could be food or work or the
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  language you use or the alcohol you consume.
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  Things that you know aren't inherently bad in and of
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  themselves, but they, they have to be pursued in their proper
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  place, right? It's, it's the fire principle.
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  Do you know the fire principle? Fire in a fireplace or in your
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  grill or on the stove? It's it's a really good thing.
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  Fire in your attic or in your engine, Really not good thing
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  right in its proper place, desires are good.
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  In the proper confines and constraints that God has given
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  us, desires are good. When we go outside of those
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  things that they become destructive and disordered, and
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  when we fast, we practice putting to death our flesh for a
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  time. We're taking up our cross so
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  that we can find the resurrection life that Jesus is
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  offering to us. The same Spirit that raised
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  Jesus from the dead now living in you.
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  That's the invitation that Jesus is offering.
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  It might sound like an invitation to suffering and
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  submission and suck, but the real invitation is to live the
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  kind of life that Jesus lived in the world of life, surrendered
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  to the Father and empowered by the Spirit.
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  But the only way to find that life is to lose the life we're
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  living, the life bound up in, in sin and self and disordered
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  desires. Because whoever wants to be my
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  disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily
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  and follow me. That's Jesus's call.
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  It's also his invitation. So let me ask again, who is
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  ready to follow? Would you pray with me?
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  Lord Jesus, we are so grateful not just that You came to redeem
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  us, to buy us back from our slavery to sin and death, to
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  hell and the devil. You came to set us free, to give
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  us new life, to make it possible for us to to do what you called
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  us to do, to live as your disciples, to live as your
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  people on earth. Geez, would you make those
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  realities true in US? Would you help us learn what it
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  means to deny ourselves, to say no to ourselves so that we can
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  say yes to you? Would you help us follow you in
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  the path of the cross so that in walking through the cross we can
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  find resurrection life on the other side?
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  You paid a steep price to buy us back, and so we want to honour
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  you with our lives, the things we do in our bodies, the things
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  we do in this world. So, Jesus, would you help us?
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  Would you help us to seriously consider the call and the
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  invitation that you've made to us, with all the good that comes
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  with it and all the suffering that might accompany it?
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  Would you help us to be faithful?
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  Pray this Jesus in your name and for your sake.
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  Amen.