A Cross Shaped Life

We’ve got a little bit of time left in the Gospel of Mark and even though we only have tonight and one more Wednesday together, we are going to take tonight at the exact same speed as we have been throughout these 9 chapters and in God’s perfect plan, these are some great verses for us at this time in our lives together. As my time here starts to reach the end zone, there aren’t many verses that I would rather us be looking at than the one’s that we are looking at tonight. Part of what I have been entrusted to do is to lead you to the cross. Being a pastor means that I will lean on God with all my might and do all that I can to make sure you know what you are getting into when it comes to the Christian life and that life is cross shaped. When we did the Beatitudes a few years ago, we talked about how the Christian is a part of an upside down kingdom. The way that the Christian lives and the way that the Christian will ultimately reign is totally backwards from the world’s way of thinking. In the Christian life we see strength through weakness, life through death, success through loss, reigning through serving, exaltation through persecution, none of those things line up with the world’s way of thinking. The Christian’s entire life is shaped through Christ and the cross and that is exactly what we will see tonight. Tonight I want us to look at the cross from 3 perspectives: The Cross Bearing Savior, The Cross shaped life, and the Cross and the Reward. Let’s pray and then we will read Mark 9:30-50.

Mark 9:30–50 (NASB95)

From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it.

For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”

But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?”

But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.

Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,

“Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.”

But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.

“For he who is not against us is for us.

“For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.

“If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,

where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

“If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell,

where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

“If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,

where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

“For everyone will be salted with fire.

“Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

The Cross Bearing Savior

Let’s start by talking about the cross-bearing Savior. I think that sometimes we are guilty of underselling just how centric and important the cross is in our salvation. In the first three verses that we read tonight, we see Jesus again telling His disciples what is going to happen to Him in Jerusalem. We see that Jesus is a Savior that has come to die and just like the disciples it is totally possible to hear Jesus say that He will die and rise again and not understand that statement. The cross and the resurrection is really the most important event in history. Prior to the cross everything was leading to that moment and now after the cross everything is responding to that moment. So what is it that Jesus accomplishes at the cross? What does the cross tell us? Well first off if all Jesus is is another human being, all that happens on the cross is the unfortunate death of a morally good man. But that is not all that happens there. No, on the cross God comes to die. The Man Jesus Christ dies to take the punishment that man deserves but He is also the Son of God who comes to give us a righteousness that we cannot earn. If you take away the cross from the Bible and from human history you have a dark book and a meaningless existence. But the cross means everything! Everything is made beautiful in light of the cross and resurrection and future glory that is to come. The pinnacle of human history is at the cross. It is at the cross where we see all of God’s vengeance and wrath towards sinners being directed towards His Son and we see all the love of God for lost sinners in the sacrificial death of the Son. D.A. Carson said, “Both God’s love and God’s wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax — at the cross. Do you wish to see God’s love? Look at the cross. Do you wish to see God’s wrath? Look at the cross.” Jesus came the first time with the purpose of dying and bringing His people to Him. What does Jesus do on the cross? He takes our sin and gives us His righteousness. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Your righteousness and your salvation is not your own. The only way that we might become the righteousness of God is through what Jesus has done. Jesus is our perfect substitute. Your eternal life depends entirely on a dead and risen Savior. If Christ does not die and rise from the dead you will ultimately still die in your sins and be separated from God forever. Has your life taken on a cross-shaped meaning? Has your life been defined by what Jesus has done because I promise you if your life is not defined by Him you will regret it. Death is real and hell is hot but salvation is offered to all those that come to Christ. Jesus refers to hell in verse 43 and 48 as an unquenchable fire where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Hell is not a temporary punishment. It is an eternal payment for your unrighteousness. Christ freely gives Himself for your salvation, He willingly endures the cross for you ransom. Why not take it when it is so willingly offered? Why not share it with those that so greatly need it? The cross gives your life a whole new meaning. Everything that we do as believers should be shaped by what Jesus did in His death and resurrection. So what does that life look like? We see a glimpse of it throughout these verses and we have really seen it throughout our time together in Mark.

The Cross Shaped Life

Throughout these verses we see the cross shaped life. When it comes to Christianity, we aren’t vying for being first. We aren’t placing success and significance as our primary motive for living. No we exist to serve. We exist to serve our Savior and we exist to love our neighbor. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:4–7 “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” Our aim is to please but it is not to please in the way that the world seeks pleasure. We live to be last so to speak. We live to build up others in Christ. We live in Christ and we live for Christ. The beauty of the cross is knowing that all the acceptance and all the love that we could ever possibly desire is already ours in Christ Jesus. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “One of the most wonderful things that the cross of Christ does to a man who knows its meaning and understands what happened there, is that it delivers him from himself; and this is one of the most glorious deliverances a man can ever know, to be free and delivered from himself.” In some ways Christianity and the Christian life can be simple. Anything that is done for Christ is worthy of recognition in Heaven. Christ says in verse 41 that even a cup of water given by a follower of Christ is worthy of recognition and reward. But to live for Christ means that we have to put other things to death. We cannot claim to be followers of Christ if we are not living Christ-like. To just sort of run through these things quickly, verses 42-50 show us how to live. If we had enough time we could run through the entire sermon on the mount to see how Christians are to live. Jesus says that we must strive to not cause a single little one that believes to stumble into sin. Younger Christians are naturally weaker Christians. They don’t know any better yet and they are still learning what it means to be dead to the world and alive in Christ. If we are doing things that lead Christians to sin, we’re really no better than the devil. Because the devil is always in the business of leading people into sin. God forbid that we as Christians be found guilty of doing that. Our lives need to magnify Him that saved us and that means the things that we say and do must be Christ-centered. Jesus also warns us of sin. Sin remains a problem for a Christian. It won’t be victorious but it is still a problem because we aren’t perfect yet. Christ has redeemed us from the curse but we still feel the effects of the curse. So we shouldn’t even mess with sin. We played with sin before we came to Christ and we know the effect that it has. Why would we keep playing with it. I love how Charles Spurgeon said, “If Christ has died for me, I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend.” If Christ suffered for me because of sin and redeemed me from my sin, how heartless must I be to keep on sinning and loving sin? Jesus warns us in these verses that there needs to be a serious putting to death of sin in our lives. It is not enough for us to ignore sin, we must actively be running from sin! We cannot let sin live, we must put sin to death! John Owen is famous for saying that we are to be killing sin or it will be killing us. We are either dead TO sin or we are dead IN sin. Your entire life is going to reflect which life you are living. You are either going to live for Christ or you are going to live apart from Christ. In verse 50 we see Jesus say something similar to what we see in Matthew 5:13–16. Jesus says in Matthew 5: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” If you are going to be a Christian, you need to live like one. If you are going to claim the name of Christ do all that you can to honor that name. It’s not enough to just talk the talk of Christianity, you have to walk the walk. Now is not the time for you to be part of the way in and part of the way out when it comes to faith. If you are going to be a Christian, live like it! Don’t hide it cause there is nothing to hide. Boldly live for Christ knowing that He not only lived a perfect life for you, He died a perfect sacrificial death for you. The last thing that I want to do in my 5 years here is leave you without an opportunity to confess your sins and put your faith in Christ. The last thing that I want to do is not challenge you to boldly live for Christ. Pick up your cross and follow Him because that is where life actually begins and as we have seen in these verses, there is a tremendous reward for following Christ.

The Cross and the Reward

What do we get for following Christ? What is our reward for clinging to the old rugged cross? Eternal life. Our reward is Christ Himself! Our reward is knowing that every longing that we have ever had in our heart will ultimately be answered and surpassed as we live with our Savior. The cross is absolutely a treasure and a cross-centered life produces a great reward. John Piper said, “Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us — a crucified God — must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.” Is the cross your reward? Is Christ your reward? Is Heaven your future? Jesus says in Matthew 6:19–21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The treasures and rewards of earth will pass away but it is only in Jesus where we can possess an eternal reward. It is only in Jesus where we can truly have something forever. If we have Jesus we really do have everything. Paul reminds us in Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” If God has already given us His perfect Son, what else would He keep from us? He has given us everything we really need! The cross proves the generosity of our Lord. If He has given us all that we really need, what would He possibly withhold from us? Nothing! Everything that you need to glorify God and enjoy Him forever is already found in Jesus. I’m hoping that in our years together that you have been able to tell one thing from me: There is nothing that is worthy of more honor or glory than Jesus Christ. Nothing that we give up here for Him will not be made up for a billion times over in Heaven. Is Jesus your greatest prize? Your greatest joy? Would you give up all things now knowing that He is able to make up for more than what we ask or think? Jesus is worth it. I hope in our time together that you have seen that. If I have been used to even get you even a fraction of an inch closer to the Savior, I will be happy with that. Do you see Christ as infinitely glorious? That’s my prayer. That you seek and savor the Savior. We’ll close tonight with these words from Paul in Ephesians 3:20-21. These words should be our heart’s cry every day of our lives. Paul writes:

Ephesians 3:20–21 NASB95

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Let’s pray.