Step Forward Part 3

Intro:

We are in the middle of a series we are calling Step Forward

Where we are discussing how to attain growth in our spiritual lives

Everyone wants to be successful

Everyone wants to grow

Few do what’s necessary to accomplish that

This is true in all areas of our lives but especially in our Spiritual walk and journey with the Lord

And week one we kicked off by stating that following Jesus is not a one and done decision but a big decision that’s followed by a bunch of tiny decisions that fill each day

So, decision one: Put Jesus over everything

Jesus is giving us an invitation that we cannot get on our own

And here is what happens: in the darkness of our sin Jesus calls out, come after me.”

And we said that the metaphorical meaning of that word in the original language is to “come into being, to be known.”

We are in the dark. Nowhere to go. Left for dead or more specifically we are dead. And Jesus breaks through the darkness of our sin and says “come after me.”

And that invitation is not coupled with stipulations that must be met.

It’s not come into being but first do this and do this and do this

Rather, it’s met by not doing but surrendering

So, we surrender our life to Christ

And the doing is not to earn salvation but a result of our salvation

So, Jesus doesn’t require us to earn anything because it would be impossible for us to do so

But, after we surrender our lives to Christ, we should respond by wanting to live our lives for Him, His glory, and His kingdom which results in a lot of doing

So, flipping that equation is where we get in trouble

We must be careful to align them properly or we either become depressed because of the impossibility of it or legalistic because of the pridefulness of ourselves

Which leads us to last week

The call of the disciple of Christ to deny themselves.

Not to think of ourselves to highly not to think of ourselves too less but to think of ourselves less.

There is a constant worldly pull for you to always look out for you that leads to an emptiness and bondage

to which Scripture and Christ would respond to by saying there is a freedom found when you stop looking for satisfaction and fulfillment in yourself.

So, this week we will again read our thematic verse for this series, Matt 16. We will look at another part of this verse that Jesus calls us to.

I will pray and then we will jump in

Matthew 16:24–26 NIV

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

pray

A STEP IN FOLLOWING JESUS IS TAKING UP YOUR CROSS

So, we put Jesus over everything

We must first decide to be a disciple of Jesus

Then a necessary step in being a disciple of Jesus is denying self

Now, Jesus says, you must take up your cross

Luke 9 provides the parallel story to Matthew 16 of Jesus describing how to follow him.

In both versions, Jesus tells those who wish to follow him to “take up his cross.”

But Luke’s version includes one more little detail, and it’s important in understanding the next steps in following Jesus:

Luke 9:23 NIV

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

The follower of Christ is to “take up his cross daily.”

The inclusion of “daily” gives insight into the action described.

I just recently finished a book titled “killing Jesus” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard.

It’s a purely historical viewpoint on what lead to the killing of Jesus

And something it helped remind me of is the brutality of crucifixion

The Romans had multiple ways to execute a prisoner

hanging, stoning, strangulation, burning alive, beheading, thrown into a box of serpents or scorpions, beating, and being crucified.

And historically the worst by far was crucifixion

Now, in our modern western world when we think of the cross, we actually tend to think of a good thing

If I were to ask you what you think of when I say the word cross

You may include some historical facts about the way executions would happen on a cross but you’d also probably include how it was the instrument that Jesus would use to give up His life for the salvation of the world

And rightfully so.

But when we come upon a text like this and statement like the one Jesus makes here in Matt 16 and Luke 9 it loses some of the strength behind what Jesus says

Because ultimately I believe Jesus here is talking about the cost of discipleship

We don’t often want to think about or talk about the cost of discipleship

In the Roman Empire, the cross was an instrument of death.

It was the most gruesome form of suffocation.

Jesus was beaten by two Roman guards and was beaten on until the guards became tired

He was then taken to a flogging pole where he would be tied up and whipped 39 times from the top of his head to his calfs

The whip had several pieces of leather and at the end of each piece was typically sharp pieces of iron but for Jesus they used bone and rounded lead so that it didn’t just cut through but that it grabbed on to flesh and muscles and tendons and was ripped away

They used 2 romans guards so that as soon as the one began to rip away his whip the other could begin to strike with his

These guards were trained and experts in torture

The goal was to get the prisoner as close to death as possible without killing allowing them just enough strength to carry their cross through crowds up a hill for ultimate humiliation

For Jesus they made a crown of massive thorns that were smashed through flesh and nerve into his skull

When arriving to the hill a hole was dug, you were laid down on the cross, nails were drive through your hands and your feet

The cross was then stood up and the bottom thrown into the hole

And the very back that was just ripped apart was now to be rubbed up and down a splintery raw wood

And the only way to stay alive was to pull through the nails in your hands and push through the nails in your feet to gasp for half a breath only to have to do it over and over and over again for hours

Ultimately until you don’t have the strength to do it one more time and you suffocate to death

When Jesus tells His disciples that they must take up their cross, this is what they thought of.

To take up your cross means to suffer.

It is a death to self. But it is a intensification of Jesus’ last statement.

It is the completion of the self-denial that Jesus commands.

A self-denial that leads to more death.

And a willingness to suffer anything for it.

2. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus teaches about the steps to take when following him.

One long section of teaching occurs in John 6. Toward the end of this passage, Jesus drives home his point that his believers, in faith, should so identify with his death that they participate in eating his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6:52–59).

His listeners are taken aback, horrified, by this; they start leaving because the teaching is “hard” (v. 60).

Jesus doesn’t promise that the steps to follow him are easy. The descriptions in Luke 9:23 and Matthew 16:24 are not appealing—self-denial and daily carrying a cross—but this is the path to following Jesus.

Whatever our specific next steps are, if they overlook these key elements then they do not take Jesus’s invitation seriously.

3. The Greek word in John 6:60 for “hard,” referring to Jesus’s teaching about his body and blood, is stronger than what we understand from the English translation.

Sklēros (sclay-rose) means intolerable, offensive, or even harsh.

This is a good picture of what it can sometimes mean to follow Jesus.

Jesus promises his followers many things, but ease isn’t one of them.

So, your next steps for following Jesus might be daily actions of putting to death (taking up a cross) the desires that are contrary to the will of God and replacing them with life-giving exercises that lead to Jesus.

4. We referenced this last week but Gal 5 gives us another picture of what this might look like.

Here Paul gives us some examples of things that we should be putting to death and also gives us examples of the natural outcomes of being lead by the Spirit of God

We will hit on this more next week and talk about discipleship and practically what some of this looks like but I want us to notice the language Paul uses at the end of this text

Galatians 5:19–25 NIV

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus

We might say it this way based on Matt 16.

Those who have come into being, who are fully known, and follow Jesus

have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires

Paul’s commands (or the imperative of being a disciple of Jesus) are rooted in the facts of what Christ has done for you

So, the reason we may be encouraged in our spiritual life is that when we placed our faith in Christ we gave a fatal blow to the power of the flesh.

Yet it does not do away with the presences of the flesh

This is really important for our understanding of discipleship

The cross of Jesus gives us power over flesh

Taking up your cross gets rid of the presence of flesh

All of it is only made possible by the cross of Christ

He gives you the power over flesh

But we must daily decide to pick up our cross, follow Him to eradicate the presence of the flesh

Because although you may have taken up your cross today

You still wake up you tomorrow.

But even this act of taking up our cross is not an act done by our own power and might.

Because if our life proceeds from the Spirit, it is only then appropriate, in fact incumbent upon us, to conduct ourselves according to His lead

We have power over sin because of Christ, we take up our cross to eradicate the presence of sin by the power of the Spirit inside of us

We put to death the flesh and we live by the Spirit

So, to take up the cross, you must metaphorically decide to pick it up and hold on to it.

Giving Ruthie a capri Sun

You see what was happening was, the more tightly she gripped it, the less she had.

Matt 16 gives us a similar picture

The more we try to grab and squeeze onto in this life, the less we have

And ultimately we can grab onto it all, we can have it all and if it costs us our soul then what would it matter.

When we cling too tightly to the things of this world, we find that we lose everything.

But when we surrender our lives to God and let go of our own control, we truly gain life.

Though Jesus’s instruction to pick up our cross, to kill our flesh and its desires may seem harsh, if we have eyes to see we can see the heart of God.

we see many examples in creation of death that leads to life.

When a farmer plants seeds in the ground, he essentially buries something that has died.

He gives the seeds away but trusts that they will yield a harvest he can enjoy later.

When we give our lives away to God, trusting him to use them to do something bigger than we can imagine.

When we pick up the cross to follow Jesus,

We have a promise of a new life born out of the death of our old self.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

It’s a new year, we have new years resolutions, it’s the time of the year where humanity is most looking forward and toward something new

And what the Bible teaches is:

IN CHRIST WE CAN ONLY MOVE FORWARD BY CONSISTENTLY LOOKING BACK

We only experience life through death

According to the Bible, the way to life is through death

First the death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of the world

We look to the cross

The cross changes everything

And what was the most gruesome instrument of death brought life to the world

And it is what gives us power over sin

b. Yet, the presence of sin is still around, so we must also daily pick up our cross, put to death the flesh and perhaps even suffer, to walk in step with the Spirit and enjoy the newness of life in Christ

We follow His example, we follow the Holy Spirit, and step forward into the new creation God has created us to be