What Does It Mean to Follow Jesus?

Introduction

Observation

There is something that I have noticed that led me to do this Dnow called “Christ-Centered.” I have mostly noticed it in myself but I have also seen it in others, and I would invite you to examine yourself to see if this lies in you as well. What I have seen is an obsession and exaltation of self. I can be quick to do anything I can (whether that be compare, tear down others, talk a lot to adjust others’ view of me, abandon friends and family to not be viewed a certain way, even shift away from the Gospel to not be ashamed by others), anything to make sure self is glorified and highly exalted. There is a desire in us to be somebody special, set apart from everyone else, that drives us to do things like this.

Look at what Madonna once said:

My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. That is always pushing me. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being but then I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended and I guess it never will.

Consider that Madonna was very famous and she still felt this. She knew herself well and what she is describing here is exactly what many of us are doing every day. Every single day trying to prove to those around us that we are “somebody,” or “special” or “unique.” We can become obsessed with others’ views of us. But really, we are obsessed with ourselves.

Message Thesis

My goal in this message is to answer this question from Mark 8:34-38: What does it look like to follow Jesus? What you are going to see is this: it looks like abandoning self and being totally, completely enveloped and centered on Jesus Christ.

Before I start, I must point out a couple books that I read along with the Bible that influenced some of this message:

“The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness” by Tim Keller

“Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster

I highly recommend these books to you if this is an issue you see in yourself, as I saw it in me.

Passage Of Scripture

Mark 8:34–38 CSB

Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? What can anyone give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Pray

Context

We are picking up in the middle of the Gospel of Mark where Jesus is going to teach directly on what what followers of Him must do. See, there were many many people following Jesus around. At this point He had done several amazing miracles and healings that people really just wanted to see. They were following Him but not truly. When I say this, I mean that they saw what Jesus was doing and went where He was going, but they never truly submitted to Him as Lord. This is seen in many of those who followed Jesus around leaving Him when He taught something they didn’t like or understand.

Just before this, Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, but then rebuked Jesus for predicting His death and resurrection. In Jesus’s rebuke to Peter He said:

Mark 8:33 CSB

“Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”

In this moment, Peter was thinking of himself far more highly than he ought to have. Think about this: he pulled the King of the Universe aside and rebuked Him. So yes, Jesus’s rebuke was very necessary and it was also revealing to Peter’s problem: Peter did not understand what it meant to follow Jesus, despite him being one of Jesus’s main followers.

And so, Jesus calls many to Himself after this, and He begins to teach what it looks like to follow Him.

Denying Yourself

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

let him deny himself,

This was staggering to me as a young believer because this goes completely against everything I learned from the world growing up. So much in our world emphasizes self over all things and all others. Think about how companies are marketing their products and services: YouTube, IPhone, Burger King — “Have it your way.” Everything is you you you, or me me me. Then you read Jesus’s words and he says deny yourself.

Well, what does it mean to deny yourself? Is this to like hate yourself? To beat your body? To never eat? Not quite.

Denying Yourself is Denying Your Flesh

You are made up of different parts. One of those parts that is undebatable is the flesh. Our physical flesh is corrupted. Your heart is deceitful. Your mind is bent away from God. Adam and Eve’s sin of trying to exalt themselves above God reigns in your flesh because you came from them.

If you want to follow Jesus, you cannot just feed the flesh everything it wants. How can you serve your self as King and Jesus as King at the same time? You can’t.

As a follower of Jesus, you need to resist your flesh. Grow in distance from sin every single day. I am not saying that you can be perfect on this side of Jesus’s return. That isn’t true, but you can look more like Jesus than you did when you first gave your life to Jesus.

Denying your flesh of sin can look many different ways because there are so many ways for us to sin. Here is a list of examples, some minor and some major:

This first involves abstaining from doing things you want to:

Not lashing out when you feel the urge to

Not cursing when you want to

Not lusting after somebody when you want to

Not buying something when it isn’t wise

Not trying to control something when you don’t have control

Not speaking when you want to gossip

This next list is doing things that you do not want to:

Walking away when you feel like exploding

Running away when you feel like cheating

Confessing sin when you don’t want to

Reading Scripture when you don’t want to

Going to sleep when you don’t want to

Listening when you don’t want to

Submitting to your leadership when you do not want to

The list goes on and on. For the Christian, doing these things/not doing these things is every single day. The truth is that there is not a day that goes by that you won’t have to deny yourself.

But remember: your flesh, as you feed it more and more, will grow stronger and stronger. Sometimes, building habits of denying your flesh will be difficult because you have always trained yourself to give it all it wants. But you need to trust the Spirit’s work in you and press on day by day.

Denying Yourself is Denying Your Opinions

When you come to know Christ, you come with several years worth of opinions, presuppositions, ideas, etc. that have built up throughout your life. This is simply a part of being a human—our worldview is shaped by the way our lives go. But when you follow Christ, you submit all of your opinions to Him.

Let’s say you are reading Scripture and you read a passage that you personally don’t agree with. You read it and say “I don’t think this is true!” and then twist Scripture to fit what your opinion is. Denying yourself looks like submitting your opinion to His truth and adjusting to it because He is God and you are not. Denying yourself is saying “Even though I don’t personally love this, I believe it is true and so I will change what I think to be more like Jesus.” Why? Because He is the source of all truth and wisdom. He declares what is good and evil. If we are to submit our opinions to anyone, it should be Him.

Taking Up Your Cross

The second thing Jesus says His followers must do is

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

take up his cross,

At this point in time, crucifixion was not unknown. Everyone was aware of it because they saw Rome doing it to those they didn’t like. This extremely slow and painful, shameful death was very prevalent in Jesus’s day. So when Jesus said this, those listening would have had an idea of what He was talking about, but may have still been confused. “Does this mean I have to go tell Rome to crucify me? Does this mean I have to die?” What does it mean to take up your cross?

Taking Up Your Cross is Losing Your Life

Look what Jesus says in verse 35:

Mark 8:35 CSB

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it.

In a very literal sense, carrying your cross would be a guarantee of your death. It is dying. And Jesus wants His followers to have this mindset of losing your life.

Look what Paul says in Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20 CSB

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

When Jesus Christ was on the cross, our old selves were there too. He took our sin and killed it. With the death of our sin, so our old selves died. But this does not mean we are now dead. We were dead in our sin, but now, in Christ, we are alive because He is alive and in us. He is the very source of life in your body of death.

Your life, your goals, your view of success, all these things you must be willing to lose for the sake of following Christ. You see this in the story of the Rich Young Ruler later in Mark.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 10

17 As [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud; honor your father and mother.”,

20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.”

21 Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22

This young man’s life was his money and his things, so Jesus was showing him this by asking him to give it all away. It was not until this man considered the idea of losing all of it—losing his life, that he became dismayed and grieved.

Many of us have things we have made our life that we need to lose. When I say “made our life” I mean your entire life, your joy, your contentment, your everything, day-by-day is dependent on the existent of this thing.

But you do not have to grieve, as this young man does, at the loss of your life in bearing your cross. Look what Jesus says will happen:

Mark 8:35 CSB

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it.

Paul felt this and expressed it in Philippians. After talking about his life before Christ he says this:

Philippians 3:7–9 CSB

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.

In losing your life, in dying to your sin, you will save it. You may treasure these things in your life right now, but when comparing them to knowing Jesus you will see them to be like dung. Because in surrendering all to Jesus Christ, you will find life and life abundant. There is so much freedom in knowing Christ and no longer being bound to your self.

Taking Up Your Cross is Bearing Jesus’s Shame

Consider the shame Jesus had as He walked that cross up the hill through town, with everyone watching. Barely clothed. Weak. Unable to do it alone. Blood pouring everywhere. Unrecognizable. Wearing a crown of thorns. People shouting mockery at Him.

This is shame none of us know. But yet, Jesus took each step. Even though He was going to be killed for our sin. Even though He was bearing the shame we deserve. He kept walking and submitted to death.

Submission is a key part of bearing Jesus’s shame. A part of carrying your cross is being will to examine yourself, see your sin, confess it, repent from it and seek forgiveness. This is what is so interesting about the unbeliever—many of them do not accept Jesus because they do not see the sin in them. Rather, they look around and critique other people and even other religions as if they are the arbiter of goodness and truth.

There is a great quote from Frank Lentricchia, who was a literary critic but grew tired of his own community. What he found was at the base of all this criticism was a great self-righteousness. In his frustration, Lentricchia asks the critic: “Tell us truly, is there no filth in your soul?” Bearing Jesus’s shame is confessing and repenting of the filth in your soul. It is seeing your sin soberly and pursuing Jesus in response for the forgiveness of your sins.

Another part of bearing your cross is seen in the midst of persecution. It is very easy to fear being known as a Christian. This mockery and rejection from others for our faith often happens. And the act of being killed for one’s faith is still common in some other parts of the world.

Open Doors, a christian site that keeps up with persecution around the world reported

4,476 christians killed last year

4,744 christians detained or imprisoned last year

Their lives were spent completely for the sake of the Gospel, up until their deaths. And yet we fear sharing our faith or simply living as a Christian because we may be rejected or mocked or looked at funny. Are you willing to bear Jesus’s shame in life and in death? Are you willing to be seen, not just as a Christian, but as a christian who wants others to be christian too?

In the last chapter of Hebrews, the writer/preacher begins going through some final exhortations to those he is speaking to. He lists off a bunch of things he wants them to be doing, as believers, and then he said this:

Hebrews 13:11–14 CSB

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace. For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.

Under the old law, the animal sacrifices would occur inside Jerusalem, and then the carcasses would be taken outside Jerusalem to be burnt. This was symbolic of those who were not Jewish not having access to the atonement that was offered for their sins as well.

But look, was Jesus killed inside the gates of Jerusalem? No, He was killed outside. The writer of Hebrews is saying that His death was for everybody, Jew or Gentile. But he is also using this as another exhortation to his listeners. Let us, then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing His disgrace. For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.

The writer of Hebrews saw a people that were fearful to bear their cross, not because people were just mocking them but they were literally being killed and imprisoned for it. But he says their home is not here. He says that here on Earth, there is no enduring city. Every city, every kingdom, every nation will fall. Our home is heaven. Our kingdom is Jesus’s Kingdom. So you can bear His disgrace here on Earth because this is not the end all. You can setp outside the gate, identifying with Jesus, even though the world may hate you for it, because the world is not your people. It is not your kingdom. We have an eternal city we will go to in the end—fix your gaze on that.

Following Jesus

The third answer to the question What does it mean to follow Jesus, is simply following Him. This is the seemingly simplest part of following Jesus— walking day by day.

Following Jesus is Walking

This is why we call it the Christian Walk, because following Jesus is simply taking steps day by day pursuing Him. When we aren’t pursuing Him, we are like kid playing in the waves at the beach. We slowly drift away from where we should be. Everyday you need to be taking steps following Jesus.

Those steps are spiritual disciplines the Lord has given us: reading, studying, memorizing, mediating on Scripture. Praying to our God, praising Him and asking for help. Attending church, being a part of the Bride of Christ so that you are not doing this alone. We were not meant to walk alone, that is why the church is here.

In these ways of walking you may say things to the Lord like “Lord, I am too busy to read my bible everyday!” “Lord, I am too forgetful and distracted to pray!” “Lord, I am too busy or tired to go to church!” And that is the very point. Deny yourself. Take up your cross, lose your life, and walk after Jesus.

Conclusion/Application

So, Church, have you forgotten that following Jesus does not mean continuing to place yourself above all others and even your God? Have you forgotten that our self was meant to be denied and killed daily? Praise God there is grace for us when we wander. You are not condemned for drifting, but you must come back. You must begin walking once again. You must die to yourself everyday and let Christ be exalted in yourself everyday. Remember what Paul says in Galatians 2:20 and remember this is true for you:

Galatians 2:20 CSB

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

If you are not a Christian, then “you” is all you have. Your self is god and you may be okay with that. Let me challenge you: we make terrible gods. We are not fit to be gods. And the only place self will take you is the grave. There is no abundant life in yourself, only death. So, stop wasting your life and lose it so that you can be found and saved in Jesus Christ your Lord.

Here are the three things I want us to pray in the invitation:

Holy Spirit, give us the strength and wisdom to deny ourselves

Jesus Christ, give us the courage and boldness to bear our crosses as You did

Father, sustain us as we walk after you, day by day

Benediction

2 Corinthians 5:13–15 CSB

For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.