Following Jesus to Overcome The World

I want to tell you a story: There is an evil that has invaded the world. The nature of this evil is that if a person looks at it, it will corrupt their mind and cause certain death. In order to avoid death, the people must learn to live blind to the world so that the evil does not have any power over them. Everything they knew before has changed and they are now navigating the world by a whole new set of rules. One day, out of nowhere, from someone they don’t know, they receive a message that there is hope. There is a place they can go that is safe, the journey will be long, it will be difficult, and they will exposed to the evil in the world. But, if they make it, their trials will be over. The evil is closing it’s grip on them, it has invaded their house, destroyed their loved ones, and their situation seems hopeless, so they decide to trust the message and make the journey. The journey proves to be just as difficult as promised and more. The evil is all around them and makes it near impossible to continue. They must be brave and even be so bold as to challenge the evil as it stands right next to them. But they make it to their destination, and when they get there, they find a place where the evil cannot come, a place where others like them are thriving and happy, a place where they can live life the way it was meant to be lived.

If you like to watch Netflix at all, you’re probably thinking I just ripped of the storyline of Birdbox. But actually, I just told you the story of being a Christian. In the same manner, Jesus gives us a message of a place free from evil , but warns us of the difficulty of the journey.

Lets consider what Jesus wants to teach us:

Mark 8:34–38 ESV

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Who are disciples?

Let’s begin with who is a disciple. There is a thinking within the Christian community that Christians are separated into two groups. The “regular” Christians and the “disciples”. The former is all the people who go to church, listen in Sunday School, pray, etc. The latter is the Sunday School teachers, the Pastors, the Missionaries, those who preach and teach the message of God’s Word. However, that is not what Jesus teaches. In fact, He starts out His teaching in verse 34(d) with a condition: “If anyone would come after me”, not some of you, not a special group of you, not if it doesn’t disturb your life too much; ANYONE. Not only that, the word “would” in this clause is more accurately translated as “desires” in the Greek. Therefore, if anyone desires Christ and the salvation He offers, they are required to be a disciple. If you aren’t a disciple, you aren’t a Christian. Jesus makes discipleship a mandatory result of faith.

Now that we understand we are all disciples, let’s find out what that means for our lives.

The Cost of Discipleship

In fact, the very next clause is a mandate for discipleship, “let him deny himself”. Self denial is saying “NO” to selfish interests and earthly securities. It is turning away from self-centeredness and refusing to live your life by self-interest. The “self” in us needs to be denied because it is wrong. Our “self”, our human nature, is that of sin; and we cannot have salvation and still serve our self. It is a contradiction. The essence of this denial is turning from a selfish focus in life and committing to doing things God’s way.

Likewise, Jesus’ next mandate is to take up our cross. Luke 9:23 expands the mandate in Mark 8:34 by adding the word “daily”. This explains that the mandate to take up our cross is not a one-time mandate dealing with how we die, but a daily mandate dealing with how we live our lives. In fact, the Jews and Romans of the time knew very well what the significance of taking up a cross meant. They knew what the cross represented. They understood that when criminals carried their crosses, it showed those who were watching the identity of the one who had authority over the criminal. The Romans forced criminals to carry their cross as a show of force to the public that they were the ones in control, that Rome was the authority in their lives. In a like manner, we are to take up our cross daily and live our lives as a testament to the world that Jesus is the authority in our lives. If it’s not glaringly apparent to everyone you come into contact with that you are a Christian, then you aren’t.

Finally, Jesus mandates that we must follow Him.

This concept will be familiar to anyone who has ever played the game “Follow the Leader”. There is only one rule, no one fails to do anything that the leader has already done. The followers perform all the actions the leader performs, and go anywhere the leader has already gone.

In the same way, we are to do what Christ did in all our situations in life. We are to speak the Gospel and live by the Scripture in the face of embarrassment, ridicule, and persecution. We are to be willing to die for the truth. Jesus did.

Keeping these points in mind, our typical excuses for not practicing discipleship inevitably fail:

“It was an awkward situation”

“I’m just not comfortable”

“It’s really hard for me”

“It just wasn’t a good time”

“I didn’t like the neighborhood”

“I just don’t have the time”

These are excuses of self-service and Jesus leaves no room for that in His mandates.

Jesus confronting the Pharisees, and speaking truth He knew would get Him crucified, was awkward. Getting flogged with a Cat-of-nine-tails was not in any way comfortable. It was really hard for Jesus to get up on that cross for us, He begged not to have to go. Do you think Jesus thought that anytime was a good time for Him to leave His throne in heaven and come down to suffer and die for a bunch of sinners? I’m positive the neighborhoods of the prostitutes and criminals in Jesus’ day were way worse than any neighborhood we’ve been asked to visit. You don’t have the time? The time you don’t have is the time to NOT do what God says.

The Reward of Discipleship

Nevertheless, Jesus tells us what we gain through discipleship in

Mark 8:38 ESV

38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

First, there is important significance in Jesus calling himself the “Son of Man”. The prophet Daniel explains to us in Daniel 7:13-14:

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

The Son of Man is our judge on the day of the Lord. Many Christians mess this up, we think that God the Father will judge us and Jesus will intercede for us. What they fail to realize is that Jesus has already interceded for us on the cross and He will only do it once. In fact, a transaction took place on that day on the cross. Jesus paid the full debt of our sins to appease God’s wrath against us. In return, Jesus was given all authority over sin for eternity.

Second, let’s talk about what it means to be ashamed of Jesus. People who are ashamed of Jesus hide their commitment to Jesus and His teachings from the world because they are afraid of suffering and a loss of status. They feel like they will lose the acceptance of human society by serving Christ and, in this manner, completely reject Him.

Finally, it’s important to clarify the word “adulterous”. Does Jesus really think the entire world is committing adultery? We think of adultery in a physical sense of cheating on your spouse, but how do we commit adultery against God? Adultery against God is idolatry, we cheat on our commitment to God, as our creator, when we prioritize anything over His glory, including ourselves.

Now that we understand the meanings of these words, we see how the beginning of verse 38 ties directly into the theme of discipleship through self-denial and taking up your cross. Contrast these points with what we learn when we extract the inverse meaning of verse 38 by flipping the key concept of the verse: “For whoever is [not] ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also [not] be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” On the day of Lord, you will stand before Jesus as judge of your eternal destiny and He is only going to ask you one question:

“Were you ashamed of me?”

Who are you following?

In conclusion, the Roman-era Christians this passage targeted understood clearly the implications of Jesus’ teaching. They suffered ridicule, hardship, rejection, cruel torture, and even crueler death by the pagan Romans. The passage gave the Roman-era Christians, and modern Christians, an understanding that discipleship has a mandate of following Christ in all ways, but the eternal reward greatly outweighs the temporary worldly consequences. Jesus didn’t sugar coat it, He didn’t coddle them in their excuses and fears, He mandated discipleship for Christians.

You see, the Roman-era Christians had a choice to make, the same choice we have to make, the very same choice they had to make in Birdbox. They could follow the world, stay where they were, and accept the inevitable, that evil will bring them death; or they could follow the message of salvation, deny their fears, stand boldly in the face of evil and make the journey to life.

Who are you following?