New Expectations - Take Up Your Cross

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Realistic Expectations

The new year is when the world tells us to stop and reflect on our lives and to seek to live them differently.

We get a great psychological reset with the dawn of a New Year. Suddenly we think we will be able to be more disciplined, work harder, become musical, lose weight, get fit, etc. etc.

Now today is the 20th of January so many of us might already be shelving 2019s resolutions, getting back into 2018s bad habbits and we eagerly awaiting making some goals in December this year for the first few weeks of 2020!

And so the internet is full of memes like this one:

Expectation: New Instrument

Reality: Playing air-guitar on the vacuum cleaner.

Why is is it that so many people make nothing of their resolutions? Well in this series what we’ve been considering is that in fact the road to life change is not through new years resolutions and goal setting. Rather it’s through having our lives radically transformed by Jesus. And we’ve been considering over the past couple of weeks how following Jesus gives us a new start and a new take on life.

Week 1: New Focus

Our world tells us that in order to get ahead, to be healthy, happy and to achieve the best in life then we need to focus on ourselves. Put you first in 2019 the slogans might go.

And we saw that in fact putting yourself at the centre of the universe is indeed the very problem that lead humanity astray from the beginning.

And we looked at the Apostle Paul’s life in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 when he said

2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Paul was able to live a life filled with hope, even though it was a hard life with many struggles, because his focus wasn’t on himself, but instead it was on Jesus. It was on what God was doing eternally in his life and the lives of those whom he ministered to.

Week 2: New Motivation

Again we thought about how so often the motivation for the new skills or habits we want to take up in a New Year are self focussed. I want to get fit so I’ll have more energy or feel better about myself. I want to spend more time doing what I love because then I will be happier.

And again we saw that with our focus shifted to Jesus, our motivation for living changes from self-satisfaction to our love for the community of faith and our love for Jesus.

We looked at Hebrews 12:1-3 and saw how in those verses the writer encourages us to be motivated to keep trusting Jesus because we are part of a community of faith that goes back generations, and because Jesus persevered and was willing to go to the cross for us.

New Expectations

So today we come to the 3rd part of our New Year, New You series… New Expectations

The New Year is a time where we have great expectations don’t we?

But it’s kind of strange because whilst we have great ideas about how our lives might be different we also have an awareness that in all likelihood we will not be successful. Hence the internet full of memes about our expectations vs reality when it comes to New Years Resolutions.

So what sort of expectations should we have for our new lives lived focussed on Jesus? Motivated by Jesus and by each other as brothers and sisters in Christ?

One would think, that we should expect a wonderful and happy life full of more than we could hope or dream of.

But of course I don’t know if you’ve noticed it but in both of our readings in the last two weeks, struggle has featured prominently in the lives of the people we’ve looked to as examples of what it means to live new lives in Jesus.

Paul - a prisoner, persecuted, shipwrecked, struck down.

The Hebrews - persecuted to the point of thinking it might be worth walking away from Jesus all together.

Paul and the Hebrews lived what we might call the ‘cruciform life’.

Cruciform Life

Cross-shaped life.

This is the kind of life Jesus said we should expect.

In Luke 9:22, our reading today, right after Peter declares that he believes Jesus is the Messiah in verse 18-20, Jesus says:

Luke 9:22 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

And he said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’

Jesus is actually helping to fix Peter’s expectations. For Peter’s declaration that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah was correct, but it is most likely he expected that meant Jesus was going to continue healing people, doing amazing miracles, teaching with wisdom and ultimately kicking the Romans out of Jerusalem and making Israel Great Again.

So Jesus corrects his expectations:

The Messiah is going to be killed! But he will beat death.

You can imagine the wind going out of Peter’s sails as Jesus says this, but of course it gets worse. For Peter had probably thought not only is Jesus the Messiah but when he does his defeating the Romans thing I’m going to end up in a pretty good position as his right hand man!

But what does Jesus say will be the lot of his disciples?

Luke 9:23 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

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

Luke 9:24 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

That’s a reality check!

Following Jesus means taking up the cross and losing your life for Jesus.

Darrell Bock:

So Jesus says [that the]... disciples need to understand that life in the world will not involve an easy, stressless trip into glory.

When we live a new life following Jesus we haven’t signed up for the easy life. For the life of getting whatever we want whenever we want it.

Instead we’ve signed up for a life of humbling ourselves before God, admitting our need for Him and then living as Christ lived in the world, offering ourselves daily to the world even and often including rejection and persecution and receiving ultimately eternal glory with Christ.

For the people who lived when Jesus walked the earth some 2,000 years ago making the decision to follow Jesus was not the road to status and power. The religious leaders of the day wanted Jesus dead and when that didn’t stop him. then they wanted anyone who followed him dead.

Unfortunately we have warped expectations.

We think that we can be respected, liked, listened to, protected as Christians when we engage with the world. And when we find ourselves called bigots we protest and get upset when in-fact this is the cross shaped life.

It is so important that we listen to Jesus and have our expectations straight. Because if we have unrealistic expectations that’s when things start to go badly for us.

When I make a new years resolution to play guitar I imagine that by February I’ll have at least 5 songs down pat and in June I’ll probably be signing a manger and going on a world tour.!! Well, when it gets to the 20th January and I can only play two cords badly, my expectations are dashed and I give up.

So too for our lives as followers of Jesus. Do I expect the world to welcome me with open arms and be kind to me? Or do I expect to be treated like Jesus? Because getting that wrong can be damaging for our faith. If we think that Jesus is simply some sort of added extra to make our already great lives lived focussed on ourselves even better then we might be a little shocked when we face shame and persecution for our faith, or worse when we keep Jesus quiet when it suits us and then when Jesus shows up to judge the world and we think we’re on his team, but in fact he’s ashamed of us!

Cross and Crown

The news that following Jesus means actually following him and living a cross shaped life. Isn’t that all a bit depressing? Not at all.

In James we read:

James 1:2 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

The expectation of suffering and trails for your faith ought to produce joy in your heart!

Why?

James 1:12 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Because after the cross comes the crown.

For Jesus his death meant the defeat of sin and Satan and in his resurrection and ascension he received a crown of glory. And we too receive a crown of eternal life and glory if we stay focussed on Jesus even when it’s tough.

When we follow Jesus, we will one day see the kingdom of God and we will share in Jesus’ eternal glory and it will be marvellous!

Following Jesus is the best and hardest thing you’ll ever do. Many people will testify to that fact here today.

But there’s no substitute for living life based on the truth of Jesus for it is how God created us to live.

And in fact God says that we can expect that he will help and sustain us if we chose to do life with him.

As Paul signs of his letter to the Philippians he says

Philippians 4:19 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Jesus promised the same in his teaching on Prayer in Luke 11 when he promised that God will give us what we need.

We can expect God to care deeply for us, to sustain us and to produce in us by his Holy Spirit great joy as we face many difficulties because we are bearers of his name in the world.

What can you expect from your life with Jesus? You can expect God to do more than you could ask or imagine in the midst of your cross shaped life and look forward to the day when you receive your crown of eternal glory with Jesus.