Untitled Sermon (10)

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Last week we talked about if you’re going to be a jesus follower, what should you wear?

The name of this series is follow, and we’ve been asking the question: what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus, and we’ve been looking at narratives in M M L J, where Jesus invited people to follow him or talked to people about what it meant to follow. We’ve answered the question: if you’re going to follow Jesus where does it lead? Last week we asked the question what are you supposed to wear. And so, today, I want to give you the fine print. Sin every contract there’s always the fine print and as we talked about throughout this series, there are a lot of advantages to following Jesus, that’s what tis has been a bout, but as everyone discovers at some point along the way, there’s a price to pay. It’s gonna cost you something to follow Jesus. And that’s where we discover who’s we really are. In that moment where we discover am I really a follower, or am I simply a consumer. And so today, I’m gonna take you to a passage of scripture, it’s mark chapter 8. In , Jesus realizes that the people who’ve been following him have kinda just been along for the ride. They’re not really followers, they’re just consumers, and he does a little teaching where he opens the door to some big life questions that I want us to wrestle with this morning. As we look at the fine print and realize there’s benefits to following Jesus, I mean huge benefits to following Jesus, there’s you’re gonna be a better student, better people, more loving, more forgiving, more others oriented, you’ll be fearless, and you’ll have a foundation that can’t fall apart.

Jesus even said, if you obey what I teach, you’re like a person who builds their house on a rock, if you don’t obey what I teach you’re like a person who builds their house on the sand. And you’ve seen this. You’ve most likely seen people who have extraordinary faith in jesus, people who really follow jesus, and because they have such firm faith and a firm foundation, they’re able to withstand all kinds of things. And so, there’s huge benefits to following Jesus, but, at some point a long they way, there’s a price to pay. And it’s this point in Jesus explains to his followers what this is kinda going to look like.

So, starting in verse 27; Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked them “Who do people say I am?” I asked this question one time. I was like, hey, what do people think about me, and immediately everyone got kind of quiet.. i was like, hmmm, this was not a good questions…. then they went in “John, you’re too sarcastic, John you avoid serious conversations and you hide behind your humor, they went on and on and I was like damn, I really shouldn’t have asked this. So, if you’re ever brave enough to ask this question, be ready for the response.

But Jesus knew there was a buzz about what ’s going on, so he says hey what are people saying about me, who do they say I am?

They replied, some say John the Baptist - now at this point JTB had been beheaded and people thought he might have come back to life in the form of Jesus - others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets. Then Jesus says, but what about you? Who do you say that I am? And immediately Peter raises his hand, “Oh I know I know, pick me Jesus.” And Peter says “You are the Messiah.” Now Messiah is a Jewish term, the greek term is Christ, some of you though Christ was Jesus’ last name, not true, you should know that, if you didn’t now you can tell your parents you learned something this morning, Christ and messiah mean anointed one, and the ancient Jewish people were waiting for God to send his anointed one, and Peter goes I know who you are, , you’re the one we’ve been waiting for, you’re the anointed one. Like Peter is pumped. He’s getting to see everything unfold right in front of him, and he’s some random dude that Jesus picked to follow him, and he’s probably thinking, Here we go, messiah is here, I’m mad close with him, like lets do this thing. And then, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. In other words, you got it right peter, now hush. It’s not the right time to tell everyone exactly who I am.

So once he identified himself with this closest followers, he begins to tell them, hey there may be a price to pay for following me.

He then began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many thins and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and worse, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter, who just recognized Jesus as the messiah and the son of the living god, peter, took him aside and began to rebuke him. Now, get a look at this picture, so he’s telling his closest followers: here’s what’s gonna happen, things are going to get tough, you’re falling me now, I hope you’ll continue following me, and Peter’s like Jesus, hold on a second, he pulls him out of the crowd, Jesus come here: Look man, don’t start going negative on us. Things are good, look at the crowd, you’re famous, I’m kind of famous, and look at John, he’s not quite as famous as me, but look, things are going well, you’re not gonna get killed. You’re the Messiah. Hey, remember that storm, and you said hey storm chill out and the wind and the waves listen to you, the weather obeyed you, how are you going be killed? Now, let’s go back and talk about prayer or love, yeah, bring up love again, we like that Jesus, but no more of this negative death and dying stuff.

But, When Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he did what peter did, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me Satan?” he said. Yikes. Those are some harsh words. Listen to why he was so harsh -He says “you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Now this is a big verse for a lot of us. He kind of calls Peter out and he says “Peter let’s just be honest, you’ve enjoyed following me, right? Everyone knows Peter the fisherman, it’s good to follow me, but Peter, you’re acting like a consumer, not a follower, I want you to be my follower, which means when I go somewhere that’s not as pleasurable, or when I go somewhere that might cost you something, I want to know that you’re with me, and the reason I’m rebuking you is because you just exposed something. You’re not concerned about what’s going to happen to me, you’re concerned about what’s going to happen to you. because of what might happen to me. And then Jesus decided to use this as a teaching moment, not just for he apostles, but for everyone. Here he reveals the fine print:

Then he called the crowd (remember there’s a crowd following him) to him along with his disciples and then he began to teach:

Alright everyone, y’all join us, everyone sit down. Apostles come up front, y’all really need this, Peter front and center you definitely need to hear this.

And then he reveals to them what it’s gonna mean from this point on what it means to follow him. This is a literal physical, eyeball to eyeball conversation with Jesus. What Jesus says to them is absolutely literal because what is literally about to happen to him: he’s about to go to Jerusalem, be literally tried, then convicted and then literally crucified, and if you follow too closely behind the person, you might be arrested tried and crucified as well, you might be seen as someone who’s a part fo that group. Now, here’s the good news for you and for me. That won’t happen to us. No matter how closely you follow Jesus, you won’t be crucified. You might have to make some difficult decisions, but nothing like what these guys were about to have to face. So listen to what Jesus has to say:

Whoever wants to be my disciple (which means follower) must deny themselves and take up their ( and this scared them to death ) and take up their cross and there’s our word, and follow me. In other words, iwhoever wants to really be my disciple, who ever wants to really be a follower, not be a consumer ( i like to follow Jesus cause it’s cool, i like to follow jesus because I’m a better person), that’s good, there are huge benefits to following Jesus. He says if you really want to be my disciple, my follower, from time to time you’re going to have to deny yourself. Now, that’s not like some big theological scary thing. You do this all the time. You get home form school, there’s an exam tomorrow, and you sit down on the couch, open up your lap top and go to that new anime show or that new K drama and you’re about to hit play, but you think wait, I’ve got an exam tomorrow, I’m going to deny myself, and you close the lap to and go study. or, if you’re me, you watch ten episodes in a row and panic. But that’s what it means, to deny yourself means you say no to you. There’s something I want but I don’t think that’s bet for me so I say no to me. I have two options 1 would be fun, but the other is more beneficial or healthy, so I so know to me.

So we know what it means to deny ourselves. And Jesus says there’s going to be a time, there’s going to be moments, crossroads, intersections, points of tension, where what I want for you and what you want for you are different. And in that moment you’re going to have to decide if you’re going to be a consumer or a follower. And in that moment you’re going to have to deny yourself, you’re going to have to say no to you in order to follow me.

And then he looks at this crowd and goes, I want you to know where this is going. I don’t want you to be surprised. If you follow me form this point forward, you better mentally strap on the idea that you’re going to have to take up a cross. Now, when we think cross we think jewelry, or a filtered picture, or a movie where yeah it’s kind of gory, but you can watch it. You’ve never smelled it, or seen it, and If I gave graphic descriptions of what happens to a body, some of you’d have to leave the room. But it’s all kind of glorified or romanticized in church today, but the group sitting there in front of Jesus that day had passed by many crosses because Rome left them there for a long time to terrify people into submission. It was a horrible way to die. And Jesus says “you need to understand. If you’re going to follow me from this point on, it may cost you something.” You are going to have to deny yourself. Now, you can imagine:they are scared to death. Some people in the crowd are probably okay, this is where I say goodby. This has been great, the whole miracle things were cool, and you fed everyone, and you walked on water which was neat, like this has been a wild time Jesus, but now you’re saying it’s gonna cost us something and I’m not so sure following you is gonna be worth it from now on. And Jesus knows their hearts. He knows my heart and your heart. I mean you’re middle and high school students. You’ve got your whole lives ahead of you and so you might be thinking, Okay, maybe I should start following Jesus when I’m 60. What kind of trouble could I get into then. Those are logical thoughts. I get that. Shoot, I thought that for a while. It costs a lot to follow Jesus. It’s not that you don’t believe. It’s just you don’t want to say no to you. I get it. Jesus gets it. And so he’s looking at this crowd who’s just like us. And Jesus is like “Okay, before you leave, before you get all freaked out and worried, let me put the invitation to follow me in a broader context. And this next thing he says is so brilliant. Like, I would never think of this. I would never think of a saying so deep and rich and powerful.

Here’s what Jesus says to this crowd who’s wondering if it’s really worth it to follow him. Look at what he says:

For whoever wants to save their life…

That’s me. Would you like to save your life? Like, this is all of us. It’s why you work so hard, study so hard, it’s why you take care of yourself and eat healthy and work out. Do you want to save your life? Yes! Of course.

Jesus is brilliant here, he says something that everyone in the audience is like yep, I’m with you.

Whoever wants to save their lives will lose it. hmmmm. that’s right. No matter what I eat. No matter how hard I work, no matter where I go to college, not matter what career I end up in, no matter how many bad habits I break, no matter how hard I work to save my life, one day I’m gonna lose it. Okay, Jesus, we’re with you. And he continues

but, whoever loses their life for me, whoever loses their life (that’s everybody) but whoever chooses to follow me and in the process of following me loses their life that their gonna lose any way, loses something of value that they’re gonna lose anyway, loses a relationship that’s gonna end any way, loses anything in life that they embrace and think this is what life’s all about, Jesus says anyone who loses what they consider life because they chose to follow me, and for the sake fo the gospel, will save it.