Bible Study - deny yourself

Since January, we’ve been looking at what it means to follow Jesus. And as we’ve looked at different narratives in M M L J about the life of Jesus we’ve seen that Jesus’ invitation to follow him was for literally everyone. One of the first things we learned was that being a sinner doesn’t disqualify you, but is in fact a prerequisite. Every single person Jesus invited to follow him and every single person that accepted the invitation was a sinner.

We also saw that being an unbeliever doesn’t disqualify you from following Jesus. None of his early followers believed he was who he said he was until like half way through his time on earth. Many of them didnt believe until they saw his resurrected body, and even then, one Disciple was like nope, I’m not believing until you let me stick my hand in your side.

So, having doubts about Jesus and Christianity does not disqualify you from you. Jesus still says hey, take that tiny little step and start following me.

Another thing we saw was that people, sinners, who were nothing like Jesus liked him, and Jesus liked people who were nothing like him. Jesus isn’t put off by our sin, he isn’t uncomfortable with our mess, he isn’t uncomfortable with out thoughts even though he knows them. He knows everything about us, all of the good and all of the bad, and his invitation is the same: Follow Me.

We saw that his invitation to follow isnt an invitation to religion, it’s an invitation to relationship. Because religion says change and you can join us, change and you can join us, but Jesus say join me, be in a relationship with me, follow me, and then you will change. You’ll change not because you’re sticking to rules or a 7 step program to holiness, not because you’re sticking to a religion. Remember, we said this a few weeks ago, the gravitational pull of all religion is towards rule keeping and away form relationship. Jesus says no, you’ll change because I love you and you’ll begin to love me, and you’ll just start doing things differently.

And so, the hope is for all of us to continue following or to start following Jesus, but where is Jesus taking us? What’s the payoff of following Jesus? What’s in it for us? We saw that it’s not really about being a better person. Now, following Jesus will make you a better person, but when you read the Gospels, Jesus isn’t going around and saying, follow me so you can be a better person.

Jesus’ call to follow him isn’t necessarily attached to getting into heaven. If you read M M L J, Jesus doesn’t talk about getting into heaven that much.

Jesus also isn’t leading us to a pain-free problem-free life. No where does Jesus say Follow me and everything’s going to be okay, I’ll never let bad things happen to you. I’ve looked. It’s not in the bible. So where is he taking us?

When we follow Jesus, he takes to a place where our faith in him and our faith in our heavenly father is so big and so confident that in even in the midst of the worst possible circumstances that should terrify us, we won’t be afraid. He’s leading us to a place where we have a faith in him that over comes and overshadows all of our fears.

So, that’s just a few of the things we get when we follow Jesus, but, as we talked about last Sunday, at some point it’s going to cost us something. It’s going to cost you and me something.

And so, there’s this conversation in Mark chapter 8 between Jesus and the disciples where he gives the fine print of following him, he lays out the cost.

27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

So, Jesus has now identified himself to his closest followers and now he begins to tell them that there’s going to be a price to following him.

28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

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.”

So, Jesus has now identified himself to his closest followers and now he begins to tell them that there’s going to be a price to following him.

Jesus Predicts His Death

8:31–9:1pp—;

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this,

and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

don’t go negative on us

look at the crowd

you’re famous, i’m famous

remember the storm? you’re not gonna die

now come back and lets talk about love or prayer or something

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Jesus is like, let’s be honest peter, you’ve enjoyed following me. you’ve benefitted from following me, everyone knows peter the fisherman, you’ve had a good time being one of my followers, but peter, you’re acting like a consumer, not a follower. I want you to be my follower, which means that when things strat to go bad, and this thing starts to go somewhere that’s not pleasurable, I want to know that you’re with me. And Peter, you just exposed something about yourself and about everyone else here you’re not concerned about me, you’re concerned about you.

So he decides to use this as a teaching moment for everyone, he calls all of the apostles together, sets them up front, then he tells the crowd to gather around. And what he tells them is literally about to happen to him, he’s about to be arrested and tried and crucified, and he’s about to say to the disciples and the crowd that if they follow him, they can expect the same thing to happen to them. Now, before we get into the next few verses, the good news for you and for me is that this isn’t going to happen to us, so don’t let this scare you. You’re not going to be literally crucified for following Jesus. You’ll have to make tough decisions, but nothing like what these guys were about to face. here’s what he says

The Way of the Cross

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

If you really want to follow, not just be a consumer but a follower, then from time to time you’re going to have to deny yourself. You’re going to have to say no to you and yes to me. There’s going to be intersections, or cross roads, or competing ideas and values, points of tension where what I want for you and what you want for you are different. And Jesus is saying that in that moment, you need to decide if you’re a consumer or a follower. You’ll need to decide if you’re going to deny yourself, say no to you in order to follow me.

And then he says this terrifying think to the crowd, and again, this isn’t going to happen to us, but he says deny yourself, and take up your cross and follow me. explain cross, horrible way to die.

Ultimately what Jesus is saying is that if you’re going to follow me from this point on, I just need you to know that it’s going to cost you something. You’ll have to deny yourself. And at this point i imagine people in the crowd are like, okay, this is where I say goodbye. the miracles were cool, you just fed us fish and bread and that was nice, but now this is gonna cost me something and i just don’t think i can afford that jesus. And jesus knows this. He knows they’re thinking this, and he knows that today we’re thinking “Can i afford to follow Jesus?” Maybe I should wait until im 70, after i’ve done all the things i want to do in life. And he knows this. and so what he says next is brilliant:

35 For whoever wants to save their life (that’s you, that’s me, it’s all of us. we want to save our lives)

whoever wants to save their life will lose it, (hmmm, that’s right, no matter what i do, no matter how hard i work, I’ll lose my life one day.

but whoever loses their life for me

whoever loses their life while following me, whoever chooses to follow me and in the process of following me loses their life, loses something of value that they were gonna lose anyway, loses that thing in life that they think life is all about, Jesus says whoever loses what they consider life because they chose to follow me and for the sake of the gospel will save it.

They life you’re trying to save, you’re gonna lose, but if you follow me, and if you lose whatever you think life is, if you follow mw and lose that opportunity, or that relationship, or whoever, if you follow me lose something you consider valuable, I just want you to know you were gonna lose it anyway, but if you lose it because you decided to follow me then I’m telling you, you’re saving your life. Whatever seems like a loss isn’t really a loss because whatever it is you lose you are going to lose anyway, but now you get to lose it with a purpose and a meaning attached to it.

36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit (give up, trade in, lose) their soul?

Let’s say you’ve got everything you ever wanted in life. every opportunity, every person, all the money and possessions you could ever want. let’s say you got all of it. you got everything you thought life was supposed to be about. and you get to the end of the life that you’re trying to save that we all lose, and you realize you gave up traded in forfeited your soul?

The bible talks about an afterlife. We all go somewhere after we die. And Jesus is saying what if at the end of the greatest life imaginable you realize that by living this life for you you’ve forfeited eternity. You’ve forfeited your soul? How would you respond? Or, what can or what would you give in exchange for your soul?

IN other words, he’s asking, what would you give up to get your soul back? What would you trade in? And we all know the answer. We’d give up everything to get our soul back.

And so, what we discover is that our soul is greater than our things. Our soul is of greater value and worth to us than anything we could ever have or any relationship we might ever be in.

And so the people are hearing this and they’re saying oh my gosh, so youre telling us, even if we have to deny ourself to follow you, that even if we have to deny ourselves in order to be your follower, that whatever we give up to follow you we were gonna have to give it up anyway cause you can’t take it with you and we’re all gonna have to give it up eventually, but you’re saying we have an opportunity to five it up in such a way that impact the destination and shape and future of our souls? You’re saying that this isn’t as big of a sacrifice as you made it sound like to begin with? And Jesus says exactly. If you recognize that you value the future of your soul more than anything or anyone on this planet.

But he’s not done. Remember he’s taking to literal people who are about to go in a direction where there lives will be threatened but that not going to happen to us, he says

If any of you are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation - in other words, as we go forward and someone says to you, hey you’re one of those Jesus followers and you go “na na na, not me, I’m just walking by, I was just there for the miracles, he says if any of you claim to be my follower and then it gets tough and you’re ashamed to be associated with me, the son of man will be ashamed of you, when he comes in his father’s glory and with the holy angels.”

What is that? The bible talks about this, it’s one of those future things where we give an account for our lives, and here’s the encouraging thing: The guys front and center, the guy who heard this and thought, “I’m never gonna be ashamed of you,” who was that?

Peter. I’m not gonna be ashamed of you Jesus!!

Not too long after that, a little girl, you know this, “aren’t you one of those that was with Jesus” Peter: I’ve never heard of him!

He denies Jesus, and you know what Jesus did:

He says Peter, I forgive you, Now, I’m gonna put you in charge of all of it. And Peter died for what he said he saw: A risen savior.

So, what’s the moral of this story?

We talked about this sunday: But, salvation is free; it costs us nothing

You salvation was paid for by the blood of Jesus. There’s nothing you can do to earn it and there’s nothign you can do to lose it.

But, following Jesus in your lifestyle, in this generation and in this world will eventually cost us something.

In other words, at some point in this journey there’s going to be a conflict of interest. you’re going to have to make a decision. And when you get to that moment, if you’ve been following jesus for any amount of time, you’ll know. You’ll know, oh, this is the moment, this is the moment where i have to decide if i’m a jesus follower or a jesus consumer. your conscious will come alive and you’re just gonna know, If i’m gonna be a jesus follower i cant go there or i cant stay here or i shouldnt text that person back, or i should say no, or i should say yes. it wont be a verse or a sermon, youre just gonna know “ah, this is the moment where i have to decide if im a jesus follower becuase if i go forward it’s goign to cost me something.

And sometimes, this will feel like a death. becuase you might be losing a part of your dream, you might be losing a part of something that you think is so central to who you are, bur you know that if you continue forward you’ll be turning your back on Jesus.

But, in the long run, it’s a defining moment for you. Because if in the long run you decide to say no to you and yes to your savior you’ll discover whose you really are. you’ll discover that you belong to Jesus.